do t's have ears?

prob a really dumb question but i always talk to my t like i do with my other pets but i dont even know if they can hear.
not that it really matters coz i very much doubt she would understand what the hell im saying to her anyway

No they don't have ears but they catch vibrations with their hairs. She probably hates when you talk to her...if she can sense it

I think some of my T's respond positively to the sounds and vibrations I make when i'm in the room. If i'm talking with someone or playing music in the T room many of my t's will come to the front of the tank and "listen" to what's going on by placing a couple of toes on the glass.

Whether they're actually paying attention to my actions or not I'll probably never know but I think it's fairly certain they are reacting to my presence. They know that food is coming when they hear the "giant thing" bumbling around outside.

etown_411 said:

I think some of my T's respond positively to the sounds and vibrations I make when i'm in the room. If i'm talking with someone or playing music in the T room many of my t's will come to the front of the tank and "listen" to what's going on by placing a couple of toes on the glass.

Whether they're actually paying attention to my actions or not I'll probably never know but I think it's fairly certain they are reacting to my presence. They know that food is coming when they hear the "giant thing" bumbling around outside.

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Interesting, I did'nt even know Ts could get conditioned to feeding time. I guess Pavlov never published his experiments with spiders hehe.

Arachn'auQuébec said:

Interesting, I did'nt even know Ts could get conditioned to feeding time. I guess Pavlov never published his experiments with spiders hehe.

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This has been a topic of much discussion. I believe they can be conditioned on a rudimentary level (not to be confused with "trained") but some may not agree with that.

So t's only have sight and touch?

Arachn'auQuébec said:

Interesting, I did'nt even know Ts could get conditioned to feeding time. I guess Pavlov never published his experiments with spiders hehe.

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Science is often slow to accept what hobbyists report by anecdote (and rightly so) but I would sure go on record as saying that the majority of my T's (all NW) really appear to expect food when their cages are manipulated...

Dreamslave said:

So t's only have sight and touch?

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And quite an array of chemosensory abilities, I believe. (And sight, for most terrestrials esp., is considered to be quite minimal in comparison to the other senses.)

--Diane

I have 100's of Ts and the only thing that happens when I bump a cage or open a lid is they run for their hides.
I have a hard time getting on board with many of these “theories” about what they can or can’t do. It seems to me people are taking an observed behavior and making it what they want it to be instead of what it really is.

Comparatively, I have 10 T's that I spend hours watching, including watching each one for some time at feeding time before moving on to the next.

All I'm saying is that different circumstances allow different observations. If you spent as long to feed your collection as I do, the ones at the end of the line would probably starve... (or at least die of thirst!).

As just one example...my N. vulpinus juvie moves quickly into "lying-in-wait" position (lurking half out of the mouth of his/her burrow) in response to my activities with its cage. I'd better have something to offer it before I attempt any more maintenance...

(And BTW, I quickly defer to your orders-of-magnitude more experience with T's. I do not know of much T behavioral science being done--esp. since Sam Marshall seems to have dropped from sight--but that doesn't mean there aren't more things to discover if/when it's ever done. ).

--Diane

jellybean said:

do t's have ears?

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Dreamslave said:

So t's only have sight and touch?

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No and no.

They do not have "ears", but - as partially mentioned by Arachn'auQuébec - they have delicate, specialised "hairs" on their legs called trichobotrium (pl. trichobotria), which can sense vibrations and currents of air caused by sound. BTW, mammals including humans actually "hear" with hairs located in the ears too. But these hairs are not to be confused with the "hairs" on spiders!

c'est ma said:

Science is often slow to accept what hobbyists report by anecdote (and rightly so) but I would sure go on record as saying that the majority of my T's (all NW) really appear to expect food when their cages are manipulated...

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A statement such as this can generate several questions. How do you know they expect food? Maybe they only expect something that is about to invade their territory / disturb them? Maybe they just react to a sudden change in their proximate surroundings by instinct? Just throwing these out there, food for thought.

Eraisuithon said:

A statement such as this can generate several questions. How do you know they expect food? Maybe they only expect something that is about to invade their territory / disturb them? Maybe they just react to a sudden change in their proximate surroundings by instinct? Just throwing these out there, food for thought.

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I couldn't agree more, which is why I intended to be clear I was calling it anecdote, not science. (Unfortunately, I'm not always as clear as I intend. )

As one (anecdotal) answer to your question: my MF GBB (which I've had for 7.5yrs) will "sit tight," rather than zip into her burrow when I open the cage top to feed. Quite often she is sitting on top of her cork tunnel, just beneath the top cover...Other actions/stimuli do send her scurrying into hiding...

--Diane