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Photographer Snaps Amazing Shot of a Weasel Flying on the Back of a Woodpecker (and Now It's a Meme!)

By John Boone
Martin Le-May

It all started when birder and wildlife photographer Jason Ward tweeted this photo taken by amateur photographer Martin Le-May of Essex, England. Le-May recently went on a nature walk hoping to see a green woodpecker for the first time.

He got that and then some:


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Twitter immediately started retweeting the amazing snapshot, dreaming up Pixar-worthy backstories where the woodpecker and weasel are best friends and the woodpecker is giving his buddy a lift. Or they’re in love and this is the “A Whole New World” moment.

No. That weasel is trying to kill that woodpecker.

“We heard a distressed squawking and I saw that flash of green,” Le-May told Buzzfeed News. He pulled out his camera and, “Suddenly it was obvious it had a small mammal on its back and this was a struggle for life.”

Thankfully, all animal parties involved survived. The woodpecker crash-landed in front of the couple and the weasel’s momentary confusion gave the bird an opportunity to escape. The weasel ran off. Nature, a grisly, horrifying miracle.


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A wildlife expert told BBC, “A female weasel weighs less than a Mars Bar but is as ferocious as a lion.” Who’s your cute little Disney friend now, sniiiiitches?! Anyway, with a photo this primed to be memed, the Internet did just that:

And there was this meme-ification that just kept getting better and better:

Of course, a meme in 2015 wouldn’t be a meme if it didn’t invoke #TheDress:

We still see white and gold.

Speaking of, the people who started #TheDress paid a visit to The Ellen Show: