I'm thrilled to report that Rosie the tarantula has finally, after decades, been relieved of her meet-and-greet duties. It's about time, but I guess as they say, it's better late than never. Rosie is a Chilean rose hair tarantula who has long lived — and worked — at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. KDVR Denver explains that Rosie has been "the face of the pavilion" since it opened in 1995, and has over the last three decades crawled onto the hands of over three million people. That's a whole lot of human-handling!
However, the Butterfly Pavilion is making changes and is finally ending these meet-and-greets for both Rosie and her pal Goldie, who is a Chaco golden knee tarantula. KDVR Denver provides some details about the new developments:
The pavilion said its expert animal care team observed the stress public handling can create, and after evaluating, the pavilion decided to end public handling and prioritize the tarantulas' health and comfort.
"The science around ambassador animal care has evolved, and Butterfly Pavilion is evolving with it" said Stevens [JS: Sara Stevens, director of animal collections at Butterfly Pavilion]. "As our tarantulas age, current science tells us that reducing handling is key to their wellbeing. This transition reflects the highest standards in ambassador animal care."
The pavilion said it's also shifting Rosie's role due to aging out, and the increasing challenge of finding mature, handleable tarantulas.
Poor Rosie and Goldie, I feel terrible for them being stressed out for all these years. But I'm glad they are finally going to be left alone. Liberation day (from meet-and-greets, at least) is September 8. Rosie and Goldie will still be on display, but for viewing only — no more touching!
If you want to read more about why you shouldn't handle tarantulas, I found this blog post by Tom's Big Spiders informative and helpful. Tom discusses why he personally doesn't handle his tarantulas, explaining that handling them could hurt the animal as well as the human doing the holding, and, in general, there are no benefits for the tarantula, only the humans, who pretty much just get bragging rights. He states:
As I learned more over the years and read others' experiences, I quickly realized there really wasn't a point in trying to handle my animals. I know my first reaction when I get hurt is to jerk back, so if I were to get bit, I'd likely injure the animal by throwing it through the air. Hairs are also NOT fun, so I wouldn't want a handful of those either. The benefit for me would be that I could brag that I held a tarantula. The benefit for the tarantula would be, well, nothing. Besides possibly causing stress to the spider (they are not affection seeking animals like dogs or cats), I'd be risking it injuring itself from a fall or making a possible escape.
Seems like a good idea to just let the poor creatures be. Congrats Rosie and Goldie, I hope y'all can finally enjoy your retirement.
Previously:
• First photo of tarantula eating a snake in the wild
• Frogs and tarantulas have a symbiotic relationship
• Watch this massive tarantula drag an opossum it just killed
