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Turns Out, Being A Spider Is Pretty Metal

Take a macro-focused look at the running, sleeping, hanging out, and, well, eating habits of this troupe of arachnids.

Alongside snakes, sharks, and fear itself, spiders can be some of the scariest creatures ever. Not to mention the fact that when they're not frightening Ron Weasley or otherwise responsible for all things that go bump in the night, it turns out they lead pretty hardcore lifestyles. Nature videographer Bipolar Spider—whose videos have accrued thousands of likes, shares, and probably squeals—has documented a day in the life of his pet tarantulas, demonstrating the raw power and natural beauty of these eight legged beasts.

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G E N U S is the result of Bipolar Spider's intensive macro documentation of the running, sleeping, and eating habits of his arachnid cohorts. According to the Vimeo description, there are nine different types of tarantulas featured throughout the film's three minutes, ranging from Theraphosidae to Nhandu Chromatus. Spitfire editing techniques and intense background beats provided by The Body work together to take full advantage of these creepy crawlies' complicated mechanics.

Additionally, Bipolar Spider helpfully superimposed dozens of facts, figures, data points and light commentary on his spiders' behavior. In some scene, a tiny circle marks each time a spider's legs makes contact with walls, floor, or prey. Alongside his Latin-based scientific name, one spider starts jamming out to the sick beats. Bipolar Spider pithily dubs this the, 'The Tarantula Skank.' These elements inject a sci-fi aesthetic into the film that perfectly complements the animalistic grace of his arachnid subjects.

Bipolar Spider's concise description of the video reads, "Another experimental piece with a few more pets"—this casual nature underscores the fact that, to Bipolar Spider, these exoskeleton-bearing predators aren't the cold, fly-killing machines we recognize them as. Their foreign allure is hard to capture in pixelated smartphone footage in their natural habitats, and provided the right set of lenses, tarantulas have a grace and beauty equal to that of any man-eating lion or giant shark.

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Check out some of the most frighteningly beautiful images from G E N U S below, as well as a short Bipolar Spider made about another of man's great fears: snakes.

Visit Bipolar Spider's Vimeo page for veritable jungle of quality animal film experiments.

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