Deprecated: Constant FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING is deprecated in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php on line 22

Deprecated: Constant FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING is deprecated in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php on line 28

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723

Deprecated: strtolower(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/generators/schema-generator.php on line 186

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/conditionals/third-party/elementor-edit-conditional.php:22) in /home1/wildfac1/public_html/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1723
{"id":5389,"date":"2011-11-14T00:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/?p=5389"},"modified":"2015-01-16T11:26:16","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T16:26:16","slug":"wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Fact #430 – The Island Dinosaur – Giant Weta"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Giant<\/a>
Photo From Wikimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Welcome back! I hope you had an amazing weekend and are wide awake and excited to learn about some interesting animals. To be honest, I don’t know of too many animals that are more interesting than the worlds heaviest insect, the Giant Weta! This particular insect is endemic to New Zealand and is a textbook example of island gigantism. Just so you know, island gigantism occurs when there is an absence of large carnivores present on the island ecosystem. As a result, the inhabitants of this island are free to grow as large as they like to fill in the available niches. So let’s take a trip to the island to see if we can learn a little more about the Giant Weta.<\/p>\n

Heaviest Insect in the World!<\/h3>\n

As mentioned, the Giant Weta is the heaviest insect on our planet weighing in at an average weight of 35 grams (1.23 oz); however, the weight of one recorded female was an astounding 75 grams (2.5 oz). This may not sound that impressive but these insects are actually heavier than your standard Sparrow. Yep, this insect is heavier than a bird. So what does the Giant Weta eat to get this big?<\/p>\n

\"Giant<\/a>
Click for Source<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Feast Fit for a Mouse<\/h3>\n

Remember when I briefly defined island gigantism? Well, the Giant Weta ended taking over the role of the rodent since their were no mice around to compete with. Similarly, there were no larger predators to worry about so this was the perfect niche for this over-sized insect to fill. Although they may be giants of the insect world, the Giant Weta prefers to be a vegetarian feasting on leaves, roots and any other piece of vegetation. See, not all giants are scary!<\/p>\n

Giant Weta Fast Facts<\/h3>\n

We are going to try something different today and provide you with legitimate “Fast Facts” about the amazing Giant Weta, so here we go:<\/p>\n

The Giant Weta is so heavy that they literally can’t jump;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Weta hasn’t really changed their appearance over the last 100 million years;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The parents will die before their eggs begin to hatch;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Giant Weta is often referred to as the “Dinosaur of the Insect World”.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed those random facts and had a great time learning about the impressive Giant Weta. I think these insects alone are worth the long flight to New Zealand. \u00a0Have a great day and I will see you tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back! I hope you had an amazing weekend and are wide awake and excited to learn about some interesting animals. To be honest, I don’t know of too many animals that are more interesting than the worlds heaviest insect, the Giant Weta! This particular insect is endemic to New Zealand and is a textbook example of island gigantism. Just so you know, island gigantism occurs when there is an absence of large carnivores present on the island ecosystem. As a result, the inhabitants of this island are free to grow as large as they like to fill in the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,4024],"tags":[348,2484,2487,2488,2490,2486,4025,2485,2489],"yoast_head":"\nGiant Weta Facts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know the Giant Weta is the World's Heaviest Insect? Find out how heavy this dinosaur of the insect world really is. That and more in today's Wild Fact.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giant Weta Facts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know the Giant Weta is the World's Heaviest Insect? Find out how heavy this dinosaur of the insect world really is. That and more in today's Wild Fact.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Animal Facts For Kids | Wild Facts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-14T08:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-16T16:26:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Knights.weta_.750pix.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/\",\"name\":\"Giant Weta Facts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-14T08:00:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-16T16:26:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5129f3f0129e9989a2b850bb2f3cc4\"},\"description\":\"Did you know the Giant Weta is the World's Heaviest Insect? Find out how heavy this dinosaur of the insect world really is. That and more in today's Wild Fact.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/\",\"name\":\"Animal Facts For Kids | Wild Facts\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5129f3f0129e9989a2b850bb2f3cc4\",\"name\":\"Nathan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e126172d6ffd6e322bd2cea79f2ad95?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e126172d6ffd6e322bd2cea79f2ad95?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nathan\"},\"description\":\"I am a digital nomad who enjoys travelling around the globe while inspiring others to leave their comfort zone and improve their life. I have a passion for self-development and of course everything related to our natural ecosystems.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/author\/wildfac1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Giant Weta Facts","description":"Did you know the Giant Weta is the World's Heaviest Insect? Find out how heavy this dinosaur of the insect world really is. That and more in today's Wild Fact.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Giant Weta Facts","og_description":"Did you know the Giant Weta is the World's Heaviest Insect? Find out how heavy this dinosaur of the insect world really is. That and more in today's Wild Fact.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/","og_site_name":"Animal Facts For Kids | Wild Facts","article_published_time":"2011-11-14T08:00:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-01-16T16:26:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":456,"url":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Knights.weta_.750pix.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nathan","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nathan","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/","name":"Giant Weta Facts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-14T08:00:57+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-16T16:26:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5129f3f0129e9989a2b850bb2f3cc4"},"description":"Did you know the Giant Weta is the World's Heaviest Insect? Find out how heavy this dinosaur of the insect world really is. That and more in today's Wild Fact.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2011\/wild-fact-430-the-island-dinosaur-giant-weta\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/","name":"Animal Facts For Kids | Wild Facts","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5129f3f0129e9989a2b850bb2f3cc4","name":"Nathan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e126172d6ffd6e322bd2cea79f2ad95?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e126172d6ffd6e322bd2cea79f2ad95?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","caption":"Nathan"},"description":"I am a digital nomad who enjoys travelling around the globe while inspiring others to leave their comfort zone and improve their life. I have a passion for self-development and of course everything related to our natural ecosystems.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com"],"url":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/author\/wildfac1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}