As he splashed into a pond full of geese, this hungry fox no doubt thought he was in for an easy lunch.
But he had chosen the wrong flock for that. The brave birds banded together – and outfoxed him.
The Canada geese even recruited passing ducks, coots, moorhens and cormorants for their cunning plan.
They ganged up on the would-be predator to prevent him picking them off one by one and followed him along the pond.
Eventually, the fox gave up and returned to dry land still hungry and probably rather baffled.
The encounter was photographed by a visitor at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Centre in Barnes, south-west London.
A spokesman for the centre said: ‘They will be used to seeing foxes and have developed strategies to deal with their presence and protect themselves. It is typical behaviour in the wild but rarely seen.
These are fascinating pictures.’ Tim Webb, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said it was an example of ‘mobbing’, a form of behaviour that birds engage in to defend themselves or their offspring from predators.
They aim to divert a predator’s attention through their behaviour and to blow its cover, thus reducing its chances of success.
source: dailymail
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