{"id":43374,"date":"2024-11-02T11:09:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T10:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2d76d3cd-016d-404a-8e8b-97bc44446e74"},"modified":"2024-11-02T12:27:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T11:27:43","slug":"meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet nature\u2019s deadliest sniper: This fish shoots down prey with lethally-accurate water jets, from over 3 metres away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"> <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By <\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Saturday, 02 November 2024 at 10:09 AM<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html> <head\/> <body> <p><strong>Woe betide any insect perching on a leafy frond near the water\u2019s edge if the aptly-named archerfish lurks nearby. <\/strong><\/p> <p>This predator can strike its prey with a mouthful of water from up to three metres away, even compensating for the way light bends as it crosses the waterline and adjusting its aim to make a direct hit.<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-video\"> <video controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/10\/GettyImages-1073024192.mp4\"\/> <\/figure> <p>Exactly how the archerfish water pistol works has until recently remained a mystery. It was long assumed to involve an inbuilt catapult, but nobody could find such a mechanism.<\/p> <p>Then, in 2012, a team of Italian scientists discovered that archerfish don\u2019t rely on catapults or muscle power, but instead manipulate the water itself.<\/p> <p>An archerfish spits out streams of water by pushing its tongue along a groove in the roof of its mouth. By pushing harder towards the end of the stream, the droplets further back collide with those ahead, merging into larger blobs.<strong> <\/strong><\/p> <p>So instead of sprinkling their prey with a gentle mist, archerfish throw powerful water bombs that speed up as they approach their target.<\/p> <p><strong>Discover more fascinating fish species and facts<\/strong><\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/weirdest-fish\">Meet the weirdest fish in the world<\/a><\/li> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/do-fish-pee\">Do fish pee<\/a><\/li> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/pacific-barreleye-fish-facts\">Meet the very weird Pacific barreleye fish, which is famed for its see-through skull<\/a><\/li> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/cuttlefish-hatching\">Watch incredible footage of a tiny flamboyant cuttlefish hatching from its egg. Is this the cutest baby fish in the ocean? It&#8217;s certainly the prettiest<\/a><\/li> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/why-is-the-blobfish-so-ugly\">Why is the blobfish so ugly?<\/a><\/li> <\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Saturday, 02 November 2024 at 10:09 AM Woe betide any insect perching on a leafy frond near the water\u2019s edge if the aptly-named archerfish lurks nearby. This predator can strike its prey with a mouthful of water from up to three metres away, even compensating for the way light bends as it crosses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":43375,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away.png",2068,1408,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away-300x204.png",300,204,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away-768x523.png",768,523,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away-1024x697.png",800,545,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away-1536x1046.png",1536,1046,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/meet-natures-deadliest-sniper-this-fish-shoots-down-prey-with-lethally-accurate-water-jets-from-over-3-metres-away-2048x1394.png",2048,1394,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Saturday, 02 November 2024 at 10:09 AM Woe betide any insect perching on a leafy frond near the water\u2019s edge if the aptly-named archerfish lurks nearby. This predator can strike its prey with a mouthful of water from up to three metres away, even compensating for the way light bends as it crosses&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/43374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}