Transcription
[Music] Like a real-life Spiderwoman, she sprays strands of silk in one long continuous [Music] flow. The threads fan out like a sail and drift on air currents blowing across the water. Every few seconds, she crimps the strands together to stop them spreading too widely; the breeze will do the rest, blowing the threads into a single line and a 25-meter bridge. Now she must reinforce her bridge, because her web will hang from it, but there's something bouncing the line at the other end. Another Darwin spider is trying to take advantage of her hard work; she must deal with the intruder [Music] head-on. The cut line is an inconvenience, but no more than that. With hooks on the tips of each leg, she gathers in the thread [Music]. It won't go to waste, as she'll eat it [Music] later. When it's all reeled in, she sprays again; out streams another 25-meter bridging line [Music]. How a spider no bigger than a thumbnail can produce so much silk so quickly has baffled [Music] scientists. And it's no ordinary silk; it's the toughest natural fiber on the planet—tougher than steel—and it needs to be tough to span the wide river. With the bridge tor and the ground anchor in place, it's time to construct her [Music] [Music] trap. These spiders can build the world's largest orb webs, up to 2 meters wide. A few hours from the first spray of bridging line, the job is done.