In news that’s sure to send real estate prices on Antarctica skyrocketing, scientists have confirmed that spiders that prey on bats have been found on every continent except the icy giant…
The researchers write that bat-catching spiders were reported from “virtually every continent,” with the exception of Antarctica. About 80% of the reported “bat catches” were performed by web-building spiders and 12% to hunting spiders (i.e. spiders that forage without the use of a web)
While in some instances bats entangled in spider webs may have died of exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, and/or hyperthermia (i.e., non-predation death), there were numerous other instances where spiders were seen actively attacking, killing, and eating the captured bats (i.e., predation). This evidence suggests that spider predation on flying vertebrates is more widespread than previously assumed.
via Geekologie
