Cool Things in Nature

[HalveBlue]

So, I was just outside on my patio, having a smoke, when I look down and see this fly sitting on the wall. Casually smoking along, I keep watching the fly because, let’s face it, I have nothing better to do.

A couple of seconds pass and I see this jumping spider come along.

Now, in the past when confronted with such scenarios I’m always looking forward for the spider to use all of its arachnid might to systematically attack, overpower, and devour whatever insect had the misfortune of crossing the spider’s path.

Invariably, I’m always disappointed. The lazy spiders must either not be hungry or are too damn lazy to earn their meal and they just wander off. Maybe the spider knows that its act of feeding is tremendously entertaining to me and selfishly decides to ignore my request for simple entertainment.

Nevertheless, this time, like all the other times, I’m still hoping the spider will actually indulge me and attack the fly. I keep screaming in my head, "get him, get him!"

Just waiting to be disappointed once again by nature’s worst phobia, I see the jumping spider slowly move closer and closer to the fly using that spastic jumping spider walk.

Then BHAM!

The spider jumps on the fly, connected to the wall with its super awesome spider silk, spins around a couple dozen times with the fly in its firm grasp, and that’s it.

Spider: 1 – Fly: 0

Like a freakin' documentary only I got see up close and in person. Awesome!

Then it got me thinking, what are some of the cool things you've seen happen in nature?

I've got a couple more that I'll share later.

[tacotacotaco]

A hawk when i lived at camp pendelton, fell from the sky with a snake!

[supad0rk]

I felt like I was reading the discovery channel or something haha. Spiders like to crawl through my bedroom window and make way to my bathroom. I leave one alive so he can kill the rest and eat all the lil bugs he desires. I hate spiders but as long as he doesnt invade my bubble, i dont resort to offing him.

[Silverbullet]

two years ago i was taking a shit in my bathroom. It was one of those sitting down for a while situations. To my suprise, i see some sort of beatle crawling around near my shower. Not too far from it was a decent sized spider. They started crawling towards each other and they finally clashed.

They faught to the death. I shit you not lol.

[Taniguchi_Is_#1]

haha. i'm mildly ADD, i think. sometime last summer, while taking various crap off my parts car, i noticed a dung beetle rolling its little ball o' dung across the ground (i was at my parents house in arkansas, they have them there apparently). so i stopped what i was doing and just stared at it for what seemed like 10-15 min.

[Adikt]

This thread reminds me of something I saw a few days ago.

Wolf vs Deer
http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/photogallery/gallery/0,20036,1574486,00.html

[s13gold]

thats coool.

get black widows and put both on a thin straw and they will fight.

[ManoNegra]

Having grown in Central America I've had my share of close encounters with Nauture's critters. Seeing the tale grow on a lizard or tadpoles become frogs was a favorite passtime of mine.

[Dorifto89]

I love the sublime.

Just get outside and look around.

[Farzam]

I was in Irvine, swimming in a pool.
Doo doo doo.
Oh man there's a bee in the pool.
I cup up my hands, and I place them under water beneath the twitching bee.
I quickly scoop the water and bee and throw it on land.
The bee slides up by a pillar.
Oh shit.
There's a fucking spider.
FLY AWAY BEE!
Oh wait, you're covered in water.
Bitch.

The spider grabs the bee and drags it into it's sex dungeon.

[illvialuver]

I saw this hug eagle eatin some roadkill in irvine( stupid rabbit got hit by a car) and i drove by and notice the eagle grubbin, so on the way back home in the same spot is now a dead rabbit and a dead eagle.
stupid eagle. aahhahha

[Matej]

A few years ago, during summer vacation, I saw a bird trying to steal a worm from an army of red ants, and the ants totally owned the bird. A few days later there were bird parts scattered over the ant hill.

[Farzam]

Anything that flies is a bitch.

[S13 Charlie]

First this:

two years ago i was taking a shit in my bathroom. It was one of those sitting down for a while situations.

then this:

anything that flies is a bitch.

This thread is full of win. I might even use that in my sig, hilarious! +rep for both of you guys, ha.

