Incy Wincy tarantula moves indoors in Australia

By BILLY ADAMS in Sydney

In a country renowned for its bewildering array of dangerous animals, a new fad is taking hold - tarantulas as pets.

The large, hairy, poisonous creepy crawlies may be the stuff of nightmares to some, but increasing numbers of Australians are preferring them to cats and dogs as household companions.

In the last year a thriving trade has emerged. It is estimated about 200 are sold around the country every week.

Buyers pay anything from $NZ70 to $240 for a pet which can have a 12.5cm body and a leg span double that length.

The tarantula's natural habitat of dark burrows or under logs and rocks is being replaced by apartments in big cities like Sydney and Melbourne.

Although buyers include serious collectors and enthusiasts, most new owners are reported to be young men looking beyond their PlayStation for thrills.

The Fish and Feathers pet shop in Bendigo, Victoria, has sold tarantulas to a variety of customers.

"People assume it's just guys who would be into it but women are too," said one employee. "I sold one to a woman who works as a cleaner in a hospital. I think she was simply interested in spiders."

The shop has sold tarantulas for two years but keeps them away from the front window to avoid scaring potential customers.

"Australian tarantulas are not so colourful but they are big," he said. "I really don't know what the fascination is. It's just that creepy crawly thing, I suppose. Some people get scared to death by it, other people love it."

A dog or cat will die within 30 minutes of being bitten by a tarantula but they are not normally life threatening to humans. The venom makes us vomit for up to eight hours.

But experts say the biggest problem is that most owners don't know how to look after them properly.

Some females live for up to 25 years but it is believed many pets die within weeks of being bought.

Robert Raven, the world's leading authority on tarantulas, is campaigning for the spiders to be given the protection of an endangered species.

At least 30 of the roughly 800 tarantula species worldwide are believed to live in Australia, where they are more commonly known as whistling, barking or bird-eating spiders. But so far only six of the Australian species have been identified.

Raven, the senior curator of spiders at Queensland Museum in Brisbane, said the trade could disturb finely balanced ecosystems and may drive several yet-to-be-identified species to extinction.

That in turn could jeopardise future research into possible medicinal benefits of the venom.

But he believed an outright ban would simply push the trade underground.

"What is happening at the moment is absolutely destructive," said Raven.

"We think there are many new species out there, and they are being taken from the wild without any control or regulations. We are probably driving a number of species extinct faster, before we even know what they are."