INTRO: A giant tarantula has been filmed dragging a young opossum away to its death in what is thought to be the first ever documentation of a spider preying on these small marsupials. In footage released by the University of Michigan, the huge spider—estimated to be around the size of a dinner plate—can be seen on top of the young mouse opossum, which was about the size of a softball.
"The opossum had already been grasped by the tarantula and was still struggling weakly at that point, but after about 30 seconds it stopped kicking," biologist Michael Grundler said in a statement. "We were pretty ecstatic and shocked, and we couldn't really believe what we were seeing. We knew we were witnessing something pretty special, but we weren't aware that it was the first observation until after the fact."
Mar 1, 2019 08:06 AM
![[Image: tarantula2.jpg]](https://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/tarantula2.jpg)
