#tarantula

#tarantula

Australian Reptile Park Receives Donation of a Giant Funnel Web Spider That it Playfully Names MEGASPIDERThe Australian Reptile Park has been encouraging the public to catch funnel-web spiders for its antivenom program. The captured spiders will have their venom extracted from them. Said venom is transformed into antivenom, which saves 300 lives each year. Recently, the Park has received a Tupperware container with no labels as to where it came from. Inside it was a funnel-web spider that surprised many because of its unusual size. Measuring at 8cm, with fangs around 2cm, the spider is similar to the size of a tarantula and could theoretically bite through human fingernails.The Park has aptly named the donated spider "MEGASPIDER."Learn more about the story over at the Australian Reptile Park.(Image and video credit: Australian Reptile Park)#spider #FunnelWebSpider #Tarantula #Venom #Antivenom

The Great Tarantula Migration is Underway in Colorado Crowds are building in La Junta, Colorado, about three hours south of Denver. The draw is the annual "tarantula migration," where the big hairy spiders are on the move, which makes this tourist season for the town. But they aren't really migrating.What are those tarantulas on the hunt for? Not storms, but rather mates. And Laubach said there's one specific reason they come out this time of the year."It’s a lot to do with the weather,” Laubach told AccuWeather Broadcast Meteorologist Adam Del Rosso during a segment on AccuWeather Prime. “The male spiders, the ones that you’re seeing, are actually looking to mate. So this isn’t as much of a migration as it is a mate-gration."The annual showcase of mate-hunting tarantulas has become a tourist attraction in the small Colorado city. Pamela Denahy, the tourist director of Visit La Junta, told Laubach the spiders are "docile creatures."Read about the tarantulas and their curious allure at AccuWeather. -via Fark#tarantula #spider