Video shows camper's tent "engulfed" by hundreds of daddy longlegs in Alaska national park
A spooky video capturing some real-life Halloween horrors surfaced on social media to honor the holiday on Tuesday, when officials from a national park in Alaska shared footage of a backpacker's camping tent "engulfed" in daddy longlegs.
The clip, which credits E. Kramer and the National Park Service, shows the interior of a tent appearing almost translucent as portions of it are illuminated by the camper's flashlight, shining in front of the camera while the scene is filmed. What seems to be the entirety of the tent is covered in daddy longlegs crawling across the screen. Officials from Lake Clark National Park & Preserve estimated there were "hundreds" of spiders seen in the footage.
Lake Clark, which is about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, is one of the least-visited parks in the United States. The protected area is extremely remote and famous for its wide variety of wildlife.
"In the remote depths of Lake Clark's vast, wild landscape, a weary backpacker settles in for a night at camp after a long day of exploring," the Lake Clark National Park & Preserve wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, captioning the backpacker's video of their night spent in the company of a whole lot of creepy crawlers.
In the remote depths of Lake Clark’s vast, wild landscape, a weary backpacker settles in for a night at camp after a long day of exploring. Little do they know, creatures of the night lurk in the woods, waiting for the opportune moment to strike fear. Snuggled into their warm sleeping bag, the tired explorer nods off to dreamland…suddenly they are jolted awake with the sense of being covered by creepy crawly creatures of the forest, only to discover their nightmare has become a reality. Hundreds of daddy longlegs have engulfed the tent! On this #Halloween, will you secure yourself under the cover of blankets, hiding from the dark, ensuring no one or nothing can get in? Or, will you embrace the night and subject yourself to the wonder of the #FreakyFascinating that comes with the dark? NPS Video/E. Kramer Video Description: Inside a tent at night, someone shines a flashlight on the tent's screen where hundreds of daddy longlegs crawl across the screen. There is a soft sound of rustling a sleeping bag.
Posted by Lake Clark National Park & Preserve on Tuesday, October 31, 2023
"Little do they know, creatures of the night lurk in the woods, waiting for the opportune moment to strike fear," the caption continued. "Snuggled into their warm sleeping bag, the tired explorer nods off to dreamland…suddenly they are jolted awake with the sense of being covered by creepy crawly creatures of the forest, only to discover their nightmare has become a reality. Hundreds of daddy longlegs have engulfed the tent!"
The term daddy longlegs refers to any one of about 6,000 species of arachnid recognized for their compact bodies and unusually long, thin legs. Although the creatures are actually closely related to scorpions, their appearance often causes them to be mistaken for spiders. Many species of daddy longlegs are omnivores, and, per Encyclopedia Brittanica, they feed on small insects, mites, spiders, vegetable matter and snails.