Snakes Alive - Or Not!

Python Skeleton, Canterbury Museum. Oct. 2008. Ajr

After scaring off half my readers with photographs of hairy tarantulas last week I've chosen to go the 'pretty' route with snakes - this is a beautiful python skeleton that I photographed in Canterbury Museum last week. I love the intricate network of shadows it creates in its display case. www.canterburymuseum.com

Meet the People - 27

Dr Simon Pollard & Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula. Oct.2008. Ajr

Another in the Series Meet the People – Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders Doing Interesting Things – Dr Simon Pollard, Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at Canterbury Museum and Associate Professor at Canterbury University’s School of Biological Sciences has been bitten by spiders a good number of times in his 30-year career as a spider specialist but the two he’d be extra careful with are the Sydney Funnel Web and the Black Widow. – “There’s anti-venom for both of them now but being bitten by either would be a very unpleasant experience,” he says. Spiders though, don’t go around biting people – like snakes, they’re more likely to run in the other direction – which makes cuddling up to a tarantula SO much more attractive! Simon’s shown here with the endangered Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula, which shares the same CITES protected species status as the Panda. He’s currently ‘babysitting’ a couple of these beauties along with the much meaner looking Costa Rican Stripe-Leg tarantula (shown below), a Peruvian Pink-Toed Tarantula and a juvenile Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula from Venezuela, which can grow as large as a dinner plate and has an abdomen the size of a tennis ball. Simon has travelled the world in the interest of spider research including hunting for blood-drinking spiders in Kenya and fishing spiders in Borneo (which featured in the BBC series Planet Earth). His speciality is jumping spiders, crab spiders and harvestmen. He’s written nine children’s books on spiders and most recently, he’s been setting up Canterbury Museum’s new live tarantula display (shown below). “One of the best things about my job is demystifying the lifestyles of the small and hairy – the myths around spiders are endless and I enjoy the public side of the job – talking to communities and developing exhibitions that educate people about natural history,” he says. For others in this series click on Meet the People in the label line below. http://www.canterburymuseum.com/

Yes, Of Course I'd Love To Hold A Big Hairy Tarantula!

Mexican Red Kneed Tarantula. Oct.2008 Ajr

And I did!

That’s my hand in the top image holding an endangered Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula! I’ve never been especially afraid spiders but then again, I’ve never been especially keen on them either. But when I visited my friend Simon Pollard at the university I knew there would be a decision to make – would I actually be brave enough to hold the tarantula I knew he would offer me? I spent the whole weekend coaching myself, remembering that he had said tarantulas weren’t particularly venomous to humans – that if I was bitten, it would feel a bit like having a couple of tacks being driven into my hand. That wasn’t an idea I relished but I was prepared to take the risk. And now, having succeeded I can tick it off my list of 101 Challenging Things to Do Before Christmas. That said, I was NOT brave enough to hold the much bigger, meaner-looking Costa Rican Stripe-Legged Tarantula shown below. He scared the wits out of me. He looked like he would happily go straight for my throat! Suffice to say there are limits to my bravado.

Eensy-Weensy-Spider!

Top left and bottom right: The much scarier Costa Rican Stripe-Leg Tarantula

Top Right: Me being brave with the pretty Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula

Bottom Left: The new live tarantula display case at Canterbury Museum