Terrifying sight of fresh slugs swallowing young birds

It turns out that slugs not only eat plants, plants, what they intend to eat is even more terrible.

For those who do not know, the slug is a snail but there is no snail shell above. And basically, both are rated as pests, capable of seriously destroying trees.

However, these greedy slugs not only eat plants, when recently, experts have witnessed a horrifying . scene: A giant slug is eating and swallowing newly hatched birds.

O my! The young birds have not opened their eyes, have never known a feeling of flying, and have been eaten cruelly. Suppose, they were eaten by the predatory species, over here, it was swallowed by a slimy, abominable . animal.

A giant slug is eating and swallowing newly hatched birds.

According to Katarzyna Turzanska, a researcher at the University of Wroclaw (Poland): "This is a very difficult sight to see. We will often see" tragedy "as follows: very badly injured, full-bodied birds covered with viscous slime, and surrounded by sprawling slugs. "

Turzanska and his colleagues only observed the same scene while studying white-necked birds . They found a giant slug belonging to the genus Arion crawling around a newly hatched bird nest. The next day, the slug went away, leaving a scene of mourning.

They were really surprised: "We could not believe that the snail actually killed the birds. We discussed with many biologists, but no one had ever witnessed snail-hunting slugs. such birds ".

Actually this scene is not rare. The next few days, the research team found many reports showing this behavior in slugs. Most occur in Europe and for birds nesting close to the ground.

But for many people, this is still a really shocking act, because in the past only birds attacked slugs but few saw the opposite.

"Horror" attack process

What do you eat when you pick up, but definitely not slugs. They eat everything - from the leaves to the decaying plants and animals, and even eat the manure. Some species also eat each other.

And the way they attack is really scary. According to Turzanska, slugs can sense the smell so they are more likely to sniff the bird's nest. She described: "It is not clear whether the slugs began to appear this behavior , or just accidentally hit the bird's nest. But after discovering the young birds, they began to grab, using super teeth. small with mucus to attack, the young birds only resigned to being eaten and swallowed but could not do anything.

What do you eat when you pick up, but definitely not slugs.

However, the problem here lies in the fact that parents do not protect their young children, although if other animals attack, they may die. Experts said the reason may be because this phenomenon does not happen often, so birds have not evolved enough to react.

In addition, the team did not know which slugs had this behavior. The suspect was zoned in 3 species: red slugs (Arion rufus), black slugs (Arion ater), and Spanish slugs (Arion vulgaris) . In particular, Spanish slugs are the most suspicious , because they are the most aggressive species, once reigning throughout Europe, threatening the vegetation here.

Slugs eat young birds - do you believe?

The study is published in Nature.