No you didn’t read that wrong, someone actually captured the moment a woodpecker had an unwanted weasel passenger hitching a ride on its back.

Martin Le-May was enjoying a leisurely stroll around a London park when he heard some ‘distressed squawking’. He then saw a woodpecker and a weasel duking it out in a battle for park supremacy, with the woodpecker taking to the air in an attempt to get rid of its furry attacker.

The Telegraph recounted his story:

The colourful bird, which displayed a “gloriously yellow/white colour interspersed with the flash of red head feathers”, eventually landed about 25 metres from the couple. It managed to escape the attack and fly out of sight as the weasel was distracted by the couple’s presence.

The woodpecker left with its life, the weasel just disappeared into the long grass, hungry.

There were a number of wisecracks on Twitter, would you believe it. I won’t bore you with the screenshots but you’ll be happy to know someone cracked the ‘this is how you ride a pecker’ joke. Feel free to use it as your own in conversation with friends, we won’t tell anyone.

[source:telegraph]