Giant Spider shown "eating" huge bird in web

The people who are creeped-out by the spider eating the bird would
really be irked if they could see the slimy things that are feeding off
their internal body tissues and wastes right at this very moment.
Thankfully, the human immune defense systems work pretty well
and keep the varmits from becoming a problem. Otherwise, we'd
end up just like the bird...from the inside out though.

Those look like two puppets to me. Golden Orb Weavers are nasty looking spiders for sure, but I have a hard time believing they would eat a bird. That would have to be one TINY bird and one VERY LARGE spider.

Most spiders are harmless, by the way.

reply to post by Jay-in-AR


its not a puppet and they can get bigger, and this isnt the first time spiders have eaten birds.

What is the Biggest Spider Web?
Tropical orb-weaver spiders of the genus Nephila are known to spin huge webs that stretch more than 18 feet across capable of snaring insects, small birds, and bats.

Spidey Facts


athough funnily enough we have a spider called a Birdeating spider (Selenocosmia crassipes ) but it doesnt really eat birds, on occasion it will pinch a hatchling

in 1980 my friends and i visited Maui when we graduated from HIgh School. We rented a Car and drove to Hana, it is a long winding road that takes several hours, back then we had to drive thru riverbeds, etc, it is now pretty developed.
Cane spiders are a bit smaller than your hand, but have hairy brown legs that make them appear larger than life. They are also very aggressive, move fast as they eat cockroches and other small insects by chasing them down, they dont build webs.
A Cane spider had somehow gotten into the rental car and waited in the dashboard for the most oppurtune time to terrify wide eyed innocent tourists...it jumped from the dash onto my friends lap in the passenger seat, she let out a piercing scream and froze. The driver didnt know what happened yet but when he pulled over the spider ran /jumped on him, luckily he was almost on the shoulder as the car crashed into rocks and hillside.
It took less than 5 seconds for car to empty, i went out the window myself, the door was against rocks and couldnt open. i didnt know what was happening yet but figured it was best to ask questions later.
The Spider was probably more scared than we were, it took off into the mountainside and we lost track of it. Getting back into the car meant inspecting and taking apart the rugs, Dash, seats, to insure there were no more spider stowaways.....the girls sat as far from dashboard as possible the rest of the trip. The rental car company didnt believe our story though.
We were lucky it happened where mountain sides and trees kept us hemmed in, there are spots on the road that are on cliffsides, or open to drop offs..it could have been much worse.

Nature is wild, chaotic, and furious. Spiders hunt, kill, eat/slurp their food, whether its a housefly or a small bird. They are true to themselves...as long as they dont hop on your lap while driving a mountain road, god bless em.

Originally posted by antar

Oh, that was a very beautiful and innocent example of nature. You 'are' part of nature, it was natural for your compassion to do what you chose to do. I love your story and hope I will always remember. I feel it.

really? Really?

even though they interfered and killed the kangaroo (sorry to be blunt Demandred), its a 'very beautiful and innocent example of nature'.

Nope

like others have pointed out, as soon as the spider bit the finch, it would be dead, whether you 'saved' it or not.

and trust me, the frog you 'saved' died of the venom introduced when it was bitten by the snake. The reason you couldnt find the carcass was because either the snake came back and finished what it started, or some other scavenger come round to clean up.

Originally posted by antar
I cant help think of advanced alien species which I have encountered in this life through my love of nature and how most of you never will because of what you harbor in your hearts. They avoid humans for the most part. Is it because they do not want to? No its because your not evolved yet, too unpredictable and dangerous, contaminated souls.

umm, okayyyyyyy. Figuratively, right?

[edit on 24-10-2008 by johnDoe21]

That is seriously one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. Nightmare material for weeks! Ugh!

one big spider (although, at around 4 inches, this isnt all that big) i can handle.

What freaks me out are the communal spiders that live in groups of thousands. Very small, but vast numbers.

One time during my 'trekking through the jungle phase' (this particular time in venezuela/brazil border region along the orinoco river) i literally stumbled into a huge dense 'fog' of web that was the home of thousands of these little spiders. They got everywhere and i was brushing them off of me for hours afterwards. The web was very dense, very sticky, kinda like the way cob-webs stick to you. The thing that freaked me out was the skeleton of a small monkey that was sitting almost intact in the middle of this 'nest'. Closer inspection also revealed bird, snake and bat skeletons. Maybe nine or ten different skeletons in this one web. Overall, it was a rough cube shape about 6-7 feet in each dimension.

kinda like this, except this one is in texas and a little bigger

scienceblogs.com...



[edit on 24-10-2008 by johnDoe21]

Something about those photos seems fake. For one, notice the spider is always positioned the exact same way, with it's belly facing the same direction as the right wing. It seems that the spider would have moved around a bit.

When i see those photos, I see really good art work, like they are models of the real thing, but it isn't the real thing. I say it's a hoax in this case, but that's just my opinion.

