Beastly Feasts: Amazing Photos of Animals and Their Prey

Boa Constrictor Nabs Monkey

A boa constrictor eating an adult female Purús red howler monkey. Usually boa constrictors have been known to eat smaller animals.

(Image credit: Erika Patrícia Quintino / American Journal of Primatology, via Paul Garber)

A boa constrictor eats an adult female Purús red howler monkey in the Brazilian Amazon. Usually the snakes have been known to eat smaller animals.

Creepy!

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Yasunori Maezono, Kyoto University, Japan)

Bat-eating spiders are common and apparently creep around every continent, except Antarctica, devouring various bat species. Here, a dead bat (Rhinolophus cornutus orii) caught in the web of a female Nephila pilipes on Amami-Oshima Island, Japan.

Anaconda Devours Giant Rodent

screengrab from video showing a green anaconda devouring a capybara, the world's largest rodent

(Image credit: Screengrab National Geographic video ; (inset) Vadim Petrakov)

Now this here's a match of the biggest and baddest: A green anaconda, which can grow up to 20 feet (6 meters) in length and a scale-tipping 200 pounds (90 kilograms) in weight, takes on the world's largest rodent — the capybara. This furry creature (inset) can weigh up to 100 lbs. (45 kg). Good thing the anaconda's lower jaw isn't fused to its skull, allowing the beast to open its mouth wide enough to capture the giant rodent and squeeze it to death. Every time the capybara exhales, the anaconda squeezes tighter, according to the National Geographic video.

Bug Eats Fish

(Image credit: Nikolay Simov)

Scientists captured the larva of a giant water bug feeding on a small fish. The insects inject caustic digestive saliva into their prey, liquefying their meal from the inside so that they can suck out the contents.

Gator vs. Python

Alligator fighting python

(Image credit: Lori Oberhofer, , National Park Service)

An American alligator fights with an invasive python in Everglades National Park. The gator appears to be winning, but pythons sometimes come out ahead in these struggles and have even eating alligators.

Golden Eagle Attack

(Image credit: Linda Kerley, Zoological Society of London (ZSL))

A golden eagle's unusual attack on a sika deer was recorded on camera in Russia's Lazovsky State Nature Reserve on Dec. 1, 2011.

Shark on Shark

shark-shark

(Image credit: University of Delaware ORB Lab)

A small shark (a smooth dogfish) was swallowed whole by a very hungry sand tiger shark in Delaware Bay in August 2013.

Don't Mess with Otters

(Image credit: Geoff Walsh/Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge)

In 2011, a photographer captured an otter's attack on an alligator in Florida.

Snake vs. Centipede

(Image credit: Arsovski et al Ecologica Montenegrina)

This unlucky viper messed with the wrong centipede. Scientists think it's possible the centipede tried gnawing its way out of the snake after it was swallowed.

LiveScience Staff
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