Osprey Masterfully Catches a—Is That a Tiny Dragon?

It’s fun to see what crazy things ospreys pull out of the ocean. From toxic puffers to multiple fish simultaneously, an osprey’s catch can look very different depending on the day. Mark Smith is a wildlife photographer who enjoys watching osprey hunt, and he recently caught an osprey on film with a ribbonfish in its talons. The ribbonfish looks like a tiny dragon. In fact, if you didn’t know about ribbonfishes, you might think the osprey had nabbed some sort of mythical creature out of the sea.

“Sometimes it’s gets weird out there,” Smith writes in his Instagram caption. “If you’ve never seen an Osprey with a ribbon fish, now you have. Seeing it in person will leave you scratching your head in awe and wonder. If you were with me, you’d hear me screaming, ‘OMG it has a ribbonfish! It has a ribbonfish!'”

There are several different species of ribbonfishes (including the bizarre oarfish) in Earth’s oceans, but it’s not clear which species this is. If we didn’t know better, we’d just say it’s a tiny version of the River Spirit in Spirited Away.

Watch an osprey carry a ribbonfish here: