Natural Brutality

This morning I witnessed an interesting event. I was sitting on a concrete bench, killing time before class. I saw a big fire-ant scurrying beside me. I watched him so that he wouldn’t crawl on me. Out of nowhere this spider, who was the same size, jumped out and started attacking the ant. I thought to myself “this should be good… I wonder who will win this?” They both went at each other with their two front legs, and then suddenly, one of the ant’s front legs was stuck to the concrete. It was at this point when it sank in that this was a fight to the death. I watched for a few more seconds as the ant struggled to get its leg free, and then tried to intervene and help the ant out with its leg. I couldn’t get the leg free without completely ripping it off, so I gave up. And then one of his back legs was stuck to the concrete. My curiosity abounded, and I had to keep watching (despite my exclamations of horror.) He was in complete submission, but still struggling to break free, as his movements got slower and slower. I think the spider hit him with some type of paralyzing poison. The ant curled up and died. This happened within a minute. It was brutal, exciting, and had my adrenaline going. I wanted to save the ant, but was fascinated to see nature in action. At the end, the spider circled the ant, unhooked it’s legs from the concrete, and picked it up and carried it away. Wow.