Puerto Rican t's in the wild. Pics

[esmoot]

I recently got back from a 2 week trip to Puerto Rico. I got a chance to meet up with an Internet friend for some tarantula hunting. There are a few sp. of t's in PR but I only had about a half-day free so we decided to go out looking for Avicularia laeta.

Here is the location we found them in.

http://img94.echo.cx/img94/6691/p41301700yh.jpg


Most of them could be found living in the trees. They would take 2 leaves, sometimes more and make a tube web like this.

http://img97.echo.cx/img97/769/p41301772ch.jpg

Here is another one that I had to pull open for the pic.
http://img83.echo.cx/img83/4089/p41301730hk.jpg

At least half of them were very defensive and were not bluffing in threat posture.

http://img94.echo.cx/img94/782/p41301819dc.jpg
http://img94.echo.cx/img94/668/p41301859il.jpg

Here is a mature male that built this thin web. I would have liked to have gone back and see if he moved at night.

http://img98.echo.cx/img98/9412/p41301876zg.jpg

And a couple more pics.

http://img98.echo.cx/img98/7996/p41301936gu.jpg
http://img83.echo.cx/img83/5314/p41301762mv.jpg

[Sean]

Nice what part of PR were you in?

[Mark]

Wow!You are lucky
This is a very good experience
I like to see many photos about their natural habitat

[CedrikG]

awesome picture, hope i'll do that one day

[cryptly]

Wow! Great pics. :D I'm jealous. . .I'd love to go and see T's in their natural habitats. Maybe one of these days. . . :)

[Elizabeth]

I thought Avic were generally very docile, but you say about half were very defensive. Were these all Avic that you are talking about? (Looks it, but just checking...) And so were these unusually defensive compared to CB? Or what? Is Avic laeta more defensive than other Avic?

Beautiful pics, anyway. (Nice to see you around the boards again. )

[GoTerps]

Thanks for the pics Eric!

[Joe1968]

those are really great pics!!! thanks for sharing.

since they live near the river bank, would that answer the long debate with high humidity vs good ventilation on avic?

[Arachnomaniak]

Sweet pics! It's awsome to be able to see some T's in their natural environment. I'm hoping to plan a trip to south america in the next couple of years so we'll see!

[Bearskin10]

Great pics Eric... sure would love to have that mature male :drool: I still have the female that I got from you a while back...

[Mattyb]

Awesome pics, thats so cool that u had the chance to do that. very nice pics as well.



-Mattyb

[Elytra and Antenna]

[SIZE=3]I recently got back from a 2 week trip to Puerto Rico. I got a chance to meet up with an Internet friend for some tarantula hunting. There are a few sp. of t's in PR but I only had about a half-day free so we decided to go out looking for Avicularia laeta.

Extremely nice. Since you found them in the trees did you happen to notice what they might have been eating? Were there any big common food invertebrates around?

[Orb Weaver]

I thought Avic were generally very docile, but you say about half were very defensive. Were these all Avic that you are talking about? (Looks it, but just checking...) And so were these unusually defensive compared to CB? Or what? Is Avic laeta more defensive than other Avic?


Of course it highly depends on a single spiders' character, but in general Avicularia laeta is indeed considered more defensive than other species of this genus.

[Rico]

Very nice pics. Were they easy to find? What was the population like? Pretty high numbers?

[Cerbera]

Very much enjoyed your pics there :) J

[BlkCat]

I have noticed that mine isnt defensive at all. (so far) She is only 2 inches) Thanx Bearskin10!! She is a big jumper though and doesnt want to be disturbed. She just sticks her head under the fold of a leaf and leaves her rear and back legs sticking out. I guess what SHE cant see wont hurt her. :p

[shogun804]

hey awseom pics glad you shared them with us :drool:

[SeekneSs]

Yeah, very nice to see T's in there natural environment...
I also saw it on a T "hunting trip" in Venezuela... no idea what species of avics it was though...

Also that same cocoon thing, 2 leaves webbed together... i just teared those leaves apart to see the T, but no sign of aggression at all from these ones...

For me they look bigger in nature then in cages... thought it would be different.

I guess for what they eat, there's a huge amount of insects, spiders and tiny reptiles there and seeing the belly of this specimen, it isn't that difficult to catch some...

http://users.skynet.be/xenesthis/Venezuela/P1010005.JPG

http://users.skynet.be/xenesthis/Venezuela/P1010006.JPG

[iluvspydrz]

I have noticed that mine isnt defensive at all. (so far) She is only 2 inches) Thanx Bearskin10!! She is a big jumper though and doesnt want to be disturbed. She just sticks her head under the fold of a leaf and leaves her rear and back legs sticking out. I guess what SHE cant see wont hurt her. :p


yeah LoL.. my G. rosea everytime she gets shy when i'm holding her she covers her eyes with her front legs and i figured she thought if she couldnt see me i couldnt see her... :cool:

[Crotalus]

A laeta is one of few avics with a attitude. Nice pix btw!

/Lelle

[N.W.A.]

Not that I'm greedy or anything, but I would have taken one back for a pet because they're so cool.

[evil_educator]

wow those are really sweet pics. I'd love to watch t's in the wild.

[esmoot]

I thought Avic were generally very docile, but you say about half were very defensive. Were these all Avic that you are talking about? (Looks it, but just checking...) And so were these unusually defensive compared to CB? Or what? Is Avic laeta more defensive than other Avic?

Beautiful pics, anyway. (Nice to see you around the boards again. )


Sorry about not getting back to you earlier. What I was trying to say was that at least half of the A. laeta we came across were very defensive. I have kept A. laeta for a couple of years and they defensive at times but never like what I saw in the wild. They seem to be the most defensive Avic that I have kept.

[esmoot]

Great pics Eric... sure would love to have that mature male :drool: I still have the female that I got from you a while back...

We lift the mature male where we found him to do his thing.

[esmoot]

Very nice pics. Were they easy to find? What was the population like? Pretty high numbers?

I'm not sure how widespread they are on the island since we only had time to for them at one location. They were pretty easy to find once you knew what to look for. If you did not have someone to show you where and what to look for you might never find them though. They were pretty much in every tree and were hundreds of them.

[Greg Wolfe]

Those are fantastic photos! Did you observe any other sp.?

[esmoot]

Those are fantastic photos! Did you observe any other sp.?

There are a few other sp. on the island but I just did not have the free time to go see them on that trip.

[Greg Wolfe]

There are a few other sp. on the island but I just did not have the free time to go see them on that trip.
Okay, just curious if you observed any Cyrtophylis porporicae there.

[esmoot]

Okay, just curious if you observed any Cyrtophylis porporicae there.

I have not seen them in person but I know for sure they are on several locations on the Island.

[GQ.]

Wow! Excellent post. I always enjoy seeing field photos. Thanks for sharing! You too Seek! :)

[JohnxII]

I just love this kind of threads. Please keep them coming!