Readers’ wildlife photos and videos

Here’s a Saturday potpourri of photos and videos from several readers. Their comments are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

A video from Jonathan Dore:

I took this video a couple of days ago when I noticed a solitary ant dragging the carcass of a dead wasp across our deck. By the time I got my phone out, it had gone over the edge and was carrying the wasp, while hanging upside down, along the bottom edge of the edging strip of the deck. After going a couple of feet it disappeared behind the edging strip, presumably the entrance point to its nest, or at least the next part of its route. At first I thought the ant was holding onto the wasp with a couple of legs while hanging on to the deck with the other four, but looking closer I believe it’s using all six legs to hang on and is carrying the wasp using only its jaws. Both aspects  —  the leg-hanging and the jaw clasping  —  see like a good illustration of the ant’s remarkable strength.

From Natalie in Berlin, a spider that I identified as a triangle web spider. She was amazed at its laughing-face markings. There is one species found in Europe and North America (Hyptiotes cavatus), but this may be the European spider of the same common name, Hyptiotes paradoxus. She found it while washing lettuce, and let it go.

And a short video of the spider emerging from the lettuce with narration by Natalie:

An insect and some mammals from Christopher Moss. First, the insect:

The white-spotted spruce sawyer (Monochamus-scutellatus), likely a male from the length of the antennae:

From Christopher Moss, “the first muskrat [Ondatra zibethicus] photos of the year”. He adds:

I see he is eating a stand of reeds, and has nearly flattened all of it. Fortunately there are plenty more for him to move on to. 

From Paul T.:

Urban wildlife or near my house.  West side of Madison WI. Just taken with my phone. Sandhill cranes [Antigone canadensis] from last spring, and last month’s wild turkeys [Meleagris gallopavo], with four strutting their stuff, and one outside my window.

. . . And from Cate Plys, a squirrel that’s probably leucistic:

I found it near our place in Michigan where we are now! Sadly it scampered up a tree and I had to take these pics at extreme close up, so the quality could be a lot better.