Giant Spider shown "eating" huge bird in web

I have always been amazed with spiders, snakes etc.

I would feed these big hairy spiders, I think they are of the Wolf Spider variety. I would catch various flies, grasshoppers and feed this particular spider who had built a few webs on the wooden structure by our trash bins.

It got to the point near the end of the summer that the spider would crawl out on his latest web as soon as I showed up....even if I had no food.

I always wondered what happened to spiders in the winter??? Nest and reappear in the spring, die and have the eggs reappear...but this guy was so big I could not see how he could grow that big in one season in cold cold Canada.


Also...this is pointed toward the person who saved the frog....I became facinated with snakes as a little guy as well.

In our potato bin, below ground, on our farm in Val Marie, we would get a huge nest of snakes every so often. My Grandad, who I lived with, would put on the gloves, grab a handful from below ground and cut the heads off of them to get rid of them.

One year I asked him so give me a couple and I kept them in the barn in a a old, big wooden crate.....I would feed them frogs I caught at the sleaugh. These two snakes got huge and I let them go. I would see them again next spring and summer...they moved to the chicken coup (rats) and helped to keep the rat and mouse population in check. They were garder snakes...at least that was i refered to them as.....( not poisinous) green, brown, black a little bit of red.

Snakes are not slimey btw...they are like a big muscle, very strong and when scared thses snakes gave off a bad smell....they, I think recognized me the next spring, summer as I could still feed them live frogs.

Good, I also expect the huge numbers of snakes on my property to do their job eating rats and field mice. If I find one of my chickens or cats in their mouths I will assess the situation and save the animal if I can. As for walking up on the bird in the web, I would have assessed the situation and if possible, saved the bird.

reply to post by antar


lol

Just to clarify huge...i was about six...the farm house we lived in I thought was huge but when ever i revisit it i am amazed at how small the house really is...tiny...haha

As you grow your perspective changes.


This is a fun thread..flag..good break from doom and gloom

The largest spider that I have seen in nature is the"Banana Spider" down in South Carolina. About the same colors. Black and Yellow. Throughout the Summer they end up growing to the size of your palm (legs included). I would occasionally hit one of their thick webs when mt. biking on narrow trails. THICK web in the face. Not Fun. I can't imagine seeing a bird stuck in a web like that. Evolution at its best I suppose.

That's the scariest thing I've ever seen. A spider has no business being that big! Ew.
sorry for the one liner...

Think those spiders are 'creepy' check out what our boys and girls in the desert deal with on a daily bases.

Camel spider

Wikipidea

Warning! Camel Spider Bite not very pretty

I remember one night me and my Platoon Sargent where standing at a check point. It was about 1 a.m. and it was dead quiet. We started hearing this clicking sound. Not knowing what it was I turned on my NVG's and started looking for the sound. Turns out it was a a camel spider walking behind us on the road. I immediately smashed it with the butt of my M-16. Amazed at the size of this thing I went to get my camera out of my ruck sack. When I returned the spider was gone!! This thing some how got up and walked away after I thought I smashed it to death. Nasty critters!!

reply to post by hILB3rT


thats like something from the x-files! disgusting. and why are those soldiers picking up??ahh it makes my skin crawl
And they ****ing bite? thats gross

[edit on 24-10-2008 by Shocka]

reply to post by hILB3rT


I have seen multiple vids in Iraq of servicemen and women "playing" with the things. They are clearly very mean, aggrssive and nasty - look at those fangs! They easliy kill scorpions, lizards, whatever - your story of how you smahed it with a rilfe butt and then it was gone minutes later leads me to believe you may wake up one morning to find a slightly injured but massively angry camel spider on your face.
It seems like these things want revenge. Thanks for the post anf thanks for the service of the Country!

ColoradoJens

reply to post by antar


? ahh thats better, now wheres my veal and meatballs.

reply to post by harrytuttle


I was going to the same thing. They look fake in my opinion. The bird to me looked fake as soon as I saw the picture. The spider looks more real I think but still.

For example the last picture. The spider looks as if it weighs in the pounds, so I do see how that small of a strand of its web could support that huge of a spider, plus the bird. Enlighten me anyone?



[edit on 24-10-2008 by Unlimitedpossibilities]

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.

This is the problem with most people.. perception.
This posters perception is that the bird is worth more than the spider.
(he's also made a snap judgement of the photographer)

This rational is the root cause of many of our problems today.
In Asia they eat dogs and horses.. in the US we are "appalled" by that .. but why?
In USA we eat cows, in India they are "appalled" by that .. but why?

Perception.

Dogs, horses and cows are relatively the same.
Dogs are "mans best friend" but what are horses? "Pretty"? "Majestic"? Why are cows considered lesser animals?
Why is it ok to step on an ant and kill it and not a cat?

It isn't "sick" for a spider to eat a bird.. it's fortunate.
He won't have to eat for a while and a boatload of insects will be saved from death. A bunch of those insects may go on to pollonate some plants and food will grow that you might eat and a cow will be saved.

