The battle between spiders and bats

Antarctica is the only place where humans cannot witness the sight of re-bat-eating spiders, scientists claim.

A spider eats bat in Australia. (Photo: Livescience)

Bats are one of the most successful animal groups on the planet. With more than 1,200 species, bats account for about 20% of the total number of mammals. Like owls, cut birds and snakes, bats have very few natural enemies.

But bats are the prey of many invertebrates. For example, giant centipedes in Venezuela can eat bats. People have also seen fritters eating young bats when they fall to the bottom of a cave. But recently scientists have discovered another enemy of the bat. That is the spider.

Martin Nyffeler, a University of Ulm researcher in Germany and Mirjam Knörnschild, an expert at the University of Basel in Switzerland, analyzed more than 100 spider studies to understand their bat eating behavior, Livescience reported. . They found this phenomenon on every continent except Antarctica.

The ability to locate by ultrasound helps bats detect spider web easily. If it hits a spider web, only the most secure networks can keep them. Most spider webs will rip when bats hit them. Therefore, most bats attached to spider webs are small or young, with wingspan of 10 to 24cm. Sometimes they die from exhaustion, hunger, dehydration or overheating after getting caught in the spider web. But if they don't die, spiders will actively attack to destroy the prey.