US Tarantula Sustainment Project

EvilTrailMix

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
96
*Posted with permission from Scott and Debby*

Attention: US tarantula breeders, vendors, and keepers! We need your help!

There are currently five species of Poecilotheria listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and this number is likely to grow. Due to their status, they cannot legally be sold or traded across state lines. This leaves many keepers unable to legally acquire these species, and with no idea when or if they will become available in their state.

The US hobby relies heavily on imports from Europe, where much more breeding is being done. As of 2018, Brazilian endemic species can no longer be imported into the US from any country, per the US Lacey Act. This means the Brazilian endemic spiders that entered the US prior and up to 2018 are all that we have. Without a conscious effort to sustain the US populations, we stand to slowly lose many species through a lack of breeding. This affects many well known species, including Acanthoscurria geniculata, Grammostola pulchra, and Nhandu chromatus, just to name a few.

Breeding loans and true gifts of ESA Poecilotheria across state lines are allowed under the law. As a proactive measure, and to facilitate future breeding projects and gifting where needed, a searchable database of Poecilotheria and Brazilian endemic species owned by state is being created. This project is a collaborative effort between myself, libra0804 (Wonderland Exotics), RHawk, Randeezy (North Texas Tarantula Breeders), ldmorris, and a couple other folks. Our goal is to work within the law, to ensure each state has legal access to these species. The database is currently being set up in a Google sheet, which will be made available for anyone to view with a link.

The first "Tarantula Sustainment Project" survey is ready! This survey is for residents of the contiguous United States, who currently own any species of the Poecilotheria genus. You can take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/tarantulasustainment.

Please keep in mind, the info collected in these surveys will be added to the database, which will be publicly available to anyone with an internet connection. Please be aware of your state's laws (if any) regarding which species are legal to own. Links to the Brazilian endemic survey and to the database will also be posted once they're ready.

Thank you to everyone who's shared their interest in helping this project grow! We can't do it without you!
 

BoyFromLA

Spoon feeder
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Oct 26, 2017
Messages
2,488
I did the survey. Look forward to help out in any way possible.
 

whitnee

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 30, 2021
Messages
1
Just completed both surveys :) I really want to help improve the breeding situation in the US so I'm excited ya'll are doing this project
 

ObsidianSpinelessSnR

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 6, 2022
Messages
1
Both surveys taken. Very excited to hopefully be able to assist in the propagation of the poecilotheria genus to the best of my abilities. Such amazing creatures and we need more dedicated breeders here in the states and around the world!
 

l4nsky

Aspiring Mad Genius
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
1,074
*Posted with permission from Scott and Debby*

Attention: US tarantula breeders, vendors, and keepers! We need your help!

There are currently five species of Poecilotheria listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and this number is likely to grow. Due to their status, they cannot legally be sold or traded across state lines. This leaves many keepers unable to legally acquire these species, and with no idea when or if they will become available in their state.

The US hobby relies heavily on imports from Europe, where much more breeding is being done. As of 2018, Brazilian endemic species can no longer be imported into the US from any country, per the US Lacey Act. This means the Brazilian endemic spiders that entered the US prior and up to 2018 are all that we have. Without a conscious effort to sustain the US populations, we stand to slowly lose many species through a lack of breeding. This affects many well known species, including Acanthoscurria geniculata, Grammostola pulchra, and Nhandu chromatus, just to name a few.

Breeding loans and true gifts of ESA Poecilotheria across state lines are allowed under the law. As a proactive measure, and to facilitate future breeding projects and gifting where needed, a searchable database of Poecilotheria and Brazilian endemic species owned by state is being created. This project is a collaborative effort between myself, libra0804 (Wonderland Exotics), RHawk, Randeezy (North Texas Tarantula Breeders), ldmorris, and a couple other folks. Our goal is to work within the law, to ensure each state has legal access to these species. The database is currently being set up in a Google sheet, which will be made available for anyone to view with a link.

The first "Tarantula Sustainment Project" survey is ready! This survey is for residents of the contiguous United States, who currently own any species of the Poecilotheria genus. You can take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/tarantulasustainment.

Please keep in mind, the info collected in these surveys will be added to the database, which will be publicly available to anyone with an internet connection. Please be aware of your state's laws (if any) regarding which species are legal to own. Links to the Brazilian endemic survey and to the database will also be posted once they're ready.

