Rina was on the deck two days ago, making a phone call for an order for the safari lodge, when she witnessed a drama, a drama maybe small in our eyes, but a truly disastrous day for another creature.
Rina spotted a golden orb spider, sitting in a nearby bush, having caught a locust (but to me it looks more like a praying mantis, in fact I am 99% sure it is a praying mantis).
What turned out an amazing day for the golden orb, has turned out a fatal, and last day for the victim. As terrible as it is, this is nature, and it is fascinating to see the smaller events (it doesn’t always have to be a lion kill), when one wants to look closer.
We have a lot of praying mantis at this season, so it is a welcome meal for a golden orb. Golden orbs are actually beautiful spiders, and absolutely not dangerous to humans. They sit in their webs high on in the bush and trees, waiting for insects to get caught in their incredibly sophisticated and elaborate webs. If they are disturbed, or the web is damaged/destroyed, they quickly disappear into the bush. Some people don’t like the idea of spiders, but this one (as pretty much all spiders!) stays away from the lodge, and one can see them on game drives high up in trees. Golden orbs disappear in the winter (June/July/August/September), and then slowly reappear on our safari reserve after that. They are at their largest size in April/May. But as said, these spiders present no danger to humans, and in fact they are very shy of humans. And they have an incredibly important role in the biosystem in Africa!
Another interesting fact: the web material produced by the golden orb is 5 times stronger than Kevlar, and it is much lighter. It has always been used by local tribes to produce fishing rods, and now it has showed to be an excellent bullet proof vest material, as it is very light, and shows huge shock absorbtion abilities.
The strength of this material is so large that a piece the size of a pencil can stop the momentum of a fighter jet and bring it to a halt when landing on an aircraft carrier. Scientists are struggling to identify the chemistry of this material that is elastic, non-sticky, light and yet incredibly strong.
Watch this space!
