The Worlds Biggest Spider is a Goliath Bird Eater. Theraphosa Blondi, it is an arachnid that is a member of the Tarantula family of spiders.  The Goliath Bird Eater was named as such by Explorers of the South American Jungles in the early 1900's when one such spider was observed eating a small bird.  Standing there aghast, they must have retorted " Gosh ! look ! a really big, in fact a goliath, bird eating spider ! " and the rest, as they say...is history!

These Tarantulas live in the rain forests of South America, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, French Guiana, Venezuela and other hot and humid places in other part's of the word.  They can grow to a diameter of almost one foot with their leg span and can weigh in at of over 120 grams.

They live in burrows or small holes in the ground, that are either made by themselves or are old abandoned ones made by other animals.  They do not use any special strategy when they hunt for food, they don't build intricate webs or traps, leap 20 feet into the air or squirt poison at their intended prey, instead they rely purely on strength and speed to capture and wrestle with their prey and then to bite with their fangs and inject a venom that renders the quarry paralyzed.

Tarantulas are good fighters, masters of un-armed combat when they tackle that big insect as they are naturally very aggressive with bad temperaments, these guys have got attitude.  Although when they are bred in captivity and they get meals dropped in front of them every day and are pampered somewhat by their owners they can become a little more docile and appear to acclimatize quite well to there new 'comfortable' surroundings. 

Only venerable and experienced Tarantula keepers though should consider keeping a Goliath Bird Eater as a pet because of their severely aggressive nature.  Remember, a spider such as this will not associate with you, will not get friendly with you or acknowledge that you its nice kind owner like say a cat or a dog, they are not 'built' to think or act like that, rather...you are either food to them or you are not and that's it !  They are not furry little toys to play with.

A Tarantula retails for about $100 but I myself could never keep anything like this as a 'pet' as many people do in suburbia primarily because Tarantulas have to be fed 'live' food, and I for one couldn't drop a live mouse into its vivarium and attentively watch and wait for the Tarantula to pounce on it.  In the wild if the mouse is caught by the Tarantula then that's fair play, law of the jungle etc but I could not condemn a nice furry friendly likable little mousy to such a frightening and horrid death...for the mouse at least.  I  Guess I'm too much a softy and sentimental, but I am an animal lover so it stands to reason with me.

Photo credits to Ged Casserley of himself with a 'framed' Goliath Bird Eater

The Tarantula is carnivorous and even though the Goliath Bird Eater has been given this name, its true staple diet are invertebrates such as mealworms, moths, locusts, centipedes, smaller spiders and other insects, they can also eat vertebrates such mice, frogs and small lizards in fact anything that is not to big for the Tarantula to wrestle with.  Tarantulas do not have teeth to chew up their dinner, instead they inject an acid solution into their quarry and then suck up the disintegrated juices, very pleasant I'm sure !

When hunting the Tarantula will 'feel' its way along by assessing the different vibrations through the ground and movements in the air of passing quarry because by and large the Tarantula has very poor eyesight and in comparison to the size if itself its eyes are miniscule little dots that cluster in the center of its head.

Below is a good close up of a Tarantulas eyes, there are several eyes around a small dome shape on the centre of its head.  The eyes are really just light sensitive membranes and give quite poor visual capabilities to the spider.

The female of the species like the male reaches adulthood in 3 years but unlike the male it has a life span of around 25 years whilst the male has a lifespan of only 6 years meaning it dies 3 years after reaching adulthood. 

As the Tarantula grows it moults its skin, in that it sheds off the entire outer shell of itself in one piece and this outer shell can fool people into thinking its a dead but entire Tarantula.

Below is a photo of a Tarantulas moulted skin and as you can see, it looks just like an entire spider, but its not, its just an empty shell that the Tarantula has grown out of.

Photo credit to Ged Casserley

The male Tarantula has about 3 years to find a mate and impregnate her, He has to be careful too as the female is likely to decide that her mate is the next meal and can turn, kill and devour the male directly after impregnation.