[WILDACEX187]

back home in dominican republic i had a ant hill in the front lawn. i used to feed them sugar everyday. damn hill got pretty big too. it was fun watching the worker ants drag the sugar down into it. ants are fukkin ill. too bad a hurricane passed and drowned all the ants :( . oh well life goes on :bow:

[civilized_drifter]

have you ever seen a hawk tring to fly away with a deer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BCAXqV1GEM

[HalveBlue]

Three more stories.

1. When I was around 13 or so, I went camping with my Boy Scout troop in some mountain range in Western Utah during the early summer. Even though it was already June, and it was friggin’ blazing hot in some of the lower elevations, the mountains actually still had some remnants of snow on them.

Bored youngins that we were, we decided it would be cool to have a snowball fight in June and decided to hike to the top of one of the snow covered peaks. After a few hours, and a few snowball fights, it was decided to head back to camp for lunch.

Starving, everybody starts running back down the mountain in one of those times when you’re running as fast as you can, even though it’s not a race, because we all know the last person to arrive is a loser and is going to bear the brunt of some clever pubescent heckling.

So, I'm running down the mountain, trying to avoid all the odd rocks and tree branches when I see this really awkward looking rock a bit further down the slope.

As I continue running down hill, this rock just keeps striking me as looking out of place. I keep running along, and I'm right next to this rock, just fixated on it.

Right as I pass it, I realize, "hey, this isn't a rock at all!"

No, it was a rattle snake that was coiled up and I ran right past it; there was maybe six inches between me and the snake when I ran past it.

After the fact I realize the only reason I didn't get bitten was because it was still cold outside and the snake wasn't able to move.

2. I was doing a nighttime OPFOR mission in an undisclosed location in Utah's West Desert.

The mission was simple; Under the cover of night use a vehicle to creep up to the BLUFOR camp until we were about a klick out. At that point we'd dismount, sneak into the camp, do our thing, and wait for extraction.

Only, right when we dismount I could tell something wasn't right. You know, one of those gut feelings where you know you're being watched.

Looking around I didn't see anything, so I thought, what the hell, must be the adrenalin. I put on my NODs and do a 360 scan to make sure I know where all the bright light sources are so I don't inadvertently look at them during our mission.

And that's when I saw it. This giant falcon or hawk, maybe 6 or 7 feet above my head, using the wind to hover in place, trying to decipher if I was worth eating or not!

Although it probably only lasted a few seconds it seemed like I was stuck in an hour long staring contest with this bird. It, trying to gauge if I was edible; me just being mesmerized looking at this thing under the monochrome green tint of the night vision goggles.

One of the coolest things I've ever experienced.

3. Same place, different day.

My unit was getting ready to simulate a recon & ambush scenario for the BLUFOR unit at the base of some mountain range. The BLUFOR unit kept fucking up their missions throughout the day so much that we were now several hours behind the power curve.

Instead of trying to push on, the OCs decided to give the BLUFOR some time to rest and regroup to mount a night time recon and assault mission.
So, while we have some down time, watching the sun set in the desert, I light up a smoke and start BSing with the rest of the guys on the team.

The sun, slowly fading away, has put us into late dusk now and it's hard to make out details on faces, terrain, or anything else for that matter.

I take a drag on my cigarette, relaxing and enjoying the warm weather and sunset and look down at my boots when I see this weird black mass, about the size of my palm, start crawling around.

As unidentified black mass starts wandering towards me I try to make out what exactly it is, a task not helped by the fact that the twilight seriously screwing around with my vision.

After a couple of seconds, I decide that it's just some giant beetle and decide to forget about it.

But wait! It's not a beetle, it's a tarantula!

And it has decided that the top of my boot is the perfect resting ground (lazy spider).

Now, I hate spiders, and normally I have no qualms about demonstrating to them that invading my private space means carries the death sentence. After my initial fit of rage about the lazy spider brazenly disrespecting my uniform I decided that I didn't really feel like carrying around spider guts on the butt stock of my rifle or the top of my boot.

Plus, it wasn't really causing me any harm so I told myself, "forget about it" and decided to pardon the spider.

After a few seconds, the lazy spider, which only moments earlier had unknowingly avoided certain death, came to its senses and continued down its path to only-God-know-where in the desert, never to be seen again.

The End.

[Farzam]

^So like, you're a super hero right?

[HalveBlue]

^???
msglngth

[fromxtor]

^^ Yea, even though I'm in the military I'm waiting for some more mission stories.