It's all life... and simple perception.

If you cannot see the other side of things, then you are hopelessly part of the problem and will never be part of the solution.

Just my 2 cents.

reply to post by Acidtastic


Aw poor Acid.

It is that time of year my friend. Many spiders only live a year. They lay their eggs and then die.

It is sad.



As for the poor bird, there are spiders that even go fishing.

They build webs over small streams and catch minnows. Pretty wild if you ask me.

But I must agree with the one comment under the video.

"Im sorry but there is no way on gods earth that spider would have been living in my garden!!!!!"

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.

Although I understand what you are trying to say, I must disagree. Once that spider had bitten the bird, as shown in the first pic, it was over. Have you ever been bitten by a large spider? It's not a pretty site. Your flesh begins to digest and liquify. That's what started to happen to that bird within the first seconds of being bitten. It would have been a waste of the birds flesh to save it only to have it dissolve somewhere else. Plus you would be possibly destroying the nest of the spider and harming it for no reason other than trying to survive. It earned that meal big time.

Now, let's just be clear on this. I'm feeling the weebie jeebies BIG TIME right now! I can hardly sit still with the thought of things like that crawling on me. Holy God!

Originally posted by Unlimitedpossibilities
reply to post by harrytuttle

 

I was going to the same thing. They look fake in my opinion. The bird to me looked fake as soon as I saw the picture. The spider looks more real I think but still.

For example the last picture. The spider looks as if it weighs in the pounds, so I do see how that small of a strand of its web could support that huge of a spider, plus the bird. Enlighten me anyone?



[edit on 24-10-2008 by Unlimitedpossibilities]

images of the Golden Orb Weaver
Just look and see how 'THIN' the web looks to the size of this spider. You see, it's very deceiving because people like to attribute strength to size. Spider's silk is among the strongest threads on earth. In relative comparison, it can even be stronger than steel. The military has been utilizing the fundamentals of spider's silk for decades.

So, I understand your skepticism here. However, that bird could easily fit in the palm of your hand. It's just a close up picture that is meant to display a rare sight in the wild.

Still gives me the willies though.

[edit on 24-10-2008 by dariousg]

[edit on 24-10-2008 by dariousg]

reply to post by antar



I'll throw my 2 cents in here. I'd do like you, and pull the bird free. I recently
saved a large moth from a web just as the big spider was about to get him.
I love nature. I revere nature, but I felt like saving the moth. "It's not your time yet!'
I did feel bad about wrecking the spider's web, but he\she made another one later that day and went right back at it.

i keep tarantulas, when they were first discovered some of them were named birdeating spiders, in actual fact some tarantulas eat bigger things than a finch sized bird. t. blondii can eat snakes for instance-the fer de lance which is deadly and grows to 8 feet in length is not a problem, then again it does grow to the size of a dinnerplate!

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.

you obviously know nothing of arachnids and venom. it was already too late to save the already digesting bird from the amount of venom that would be injected within the animal. not only that, but the amount of
stress that would be inflicted upon the bird from getting cought in a web, would have a chance of killing it. and lastly, what makes you think that all people are capable of reaching towards an already dying bird that has a very venomous spider on top of it?

would you try to save the mouse that is getting eaten by a cat? no, because you understand that that is the nature of the cat. you simply have no respect what so ever for the species in this specific attack.

society has build up an image of good and bad creatures in this world. if you constantly took away rodents from a snake, the snake would die. and what makes that any different from giving the snake a rodent so the snake can live? cute and furry things are put on a pedistil and given rights and praise (in a sence) that insects, arachnids or anything land based with scales is not.

this is what happens in nature, get used to it.

I would consider anyone who would even considering helping that bird an insanely horrible person.

OMG, I should never have looked at these pictures.
Spiders are my worst enemy and even a daddy long legs gives me endless-long nights of fear.

[I would consider anyone who would even considering helping that bird an insanely horrible person.]

I kinda agree with you ..maybe they are not horrible because they mean well ,..but just dont quite understand nature ....or they would not snatch it away from the bug or animal ...
That would be similar to someone snatching away your food just as you were about to put it in your mouth ..we would die too if someone snatched away our food everytime we tried to eat ..for survival ..

Hey maybe all of you who want to save the bugs and animals from certain death could teach them to all be vegetarians but then the vegetables you would have to have mercy on them too and save them from the spider too ..And then you would also have a overpopulation of all of the animals you chose to save from the spideys mouth ..etc etc etc ...and here we go .into another slippery slope ...lol


Oh PS ..you would also have to save the worm who the bird went to go eat too ..lol ...



[edit on 24-10-2008 by Simplynoone]

Originally posted by Simplynoone

Oh PS ..you would also have to save the worm who the bird went to go eat too ..lol ...

Have you never played the computer game "Worms"? I tell you those things are dangerous, they can easily protect themselves.