Thank you to everyone who's shared their interest in helping this project grow! We can't do it without you!
Do you have links to these data repositories by chance? I have a few ESA species and I'd like to try and find individuals with females before some of my growouts mature as males.
 

Moon Mom

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 18, 2021
Messages
5
Completed the survey! Really thankful that the T Sustainment Project put this together! :)
 

EvilTrailMix

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
96
Do you have links to these data repositories by chance? I have a few ESA species and I'd like to try and find individuals with females before some of my growouts mature as males.
We're still working on the sheet, but once it's ready, I will be posting the link here! Hopefully won't be too much longer.

Completed the survey! Really thankful that the T Sustainment Project put this together! :)
Hey, didn't realize you were here, too! Thank you!


Some general updates on the project:

Tom Moran (Tom's Big Spiders, for anyone who somehow isn't familiar) invited us to talk about it in a podcast, which was posted on his sites yesterday (10/16/22). Some of the questions we've received about the project since initially posting about it have been answered in the podcast. I've not shared links here as I'm unsure if linking to an outside source like this would be allowed.

We goofed, and when the Poecilotheria survey first went up, we had forgotten to include a question for contact info. If you completed a survey without providing a method of contact, please re-take the survey and include this info. Apologies!

On the subject of contact info, if you're using Facebook as your method of contact, please include the URL for your profile instead of just listing "Facebook." Searching through potentially many people sharing the same name will not be an efficient way to contact you.

If you've taken a survey and need to update your entries (new spiders acquired or no longer have spiders previously owned), please take the survey again with your current species owned.

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to complete one or both of the surveys! The success of this project will directly rely on the amount of participation it receives.
 

Rinata

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 18, 2022
Messages
1
Did the Brazil survey. I have an adult male D diamantinensis. He’s been bred to one female. Not sure how much longer he will live but he is available to be bred for the time he has left. He is my first T to mature.
 

BillsSpider

Arachnoknight
Joined
Mar 8, 2017
Messages
154
I did both surveys. I don't do any breeding myself as I have very limited space but I am more than welcome to contribute to breeding projects
 

Ungoliant

Malleus Aranearum
Staff member
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
4,096
Tom Moran (Tom's Big Spiders, for anyone who somehow isn't familiar) invited us to talk about it in a podcast, which was posted on his sites yesterday (10/16/22). Some of the questions we've received about the project since initially posting about it have been answered in the podcast. I've not shared links here as I'm unsure if linking to an outside source like this would be allowed.
You may link to the Podcast.
 

Shadow1ane

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
1
If we had previously filled out the survey, but one of the unsexed slings is now a sexed juvenile, is there a way to update that information?
 

EvilTrailMix

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
96
If we had previously filled out the survey, but one of the unsexed slings is now a sexed juvenile, is there a way to update that information?
Yes, if you've had changes (need to add, remove, or change spider listings), please fill out the survey again with your current info.
 

EvilTrailMix

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
96
The database for the US Tarantula Sustainment Project is finally live! The link to the database is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qvrLl4dpr3aKhVBZ0i9kTdF4BapzPaNH3FUzZkr-dEI.

Survey entries are up to date as of 12/11/22. If you completed a survey but do not see your entries listed, it's for one of the following reasons:

1. Your contact info was absent. Unfortunately, we forgot to include a question for "contact info" when the surveys first went up.

2. Your contact info was insufficient to find you. Some entries said "Facebook" or "Arachnoboards," but did not provide a link or username.

3. Your contact info was a private email address. For everyone's privacy, we are not including these on the database. Everyone who provided an email address has been emailed. Please check your junk if you haven't seen it.

While we did our best to locate and message those who had missing or insufficient contact info, we weren't able to find everyone. Please check your Facebook "other" inbox if you completed a survey and don't see your entries listed. If you don't see a message about the project, please take the survey(s) again.

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who's completed one or both of these surveys, shared the project, or otherwise helped along the way.
 

Zurchiboy

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 13, 2015
Messages
3
Whilst I don't have any pokies. I do have a couple species listed under the new Cities ban that I am hoping to contribute to breeding projects. I fully support this project to help reduce if not eliminate the need for importation and wild caught specimens.
 
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