Ok here's mine: There I was cleaning a pool/hot tub while employed by a pool company in southwest FL. Got done packed up my pole,nets,bucket and chlorine bottle. And as I'm about to grab the handle to the pool cage, I saw a flash. And for the next what felt like 30 mins; I stood staring at a 175-200 lb cougar(panther,mountain lion whatever they call them in your area. Then as quick as it appeared, it was gone. I was pretty much scared shitless, having only screen between myself and a effing huge man eating cat. I guess if it came down to it I could have beat on it with my 8 ft long pool cleaning pole. But I doubt aluminum would have hurt such a beast.
http://www.thunderhawk.org/img/pix/cougar.jpg

[WERDdabuilder]

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/planet-earth/guide/guide.html

waiting for this shiz.

[Farzam]

I was building this deck one time, I always call it the slut deck...that's another story i'll get into.

So anyways, it was the summer...I needed to fund my crack cocaine habit...or maybe it was meth. Idk. As I was saying, I started doing construction, cause it's really manly and it pays well. But I never knew how deadly it could be.

I'm taking my manly ass cigarette break, talking to my main bitch on the real. My friend starts crying about how he's jealous of me and wants me to work so something is actually accomplished since I do 99.999% of the work, so I get off the phone, grab a piece of wood, and get ready to nail it into stuff.

BAM! A baby fucking snake was under the wood.

My friend keeps whining about his damn tampon and i'm looking death in the eyes...cause i'm wearing shorts and Nike Dunks (real men don't need Dickies or pussy ass boots).

I'm like "wtf kinda snake is this thing, and why's it so pissed off? Nig i'm just doing my job, chill. There's some herb in the truck, go cop a gram."

My friend walks over and hyperventilates and yells "OMFG BRB GOTTA RUN AWAY AND CUT OFF MY PENIS I'M NOT MANLY ENOUGH TO HANDLE THIS SITUATION!" And then I realize that this shit is about to bite me. It's making like noises and making some weird kinda like "ima get j00" position. What does a man's man do?

Get bit and go to the hospital?
Attack it and get bit and go to the hospital?
Walk away slowly?

No. They fucking beat the thing to death with the 2x4 in their hand...and then they take myspace pictures with it and throw it in the neighbor's yard. I hope they didn't have a dog or something along those lines...or a baby...or a pansy of a family member.

[C. Senor]

hahaha.....the coolest thing was years ago when i had a half german shephard half chow chow dog, we used to let him run outside in the front yard. he was a good dog never ever ran too far and always came back when called. so this one day he was out and about in the front yard when he runs over to a neighbors house and is running around their tree for like 2-3 mins. the next thing i see is he jumps and snatches something from out of the tree. he managed to get a crow that was on a branch, the branch was like 8 feet up. albeit he was a tallish dog, like 5'4 ish standing on his hind legs...but it was cool..from then on i was all like yeah my dog can bite the shit out of anyone even if in a tree...lol

[S14Josh]

I remember once when i was five, i went on a feild trip to the zoo.

Two lions made sex infront of my virgin eyes.

I was scared.


Also, when i was in middle school, we were doing lab experiments with microscopes and there was a dead cricket on the ground. So we picked it up with a pencil and put it under the scope. about two seconds later we see this really small bug eating away at the crickets antennas. It was like he was decomposing the bug.

Pretty neat to watch.

[Farzam]

O.o
Lion sex.

[Nismosigma]

Ahhh nature and all of its glory.
My story involves the small Central American country of El Salvador. A couple of years ago I went down there with my family to visit relatives. We decided one day that we were going to go to the beach. So a couple of us get on a pickup truck and we get going. My dad was driving that day and since the highways down there are just as straight as possible and probably the best in C.A. we didn't really have to worry about anything. About 30 minutes into the trip my dad notices a lizard, what looked to be an iguana about 400ft down the road. The prick was huge, probably 3 feet long. So he looked like he was just chillin crossing the road, but for some reason the it stopped, and decided to instead go back.... well the thing moves 2 steps back and reconsiders it and decides to try to cross again.... stops AGAIN and tries to go back again! We get closer and closer and the giant bastard cant decided to either go forward or back. We get about 10 ft from it going 50mph with about 6 people in the back and it decides to go forward, my dad had no where to go so had to just drive STRAIGHT over the damn thing. The rear jumped about 8 inches almost throwing a couple of us off. The poor thing was all splattered over the highway . Possibly the stupidest animal ever.... second maybe to lemmings.

