RAPUNZEL had it easy. On the barren Moroccan island of , falcons seem to imprison small birds by plucking out their feathers, or stuffing them in crevasses, so they can eat them later.
, warblers, hoopoes and other birds migrating south. But not all caught prey have quick deaths.
In a census of the island鈥檚 falcons in 2014, of Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, and his colleagues saw small birds missing their flight and tail feathers, trapped in deep cavities. Other birds were 鈥渏ammed into a deep and very cramped hole鈥� unable to move their wings or operate their dangling legs鈥�, they wrote in the French journal .
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Crippling and imprisoning prey might be a means of keeping fresh food nearby, so parents can stay on the nest or to give hungry offspring something to snack on.
But Rob Simmons of the University of Cape Town in South Africa suggests another explanation: 鈥淭he birds鈥� prey may be simply escaping and finding refuge in holes in the cliffs the falcons nest in.鈥�
(Image: Abdeljebbar Qninba)
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淔alcons imprison birds to eat later鈥