By
Jonathan WebbScience reporter, BBC News
12
August 2016
A
clutch of about 200 Montserrat tarantulas has hatched at Chester Zoo - the
first time this rare spider has been bred in captivity.
Very
little is known about the species, found on just the one Caribbean island.
A
dozen of the hairy brown animals were brought back by a zoo keeper in 2013,
after observing them in the wild on multiple field trips.
Three
years later, after much study and behavioural management, one female has
produced 200 British-born baby spiders.
"It's
kind of a race against time, whether you can synchronise the sexual maturity
between individuals," said Chester Zoo's curator of lower vertebrates,
Gerardo Garcia.
'Popping
out of the earth'
Part
of the problem is that male Montserrat tarantulas live for about 2.5 years at
the most, whereas the females live much longer and develop much more slowly.
The
few males Dr Garcia had collected, therefore, were a precious resource. There
were nervous moments for the team when they started match-making.
As
with many other invertebrates, those encounters were risky for the males.
"The
female can take it as a prey, rather than a partner," Dr Garcia told the
BBC. "There were a lot of sweaty moments."
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