I don't think that paper investigated the "story". They just had these sensational pictures and published them to get views.

reply to post by Jay-in-AR


Mannikin finches are pretty tiny. I keep them myself, and though I've never seen a golden orb weaver spider, based on large spiders I have seen, I think it's possible.

As far as the reality of spiders eating birds, if I'm not mistaken, there is actually a species of spider called the Bird Eating Spider...I'd google search it right now, but honestly I'm terrified of spiders and don't want to see any horrific images!

reply to post by antar


Oh, great. Another PETA converter.

Well, off I go. I'm trying to be rich so I can afford that fabulous fur coat. Ta ta!

reply to post by antar


How about delusional, then?

two lines.

Originally posted by Jay-in-AR
Those look like two puppets to me. Golden Orb Weavers are nasty looking spiders for sure, but I have a hard time believing they would eat a bird. That would have to be one TINY bird and one VERY LARGE spider.

Most spiders are harmless, by the way.

They are huge, and the bird was only a finch which is a very small bird. I have seen a similar scene to this when I lived in Cairns (north queensland).

Originally posted by harrytuttle
When i see those photos, I see really good art work, like they are models of the real thing, but it isn't the real thing. I say it's a hoax in this case, but that's just my opinion.

I don't think that paper investigated the "story". They just had these sensational pictures and published them to get views.

There's nothing fake about the picture. That is a real genuine golden orb spider, with a real genuine finch

Unless you've lived with golden ord spiders (and finches for that matter), you wouldnt be able to tell at all. Ive seen a similar scenario with my own eyes.

Holy Hannah! What a Nightmare maker! That spider looks like its been eating birds and small children for a while! What do you do with a spider that big?! -It would take a whole can of raid to spray it.
-To squish it against a wall you would have to repaint.
-Flush it , no way, time to call JOE the Plumber... Hahahah.

Can you just imagine putting on a boot and feeling that monstrosity against your tootsies?

Ok i feel all creepy and itchy now, and im going to have to check under all my blankets tonight. thanks OP, just thanks >.<

[edit on 24-10-2008 by sheila947]

In general I am not afraid of spiders but those pictures are scary. Just changed my mind about wanting to go to Australia.

Thanks for the interesting post......too bad it got dragged down with the "political" BS.

Great photos the the natural world in action as it was meant to be!!!

Are we watching the start of obesity in Spiders???

There is a big jump from a Macfly to a Macbird!!!

Bon Appetit Mr Spider!!!

Originally posted by antar
Thats just sick, I would have saved the poor creature. I realize some people see it as 'nature' however I believe in miracles and for the bird it was a miracle a human saw what was happening and had the freewill and choice to save the bird. He may not have and just allowed the bird to suffer. I would hope as it is a familys back yard that they would teach empathy to their children by helping the bird. With mentality like that he could have placed the bird there just for the exposure.

And what about the all the worms he just saved from certain death???

1. Crush or grind some sea salt

2. Walk around the perimeter walls of the inside of your apartment/house/car or wherever sprinkling the crushed sea salt. Ordinary salt will do at a pinch.

3. You will never see another cockroach (prey) or spider (predator) in your house again.

OoOoO
>OoO<
[ * * ]

Spiders are the Special Air Service of nature.

I'll bet there were no complaints from mammals when they were taking out those two foot long wasps during the Triassic Era. What if they come again, huh? What if they come back from space where the spiders kicked their sorry wasp asses all those millenia ago?

Originally posted by antar
I recently saw a frog trapped in the mouth of a black snake, I saved it, and the black snake went off to find something else to eat. It was my choice, I happened upon this scene and made the choice. I felt good about it. I love all animals as they are all my fellow earthlings, but if I see a derranged murder attacking a child, I am not going to turn my head because it is his nature and think, oh well he is deranged, not by his choice, it must be genetic or something that happened in his past. NO I am going to SAVE the child!

So basically you might have killed the snake just because it was doing what it naturally should do? I mean that poor snake might be starving now, that might have been it's last chance at a meal! Are you expecting the snake to go and find something that's already dead? Pop down the local supermarket and crawl into the frog section for a nice frog lolipop?

You may have just finished off a snake. What gives you the right to play god?

Originally posted by antar
Have you ever looked at a spiders mouth? It takes forever to eat a large insect, I know I have plenty here on my farm and watch them everyday in nature. If I see a fly or something like that in a web I watch the spider spin a web around it, if I see a bee trapped or a beautiful butterfly, I save it. Just my choices, not that the fly is less significant, just my freewill and consciousness at play.

Oh so the fly deserves to die but the bee or butterfly doesn't? Obviously by not saving the fly you are saying it's less significant than a bee or butterfly, actions speak louder than words. Amazingly hypocritical and once again trying to play god. Let nature get up to what it usually does. It's cruel, painful and emotionless, but that's how it's setup. Most things don't come wrapped in foil and plastic, lions actually have to hunt their food, i know it's shocking. PETA should go kick those lions asses for cruelty!

Hurrah for the spider, obviously a credit to it's species. Well hurrah as long as it doesn't enter my home and try to chow down on my foot.