‘Once in a Lifetime’ Photo of Bobcat Pouncing on Heron Mid-Flight
A photographer captured a “once in a lifetime photo” when a bobcat appeared from nowhere to pounce and take down a giant blue heron that he had his camera trained on.
Jacob Hall captured the heart-stopping moment in coastal Texas while driving near Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. He spotted the heron but was not expecting a bobcat to attack it.
“All of a sudden I noticed this great blue heron in the distance flying and quickly snapped two photos,” Hall tells PetaPixel. “It wasn’t until after I took the photos that I realized what I had just captured.”
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.
“It wasn’t until after I took the photos that I realized what I had just captured. Capturing both of those photos is something that I will never forget. I basically didn’t know the bobcat was there until afterward. I was just in the right place at the right time,” adds Hall.
“I took the second photo within seconds after the first one. After I took the second photo I was wondering why the blue heron fell out of the sky. And then like I said before it wasn’t until afterwards that I had realized what I had just captured.”
Hall captured the incredible photos in October on a Canon R6 Mark II with a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens attached.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shared the photo noting that “it can be hard for some of us to witness wildlife interactions” like the one Hall captured. “But, it’s a key part of the way that our ecosystems work.”
“The great blue heron eats small fish, frogs, or mammals; the bobcat eats the great blue heron; and scavengers like black vultures clean up anything the bobcat leaves behind,” adds the agency.
More of Hall’s work can be found on his Instagram.
Image credits: Photographs by Jacob Hall.
