We are all familiar with the top predators who dominate their habitats, such as Lions, Sharks, Bears and snakes. But can these predators be hunted by less obvious candidates occasionally? Let’s find out as we countdown 15 animals that kill natures scariest animals.
The Mongoose Killing Snakes Small and furry, the mongoose hardly looks like a snake killer. Yet, perhaps the snake’s most vicious enemy is the mongoose.
This little chap must surely pack as large a chunk of sheer, naked courage in his little body as any other creature of the wild. His attacks on snakes are legendary.
This is one brave animal! Although the mongoose may look relatively harmless. It is a predator—alert, bold, and agile.
The diet of some species includes insects, beetles, worms, snails, lizards, frogs, and crabs, and eggs and fruit.
The mongoose is intelligent and crafty. The banded mongoose, for example, is said to perform the trick of standing erect on its hind legs and then falling sideways.
Why? To cause curious guinea fowl to approach—and be caught! Its reputation as a snake killer, though, has given the mongoose its fame.
But can this tiny creature really defeat a fearsome cobra in combat? After a series of adroit and nimble feints wherein the snake repeatedly struck, to miss him by a bare millimeter, he would dash in, seizing the cobra at the back of the neck to bite instantly through its spine.
It is the supreme confidence and courage of the little mongoose, coupled with its lightning ability to dodge the strikes of the snake, that enables it to vanquish its deadly foe.
Is the mongoose, though, somehow immune to the serpent’s venom? Not entirely. But it takes a sizable amount of venom to kill a mongoose.
More likely is a mongoose to die from eating a poisonous snake! Yes, after killing its dangerous foe, the victor makes a meal of it, starting with the head.
Several mongooses have been found dead and post-mortem examination has shown that they have eaten a snake whose fangs have punctured the wall of the stomach so that the poison has entered the bloodstream. This gives new meaning to the words “last Supper”.
Tarantula Hawk Killing the Tarantula When you hear of a tarantula hawk, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is a hawk that eats tarantulas.
Wrong! It is a spider wasp which hunts tarantulas. Tarantulas have earned a deadly reputation as a predator capable of killing mice, lizards and small birds.
But they know the spiders to run in fear from the tarantula hawk. The tarantula hawk wasp preys on its namesake, engaging in a ferocious battle that leads to the spider being paralyzed with a highly painful sting.
Once stung, the tarantula becomes paralyzed within seconds. The condition will last for the rest of its life. The tarantula hawk wasps then drag the sleeping spider–which can be up to eight times their weight– to a burrow, lay an egg on the tarantula and seal up the tunnel.
The young wasp devours the tarantula to develop into an adult, eating the non-essential organs first to keep it alive for as long as possible.
Tarantula hawks have not only worked out how to successfully attack a predatory spider, but also to reserve the best meals for their most valuable offspring.
The wasps can decide the sex of their baby by choosing whether to fertilize the egg, fertilized eggs, produce females while males come from unfertilized eggs.
The sting has been described as beyond imagination. It only lasts about 2 to 3 minutes, but it is unsurpassed in intensity by any other stinging insect.
