A photographer in Singapore recently came across a novel sight: a dog, in its element, hunting a flock of chickens.
He shared photos of the dog's successful hunt on his Instagram page and Facebook group Singapore Wildlife Sightings on Jul. 24.
In the photos, the black dog — who appears to be either wild or a stray — can be seen in the grass with a chicken in its mouth.
The photographer, who goes by the name Jeffrey Ong on Facebook, said that the dog had made a "quick dash" towards the flock before successfully catching one.
"A behaviour we don’t see everyday," he remarked.
Photo from _jowildlife/Instagram
Photo from _jowildlife/Instagram
Speaking to Mothership, Ong said that the incident happened on Jun. 29 at around noon, at Kranji.
He was heading out for lunch when he saw three stray dogs.
One of them suddenly "dashed really fast" to a group of chickens, and successfully caught it.
"This was my first time seeing a stray dog hunting a chicken," he said.
"It was quite sudden hence I only managed to capture the scene afterwards...But it was an eye-opening experience for me as a wildlife photographer."
Photo from _jowildlife/Instagram
Survival of the fittest
In a city where dogs are more often seen dressed to the ca-nines, some users expressed amusement at seeing the rare show of ferality.
An eagle-eyed user in the comments section also pointed out that the chicken's legs were yellow, not grey, indicating that it was likely a domestic chicken rather than a junglefowl, or a hybrid of both.
The red junglefowl is a native species of bird that closely resembles the domestic chicken.
However, it has grey feet and brighter plumage, though it interbreeds with the domestic chicken breed quite often.
These days, many hybrids exist and it can be hard to tell them apart.
For your easy reference, here's a photo of a red junglefowl:
Photo from NParks
And here's a domestic chicken:
Photo from hollandwest.com
The more you know.
Top image from _jowildlife/Instagram
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