The black-bellied whistling duck makes its nest as high as possible to avoid predators. As you can see here, the bird house wasn’t exactly planned for this family!
Yet when the time comes for the ducklings to leap from the safety of the box in to the water the last thing the parents want is all their hard work to disappear in to the belly of an American alligator. When it looks as if this is likely, the plucky parent leaps in to action and drives away the reptilian onslaught!
This remarkable footage was shot and edited by
Tara Tanaka
