Photo: Sardaka/Wikimedia Commons
Halloween is almost here, but for some critters, life can feel like October 31st all year round.
To celebrate the upcoming holiday,The Nature Conservancyshared some of their favorite spooky creatures that animal lovers can find in the wild all around the world. Sometimes nature’s ways seemright out of a scary movie, but unlike goblins, possessed dolls, and vengeful demons, these critters are not figments of a director’s imagination.
After meeting the living things The Nature Conservancy has dubbed “nature’s most horrifying creatures,” you’ll agree that sometimes natural life can be spookier than fiction.
Ghost Bats
Years of vampire lore have led many to view all bats as blood-sucking fliers waiting for the perfect moment to land on your neck and bite you. In reality, only one percent of the world’s 1,300 bat species feed on vertebrate prey.Ghost batsare part of that one percent. The animals earn their name due to their pale coloring and penchant for silently descending on prey seemingly out of nowhere. After these bats drop on their target, they wrap their wings around their meal, stab the prey with their teeth, and consume almost the entire organism — fur, feathers, and bones included.
Cannibal Butterflies
Matt Kane/TNC
According to the Nature Conservancy, scientists at the University of Sydneyrecently observedmilkweed butterflies exhibiting gruesome behavior. The experts spotted the insects attacking live caterpillars with their extremities and then sucking out the wingless bugs' insides.
Zombie Ants
Katja Schulz/Flickr
source: people.com
