12 Comments

  • 3 March 2015
    Jon Hall

    Its actually a Weasel which is much smaller than a Stoat

  • 3 March 2015
    heavenlyjane

    So you think it might be genuine?

  • 3 March 2015
    vdinets

    The author reportedly claims to have a whole sequence of photos, but I haven’t seen the rest of it yet.

  • 3 March 2015
    Mike Richardson

    Some of the other photos in the link below
    http://www.itv.com/news/2015-03-02/incredible-image-shows-weasel-flying-on-woodpeckers-back/
    If I was going to fake a photo I’d probably choose something a little more believable like Nessie or Big Foot.

  • 3 March 2015
    John Fox

    The weasel’s left paw doesn’t even muss a feather, nothing else about the bird looks like a carnivore just attacked it. No attempt to bite the back of the neck? I don’t believe it.

  • 3 March 2015
    tomeslice

    I did see the rest of the pictures. It looks genuine to me, and keep in mind some weasels are pretty damn small (especially least weasel)

    I can’t be 100% certain but if it didn’t happen this time, with this series of pictures, it’s must have happened other times because of the nature of these two animals.

  • 4 March 2015
    Jon Hall

    I believe it… but then I am famously over-trusting

  • 4 March 2015
    Andrew Block

    I’m not saying it’s real but I think it probably is. Usually you can tell when something like that is faked and this doesn’t look it. The two animals pictured are a Least or Common Weasel (Mustela nivalis) and a Eurasian Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis). The woodpecker is 31-33cm. long and 138-250g. in weight and the weasel is 11.4-26 cm long and 25-250g. These woodpeckers are fairly large birds, being about the size of a flicker or larger giving them strong wings to lift something the size of a tiny weasel with little problem, especially with the extra adrenaline it’s getting from the shock of the attack. There isn’t much damage on the bird b/c it probably took off as soon as the weasel jumped on it and the weasel only was able to get a grip on it so it wouldn’t fall off. Just my opinion.

  • 4 March 2015
    Miles Foster

    Hi, everyone,

    I am new to the forum but have been visiting the mammalwatching website for some time.

    It never occurred to me this might be a fake when I heard about it yesterday. I have come across similar stories and it strikes me as just the sort of thing a weasel might do! Some confusion, of course, arises from the fact that in America a weasel is a stoat.

  • 4 March 2015
    Farnborough John

    I’ve seen the whole sequence and if its faked then it represents a colossal amount of work. The minimum requirement would have to be a sequence of photos of a Green Woodpecker flying towards the photographer (away is more usual!) and another of a Weasel in various poses. Then there’s a lot of Photoshopping to be done, to a very high standard.

    The reaction time of a startled Green Woodpecker is pretty damn short, so once the Weasel had jumped on it would have had to concentrate on hanging onto a fast moving mount up in the air.

    I have no doubt about this picture. BTW since then a Youtube video of an American Mink on the back of a swimming Herring Gull has surfaced – amazing stuff does get caught on camera occasionally!

    • 5 March 2015
      kbrown217

      Not sure either way, and certainly not qualified enough to know, but I always find flight shots the hardest to focus correctly, so find it strange it is the only in the sequence that seems in focus.

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