Spider eats bird

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 25 October 08 7:39 pm

And I thought we had trouble with orb spiders last summer here in Sydney!

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2008/1 ... -news.html

Mr Shakepeare told ninemsn 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.

Mr Shakespeare said the bird, a Chestnut-breasted Mannikin which appears frozen in an angel-like pose in the pictures, is likely to have flown into the web and got caught.

Post by **CraigRat** » 25 October 08 7:48 pm

If it's not a photoshop job, I will never leave Tassie again........

EVERYONE PANIC! THEY'VE GOT A TASTE FOR BLOOD!

Kerry · Post by **Kerry** » 25 October 08 8:52 pm

Geez some people need to get out in the real world, this is nothing new and certianly nothing to do with photoshop. Strange how a lot of things these days get related to photoshop?

Now what about those drop bears!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 25 October 08 9:00 pm

Kerry wrote:Geez some people need to get out in the real world, this is nothing new and certianly nothing to do with photoshop. Strange how a lot of things these days get related to photoshop?

Now what about those drop bears!

I'm still waiting for the pics of the yowie and the min min lights myself.

Map Monkey · Post by **Map Monkey** » 25 October 08 9:03 pm

I'll be gaining a sense of urgency next time i run into a spider's web caching in Cairns.

Hello to all our NZ cachers reading the forum.

mm

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 25 October 08 9:47 pm

Map Monkey wrote:I'll be gaining a sense of urgency next time i run into a spider's web caching in Cairns.

Only panic if you struggle and can't get out, that's when the spider will go in for the kill

HHHEddy · Post by **HHHEddy** » 26 October 08 10:32 am

Realy get worried when a cache comes out called Shelob's Lair

chatmanais · Post by **chatmanais** » 26 October 08 7:37 pm

You kind of take these freaky things for granted growing up in north qld. I have also seen golden orb spiders have birds in their webs (sun birds)

They regularly build webs around the outside of my parents house in japoonvale where i grew up (about 100km south of cairns, 30km south of innisfail)

This one in particular has a leg span easily larger than 30cm.

<a href="http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa19 ... denOrb.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa19 ... denOrb.jpg" border="0" alt="Golden orb spider"></a>


The other smaller spiders you see in the web are males and will get eaten if they do not play their cards exactly right to enable mating to take place.

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 26 October 08 8:13 pm

Man, and I was surprised by the size of some of the moths last time I was in Cairns.

Bushbashing to find caches suddenly requires a much bigger stick to clear the webs than we need in Sydney. Probably a chainsaw

Fighting Mongooses · Post by **Fighting Mongooses** » 27 October 08 10:09 am

I'd want head-to-toe bullet proof and stab proof armour before going anywhere near that spider but then again I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to spiders

listmaker · Post by **listmaker** » 27 October 08 12:47 pm

Oh, dear God, that's it, I'm never going near Queensland again. That is a real....ugh.....30cm spider?

chatmanais · Post by **chatmanais** » 27 October 08 1:58 pm

listmaker wrote:Oh, dear God, that's it, I'm never going near Queensland again. That is a real....ugh.....30cm spider?

They get Bigger!

Alansee · Post by **Alansee** » 27 October 08 5:44 pm

Many years ago a friend I was with almost walked into the occupied web of a rather large one of these surprisingly pretty spiders (I know, its an oxymoron!) right at the tip of Cape York.

Not surprisingly we were both a bit more careful after that!

They are fortunately big enough to avoid easily enough though.

chatmanais · Post by **chatmanais** » 27 October 08 5:53 pm

I will always remember a rather disturbing visual from my childhood days, my sister, the neighbours kids and i were all playing tag in the yard. I happened to be fully aware of several of these spiders sitting in their webs along one side of our house, as i ran around them, away from my neighbour chelsea, she ran straight through at least 3 of the webs... Now imagine a screaming 8 year old girl with 3 of these spiders clambering around the top of her head...

Me, being ten at the time, was not exactly the first person to rush to her rescue

If · Post by If » 27 October 08 7:48 pm

The only problem I have with this story is the wording

Like most newspaper stuff and folklore, things get exaggerated. Technically the spider IS eating the bird, but the implied, or imagined suggestion is that it actively hunted for it and is biting chunks out of the flesh, like some large carnivore

Orb weaver webs are certainly strong enough to catch a bird of a mannikins size, which lets face it is only about 10cm from beak to tail. The best the spider can hope to do is nibble on a bit of flesh or lick up the juices as the carcas decays

So don't let those nasty spiders stop you going bush to find caches

Geocaching Australia

Spider eats bird

Spider eats bird

spiders, spiders everywhere