Most Tarantulas have things called 'Tibia Spurs' which grow on the first pair of legs, these little hooks keep the females fangs at bay whilst the male mates but unfortunately nature has decided that the Giant Bird Eater should not have this useful apparatus and so when it mates, it has to be quick and then turn and run away fast.

Below is a photo showing one of these 'Tibia spurs'

Not many people are aware that Tarantulas actually have claws at the end of each leg, sometimes two claws as in the photo below but they may also grow three claws.

Tarantulas do not have muscle and bone to move their legs, instead they have a fluid that is pressurized and this fluid extends  and contracts the joints as it is pumped rapidly back and forth.  In a way it could be said that the Tarantulas legs are hydraulically operated, and seeing as hydraulics are very very powerful, it could be envisaged that the Tarantulas legs are equally as powerful and this would indeed help it when it tussles with its prey.

The female will give birth in several weeks time after impregnation to between 100 to 400 or so eggs out of which many eggs will die or be eaten by other little animals whilst a few will survive 2 months incubation to hatch into little baby Tarantulas, of these many will be eaten by other insects etc leaving but a few to grow to maturity.

The Goliath Bird Eating spider is not that greater a threat to people, they will only attack if cornered leaving them no way to escape and even then their huge 25mm long fangs can only inject a venom that is relatively harmless to people, it has been reported that its more like a wasp sting than anything else and will produce only a mild swelling with a twinge of associated pain with no real ill effects.

 The bite itself would generally be a "dry bite" in that no venom would be injected as the Tarantula conserves its venom for 'dinner time' killing but it would still cause some tissue trauma and bleeding because of the puncture wounds.  Even so, you still would not want to find out how bad a bite is from one of these animals and it would be best to give them a lot of space. 

Tarantulas have a small defense mechanism in that they will rub their back legs together and their abdomens to create a hissing sound which probably replicates the sound of a snake to warn away possible predators.  This hissing sound can be heard up to 20 paces away too, so its quite loud. 

Another defense mechanism of the Tarantula is to flick off a cloud of very fine very short and spiky hair shards, these hairs will greatly irritate the skin on contact, can be severe if in the eyes and worse the lungs if breathed in and it can take many hours for a person afflicted to get better.

No-one apart from entomologist's and zoologists really like spiders, there is something inherent about them that profoundly effects us and makes us afraid and abhorrent of them and want to run a mile when we see them.   Unless of course you are a native tribesman living in the rain forests and jungles of South America or Venezuela.

To these people the Tarantula called " The gift of the Gods " by them, offers a tasty snack and they are eaten with much enjoyment as a delicacy.  The tribesmen, more notably The Piaroha tribe in Venezuela when they go out on hunting expeditions they catch any Tarantulas they come across on route and they quickly grab them, fold their legs in and wrap them up in a leaf tied with twine and carry them until its snack time, where they are killed by being stabbed with a sharp twig in their underside then they are roasted in their skins in a small open fire or over hot coals and eaten as a tasty traveling snack.  A Tarantula is high in protein and will give a tribesman energy for the rest of the hunting trip.

I saw a documentary on these tribes on the Discovery channel a few years ago and noted that these guys use the Tarantulas fangs as toothpicks after the meal !

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I don't know what has been said of how roasted Tarantula actually tastes like, and to be explicitly honest here I really don't care, as roasted Tarantula is one meal that I will definitely be leaving off my Al à Carte !

Just to mention here that my favorite Tarantula to look at is the 'Mexican Red Knee' and I would say that it is the most famous and most photographed of all Tarantula's due to its great color scheme.

When a Tarantula appears in the movies to create a scary scene such as the classic James Bond scene from 'You Only Live Twice' when James played by Sean Connery had a tarantula put into his bed and it crawls up over him, then its normally the Mexican Red Knee that's is used as it is so visually vivid.

I hope that you have found this page to be informative and interesting and that you enjoyed your visit to my site, I have more pages on the Natural World, why not check them out !