Heron Eats Rat Out Of Central Park Pond: Best Online Reactions

CENTRAL PARK, NY — A video of a Great Blue Heron lifting up a rat out of the Central Park Pond and swallowing it took the internet by storm over the weekend. While the footage is undoubtedly the most noteworthy element of the story, the reactions to the video in the subsequent days are almost just as good.

First, for anyone who might have missed the Heron's effort to help New York City with its rat problems:

It took the Great Blue Heron only a few seconds to lift the rat, once killed, out of the water and swallow it—this morning at the Central Park Pond. pic.twitter.com/E4Vx0ya8od
— Manhattan Bird Alert (@BirdCentralPark) September 5, 2021

New Yorkers jumped to social media to share their reactions to the jawdropping footage, which was originally posted by the immensely popular Manhattan Bird Alert account.

"Can he fly over here to West 104th Street?" one Twitter user with an apparent rat problem wrote.

A different Twitter user quickly made it political: "Does this make the Blue Heron the new Mayor of NYC? Because it should. At the very least we should make the whole species the new official City Bird."

"This is the most New York City Heron," someone else on Twitter wrote about the bird's newly earned street cred.

"Gives new meaning to RATtatouille," a different commenter wrote.

One person online even referenced the fallen Barry — a beloved owl that died recently after living in Central Park for many months — "With Barry gone, the other birds are upping their vermin-clearing game."

Multiple people also commented on the video that the rat was most likely pushed into the Central Park Pond as a result of the flooding that took place last week when the remanents of Hurricane Ida blasted the city with a record amount of rain.

The Central Park Great Blue Herron now joins other famous New York City animals, such as Pizza Rat.

Who ever said New York was dead?
It’s back, baby! pic.twitter.com/kHx2kuSIUq
— Mauricio Martínez (@martinezmau) May 20, 2021