Are there any good exhibits for giant spiders anywhere in the world?

[DavidBrown]

In following Childionias' latest Asia trek he mentions that there are giant spiders hanging out in the hotel rooms of Vietnam. Giant spiders of Southeast Asia are a recurring theme with people I know who have been there.

Many zoos have a tarantula species or two in their reptile or invertebrate houses, but are there any specialty spider exhibits in zoos or natural history museums that interpret big spiders like the tarantulas or the Southeast Asian spider species really well? These species seem like they would be of great interest to a general audience, but no one seems to do much with them beyond maybe the walk-through spider exhibits at the Los Angeles natural history museum and the London Zoo.

Does anyone have any insight on why big spider species, maybe spiders in general, are not bigger features in the zoo world? Are they too difficult to maintain? Do zoo managers think people will find them boring?

 

[Simon Hampel]

The Australian Reptile Park near Gosford just north of Sydney has a small but interesting collection of giant spiders.

I would love them to do more with their collection - I think it's a bit static and could be supplemented with a lot more information about them.

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[Zoovolunteer]

I think the main problem with displaying the large therophosid species is not that they are hard to maintain - practically any private owner can keep most if not all of them and even breed them - but as display animals they are mostly inactive for long periods and many species are nocturnal. More active species of spider like the jumping spiders on the other hand are almost all extremely small. Another issue is that studies on the full range of tarantula behaviour in the wild are few and far between and I expect there is a lot to be learned, especially regarding interactions between individuals.

 

[FunkyGibbon]

The biggest spiders I commonly see in SE Asia are, I believe, orb spiders. They are great to look at. London's new spider walkthrough does a great job of displaying these. Surrounding the visitor with webs makes for a much more visually interactive exhibit than the good old tarantula box I think.

 

[Chlidonias]

The Nephila orb-weavers are very common in Asia and easily displayed in zoos.

The other giant spiders are nocturnal, so during the day they don't do much. I mean, the Nephila don't do much either but they do it in plain view. The nocturnal species like to hide in burrows or crevices. That is why unfortunately many displays of tarantulas are barely-furnished.

The big spiders you find inside houses are of the huntsman types (also called giant crab spiders) which are flattened and very scary, and like to scoot around the walls.

 

[DavidBrown]

The Nephila orb-weavers are very common in Asia and easily displayed in zoos.

The other giant spiders are nocturnal, so during the day they don't do much. I mean, the Nephila don't do much either but they do it in plain view. The nocturnal species like to hide in burrows or crevices. That is why unfortunately many displays of tarantulas are barely-furnished.

The big spiders you find inside houses are of the huntsman types (also called giant crab spiders) which are flattened and very scary, and like to scoot around the walls.

That's a good point about many of the giant spider species being nocturnal. I've never seen nor heard of anyone doing a nocturnal invertebrate exhibit. Perhaps that is a frontier of exhibit design that needs to be experimented with...

 

[Chlidonias]

a nocturnal exhibit for invertebrates is a great idea which doesn't seem to be properly done yet. Instead the animals (e.g. tarantulas or giant centipedes or whatever) are usually kept in small tanks which are more-or-less bare in order for people to see them.

There are individual invertebrate tanks in some nocturnal houses though. E.g. in NZ I've seen tanks for tree weta, giant weta and giant snails. NZ has a giant centipede too but I've never seen one on display anywhere.

 

[elefante]

Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota (USA) has a good invertebrate display.

 

[DavidBrown]

Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota (USA) has a good invertebrate display.

What kind of invertebrate species do they exhibit? Tarantulas? Scorpions? Beetles?

 

[elefante]

What kind of invertebrate species do they exhibit? Tarantulas? Scorpions? Beetles?

I haven't been in ten years, but I do remember various tarantulas, hissing cockroaches, funnel web spiders, and even Venus flytraps. It was a neat wall display and several of the terrariums had windows in the shape of spiders and other invertebrates.