[azndoc]

A few years back in Okinawa I was minding my own business and driving on the two lane freeway. Then I see a black crow land on the pavement in my lane. I did what any normal person does, I switched lanes, and then all of a sudden at the last second the crow jumped into my lane after i switched causing me to run it over. How do I know I ran the crow over, because there i felt a bump and I looked at my rear view mirrow and there it was tumbling around on the pavement. I was like " omg, did that crow just committ suicide?" Crazy crow

[UNISA JECS]

This one time I was on a job site doing some landscaping work next to a busy road while I was taking a luch break chillen in the front yard we were working on, I see this squirrel about to cross the busy street, next thing I notice is that there is an eighteen wheeler coming down the road at the same time, so teh squirrel hauls ass accross the road to make contact squarely with the eighteen wheeler's front tires so the squirrel literally bounced back about 1 foot off the tire and got right back up to charge accross the street again only to get owned by the very last set of tires......you had to be there, crazy king squirrel. lol it was like a cartoon...lol

[John_R]

I prefer pictures though. *laugh* Here ya go!

Me and the girlfriend are sitting in our apartment and we see something moving in the corner of the room. Looking over we see a HUGE spider. (ok, like 6 inches, but for someone with arachnophobia its massive.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/johnwr1983/S5000746.jpg

Captured in a blender :smash:
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/johnwr1983/S5000752.jpg

A baby gecko I caught outside my house:
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/johnwr1983/Gecko1.jpg

A 2nd gecko and size comparison :
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/johnwr1983/S5000608.jpg


No crazy stories, Just thought some pictures would be nice. *laugh*

A bee I saw gathering pollen outside during a sunrise I managed to stay up all night for:
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/johnwr1983/S5000448.jpg

[HalveBlue]

^ HOLY SHIT! That spider is huge.

Ever figure out what kind it was?

Speaking of geckos.

My old S1 used to be stationed in American Samoa. Apparently the things have taken over the islands down there.

He said him and his roomates would spend all day sitting on their porches shooting as many geckos as they could with sling shots.

Some of them would die, stuck to the wall, like a warning to all the other geckos to stay out or meet a similar fate.

[John_R]

We call them "Banana Spiders". But some people call them barn spiders, which in all reality are Wolf Spiders. They don't make webs really. They are more active hunters, so you see them a LOT more.

I remember one time I was just falling asleep and I felt something like a cd case or something hit the bed. I jumped out of bed so fast, I knew I could have won any sprint in the Olympics. *LOL* It was a Wolf Spider, but its body was almost twice as big as the one in the picture.

*shudders* Bad childhood memories. :bite:

[Nismosigma]

^^^ I also have arachnophobia like some of the people on this thread lol. I just remembered another story though.

I was driving with my bro home from picking him up from school when I saw down the road a small bird. The bird was just chillin not really paying attn when a big ass HAWK comes swooping down and tries to snatch him, meanwhile im driving and im like " OH NOES ILL SAVE j00 BIRD! " So I floor it trying to scare the hawk to gtfo, I dont intend on running him over just scaring him. So they are on the left side of road and I just kind of get as close to him as possible (its like a residential road, barely fits 2 cars). As soon as I do that the hawk goes into dip mode and is like " DIS CAT GONNA RUN ME OVER WTF!? ". SO the hawk instead of going the opposite direction that I was going he goes right in front of me! The hawk flies right under my truck (Land Rover) and hits it but still manages to swoop away. Probably the coolest thing I've ever seen lol.

[BustedS13]

not that cool.. more in response to spider talk. here's a brown recluse i caught in my garage.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/nerfdude/02-1.jpg

[EAS13]

I was having a discussion(argument) with a friend about Right Handed and Left Handed people, who is superior. So he's standing there, starts waving his left arm around, getting all irate. I notice this big flock of pidgeons cruising by overhead. Then, a huge load of bird crap landed on his left hand.

I said, point made. Nature ftw!

[Farzam]

I'm a leftie, dick.