Saturday, March 19, 2005

Assasins

Watching National Geographic, which is great. There's this amazingly deadly spider, it hunts other spiders. It goes up to a spider on its web, taking advantage of the wind to move closer without being detected, moving quickly when there's wind and very slowly when there isn't.


When it's close by, it starts vibrating the web, mimicking an insect caught in the web, which gets the attention of the other spider. Then it springs and kills. In another strategy, the killer spider goes up to a leaf or some other structure above the spider web, then rappels down commando-style. Get right next to the spider then slips its fangs and its poison into its prey.


How its tiny brain achieves such things is startling. They describe the size of its brain as a salt crystal. Spring hare is a rabbit that jumps like kangaroo!


Lions sleep 20 hours a day! There are these lions that kill elephants, then in the night a big elephant came to the young elephant's carcass and paid its respects. It's brutal, they hunt at night as a huge gang, and bring down the elephant, then kill it by cutting off its breathing.


Elephants move in two kinds of herds, a breeding herd and a bachelor herd. The breeding herd is tightly packed, the young surrounded by adult females, so it's hard for lions to get between the legs. The bachelor herd is all adult males, which are huge.


The lions cubs don't get preferential treatment, they starve if there isn't enough food to go around, since they can only feed when they are able to sneak in. The alpha males scare the others away when they come in to grab a bite.


gz says he got sucked by a leech in Brunei. Meeting Jasper, Say Yang, and Aaron tomorrow morning. My lovey is the sweetest to me!

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