‘We couldn’t believe what we were seeing’: Video shows giant tarantula eating opossum

Posted

March 01, 2019 13:46:25

A tarantula has been caught on camera eating an opossum in the Amazon rainforest.

key points:

  • The encounter is the first ever recorded
  • Spiders commonly eat vertebrates such as frogs, lizards and tadpoles
  • Researchers also found centipedes in the Amazon consumed snakes bigger than them

The gruesome encounter was filmed by scientists researching how spiders and other invertebrates eat mammals and reptiles.

It shows the giant spider grabbing the still-twitching mouse opossum by the neck and dragging it along the forest floor.

A mouse opossum is a small marsupial that lives in South America and can grow up to around 12 centimetres in length.

“Invertebrates preying on vertebrates is common, but it’s generally not assumed to be an important source of mortality for amphibians and reptiles,” University of Michigan researcher Rudolf von May said.

“Our knowledge of these interactions remains limited.”

Mr von May and fellow researchers made their observations at night on Peru’s tropical rainforest floor.

“What stands out at night is the amount of spiders you see on all sorts of substrates — on the ground, on leaves, on branches,” he said.

“When we do surveys at night, some of the spiders we see will have prey, typically other invertebrates like crickets and moths.

“But once in a while, we see a spider with a frog or lizard.”

The team also collected the bodies of two snakes that were killed by centipedes, including a venomous coral snake.

“The opossum had already been grasped by the tarantula and was still struggling weakly at that point, but after about 30 seconds it stopped kicking,” co-author Michael Grundler said in a statement.

“We were pretty ecstatic and shocked, and we couldn’t really believe what we were seeing.”

Researchers say they believe it is the first time such an incident has been caught on camera.

Although this was considered shocking in Peru, spiders eating larger animals is not an entirely new concept in Australia.

This huntsman spider was filmed in central Queensland, dragging a mouse.

The Huntsman spider was filmed struggling to carry the mouse up the side of the fridge.
Photo:
The Huntsman spider was filmed struggling to carry the mouse up the side of the fridge. (Facebook: Jason Womal)

And there’s this one shot by Robert Irwin in remote swamp on Cape York Peninsula.

A spider eating a frog
Photo:
Robert’s photograph in the 11-14 age category was highly commended. (Supplied: Robert Irwin)

Topics:

animals,

animal-attacks,

animal-behaviour,

animal-science,

peru

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