Thursday, September 10, 2009

On carnivores and man-eaters -

I think that it was in the comments to one of TF's pieces that the idea of "liberals" being eaten by carnivores came out of the woodwork.

One of the local tourist attractions, first out of the blocks at Auckland International Airport if you go straight ahead as you leave the international terminal instead of turning left, is Butterfly Creek.

There has been a fair bit of publicity over the past couple weeks as they have introduced a number of new "attractions".

Among them is a number of wetapunga -



Thanks to Easter Courier for the picture. That is NOT shopped. That is how big these beasties are.






Fortunately for visiting Americans, they are very rare and are found on one or two outlying islands in the Hauraki Gulf.



Like all wetas, they feed on fungus and leaf mould in preference to human flesh.

2 comments:

T. F. Stern said...

I don't recall the remark; but liberals are always trying to appease their enemies, why not the same with beast that will eat you if given the opportunity...

Anonymous said...

There are several species of weta native to NZ. For example, tree weta, giant weta, cave weta.
I found one in my bed on more than one occasion. This would be a bed weta.