Photos of spiders eating things at least 5 times their size!

I've got my eyes on you, Jack

It's amazing that spiders can eat animals bigger than themselves...

A common perception is that spiders like to eat flies that have been silly enough to fly into their webs and traps. This is all true but you can add that moths and other flying insects like butterflies also make up part of a healthy spider diet.

The truth is that spiders will eat just about anything their 8 legs can grab onto.

Here's some cool pictures of what some spiders have been caught eating, including the odd lizard, worm and even a bird!

Damn freaks!

Right?

We'll start our run with an early spider gets the worm joke: yep, this spider is munching down on a juicy worm. How do I know worms are juicy? I got paid a dollar once by my brother to eat one.

Sucker!

I would have done it for 50 cents!

Worm for breakfast

Now we have the classic tarantula spider eating a dead chicken picture. 

I'd be surprised if this huge spider managed to bring down the chicken all by himself but none-the-less, it's a spider eating a chicken shot! I hope it's not a staged photo...

Tarantula eating a spider

You'd think lizards and geckos would be faster than a spider right? Not so in these two pictures.

The picture below appears to be showing a spider carrying a lizard up a door or a window. Kind of reminds me of this python pulling up a kangaroo actually! Either way, that's a strong spider.

Spider carrying a lizard up a door frame

Lizard for Lunch?

Now this is where our what do spiders eat photo essay gets a little weird...

Can you imagine a spider eating a snake? Can you imagine a Spider reading the meaning of U2's One song lyrics?

Well, it looks like this little fella managed to capture a grass snake of some kind in his web and made him a snack.

Spider eats a snake!

Hey Jimmy Jangles, that's only a little snake! It hardly counts! Okay then dear reader, how about a bigger snake being eaten by a spider? That image does kind of look like a set up though eh?

Snake eaten by a spider

In the spider kingdom there's one spider that everyone knows the name of: Taranatula! And here's a picture of one eating a small mouse. 

Tarantula eating a mouse

So far we've had the spiders eating the worms, spiders, mice and and the odd chicken, but I've saved my favorite picture till last. Spider eating a bird. It's my favorite because that is one big bird and that is one mean looking spider. And that bird must have put up a decent fight right? So imagine how tough the spider is!

Bird being eaten by a spider

Still interested in spiders? Check out this myth about spiders that eat camels!

2 comments birds, lizards, mouse, snake, spider, worm

Never give up!

It's curtains for this lizard that's been nearly eaten whole by this King snake!

Well, at least this alligator lizard doesn't think so and is making one last effort for freedom by biting the snake back!

We wonder how long the lizard held out and if he was able to sink any teeth into the skin of the snake. It would be amusing for the snake if he couldn't finish his meal due this last ditch escape effort!

Hold up, I actually found some comment by the photographer on what actually happened:

P.S. I watched the lizard for quite some time, and as I walked away, the kingsnake began slowly withdrawing from its prey. Just goes to show, if you refuse to accept that you've been beaten, you just might be able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Literally."

Leave a Comment lizards, snake

Tuatara: Living Fossils

Hi, I'm Terry Tuatara, I breathe only once per hour!

The tuatara is New Zealand's famous gift to the World because it is the only survivor of an ancient group of reptiles that roamed the earth at the same time as dinosaurs.

The relatives of tuatara died out about 60 million years ago which is why the tuatara is called a ‘living fossil’.

Tuatara are famous for feeding on the New Zealand Weta but they predominantly prey on; including beetles, crickets, and spiders.

Their diet also consists of frogs, lizards, and bird's eggs and chicks like baby petrel which they find unprotected in nest burrows.

Weta ya reckon? Nice picture?

Tuatara once lived throughout the mainland of New Zealand but rats and people drove them to extinction there.

They are now found only on 37 off-shore islands and mainland islands and specific entities like the Karori Sanctuary.

There are two species. Sphenodon punctatus is the Cook Strait tuatara which live on Stephen's Island in the Marlborough Sounds.

The Northern tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus punctatus, is a sub-species which live on offshore islands around the north of the North Island.

The total tuatara population on all these islands is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000.

You wanna share my baby Petrel?

Tuatara are are cousins with Komodo Dragons, in the sense they are living relatives of the ancient dinosaurs.

Extra for Experts: Tuatara are known to have a low sex drive - this Tuatara took one hundred years before he popped his cherry!

1 comment birds, lizards, tuatara

This tiger snake was too slow for this Heath Monitor

Taken by Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife officer Janine Liddelow, this picture shows a Heath Monitor eating a tiger snake. Impressive effort that.

The photo was taken in late 2015 near Walpole.

Leave a Comment lizards, snake

Lizards like to eat spiders, flies and birds!

Gorgeous green lizard with caterpillar lunch treat

 Lizards. They are bloody everywhere. Even Thailand. And why are they everywhere? They eat bloody everything! They eat spiders and snakes. Little snakes mind you bit some how the geckos from Cambodia manage it. Occasionally our scaly friends manage to catch and eat birds! I thought it was impressive enough when a spider ate a finch but a lizard? It just goes to show the heart these green bastards have!

Lizard eating a big fuck off spider

 I love it when spiders get their comeuppance! Usually things like tarantulas just eat baby chickens.....

Tuatara eating a delicious spider

Gordan Gecko and his spider friend

Snakes not so alive

How does a bird get caught by a gecko?

1 comment gecko, lizards, spider

What did the Chameleon say to the cricket?

The Telegraph newspaper has highlighted how photographer Scott Linstead goes to extraordinary lengths to capture these pictures in which creatures appear frozen in time. Check out this chameleon catching a cricket with its long sticky tongue as an example:

Stay for lunch?

Scott spends up to a week arranging the lighting and phototraps which trigger the camera and flash. The human eye and reaction speed on the shutter release button are rarely quick enough to take the photos manually. Case in point, this set up of an archer fish spitting water at a cricket to make it fall into the water so the fish can prey on it:

Interestingly, when the photographer lowered the cricket's position lower to the water, the archer fish jumped at its prey instead!

Fish out of water....

One photo that was not done as a set up was this one: Scott spent four days in a hide at the edge of a pond in Kangasala, Finland, to get this photo of an osprey eagle diving for a salmon fish:

Going my way?

Check out more of  Scott's great camera work at www.scottyphotography.com

Leave a Comment bugs and critters, eagle, fish, lizards