Photographer Jacob Hall was in coastal Texas when he snapped images of a great blue heron flying from the edge of the water at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.
It wasn’t until after he took the photos that he realized what had just happened.
The Ambush
Here we see the heron taking off, unsuspecting.
A bobcat, which had been hiding in the bushes by the shore, exploded from the grass and leaped wildly onto the heron, taking it down with it into the water. It’s not the only time a great blue heron has become the unwilling star of a predator encounter caught on camera. We’ve also covered a heron locked in a startling midair struggle with a snake, another reminder of how much drama plays out along America’s wetlands.
The Moment of Contact
The second image shows the giant leap that the bobcat took, latching onto the heron.
“In Hall’s first photo, the heron is flying in the center of the frame with the camouflaged bobcat in the lower right-hand side of the image staring upward at the large wading bird. In Hall’s next frame, the bobcat is in the air with the heron in a Superman pose. The bobcat successfully caught the heron and brought it into the water.”
About the Photographer
See more of Hall’s work on Instagram, where he regularly shares wildlife images from Texas’s Gulf Coast refuges. If this kind of split-second predator-and-prey drama is your thing, our roundup of the year’s best wildlife photography is worth the scroll too.
Images © Copyright Jacob Hall.
Where This Happened
Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge sits along the marshy shoreline of Chambers County, Texas, on the upper Gulf Coast, a haven for wading birds, alligators, and the bobcats that hunt among the coastal grasses.
- Location: Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Chambers County, Texas
- Species: Bobcat (Lynx rufus) and great blue heron (Ardea herodias)
- Photographer: Jacob Hall (@hallcam6)
