Fishing

Famed of its Japanese garden and large pond, Ohori Park (Ōhori-kōen) is an attraction that draws me during my Fukuoka stay. I ran there and found many striated herons. They aren't just lively; they are smart and ingenious. 

As I learned from David Attenborough, these herons in Japan are inventive fishermen equipped with bait-fishing skills. A few years ago, some were living beside a lake where people come to feed ornamental fish. One particularly smart heron as observant as Voltaire's Zadig learned the human behaviour from people watching. It started following what people do, picking up a a piece of bread (or some edible fragment that it did not eat but fish did) and taking it down to the edge of the lake. After flicking bait on to the surface of the water, a fish came up to take it – and was itself taken by the heron.

The habit spread. The striated herons quickly pick up the bait-fishing skills and have further refined their technique. They have started to use little feathers, instead of bread, for the same purpose. And that too works. 

Aren't we guys using similar tricks for fishing?