Spider fans travel to Colorado Tarantula mating season turns into a spectacle

In the small town of La Junta in the USA, the mating season of the tarantulas native to the surrounding area becomes a spectacle every year. There is even a festival dedicated to the animals - with some bizarre program items.

In the US state of Colorado, there is a whiff of love in the air - the kind that makes your heart beat a little faster and the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Because it's mating season for the tarantulas that live here. The males venture out of their lair to find a mate. And the spectacle attracts hundreds of spider lovers to the small town of La Junta.

Scientists, spider enthusiasts and curious families from Colorado squeezed into buses just before dark last weekend to scour the arid plains of the region. Some used flashlights or car headlights to observe the spiders after sunset.

Back in the city, visitors indulged in the "Tarantula Festival" - for example in the form of competitions in which they could demonstrate their spider-like skills. This year, the title for the hairiest legs went to a woman. There was also a car parade in which vintage cars drove gigantic spider dummies on their roofs. The classic film "Arachnophobia" from 1990 was shown in the historic Fox Theater.

For the inhabitants of La Junta, however, tarantulas are not the nightmarish creatures they often appear as on screen. They are an important part of the local ecosystem and attract people from all over the country who might otherwise never have come to the community in south-eastern Colorado.

Neighbors talked enthusiastically about all the out-of-towners they met during the spider festival's third year. Among them was Nathan Villareal, a tarantula breeder from Santa Monica, California. He had heard about the mating season and immediately knew that this was a spectacle he could not miss.

Villareal sells tarantulas as pets to people all over the USA. He says he has been fascinated by the spiders since he was a child. Tarantulas of the "Colorado Brown" species are particularly prevalent in the La Junta area. They build their burrows in the largely undisturbed prairies of the Comanche National Grassland.

In September and October, the males migrate to find the burrows of their female conspecifics, which are usually marked with a silky net. The best time to observe them is an hour before dusk, when the heat of the day recedes. "We saw at least a dozen tarantulas on the road, and when we went back afterward, we saw a dozen more," Villareal said.

It takes about seven years for male tarantulas to reach sexual maturity. Then they spend the rest of their lives searching for a mate, said Cara Shillington, a biology professor at Eastern Michigan University who studies spiders. Typically, they live about another year after reaching sexual maturity, she said. Females can live for 20 years or more.

Males can grow up to about 13 centimeters long. They draw attention to themselves by drumming in front of a female's den. When the female of choice is ready to mate, she comes out. And just as quickly as it gets down to business, the male then tries to get away again - so as not to end up as a supplier of nutrients for the usually somewhat larger female, who needs to be well fed in order to complete the pregnancy.

"Tarantulas only bite out of fear"

Like many who attend "Tarantula Fest", Shillington is passionate about teaching others not to be afraid of tarantulas and other spiders. The tarantulas found in North America are usually rather good-natured. Their venom is not considered particularly dangerous to humans, but can cause pain and irritation. If you encounter the animals, the fear is more likely to be theirs, said Shillington. "Tarantulas only bite out of fear." That's how the animals defend themselves. And if you put them in a situation where they think they have to bite, then there is no reason to be afraid.

Many children who attended the festival in La Junta with their families learned that spiders are not as scary as they might seem. 13-year-old Roslyn Gonzales said she couldn't wait to go in search of the animals.

For student Goran Shikak, who has several spider tattoos on his arm, the annual festival is an opportunity to celebrate tarantulas and share his enthusiasm for them with others. "They're beautiful creatures," said Shikak, who is studying arachnology, the science of arachnids, at the University of Colorado Denver. Observing the animals' behavior in the wild is a joy - and a rewarding experience.

dpa