Australian Reptile Park Zoo calls for people to send in funnel-web spiders

[DavidBrown]

The Australia Reptile Park is running low on funnel-web spiders to collect anti-venom from, so they are appealing to the public for donations. Instructions for how to safely round up the spiders without getting bitten are included in the appeal.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...spiders:homepage/story&utm_term=.7dbb0d7ef30b

 

[snowleopard]

That is actually a fascinating video that makes it seem like a piece of cake to capture one of the world's deadliest creatures. The sheer aggressiveness of funnel-web spiders is legendary and I can recall being told all about them when I spent 2.5 years living in Australia as a kid. I lived in Western Australia, where there are zero funnel-web spiders, but nevertheless students were warned in school that if they ever traveled to the east coast to visit Sydney or Melbourne then they could expect to be bombarded with the spiders.

 

[BennettL]

Actually they are highest populated in Sydney and are rarely found in Melbourne.

BennettL

 

[Hix]

The Reptile Park may public requests every few years, although this is the first time I've seen them produce a video. What is not clarified in the text or the video is that there are more than 30 different species of funnelweb spider, found from Queensland to Victoria and around to the Adelaide Hills, but the ARP are only interested in the Sydney Funnelweb (Atrax robustus) which is arguably the deadliest of them. The spider is aggressive if provoked, otherwise it just goes about it's business. I've had a male run over my hand when working in the garden, it was only interested in getting to shelter.



Hix