Has anyone seen that show on goliath tarantulas

[Zervoid]

Just wondering if anyone has seen that show on goliath tarantulas about their life cycle and the native tribes that eat them. It's amazing they coax them out of their burrows and then grab them so their not bitten, fry their abdomens into a pancake and when finished use their fangs to clean their teeth! I saw this program when i was about 12 and now i'm 19 so i've forgotten what it was called....the only reason i became interested in these spiders is because i saw a "ultimate predators" show on tv last weekend and it had a five minute segment on goliath tarantula eating some sort of snake them i remembered that doco i saw on them all those years ago and found this place-where u people actually keep them as pets!
So anyone else seen this show?

 

[David Richards]

I bought it on Amazon.com for 3 bucks

I was told that alot of the footage if not all was of T. Apophysis. If you look at the spiderlings that hatch out near the end they have the pink feet and the male that is shown breeding has the purplish tint as do the male apophysis. Pretty neat documentry, although the snake is said to be just a skin that was done to make it more interesting! just what i heard. dave

 

[David Richards]

I forgot to tell you

The name of the movie is Giant Spider

 

[smokejuan]

It sounds like a show I saw a long while back. I believe the film was about the tribe. They went on hunts for monkeys to eat I believe but ran accross some T. blondi's (The narrator said they where the largest in the world) and took them back to camp where they stuck them in the fire to burn off the hairs (bristles) then I think they roled them up in a banana leaf and put back on the fire. I saw one sucking and chewing on a leg then I saw one use the fang as a tooth pick. Yuck! You know if lived in a rain forest spiders would not even be on the menu unless I was near death from starvation and it happen to crawl up to me. Its a rain forest! Isn't there an abundance of life? Is it really that hard to find something to eat?

 

[NoS]

Are you so sure that they wouldnt taste good?

 

[Belarius]

I thing the documentary said that the spider was a special treat for the tribe...sorta like a delicacy. Kind of like we eat shrimp or crab...which by the way are pretty freaky looking when they're alive too. They're like the bugs of the sea But they're tasty. Maybe those tribespeople are onto something...hmm :}

 

[Heartfang]

I wouldn't eat a T!!! For me, it would be like eating a dog!!!

 

[FRAZE01]

I heard dog is good.Just kidding

 

[Scorpiove]

shrimp and lobsters are bugs

 

[IrishLad17]

I also saw that documentary, I rented it from Block Buster. And a quick side note, tarantulas seem to be food anywhere they're readily found! Well at least the natives are using the whole spider and not just killing it and using one part. So I dont really have a problem with it. You gotta admit, that is pretty creative though, using the fangs as toothpicks.

 

[VesAn]

I heard dog is good.Just kidding

There are times when I find my beagle to be appetizing. He's so plump and soft and the rear legs are shaped so much like chicken legs...

 

[smokejuan]

There are times when I find my beagle to be appetizing. He's so plump and soft and the rear legs are shaped so much like chicken legs...

HMMMM...Sautéed Beagle with Plum sauce and mint jelly. :? not sure about the T.blondi...must taste like chicken Actually I read it has the texture of peanut butter and a little nutty flavor. Got to be a little nutty to eat it in the first place.

 

[Elizabeth]

There are times when I find my beagle to be appetizing. He's so plump and soft and the rear legs are shaped so much like chicken legs...

Oh my gosh! LOL! And, what, may I inquire, is your poor dog's name? Chowboy? MidnightSnack? Colonel?

 

[Ultimate Instar]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd NEVER take a chance on eating a T. blondi or apophysis hair. I don't care how much you try to burn off the hairs, even part of one is going to be nasty to eat.

Karen N.

 

[VesAn]

Oh my gosh! LOL! And, what, may I inquire, is your poor dog's name? Chowboy? MidnightSnack? Colonel?

Beagle. I just wasn't that creative with names back when I got him. He's so sneaky, though, he pretends like no one's fed him and scams food from everyone, even the maid who comes by to clean the house every week. Puts his chin on your knees and stares at you until you feed him.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Aww what a poor poor beagle! I think you ought to feed him more often

Didn't that norwegian guy who ate a friends dead blondi (with bristles) say they tasted a bit like shrimp? Too lazy to search for the thread where it was mentioned so I'm not 100% sure if that was what he said.

 

[Windchaser]

I heard dog is good.Just kidding

Actually it isn't bad. I had some when I was in Korea. It reminded me of pork. However, this isn't your pet dog. It is a farm raised animal just like our chickens, pigs and cows.

 

[Kid Dragon]

I saw the video on PBS, its called "Predators of the Wild:Giant Tarantulas". It is a very disappointing video on Ts. Its a shame they had to spend more time on the T as a "shaman spirit guide" than focusing on the biology of T. blondi in this "documentary". If they stuck to what they knew about Ts it would have lasted 5 minutes instead of 60, so I totally understand why it s^cked.

 

[MizM]

If you do a Google search using the term "piaroa" you will find a plethora of information about this Southern Venezuelan tribe.

Ts are very high in protein and are collected for food in a manner which does not threaten the local population. The Piaroa are very respectful of the environment and only take what they absolutely need. They especially like getting a gravid female, they make a mini omelette of her eggs!

I believe Rick West has visited with this tribe and has had a taste of Theraphosa de Grille.

 

[Stan Schultz]

Has anyone seen that show on goliath

One and All -

I can fill in some of the background information about that video but since my memory is failing rather rapidly, you should not take all this for Hoyle until it’s verified by Rick West, especially the finer details.

Rick C. West got the idea several years ago that no one had ever gone to S. America to photograph the goliath birdeater (T. blondi) in its natural habitat. He wrote up a proposal and sent it off to Survival Anglia in the UK. Survival Anglia bought the idea and sent Rick to Venezuela where he met his camera crew (who flew over from the UK) and they set off into the forest, following a guide, looking for huge, long-legged, hairy spiders.

When they arrived in the Piaroa village they offered the Piaroa something like 50 cents apiece for some giant spiders, hoping to get three or four. The next morning the Piaroa showed up with *DOZENS* of giant spiders. Lots of *DOZENS.* Whatever the crew couldn’t use, the Piaroa ate. Apparently those giant spiders are nowhere near as rare as they’re put up to be, except perhaps in our cages.

They constructed a movie set with a concrete block base, a sheet of plywood, and dirt piled on top. They decorated it with living forest floor plants to make it look real. The burrow was manufactured in the dirt pile and was made to look as natural as possible, but they had to line the inside with Silastic to keep it from collapsing and to prevent the spider from customizing it. They constructed two windows in the wall of the burrow, one part way down its length and the other at the far end. Otherwise they couldn’t have photographed what was going on down there.

Every evening the spider would dutifully silk over those windows and generally try to make it feel like home. At the beginning of every shooting session someone had to reach down the length of that burrow and wipe the dirt and silk off the inside of those glass windows. Talk about urinary incontinence! And the itching!

And the snake, a Fer-De-Lance, was entirely real, alive and very potent. The Piaroa had caught it and were going to kill it, but the crew wanted to see what would happen if they stuck it in with the spider. The result is documented on film for all posterity.

Some of you are quite correct, most of the giant spiders on the video probably were T. apophysis and Rick knew that when they were filming. You’ll notice that (if memory serves me) they never once declare the tarantulas to be Theraphosa blondi or mention goliath, birdeater, or any species by name. We all *ASSUMED* that they were goliaths. (The surest way to get an ID wrong is to “picture key” the animal.)

At the end of the expedition the flim crew left for England, but several reels of film were lost in transit, so they called Rick back to Venezuela a second time several weeks later to shoot some more footage. Rick, of course, was devastated, having to go back to that horrid place with all those huge, nasty spiders!

Survival Anglia’s people did their thing with the footage and first aired the video on PBS under the name “Giant Spiders of the Amazon,” then quickly sold the whole thing, including the unused footage, to Time-Warner who subsequently issued it as part of their “Predators of the Wild” series under “Giant Tarantulas,” and that‘s probably the version you’re familiar with. I have copies of both the original Survival Anglia version video-taped from a PBS broadcast and a commercial copy of the current Time-Warner version, but haven’t had time to compare them to see how much they differ.

For those of you who were disappointed that the video didn’t have more about the spiders and less about the Piaroa, the crew only shot film for between 4 to 8 weeks, even counting the extra shoots because of the lost reels. When you think about it, there’s not a lot that goes on in a giant tarantula’s life except what you saw in the video, especially in such a relatively short time frame. In an effort to gain enough footage to make the expedition worthwhile they covered the relationship of the Piaroa with the giant spiders as well. Though you might have liked more spider and less Piaroa, the story was still very interesting, no? Tell me you’d turn down the opportunity to do something like that! Just convince me!

Hope this helps ...