Yes, That's a Wild Tarantula Eating a Snake

Have you ever seen a wild tarantula eat a snake?

While scientists in southern Brazil were looking for tarantulas, they found something you would think is impossible: a spider eating a snake. 

The tarantula, called the Grammostola quirogai, was eating an Almaden ground snake (Erythrolamprus almadensis) for lunch. This was the first time a tarantula has ever been seen preying on a snake in the wild.

Leandro Malta Broges, who is a graduate student in biology at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil, stated, "Predation of such a large snake in relation to the size of the spider was extremely surprising to us." He also claimed that, "There are other records of spiders preying on snakes, such as the famous black widow, which has a strong toxin and, besides, rely on the web for capturing. But tarantulas don't spin webs to trap prey."

The most likely scenario the students could come up with was that the snake more than likely slithered by the tarantula's rock, or tried to use it as a den. Most often, tarantulas prey on other spiders, or smaller insects, reptiles amphibians, birds, or even mammals.

If a tarantula can eat a full snake, I don't know that I would ever want to see one!

NEXT: GRAPHIC: MOOSE GUSHES BLOOD OUT OF HIS NOSE FOLLOWING A PERFECT KILLSHOT