Can Tarantulas Hear?

[jgaglio1]

My guess would be they can tell it's a small, living thing by the movements. If it's small enough, they chomp down.
As for frozen pinkies...Well, I'm not sure on that one -- has anyone ever gotten a T to eat a pre-killed pinky without dangling it in front of the T?

Last Friday I dropped a pinkie in with my T. apophysis. It killed the pinkie and moved away. Later that night it was still there on the substrate so i pulled it out and dropped the dead pinkie in with my C. crawshayi. An hour later I checked in and the craw was chowin' down.

 

[John Bokma]

My 2 cents: a tarantula doesn't hear. A cricket does hear. A tarantula doesn't need a dedicated organ for processing (sub/super)sounds, a cricket does, because it's part of their "social" structure :-D.

Feeling vibrations is not the same as hearing. Hearing also means interpretation of the sound(s) itself at a much higher level. And I think that for a tarantula interpretation of the vibrations is sufficient. It doesn't need to hear a cricket "singing" for example to detect it.

 

[Lover of 8 legs]

Feeling vibrations is not the same as hearing. Hearing also means interpretation of the sound(s) itself at a much higher level.

If a tree falls in the forest.............?????? Are you putting humans on that higer level????

 

[rag]

my neighbor has ony of those devices that are suposed to keep small animals away from gardens, they emit some sort of sound which isnt suposed to be heard by humans but it is unbearable to certain animals. i do hear some sort of squel when ever a bird triggers it and so did my G rosea when i kept her downstairs by the window. she would most of the time do a slight duck at soon as the device was triggered and when the sound stopped she would slowly bring her body off the substrate and resume being a motionless pet rock.

just my $0.02

by the way, i decided to move here away from the window and upstairs and she hasnt done the whole duck and cover thing since.