A WALKER in Newport encountered a life and death wildlife struggle today while she took a morning stroll along the canal path in Malpas.

South Wales Argus Camera Club member Rhiann Young filmed this hungry heron trying to get to grips with a large eel.

"I know an animal was being eaten, but I felt privileged watching nature doing its thing - a heron has to have breakfast," she said.

"It was amazing to watch."

The grey heron struggled with the flailing eel for 10 minutes before subduing its prey and flying off with it in its beak.

Andy Karran, a senior conservation ecologist with Gwent Wildlife Trust, identified the fish as a European eel - a once-common species that is now of "real conservation concern".

He told the Argus the eels generally reach 60-80 centimetres in length, but can sometimes grow to one metre.

But a heron would not be put off attempting such a massive meal.

"They generally swallow their prey whole, so are limited by that, but can deal with surprisingly large fish - it would swallow that eel easily," Mr Karran said.

Gwent Wildlife Trust is currently running a Wildlife From Home lockdown photography and video competition. To find out how you can take part, click here.

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Grey herons lay clutches of three to five eggs in March and it can take three months for the eggs to hatch and the chicks to grow, meaning the bird filmed by Ms Young could have been taking the eel home to a hungry family.

But spare a thought for the eel, too. Mr Karran said the "fascinating" fish take on a remarkable journey during their lifetime.

After hatching in the Sargasso Sea (near the West Indies), the larvae cross the Atlantic Ocean to Europe's estuaries and river systems, where they reach maturity.

After up to 20 years in Europe, the fully-grown eels then begin the return leg of the mammoth journey, back to the Sargasso Sea where they will breed and die.

A hard life under any circumstances, but Mr Karran said the species was currently in real crisis, with numbers dropping by 95 per cent across the continent in recent decades.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which monitors threatened species, said the causes of this decline "are still not fully understood", but listed barriers to migration, climate change, and parasites among possible explanations