Death is Milliseconds Away…

Image: Kerry Roberts via Where Light Meets Dark

If there was uncertainty in the last shot about whether the tree frog would get it, there sure isn’t here. What bites you on the nose this time is that the squealing, splashing frog is getting eaten alive by… another frog – a cannibalistic green-striped frog to be precise, and one no larger than its tree-dwelling cousin.

Cannibalism is unsettling at the best of times, but when it’s in your own back garden, it’s really going to give you a shock – as it did Queensland, Australia resident Kerry Roberts. Still, it just goes to show: it’s a frog eat frog world.

Image: David Maitland via j-walk blog

It’s difficult to say who’s eating who in this snapshot of a struggle between a Morelet’s tree frog and a cat-eyed tree snake, which lasted for hours through the night in the tropical forest of Belize.

Locked together in a deadly embrace, neither the kicking tree frog – who you’d have to say is quite handy – nor the stubborn tree snake showed any sign of weakening or backing down from the stalemate. In the end it was photographer David Maitland who gave in and went to bed.

Image: Adam Britton

The photo above shows a mud crab that looks destined to become crab sticks being tossed into the nutcracker-like jaws of the Australian saltwater crocodile. There, it is set be put through the grinder at the back of the croc’s mouth.

The saltwater crocodile is especially partial towards the mud crab, but it has to be quick, efficient and brutal or else the crafty crustacean may make its escape, or even fight back with a powerful and painful pinch of it pincer

Image: Chris and Monique Fellows via ny nerd

The seal may be one of the ocean’s top predators but there’s just no contest when it comes face to face with that most deadly of sharks, the great white.

The seal takes one look into those stony black eyes and turns on its flippers – but too late! Despite being over three times as long and almost ten times the weight of its mammalian prey, the great white is not nearly as agile. It must attack from below, bursting out of the water, so that there is only one way the seal can go: down into its gaping maw.

Image: Photographer unknown via Izismile

Unless there’s some Photoshop trickery afoot here, this photo makes you want to shout, “He’s behind you!”, because you know that the cute little robin is as good as a gone. Yet there is a morbid fascination about the way we are often most keen to watch animals in their natural setting when they are busy gobbling one another up.

The photos collected here add something else to the whole guzzling theme, capturing as they do creatures enjoying their lasts moments in this world before the jaws of death close on them forever.

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The Coconut Crab, is the largest land-living arthropod in the world

The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is the largest land-living arthropod in the world

The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper limit of how big terrestrial animals with exoskeletons can become in today's atmosphere.

The species inhabits the coastal forest regions of many Indo-Pacific islands, although localized extinction has occurred where the crab is sympatric with man. Generally nocturnal, they remain hidden during the day and emerge only on some nights to forage. Their body is divided into four regions; the cephalic lobe, forepart, trunk, and opisthosoma. It is a highly apomorphic hermit crab and is known for its ability to crack coconuts with its strong pincers to eat the contents. It is the only species of the genus Birgus.

It is also called the robber crab or palm thief, because some coconut crabs are rumored to steal shiny items such as pots and silverware from houses and tents. Another name is terrestrial hermit crab, due to the use of shells by the young animals; however, there are other terrestrial hermit crabs which do not get rid of the shell even as adults. These—typically in the closely related genus Coenobita—are the animals usually called "terrestrial hermit crab"; given the close relationship between Coenobita and Birgus, the term would generally refer to any member of the family Coenobitidae.

The coconut crab also has a range of local names, for example, unga or kaveu in the Cook Islands, and ayuyu in the Marianas where it is sometimes associated with taotaomo'na because of the traditional belief that ancestral spirits can return in the form of animals such as ayuyu.

Coconut crabs live alone in underground burrows and rock crevices, depending on the local terrain. They dig their own burrows in sand or loose soil. During the day, the animal stays hidden to protect itself from predators and reduce water loss from heat. The crabs' burrows contain very fine yet strong fibers of the coconut husk which the animal uses as bedding.[31] While resting in its burrow, the coconut crab closes the entrances with one of its claws to create the moist microclimate within the burrow necessary for its breathing organs. In areas with a large coconut crab population, some may also come out during the day, perhaps to gain an advantage in the search for food. Coconut crabs will also sometimes come out during the day if it is moist or raining, since these conditions allow them to breathe more easily. They live almost exclusively on land, and some have been found up to 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the ocean.

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The Chinese Art of Bonsai

Although it is possible that the Chinese were the first to start planting small wild trees in pots there is no doubt that it has been the Japanese who have raised the culture of Bonsai trees to the
art it is today.

Interest in Bonsai goes back many centuries in Japan. The first authentic record is in a picture scroll painted early in the fourteenth century by Takakane Takashina. Originally Bonsai (the word simply means a plant in a tray or container) were more or less confined to grotesque and tortured shapes.

After this came the extremely formal pyramidal forms, developing towards the end of the 19th century into softer, more natural forms. Nowadays the majority of trees are trained simply to look like natural trees in miniature. We have come to a time when there is a place for all of Nature’s moods for the Bonsai enthusiast.

About the beginning of the 20th century the interest in Bonsai began to spread to the Western world, especially to America. The United States now have many Bonsai societies and clubs.

Here in Great Britain we have now caught “bonsai fever” as well. There are many bonsai societies and clubs throughout the country. These all hold regular meetings for discussion and instruction.

Some also publish journals and news letters that are informative and interesting.

A Trident Maple which has been trained in the clump style and is approx.40 years old The Bonsai Kal and the British Bonsai Association exhibit trees at the Royal Horticultural Society’s halls in Vincent Square, and put on exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show every year. Bonsai culture is not regarded as an art form in this country but the Japanese Government recognized it as such in 1935. Perhaps we shall reach those dizzy heights one day!

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Atacama Desert, Even the Driest Place on Earth has Water

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