Flagrant Disregard for the sanctity of the food chain.
.
Okay, the world has officially gone CooKoo Bananas. The following news stories simply MUST herald the end of days, in an old-school old testament style. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
It all begins with the small stuff, such as when Herons start devouring rabbits.
Then, mice start attacking and killing snakes and Leopards start taking down giant crocodiles (Which, incidentally, is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. They say that the meat it would have gotten simply wasn't worth it, so it did this JUST BECAUSE IT CAN!).
But none of those stories hold a candle to this fine example of Lovecraftian horror:
Photographs of a giant spider eating a bird in an Australian garden have stunned wildlife experts.
The pictures show the spider with its long black legs wrapped around the body of a dead bird suspended in its web.
The startling images were reportedly taken in Atheron, close to Queensland's tropical north.
Despite their unlikely subject matter, the pictures appear to be real.
Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.
"Normally they prey on large insects… it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn.com.
Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger.
Queensland Museum identified the bird as a native finch called the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin.
Mr Shakespeare told ninemsn the bird must have flown into the spider web and become stuck.
"It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said.
Giant spider eating a bird caught on camera
"It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said.
Greg Czechura from Queensland Museum said cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".
"It builds a very strong web," he said.
But he said the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened.
The Golden Orb Weaver spins a strong web high in protein because it depends on it to capture large insects for food.
Oh holy god damn fuck, guess what country I'm never stepping foot in. One commentator on the Something Awful forums stated "At least it looks like it got the head first, probably effectively liquefying the brain before devouring the rest." I wold have been happier not knowing that fact. Apparently that bird isn't huge - about 4 inches. Still, I bet that spider feels like it has huge balls. "Yeah, I ate a fucking bird. What now?" Jesus Fuck, radiation has got to be involved in creating such a monstrosity.
I bet that bird felt like a total bitch in his last moments. "If I survive this, my friends'll never let me live this down."
Okay, the world has officially gone CooKoo Bananas. The following news stories simply MUST herald the end of days, in an old-school old testament style. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
It all begins with the small stuff, such as when Herons start devouring rabbits.
Then, mice start attacking and killing snakes and Leopards start taking down giant crocodiles (Which, incidentally, is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. They say that the meat it would have gotten simply wasn't worth it, so it did this JUST BECAUSE IT CAN!).
But none of those stories hold a candle to this fine example of Lovecraftian horror:
Photographs of a giant spider eating a bird in an Australian garden have stunned wildlife experts.
The pictures show the spider with its long black legs wrapped around the body of a dead bird suspended in its web.
The startling images were reportedly taken in Atheron, close to Queensland's tropical north.
Despite their unlikely subject matter, the pictures appear to be real.
Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.
"Normally they prey on large insects… it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn.com.
Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger.
Queensland Museum identified the bird as a native finch called the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin.
Mr Shakespeare told ninemsn the bird must have flown into the spider web and become stuck.
"It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said.
Giant spider eating a bird caught on camera
"It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said.
Greg Czechura from Queensland Museum said cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".
"It builds a very strong web," he said.
But he said the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened.
The Golden Orb Weaver spins a strong web high in protein because it depends on it to capture large insects for food.
Oh holy god damn fuck, guess what country I'm never stepping foot in. One commentator on the Something Awful forums stated "At least it looks like it got the head first, probably effectively liquefying the brain before devouring the rest." I wold have been happier not knowing that fact. Apparently that bird isn't huge - about 4 inches. Still, I bet that spider feels like it has huge balls. "Yeah, I ate a fucking bird. What now?" Jesus Fuck, radiation has got to be involved in creating such a monstrosity.
I bet that bird felt like a total bitch in his last moments. "If I survive this, my friends'll never let me live this down."