Weasel rides woodpecker in photo and memes take off, too

3 Mar 2015

The photo by amateur photographer Martin Le-May that started the memes

There’s only one way the internet could possibly react to an extraordinary photo of a weasel riding on the back of a green woodpecker – through memes.

Amatetur photographer Martin Le-May from Essex in the UK snapped the photo of the two animals on Monday afternoon in Hornchurch Country Park in east London.

“I heard a distressed squawking noise and feared the worst,” Le-May told the BBC. “I soon realised it was a woodpecker with some kind of small mammal on its back.”

Le-May, who was with his wife at the time, added he thinks they may have distracted the weasel “as when the woodpecker landed it managed to escape and the weasel ran into the grass.”

The reaction to the photo, which has been retweeted several thousand times and with the hashtag #WeaselPecker, has astounded Le-May.

“I’m totally taken aback by the response to it,” he said, and added he is proud so many people are getting to see his image.

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

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