My daughter and I used to like to ride bikes to a nearby neighborhood pond and feed the BBH in the pond. One day we were there and a GBH noticed the feeding activity and flew over. It waded as deep as it could get and waited. Wind blew the feed close enough that it was able to spear a BH in short order. It flew to the other side of pond with the fish speared (was not gripping the fish on the outside ... though I imagine the speared bill were either spreading or contracting within the fish to help its gripped). Now I was wondering just how difficult that BH would be to swallow. If you have ever caught one, they spread their pectoral and dorsal spines erect to serve as an impediment to being consumed. If you have ever tried to close those spines flat along the sides ... you will discover that this is VERY difficult to do. They seem to lock into place.

So here is how the GBH negotiated that BH. It slung it off its beak and then punctured it again. It picked it up and slung it down again and punctured it again. It didn't try to swallow the BH, I think, until it was completely dead and unable to keep its spines erect. At which time it swallowed the BH headfirst none the worst for wear.

So then a week later we returned with a small bag of feed in hand to feed the fish again. This time we noticed the GBH and I was thinking "crap here we go again" and sure enough the moment the feed hit the water here it came a flying. Same thing all over again. Neither I nor my daughter liked helping the GBH and so we resolved not to feed the catfish as long as a GBH was present. But for sure, a GBH is smart enough to learn how to hunt around a feed and smart enough to know that a BH had better be dead before attempting to swallow it.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers