A nature-lover has revealed how he spent two days tracking down a giant insect on a remote New Zealand island – and got it to eat a carrot out of his hand.
Mark Moffett’s find is the world's biggest insect in terms of weight, which at 71g is heavier than a sparrow and three times that of a mouse.
The 53-year-old former park ranger discovered the giant weta up a tree and his real life Bug's Bunny has now been declared the largest ever found.
He came across the cricket-like creature, which has a wing span of seven inches, after two days of searching on a tiny island.
The creepy crawly is only found on Little Barrier Island, in New Zealand, although there are 70 other types of smaller weta found throughout the country.
The giants of the species were wiped off the mainland by rats accidentally introduced by Europeans.
After Mark found the female weta he fed it the carrot before putting it back where he found her.
Mark, 53, said: ‘Three of us walked the trails of this small island for two nights scanning the vegetation for a giant weta.
‘We spent many hours with no luck finding any at all, before we saw her up in a tree.
Read More : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2068547/Meet-worlds-heaviest-insect-weighs-times-mouse.html#ixzz1fIpUdJy1
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