Weasel-riding-woodpecker picture prompts weighty Twitter debate

It’s that age-old story: weasel meets bird, weasel falls in love with bird, weasel won’t let bird go – even when it flies off.

This extraordinary picture taken by amateur wildlife photographer Martin Le-May has caused some chin-scratching among ornithologists everywhere. Is it possible for a woodpecker to carry a weasel on its back?

Apparently so. Wildlife presenter Steve Backshall told Radio 1’s Newsbeat: “For the bird to be able to fly is pretty extraordinary, but not unheard of, so I have no reason to doubt it.”

The image of the wide-eyed bird and its stowaway was taken at Hornchurch country park in Essex, where Le-May was hoping to show his wife Ann a green woodpecker.

After hearing “distressed squawking”, he spotted the bird with the small mammal on its back, and took a series of photographs as the startled pair flew past.

When the bird landed near him, he believes the weasel became distracted and the woodpecker seized its opportunity, “gathered its self-respect and flew up into the trees and away from our sight”.

Le-May told ITV news: “The woodpecker left with its life, the weasel just disappeared into the long grass, hungry.”

And Mick Greenslade, a park ranger at Hornchurch country park, said he had no doubt the photograph was real.

He said: “I am just mind-blown by it. We always see weasels in the park while they are hunting, but for somebody to be able to get a photograph, it is just nature at its best.

“I have no reason to doubt it – he was just in the right place at the right time, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime photo.”

But others questioned its veracity, including American evolutionary biologist Dan Graur. He said: “This is a fake photo if I ever saw one. The uniform blurred background is pure Photoshop.

“There are tons of pictures of woodpeckers at flight. This one is a taxidermied one.”

The internet was quick to spot the meme-potential of the photograph, and the hashtag #WeaselPecker was trending on Twitter for most of Tuesday afternoon. The best examples included Vladimir Putin, Buzz Lightyear and John Terry all apparently hitching a ride on the bird.

Backshall suggested the weasel was probably trying to attack the bird, adding: “The weasel is pretty fascinating. It can kill things much bigger than itself, so it’s an impressive little creature in itself when you think about its size.”

Greenslade said weasels live for only two or three years and the animal in the picture was likely to be a full-grown adult.

“It is probably about 6in [15cm] long,” he said. “People mistake weasels for stoats, which are bigger and have a black tip on the end of their tail.

“A weasel only weighs about as much as a Mars bar. It is not a big, hefty animal but it is very feisty and will attack mice, voles, shrews, a bird if it is close enough, and even rabbits. It is very much an opportunist.”

Le-May defended himself from doubters on Twitter, replying to one: “I have the blurred photos of the rest of the event which was witnessed by another person. Thank you.”