Gallery: Kill Thrill: Watch Animals Capture Their Prey in Slow-Mo
01giant-salamander
Animals use a variety of strategies to capture prey, some of which clearly kick ass (see the sniper-like archer fish, which spits at flies from underwater). But these strategies are even more awesome when scientists film them and produce super slow-motion replays, complete with awkward faces and outtakes. Here's a gallery of some of nature's finest prey-capture instant replays. __Above:__ Chinese Giant Salamander ------------------------ Giant salamanders (*Andrias davidianus*), which can grow to more than 5 feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds, [actually displace their jawbones](http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsif.2012.1028) to generate suction and slurp up prey, reports a study published March 5 in *Journal of the Royal Society Interface*. "Giant salamanders have an extremely powerful suction strike," said study coauthor [Egon Heiss](http://zoology.univie.ac.at/people/postdocs-students/egon-heiss/) of the University of Antwerp. Heiss suggests that other aquatic organisms with reduced or reorganized gills, such as whales, might use a similar mechanism to vacuum up meals. Hunted for food and folk medicine, and faced with habitat pollution and destruction, Chinese giant salamanders -- though magnificent and terrifying -- [are critically endangered](http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/1272/0), with some estimates suggesting a more than 80 percent population reduction since 1960. *Credit: Egon Heiss*
02airflow-sensing-spider
Spider ------ Slowed to one-twentieth its actual speed, this video shows a spider (*Cupiennius salei*) leaping into the air to catch a fly. Christian Klopsch, a researcher at the University of Vienna, and his colleagues recently published a study describing how [air currents produced by the fly](http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/82/20120820.short) guide the spider to its prey. *Credit: FG Barth, C Klopsch, University of Vienna*
03slingjaw-wrasse
Slingjaw Wrasse --------------- This fish, a slingjaw wrasse (*Epibulus insidiator*, which is clearly in the top 10 best species names ever) is kind of like an underwater alien. Watch as it flings its jaw at its prey, then retracts the whole thing like a squishy appendage. *Credit: Peter Wainwright, University of California, Davis/[YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDU4CQWXaNY)*
04ballistic-trap-jaw-ant
Trap-Jaw Ant ------------ In addition to capturing prey, the trap-jaw ant's jaws also function as a defense mechanism. Firing its jaws against a hard surface launches the ant (genus *Odontomachus*) into the air, sometimes sending it aero-cartwheeling to a spot more than 40 centimeters away. *Credit: Patek Lab/[YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLq_PV0OMsE)*
05archer-fish-2
Archer Fish ----------- Like a bad-ass sniper from below, the archer fish (genus *Toxotes*) fires water jets at insects buzzing above. Then, when the insects fall into the water, the fish eats them. Unlike chameleons and salamanders, though, the archer fish doesn't use energy stored inside it to generate explosive, prey-catching energy: It takes advantage of physics, [using a hydrodynamic lever](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0047867) to generate its jets. *Credit: A. Vailati et al., [PLoS ONE](http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047867)*
06mantis-shrimp
Mantis Shrimp ------------- Mantis shrimp (this one is *Lysiosquillina maculata*) kick their prey, shattering snail shells and snatching small fish at a speed of roughly 50 miles per hour. This video, from [Sheila Patek's lab](http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/pateklab/high-speed-video-lysiosquillina-maculata-striking-prey) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, was recorded at 3,000 frames per second and played back at 60 frames per second. *Credit: Patek Lab/[YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox_Uz3AEp4Y)*
07veiled-chameleon
Veiled Chameleon ---------------- Oh, snap. The chameleon's well-known extendable tongue becomes even better when viewed in slow-mo and in full color. Here, a veiled chameleon (*Chamaeleo calyptratus*) uses its sticky tongue to snare an insect before (accidentally?) punching itself in the face with the trapped bug. *Credit: Stephen Deban/[YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXbgRU4k3O8)*
08utricularia
Utricularia ----------- The world's fastest-moving carnivorous plant is an aquatic, critter-eating bladderwort from the genus *Utricularia*. Triggering one of the bladder's external hairs causes a trap door to open, expanding the bladder and sucking in water and whatever small invertebrate wandered too close by. *Credit: Evoimpertinente/[YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqVL92uq1OE)*
09outtakes
Outtakes -------- Sometimes, recording live animals doing their thing means capturing hilariously awesome outtakes. You're welcome, courtesy of [Peter Wainwright's lab](http://fishlab.ucdavis.edu) at the University of California, Davis. *Credit: Peter Wainwright, University of California, Davis/[YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbDufIMd_T8)*
