How about some truth in advertising, Australian Tourist Bureau?

by Lauredhel on October 23, 2008

in Science, photography

From ninemsn via wtf_nature, this bird-eating spider. The photos are alleged to have been captured in a backyard in Atherton, in north Queensland (inland from Cairns).

The spider: a Golden Orb Weaver. The bird: a native finch called a Chestnut–breasted Mannikin.

spidereatingbird1

spidereatingbird2

I hereby call for a Truth in Advertising campaign for Australian tourism.

“Down Under: If the sun doesn’t get you, the wildlife will.”

“Where the bloody hell are ya? …. oh. I’ll get a rope.”

“Queensland. Beautiful one day… perfect the HOLY FUCK WHAT WAS THAT?”

Your suggestions?

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October 23, 2008 at 11:14 pm

{ 14 comments }

1
MissPrism October 23, 2008 at 6:36 pm

[link to lyrics, for those who can't access the video: Deadly Animals, by the Scared Weird Little Guys. ~Lauredhel]

2
keri October 23, 2008 at 7:11 pm

Australia: Where even the cute widdle platypus has a venemous spur.

(Can I just add that when I first moved here, we lived in the Blue Mountains, and about three days in a Funnel Web spider dropped on my head. A week later my father sent my brother outside to play with a ’slow worm’ that turned out to be a Red-Belly Black snake. Three weeks after that we were evacuated because of a bushfire. We came back after a day, and that weekend my father was badly bitten by sand-flies and had a severe allergic reaction that lasted a week. I still remember the under-current of fear that first year)

keris last blog post..Potential for Freakout

3
Emily S October 23, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Cripes… I’m terribly glad that European wildlife is so tame!!! The spiders here are enough to give me the shivers, something like that in my garden would have me heading for the airport in seconds!!!

@MissPrism: That song was hilarious!!!

Emily Ss last blog post..Pro-life campaign for animals

4
Aphie October 23, 2008 at 8:49 pm

I had the exact same thought as MissPrism!

*sings* Come to Australia… you might accidentally get killed!

That Golden Orb Weaver is bigger than any I’ve seen down here (near Sydney). You may be safe(r) with an Opera House jaunt, Emily S.

5
Book Girl October 23, 2008 at 9:52 pm

“Come to Australia, not even Steve Irwin could survive our wildlife!”

::ducks::

6
Deus Ex Macintosh October 23, 2008 at 10:08 pm

You’ll never, never know … just how many cockroaches live under your sink.

I love living in the UK. Nothing bites and the flies are so pathetic that if you do the great australian salute, nine times out of ten you actually hit the little beggars!!!

7
Joan Kelly October 24, 2008 at 8:29 am

My suggestion is that Australian bloggers rig the internet somehow so that my computer will automatically shut itself off rather than display pictures of spiders that big.

Talk about a mother-effing need for a trigger warning…

—–>is now twitching just at the thought of spiders like the one above existing.

8
Armagny October 24, 2008 at 10:33 am

As a child, growing up in the NT, I once walked into a ‘golden orb’ and literally got a face full of one of those spiders. I leapt backwards, tumbled and landed between a couple of rocks- brusied, but thinking about nothing other than the spider.

…Which thankfully stayed on its web!

9
Armagny October 24, 2008 at 10:34 am

I make sudden claim for a modicum of macho status in amongst my sensitive bloggering…

10
Joan Kelly October 24, 2008 at 10:37 am

Armagny – all I can say is…

fffffffffffuuuuucccckkkkk

well, and, glad you didn’t get eaten by the spider.

11
Helen October 24, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Aieeee, horrible!!?????

12
rpg October 24, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Australia—because we didn’t just export our convicts.

rpgs last blog post..The drugs don’t work

13
QoT October 24, 2008 at 6:36 pm

And this is why I never never never never never want to go to Australia again (been twice, both to relatively safe central Sydney).

14
Anna October 25, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Oh gosh, the cockroaches. I still have nightmares about the cockroaches in Australia. *sobs*

Australia … the deadliest place on earth!

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