Hunting with the green tiger

If you go for a walk down the forest road and paths around Bøtø, you will often come across some fairly large, long-legged and shiny green beetles, dashing back and forth across the sandy earth at a furious pace. They are green tiger beetles, and they are on the prowl. They hunt just like mini versions of tigers. They outrun their prey or throw themselves on their victims with a great leap, and tear them to shreds with their long, pointy jaws. Their larvae are just as voracious, even though they can’t run fast. They sit down in a hole and wait for their lunch to walk right past.

It’s not easy, but you can actually measure how fast a tiger beetle jumps. Find one that is sitting still and wait until it starts to hunt. Start the stopwatch on your phone when it starts to run, and then stop it when it stands still. Then measure the distance it moved to calculate how many kilometres per hour a tiger beetle moves. The answer is: Fast! Just be happy they aren’t any bigger than they are!