Watch this huge tarantula drag an opossum that he just killed / Boing Boing

A team of scientists traveled to the lowland rainforest of Peru to document invertebrates and discovered an unusual sight: a large tarantula the size of a "plate" with "massive hooks" "catching and eating a baby opossum. Although they did not capture on video the part where the tarantula captured the animal, they were the first to record a tarantula feasting on an opossum.

"When we conduct surveys at night, some of the spiders we see will have prey, usually other invertebrates such as crickets and moths," said one of the scientists, Rudolf von May of the University of Michigan, according to National Geographic (click on the following link). link to see a longer version of the video).

Via NG:

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"The opossum had already been seized by the tarantula and was struggling still weakly at that time, but after about 30 seconds it stopped walking," said co-author Michael Grundler, a student at doctorate in a statement.

"We were pretty ecstatic and shocked and we could not really believe what we saw," said Grundler.

Later, Robert Voss, a mammologist at the American Museum of Natural History, confirmed that they had captured the first document on a large mygalomorphic spider – commonly known as a tarantula – hunting and eating an opossum.

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