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Giant tortoise filmed killing and eating baby bird

Researchers have captured the moment when a livelong vegetarian broke rank to eat meat – and what made it all the more "horrifying" was that it was a tortoise.

Scientists captured the moment on video when a Seychelles giant tortoise – previously thought to be vegetarian – attacked and ate a tern chick in what they say is the first documentation of deliberate hunting in any wild tortoise species.

"This is completely unexpected behaviour and has never been seen before in wild tortoises," Justin Gerlach, director of studies at Peterhouse, Cambridge and affiliated researcher at the University of Cambridge's Museum of Zoology, said in a statement this week.

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"The giant tortoise pursued the tern chick along a log, finally killing the chick and eating it," Dr Gerlach, who led the study, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, said.

"It was a very slow encounter, with the tortoise moving at its normal, slow walking pace – the whole interaction took seven minutes and was quite horrifying."

Anna Zora, conservation manager on Frégate Island and co-author of the study, captured the ordeal, which took place in July 2020.

"When I saw the tortoise moving in a strange way I sat and watched, and when I realised what it was doing I started filming," she said in the statement.

Dr Gerlach told CNN that the way the tortoise moved towards the chick suggested it was "experienced."

"It's moving very deliberately – it's not just wandering about, it's looking at this tern, and it's walking straight at it, clearly intending to do something. That suggests to me that it's doing it with intent. It knows what it's doing, it's done this before," he said.

Though tortoises are thought to be vegetarian, they have been spotted "opportunistically" eating carrion, as well as bones and snail shells for calcium.

READ MORE: Plover chick cuddled with duckling before being reunited with mother

"It's quite common for herbivores to eat a bit of dead animal as a free protein source, essentially. But this is the first video evidence of them deliberately killing in order to eat," Dr Gerlach said.

Still, the team can't say for certain how common such behaviour is among the tortoises, and plan to study them further.

Giant tortoises are the largest herbivores on the Galapagos and Seychelles islands, and eat up to 11 percent of the vegetation, researchers said.

READ MORE: Rare mammal tracked down in Queensland forest

Dr Gerlach added that the tortoise's behaviour was unlikely to significantly affect tern populations.

Experts said that the new hunting behaviour was caused by the "unusual" combination of a tree-nesting tern colony and a resident giant tortoise population on the Seychelles' Frégate island, which is home to around 3000 tortoises.

"It's probably not uncommon for animals to surprise our expectations by eating unexpected things that may just be a one-off," Dr Gerlach explained.

"We should try and avoid having too many assumptions about what animals are going to do, or what they are doing. And it really shows the value of observation. Just by watching and recording what animals are doing you can find really totally unexpected things, things that we couldn't discover deliberately – it has to be by chance."

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New Zealand records 68 COVID-19 cases in the community

New Zealand has recorded 68 new cases of COVID-19 in the community overnight, bringing the nation's total outbreak to 277.

The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 263 and in Wellington it is 14. The two new Wellington cases are household contacts of a current case and were in isolation during their infectious period.

Health authorities have transferred all of the positive cases to a dedicated quarantine facility.

READ MORE: New Zealand lockdown extended as Ardern calls for country to 'hold course'

CHRISTCHURCH, CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND - 2021/08/21: Vehicles seen in a queue at an Orchard Rd testing station in Christchurch. As of today, there are 21 new cases of COVID-19 bringing the total to 51 Covid-19 cases in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday placed areas outside Auckland and Coromandel into a further lockdown until 11.59 pm on Tuesday. (Photo by Adam Bradley/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"As previously indicated, it's not unexpected to see a rise in daily case numbers at this stage. At its peak last year, New Zealand had a daily total of 89 new cases," New Zealand's Ministry of Health said in a statement.

"All of the cases have or are being transferred safely to a quarantine facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE."

The results come from almost 42,000 tests. To date, New Zealand has administered more than three million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, 1.07 million of which are second doses.

READ MORE: New Zealand enters snap lockdown after one new COVID-19 case found

The streets of Wellington lie empty on the first day of lockdown in New Zealand.

New Zealand has a population of around 4.9 million people.

The country has introduced a "Post Vaccine Symptom Check" survey, which sends a text message to residents who have received the Pfizer vaccine to check for reactions.

"A text message will be sent from the Ministry of Health six days after each dose of the vaccine and 43 days after the second dose, to ask whether you had any reactions to the vaccine. The first texts will be sent in the coming days," said COVID-19 vaccination program GM Post Event, Dr Tim Hanlon.

"Participants can reply to the message for free by texting YES, NO or STOP to opt out.

"If the reply is YES, a unique URL will be sent via text, linking to a survey where participants are asked to provide more details about their reactions."