I'll echo my own thoughts as posted in the thread that preceded this one (and got a bit off topic, as was pointed out) and then probably drop out of the thread. Not much interested in beating dead horses. Tarantulas are a large, diverse group that has been poorly studied in the wild. Very little behavioral work has been done under natural conditions, and most of what we have is purely anecdotal. To try to lump all tarantulas under one behavioral model with almost complete lack of supportive evidence is not terribly useful.
There are enough anecdotal accounts of tarantulas being out and about during the day to assume that they are not all light-intolerant. (One of the few serious behavioral researchers working with tarantulas in the wild in tropical Africa reported that the species he works with basks in the sunlight - and I'll give his observations respect.)
The only tarantulas I've been able to observe regularly in the wild are the Aphonopelma found in southern Arizona, where I live. They are considered to be primarily nocturnal, but I have observed adult females or near-adults outside their burrows in the daytime. And from about mid-July to about mid-October adult males are very commonly seen out wandering around in the daytime. Do the "like" sunlight? I doubt the term "like" even applies to tarantulas. But if even primarily nocturnal species can be diurnal under some natural circumstances, then I'd have to say there is reason to believe that some tarantulas are at least light-tolerant.
Making guesses about natural behavior (and hence "likes and dislikes") based on animals kept under highly artificial conditions is not very valid. Animals will change their behavior in response to the conditions they encounter. Give them abnormal conditions and you'll get abnormal behavior. Putting tarantulas in what we talk ourselves into believing is a "naturalistic" cage is not the same as having them under truly natural conditions. I'f you'll tolerate my using a reptilian example, I'll illustrate.
Before drifting into arachnids my interests were more reptile focused. For many years I've kept rattlesnakes in captivity, and thought I was getting a pretty good understanding of their behavior that way. I kept them in large cages, figuring that was allowing more typical behavior. A few years ago I moved a small group of western diamondbacks into an outdoor enclosure. They are a locally common native species, and the enclosure was in the middle of natural diamondback habitat. During most of the year the enclosure is covered only by light shading cloth, allowing for natural rainfall, wind, daylight cycles, etc. It's planted with desert plants - even the water tank (a cattle tank) has plants from a nearby stream. They have a burrow they hibernate in, hiding places and open areas. Much more natural than the big cages they used to occupy. And surprise!!!! - behavior patterns changed. Even basic things like how they drink water changed. A lot of what I thought I knew under captive conditions had to be revised. But before I could get too carried away with how "natural" my captive outdoor snakes were - a wild adult male western diamondback showed up at my door. Or more accurately, by my porch. He just finished his fourth (fifth? I'll have to look that up)summer living by my porch. He hibernates on the hill north of the house, migrates to the porch in the spring. We get to watch him making his daily rounds, hunting, eating, drinking, dealing with other diamondbacks that appear in his territory, etc. And although the ones I've got in the outdoor enclosure behave more like him than they did when in cages, there is still quite a gap between their behavior and his.
Bringing the focus back on tarantulas - other research projects my wife and I are involved with allow us to incidentally observe the local Aphonopelmas under natural conditions all summer long. And the behaviors we see contradict much of the dogma on how to properly keep them in captivity. For example - keeping them in Kritter Keepers will never tell you how high off the ground they hunt. But we frequently find them climbing brick walls four or five feet up, picking off bugs drawn to lights. And one was observed about ten feet up attempting to grab a pallid bat that was distracted by its own meal. (The bat realized that the tarantula was there at the last moment and flew away just as the tarantula rushed it.) There are many other discrepencies as well.
The same gaps occur between behaviors we observe in other captive tarantulas and tarantulas in nature. And we'll never know how wide those gaps are until we can get some good studies and observations of wild populations. The best we're doing in this thread is making guesses as to how well captive tarantulas respond to light under the artificial conditions we provide. That's a LOT different than knowing whether "tarantulas LIKE light".
So..... If the way you are keeping your tarantulas works for you - fine. enjoy it. But don't bet too heavily that what you are doing really tells you how it is in nature.
There are enough anecdotal accounts of tarantulas being out and about during the day to assume that they are not all light-intolerant. (One of the few serious behavioral researchers working with tarantulas in the wild in tropical Africa reported that the species he works with basks in the sunlight - and I'll give his observations respect.)
The only tarantulas I've been able to observe regularly in the wild are the Aphonopelma found in southern Arizona, where I live. They are considered to be primarily nocturnal, but I have observed adult females or near-adults outside their burrows in the daytime. And from about mid-July to about mid-October adult males are very commonly seen out wandering around in the daytime. Do the "like" sunlight? I doubt the term "like" even applies to tarantulas. But if even primarily nocturnal species can be diurnal under some natural circumstances, then I'd have to say there is reason to believe that some tarantulas are at least light-tolerant.
Making guesses about natural behavior (and hence "likes and dislikes") based on animals kept under highly artificial conditions is not very valid. Animals will change their behavior in response to the conditions they encounter. Give them abnormal conditions and you'll get abnormal behavior. Putting tarantulas in what we talk ourselves into believing is a "naturalistic" cage is not the same as having them under truly natural conditions. I'f you'll tolerate my using a reptilian example, I'll illustrate.
Before drifting into arachnids my interests were more reptile focused. For many years I've kept rattlesnakes in captivity, and thought I was getting a pretty good understanding of their behavior that way. I kept them in large cages, figuring that was allowing more typical behavior. A few years ago I moved a small group of western diamondbacks into an outdoor enclosure. They are a locally common native species, and the enclosure was in the middle of natural diamondback habitat. During most of the year the enclosure is covered only by light shading cloth, allowing for natural rainfall, wind, daylight cycles, etc. It's planted with desert plants - even the water tank (a cattle tank) has plants from a nearby stream. They have a burrow they hibernate in, hiding places and open areas. Much more natural than the big cages they used to occupy. And surprise!!!! - behavior patterns changed. Even basic things like how they drink water changed. A lot of what I thought I knew under captive conditions had to be revised. But before I could get too carried away with how "natural" my captive outdoor snakes were - a wild adult male western diamondback showed up at my door. Or more accurately, by my porch. He just finished his fourth (fifth? I'll have to look that up)summer living by my porch. He hibernates on the hill north of the house, migrates to the porch in the spring. We get to watch him making his daily rounds, hunting, eating, drinking, dealing with other diamondbacks that appear in his territory, etc. And although the ones I've got in the outdoor enclosure behave more like him than they did when in cages, there is still quite a gap between their behavior and his.
Bringing the focus back on tarantulas - other research projects my wife and I are involved with allow us to incidentally observe the local Aphonopelmas under natural conditions all summer long. And the behaviors we see contradict much of the dogma on how to properly keep them in captivity. For example - keeping them in Kritter Keepers will never tell you how high off the ground they hunt. But we frequently find them climbing brick walls four or five feet up, picking off bugs drawn to lights. And one was observed about ten feet up attempting to grab a pallid bat that was distracted by its own meal. (The bat realized that the tarantula was there at the last moment and flew away just as the tarantula rushed it.) There are many other discrepencies as well.
The same gaps occur between behaviors we observe in other captive tarantulas and tarantulas in nature. And we'll never know how wide those gaps are until we can get some good studies and observations of wild populations. The best we're doing in this thread is making guesses as to how well captive tarantulas respond to light under the artificial conditions we provide. That's a LOT different than knowing whether "tarantulas LIKE light".
So..... If the way you are keeping your tarantulas works for you - fine. enjoy it. But don't bet too heavily that what you are doing really tells you how it is in nature.
