Oh, Australia: home to everything completely horrifying about the natural world (except volcanoes, surprisingly enough).
A Golden silk orb-weaver spider can grow up to 5-6.9 cm (2-2.7 in) in body length, not counting the span of its legs. They spin strong yellow webs that are very large and can reach a meter in diameter. A large, strong web can mean only one thing: large, strong prey. These spiders don’t waste their time with the smallest insects and have been known to feed on birds and snakes.
Daniel Reardon happened to come across a brown tree snake about half a meter long that fell out of a tree and into the Golden orb spider’s web. These snakes eat birds, lizards, and small mammals, so it is a fairly formidable opponent.
The fight lasted for about an hour before coming to this horrifying conclusion:
