This is the moment a hungry heron took advantage of its protected status and gobbled down a restaurant’s live fish supply.
Wild Heron Tucks Into Restaurant's Live Fish pic.twitter.com/kFlwHMb5bX
— NewsX (@newsx_media) June 20, 2023
The heron – a young white egret – flew into the eaterie in Chongqing, central China, on 1st June and decided to stay for lunch.
As baffled kitchen staff looked on unable to disturb the protected bird, the egret hopped from box to box crammed with different varieties of fish ready to be cooked fresh.
Video footage of the raid shows it was certianly peckish as it hopped from box to box guzzling down fish.
As the egret is a protected species in China, restaurant staff were not even allowed to chase it away, although the video footage shows one cook trying to scare it off.
Instead, they called police who removed the egret and returned it to the wild.
Footage on the fishy feast was posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
One user ‘Brother Cong’ commented: “Egret: Our country protects animals, how dare you touch me?”
While ‘Moon Eve’ commented: “Eat and drink for free, bring a few more when you come back next time.”
And ‘Sweetheart Candy’ commented: “In the next step, it will bring the whole family to eat out together.”
