Monster found in Cairns Backyard

[§AB]

Giant spider eating a bird caught on camera


By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney
Last Updated: 3:01pm BST 22/10/2008


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.

"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.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/22/easpider122.xml

[leon]

Bloody hell, I'm glad I live in Victoria, that is some spider.

Leon

[BLiTZWiNG]

Most days, I still wish I lived in Victoria... Especially having those things up here!

[erick]

Lovely creature - and a bit bigger now if she finished off that meal!

[Jen]

:scared::scared: thats it im not moving up that way :eek:

:scared3:

[Matty P]

That is one big Spider!!! :scared:

OMG! :eyepop:

[goober]

Yikes... reminds me of the huge beasts I saw on Norfolk Island - whoppers in massive webs.

Here's a nice shot of the same spider...

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Asia/Indonesia/photo169676.htm

[acropolite]

Maybe, but I wouldn't like to have one drop on to the bed in the middle of the night.:scared:

[Kevnool]

I reckon the movie aracnaphobia was crap after seeing this specimen....Must buy a ticket to go north and investigate this claim...NOT!!!.....Cheers Kev.

[Ric]

Holy snapping ducks droppings.:eyepop:

Imagine walking into that in the middle of the night.:scared: You might need more than a change of undies.;)

I'm with Leon, I'll stay down South thanks.

[GrahamL]

Amazing pics...I stumble into there webs often while picking fruit and could imagine a small bird getting stuck its a really strong and sticky web.Thankfully the spiders arn't aggressive and seem to run and hide while your trying to unravel yourself .

[matt]

Yeah. I saw this on the Courier Mail's website the other day and thought it was a prank. Not being a 'native' Queenslander, I thought it had to be a joke. That was until I asked a few of my work colleagues to also have a look. They casually replied "oh...yeah...we get those up here". :scared:

[gary]

Hi Matt,

Golden Orbs of that size are not difficult to find well south of Queensland,
including here in the Kuring-Gai Chase National Park in Sydney and the Brisbane
Water National Park on the Central Coast.

Though I have never seen a bird stuck in one of their webs, I wouldn't
doubt for one moment that if, for example, a red browed finch, which is also
common here, were to fly in the web, it would get stuck. I quite regularly
see bits of broken branch or bark, probably weighing tens of times more than
a finch, seemingly suspended by itself in mid air but upon closer examination
is caught in the beautiful web of a Golden Orb.

So as the person from the Queensland Museum noted, the key thing is the
strength of their web and as I understand it, these particular webs have
some of the highest tensile strength to weight ratios for any material known.

Best regards

Gary

[§AB]

I saw it in the paper aswell, I instantly thought it was just your typical photoshop hoax

jesus christ!!!!!!!!!


But seriously, Imagine walking into that in the middle of the night

I think you'd need more than a change of underpants........ more like a heart transplant...

I've got some nasty **** in my backyard, but nothing like that ******* thank god!

[jjjnettie]

I lived for a while on Cape York Peninsula. Up there they are called "Bird Spiders". They string their giant webs between trees to catch their prey.
In the morning it is wise to take a stick with you to break the webs because you don't want to walk face first into one. It's almost like walking into a tramoline, you bounce into it. They don't break too easy.
The web is covered with yellow sticky goo, similar in looks and texture to honey, which traps small birds and large insects onto the web. The goo sticks to your hair and clothes and there is copious amounts of it.
Definitely not an experience you want to do twice.

[AstralTraveller]

Down here we get quite a few orb-weaving spiders and I've walked into a few webs. Never fun. A bit (and I do mean only a bit) of research suggests we get several spp of Nephila: N. edulis, N. plumipes and N. ornata and the St Andrews Cross spider Argiope aetherea.

However in Queensland they get the much bigger Nephila maculata . This specimen was found near Somerset at the tip of Cape York Penninsular in 1989 (it took me a while to find and scan the original). That's my hand in the background. I wasn't worried and no kimbies were used. I know that web-dwelling spiders will not jump out and attack me. Anyway, haven't you heard of depth-of-field. :whistle:

[bloodhound31]

I remenber those things on a trip to Norfolk island. They were everywhere. Every tree, clothesline, verandah. If you went for a jog in the morning, you would come back covered in webs.

No need for breakfast, already full of spiders.

Ugh.

[Ian Robinson]

When we did our top end adventure (Pilbara to Cairns) and spent a while in Cairns, we were having a meal a restraunt somewhere in Cairns and right above our heads in the roof beams there was one of those monster orb spiders ... I mean MONSTER !!!! it must have had a body easily 12" long and I became transfixed by it's stare , my wife freaked out when she saw it :scared: , we wound up moving to another table and I could not help but keep looking at the 8 legged beast.

It was the stuff of night mares ....

I hear they eat frogs and lizards and small snakes too.

If they behave anything like the one's we get in the mangroves locally here , if there is one , there will be dozen of them , they hang out in colonies , the biggest I've encountered here is had a body about 2" long and their webs are very strong and super sticky too ....

In summer it pays to have a torch or to carry a strick out in front of you when walking down the foot here too.

[Jen]

:scared::scared::scared: OMG Astral how could you get that dam close to it hell i would have left what ever i had behind and i would have got the hell away from that thing :scared:
:scared3: jen really hates spiders :sadeyes:

[Jen]

Bugger moving to another table i would have been out of there :scared:

[Ric]

Hey Ian, who needs crowd control with a few of them in the roof. If someone is unruly then a couple of Orbs drop onto your table and ask you to leave. Problem solved.:lol::thumbsup:

Cheers

[Hagar]

If we had spiders like that here in Mt Beauty I would have to buy a military spec flame thrower. I have trouble looking at the pictures.

[Jen]

Yep Ric u got that right :thumbsup: im always the last one hanging around still partying at party and yep that sure would get rid of me in a hurry :lol::lol:
:poke:


Yep im with you Doug the pic creeps me out :scared:my mum has a giant spider in a vase on her fireplace and she has to put it away when i go there cause it just freaks me out :help: (yep im a chicken)