Mantis vs. hummingbird

[galeogirl]

This is pretty unbelievable.

 

[thedreadedone]

wow, thats excellent !

 

[Malhavoc's]

Okay anyone want to explain the 'impaling part' I have NEVER seen a mantice 'impale' anything but rather grab and hold till it dies or eat it while it struggles perhaps this is a different scenario due to size weight ratio type of thing, still amazing but is it credible?

 

[nightbreed]

Holy freaking >self edit< I wouldnt of thought that was possible thanks for sharing.

 

[danread]

That is amazing, but the thought does cross my mind, if his son is anything like i was when i was younger, that scenario might not have been quite "natural". I used to go around my garden feeding large Tegenaria sp. with wasps and other large inescts i could find, mainly becasue i've always found predator prey interactions fascinating. The boy might have help the mantid along a bit

 

[galeogirl]

A definite possibility, but we'll never know for sure. I thought the photos were pretty amazing, though.

 

[Randolph XX()]

i've only heard of Tegenaria sinensis feed on house gecko, but we learn everyday
if she could grab the bird, how did she kill it?bite the neck first?or was it a very sick bird?
the next common name would be bird-eating mantid!!!

 

[Malhavoc's]

As It would appear the deaht blow would apperently be the grabbbing or impaling limbs, ratio in the extreme heart rate of a huming bird and you get heartattack fairly easily. The bird if this was natural probably got scared to death quiet literaly, But the problem I am hung up on is how the bird is HUNG up. As I stated above, I have NEVER seen a mantis impale its food! perhaps a mantis keeper or two should chyp in

 

[ScorpDemon]

im not a mantis keeper.. well i have one in the house that im feedinmg, hoping to trade it or something.. not sure what we're gonna do with it.. my roommate caught it.. if youre in terested PM me and ill talk to him and see if hes willing to let it go, but back to the original reason i am posting.. i was at an ex girlfriends house.. she wasnt an ex at the time.. but anyway her mom had hummingbird feeders on the back patio out the yinyang.. and one day there was a large mantis on one of the flat hummingbird feeders swatting at the hummers.. it never killed any that day, but her mom told me she had seen that before, and has seen them kill the hummers, but never eat them.. so i dunno

as far as the impaling thing goes.. my roommate told me he used to see larger ones in north alabama, said he has had them draw blood on his fingers slapping with their front legs.. the praying legs if you will..

 

[MattM]

Wow, this is just amazing, and totaly unexpected Never thought a mantis would eat anything other then insects (i'm not familiar with praying mantis)!

 

[cacoseraph]

Okay anyone want to explain the 'impaling part' I have NEVER seen a mantice 'impale' anything but rather grab and hold till it dies or eat it while it struggles perhaps this is a different scenario due to size weight ratio type of thing, still amazing but is it credible?

most i have seen have a large hook/thorn/process at about where their "wrist" would be. i have seen them use it to climb. the spine is VERY pronounced in my African Sphrodomantis (er, whatever). the spine is most evident to me whent he PM has their hands folded up in the praying stance.

it has actually gotten caught on my skin when i was handling her... i would believe it can hook into and hold a humming bird

 

[BigBadConrad]

I saw a program about mantises on iNHD or Discovery HD last month, might even have been Insectica, no sure. They showed a large mantis capturing and eating a hummingbird, one eating a mouse, and the most amazing was the one that tried to eat the 10" corn snake. It took a couple bites and looked like a meal until the snake managed to squirm away. Mantises are amazing predators!

 

[Farom]

perhaps a mantis keeper or two should chyp in

Its BS in my opinion. It had to have been set up, there is no way a chinese could take on something like a humming bird. The humming bird would have easily overpowered the mantis.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Scorpendra]

not sure if a mantis could actually do that, but if it's legit....

one word: OWNED!

 

[Black Hawk]

Mantids have amazing reflexes i don't think it's too far-fetched at all for a mantis to have caught a hummer and the shock of being caught would probably be enough to give it a heart attack, as MalHavoc's said. it sure didn't waste time goin to town on that prey tho :}

 

[Dark Raptor]

I think this pictures are real. I've seen mantis eating geckos and other small vertebrates (even mammals). I've also heard about hummingbird 'heart problems' and read about such cases so it is possible... and great pics

 

[LHP]

I've never been lucky enough to see a matis with a hummingbird; I've spoken to several people who have. I think it happens fairly often. However, I do regularly see them catch and eat cicadas, which is also pretty impressive.

Heres a pic I took last summer. It wasn't one of those half-dead goofy cicadas either, this thing was at full strength. We heard a crazy buzzing sound coming from the willow tree and found this mantis holding onto a cicada just behind its head. The cicada was flying as hard as it could but the mantis was just calmly chewing on its neck. How the manis kept her footing, I don't understand. She finally bit the head off, dropped it, and dove in. She managed to clean out the whole body cavity!

Lindsey

 

[Anthony]

It is quite possible the bird was ill.

 

[The Bear]

Its incredable :worship: Think of the weight differences

I think its highly possible for a large mantis to kill a hummer(amazing predators) though I don't know anything about different species. I used to catch matis long ago but never knew they could do that! This picture makes me want to go catch some right now.

 

[danread]

I definitely think it's possible that a mantid could eat a humming bird, as people have already said, they are amazing predators. It's just that when i read the article that went with it, my first thought was that it was a setup.