As Pannaking said, they are not usually happy to export native animals. If you brought them here I would definitely go for keeping one, though...highly venomous animals are really cool, especially when they live longer than a few years, and I plan to get a Sicarius when I don't have to worry about small children getting themselves bitten.
that never gave a damn about everything, suckers. So was his spider.'
Which would be one of the reasons to export the genus. The problem is that even in the local sense, pretty much NOBODY has them in captivity, being the reason there's a rather extreme shortage on the anti-venom. The notion is that by allowing people that have the knowledge and that respect the genius, it would seem that, given the fact that you can only get so much venom out of a single specimen without killing or causing harm to the specimen itself, you need multiple specimens of a single species to produce wide scale anti-venom. (such as what was done with Lacterdactus, which made the anti-venom widely available to affected regions.) Therefore, if they become slightly more common, the venom becomes more easily obtainable, and anti-venom production can be increased, making the genus marginally less dangerous.The venom (more higher in the case of 1.0 specimens, notably, in A.robustus) is a problem. Not only because 'you' risk the 'lights off', but because to grab per time, outside of the Sydney area, the antivenom 'shot' required for would be almost impossible.
Consider also that, recently, Australia is a bit 'short' on those antivenom 'personal stock'.
What people fail IMO always to realize is that, (imagine to) keep one here in Italy (or in Poland, Hungary, Romania or whatever), a 'whoops!' happens, and 'you' are freaked. The antivenom wouldn't arrive in time, no way Sir.
In Italy you would be long time dead before bureaucrecy ended, lol. Dunno... probably in the States things works better but not here.
Therefore, this is the real issue: a bite in Sydney area, quickly at the E.R, and chances % of a fatality are pretty low (in fact, since the creation of the antivenom, in early '80, fatality rate went down), a bite here in Europe and bye bye.
Only 'Pro' is that, on your grave, as a memento, you can ask your family to engrave this v
- A pic with the finger straight, with written: 'here lies the mortal rest of a brutal genuine A-
Indeed S. terrosus is a unique species in terms of appearance. Looking at one, I could see the possibility for mistaking them them for A. Henzi. at first glance.Your first step would be moving to Australia
I know what you mean, man, but honestly, the (sad) question is: 'Who really needs antivenom for A.robustus, aside Australia, in the first place?'
You make some good points. However, bear in mind I'm talking about the entire genius Atrax, not just A. robustus. That said, the notion that A. robustus continues to be confined to the region near Sydney is most probably inaccurate, for the same reasons we sometimes find specimens of P. fera and/or P. nigriventer in the United States by reason of shipping crates, etc. Its only a matter of time before someone encounters the genius Atrax via shipping containers outside the native regions of the Atrax genius, if indeed it hasn't already happened, but yet not been documented. The idea is to be prepared for it before it eventually happens. That said, because A. robustus in particular is known to be easy to provoke into multiple bites, I can definitely see why it might not be the best thing to have around in extremely large quantities, particularly with those whom aren't capable of safely dealing with them. Restriction is one thing, an outright ban is stupid not to mention species discrimination of a sort.
The "What If" factor is inherent to a sizable portion of the arachnid class, I think, to some degree or another.
I definitely agree with that much. Not a genius we want down at the local frat party on a college campus.
There's no risk for that my man... in general at those kind of parties there's drugs, alcohol, naked Tumblrina and probably, yes, a crypto-pedo janitor lurking as well, but genius? Nada, zip
LOL, thats true. lolThere's no risk for that my man... in general at those kind of parties there's drugs, alcohol, naked Tumblrina and probably, yes, a crypto-pedo janitor lurking as well, but genius? Nada, zip
But could you imagine, a bunch of frat guys and an A. Robustus ? Its rather amusing to think about really, for the simple fact that it proves in concept just how unevolved our species really is compared to our arachnid friends. I am truly convinced that arachnids are smarter than humans, in that we know that their ever present but rarely seen in nature, under normal circumstances, unless they actually want to be seen. Like that Lacterdactus I came across yesterday on the freezer that I gently swept off with a brush. I'm paranoid as to where it is, for reasons solely related to the concept of karma, lol. It almost makes one wonder if certain species actually know their power, lol- or if arachnids are just arbitrarily programmed robots on some level or another.
Just throwing this out there, Atrax isn't nearly as mobile as Phoneutria, making the chances of them making their way into a shipping container extremely small. Only mature male Atrax wander, as opposed to Phos of all sizes/ages. I also suspect that they aren't as robust as other spiders, so they would struggle in areas outside what they're adapted to.
This is true that antivenin doesn't keep long. But if you have access to venom on site- why would you NOT choose to produce antivenin on site?, apart from the logistics in terms of the facilities required in actually producing it.
Agreed, logistics aside, if you have the people who are willing to be trained to do it they might as well.
The thing is that mind you I'm not even going as far as to say a hobbyist should be doing this, given the inherent risk we're dealing with, I'm looking at this on the terms of people that would make a full time job out of dealing with this sort of thing, or at least hobbyists that take any bite seriously enough. (I've actually seen morons that would probably have no problem attempting to handle A. robustus, simply from not registering the epic proportions of the venom i.e. this is NOT on the scale of Lacterdectus or the other medically significant venoms in our part of the world even.) The interesting thing about the last confirmed A. Robustus bite, was that it took 12 vials of antivenin to keep things in check. (most bites require on average 4, where antivenin is administered symptomatically after the first 2 - 4 vials, depending upon severity of envenomation and sex- the male venom is more potent in the Axtrax genius).