What do do when you happen to have two of the largest spiders in the world just laying around? You try to make more of them, of course! At least that’s what the San Diego Zoo is trying to do with their Goliath Bird Eating Spider, the spider so terrifying they put “bird eating” in its name.
Mating isn’t easy for these spiders, though. For the males, the courtship dance is part of seduction and part insurance since it is not unusual for females to eat their mates. Fortunately, zoo officials remained on hand through the, uh, “encounter” to make sure no one got digested.
The zoo is hopeful that through mating experiments like these, they’ll be able to keep a robust captive population of bird eaters and not take more out of the wild. Of course, there are other things you can do with extra goliath spiders.
Published: Jul 9, 2011 01:00 pm