Big One from May in the Po River near Steve’s Italian homeland.
Wels catfish have been mentioned before. They are not attractive but they have a cult following. These things get big. The legends of them eating small children and animals is more plausible after seeing this beast.
Their pigeon eating is well known.
Payback is a bitch for you pigeons, right?
Hard to believe these morons released the Wels, which is (1) illegal, and (2) should not be done even if it it were not illegal because it is an invasive species. Wels entered the Italian riverscape because of sport fishing, and choosing sport fishing over preserving the local ecology makes a mockery of any word about fishing and conservation. The plague on their homes.
I didn’t know it was non native to the Po but the range map supports it. I figured for it to be that size it had to be in the system for a long time. They must have been introduced a while back.