The now - viral image of a weasel clinging to the back of a peckerwood is not photoshopped , accord to wildlife expert and Martin Le - May , the lensman of the picture - unadulterated moment .
Mr. Le - May was talking a stroll with his wife Ann when he arrest good deal of the bird squawking in distraint . “ I soon recognise it was a woodpecker with some sort of small mammal on its back , " saidLe - May to BBC News .
Just as he swapped his field glasses for a tv camera , the bird flew off with the weasel on its back . Le - May thinks their presence may have momentarily distracted the weasel , and the woodpecker capture upon the fortuitous interruption to fly off the ground and free the weasel .
“ The woodpecker pull up stakes with its biography , ” said Le - May , and “ the weasel just disappeared into the long pasturage . ”
Although the event is unbelievable , it is not impossible . " A female weasel weighs less than a Mars Bar but is as ferocious as a lion , ” said wildlife expert Lucy Cooke to BBC News . “ This is why the pecker would have been able-bodied to take off with it on its back . "
mention : Martin Le - May
Weaselsvary in length from 173 to 217 millimeters ( 6.8 to 8.5 inches ) and usually have russet coats with blanched bellies . The tiny but ferocious mammal is notorious for being both a nuisance and a value to society : The weasel oft kill backyard poultry , yet also help to reduce rodent populations .
cite : Wikimedia Commons .
The European immature woodpecker ( Picus viridis ) is a ground - feed bird that spends much of its metre forage for ants .
Credit : Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH / Shutterstock
To hear more about this well - time image from wildlife expert Lucy Cooke on BBC News , listen to the audio segment below .
