The Tarantula Highway!

Lets face the truth, I m arachnophobic. Probably fighting the last stage of it and looking for a cure. In search of a permanent solution I was in the a small hill station in southern India, to look for, what they call the most aggressive tarantula species on Earth. Although I have seen pet tarantulas and had some real crazy encounters with them, this was going to be my first wild experience. My guide on this trip is Reptile expert Melvin Selvan, with him is his brother Ashok Kummar and fellow researcher Vishal Santra.

We reached the spot around 4.30 in the evening, and with one hour of sunlight left, we thought of checking out the site infested with some of India’s largest tarantulas! There was nothing special about the place, a huge stretch of road with large banyan and tamarind tree on both sides of it. Once in a while you do see vendors selling coconut water, and that’s it! Nothing else. Hectares of agricultural fields as far one can see. Strangely during this walk we dint find a single clue that would suggest any of those claims of large spiders, but I was told repeatedly that they r there, somewhere, and we have to wait till dark to see them.


Investigating the area during daylight

The place we were staying was basic and clean and the food was undoubtedly great. But day wraps early there in that small town, shops close down by seven and roads become empty by eight. The only moving things on road are large trucks and snakes, which gets crushed under them. On reaching the spot an eerie feeling filled our hearts, as if something is creeping up on us. Its dark all around and only visibility is within the flashlight beam. I stood middle of the road where there are less chances of a spider dropping on me, while the guys looked for spiders in every hole of the tree. Crazy! Suddenly somebody called “There is one”. Curious, but cautious, I took little steps towards the tree they were flashing.

My first reaction, Oh Shit! That’s a f*cking big spider!

It took me some time to get settled into that scenario. But when I regained my senses this is what I saw; at a height of about 6-7ft is a spider, a very big spider, looking down on us. Eyes glowing bright like diamonds on a ladies’ finger. Body approx five inches (excluding legs), apparently it looked banded, but a closer look revealed it has long hairs all over. Two long legs stretched in front, rest tucked at back! We tried to coax it down with a snake stick but this tarantula turns out to be Usain Bolt of the spider world. It turns around, sprints and gets into its burrow, Out of reach, out of sight!



With adrenalin pumping, we rushed to the next tree…. And there was a one at a height higher than the previous one. The problem was, in excitement, we forgot to check the base of the tree. And only when somebody flashed there, we saw eyes glowing not very far from our legs. Thankfully most were babies, about five to seven, totally camouflaged, not more than 2inches long. We looked for the mother, but she was seen sleeping deep in a hole and only parts of her abdomen was visible.

We hopped from tree to tree, and saw even bigger, aggressive spiders, which on slightest provocation instead of hiding in the burrows came out with open fangs! And trust me those fangs r bigger than any snakes I have ever seen. They were so intimidating that that we dint even dare to catch one to photograph. That night along with spiders we saw some live and dead snakes too, a turtle, and to top it up a lovely baby chameleon! A successful night indeed.



Although these spiders put up such an impressive defensive act, when it comes to reality, they are helpless in front of the cruelness of a human. Every year colonies like these get wiped out, thanks to collectors, who come from all over the world. Things get even easier for them as the Indian Wildlife Protection Act provides no legal protection to most of her in invertebrates, and who knows till now how many has already gone extinct.



If we track the shipments that get smuggled out it may lead us to Germany, where a exhibition is held annually and the most exotic is on sale, may that be tarantulas, frogs or snakes. The exhibition is so illegal that apart from a few hidden camera footage there is no information on it to the authorities.
A German tabloid reports that profits are so high the smugglers are using the kind of ingenuity associated with drug trafficking -- except its living creatures.
Common techniques include carrying parrot eggs in one’s underpants, shoving iguanas and small birds in plastic tubes, or squashing poison dart frogs in plastic drinks bottles. In one case 375 little tortoises were found packed in a suitcase at Frankfurt airport. The most recent available statistics for the European Union countries, from 2010 to 2012, show Germany topping the list of seizures, with almost 110,900 illegally traded animals, plants and products, followed by Italy with 51,500, the Czech Republic with 37,400 and Poland with 22,500, according to data from TRAFFIC.