An Arachnophobe’s Journey: Part II
Over the weekend, I visited the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO for the “Spiders Around the World” exhibit! And… I finally met Rosie the Chilean Rosehair Tarantula 🤎
In Part I of this post, I mentioned my goal of holding the Butterfly Pavilion’s interpretive tarantula, Rosie. I finally did it – here’s proof!
Rosie was wonderful and I really enjoyed meeting her. Also, thank you to the wonderful volunteer who told my friend and I all about her!
The biggest surprise for me was how soft her little feet are. I was expecting them to feel sharper, like fingernails, on the bottom, but they were actually super soft and she walked very lightly.
I ended up not being scared of her at all, and I loved her so much my friend bought me a plushie of her from the gift shop!
Rosie is a Chilean Rosehair Tarantula, but is very different from another tarantula of the same species I have interacted with. At one of my jobs, a small part of mine and my coworkers’ jobs were to feed and care for our tarantula. She was super different in temperament from Rosie; my coworker, after going through a long process to try to socialize her, said, “It’s not going to work – she’s just hateful!” Just as with any species, individuals are very different from one another.
The Butterfly Pavilion volunteer my friend and I spoke with told us that there are currently about 35 Rosies who each work two one-hour shifts every five days. This gives them long breaks from their jobs as interpretive tarantulas. However, they have many more tarantulas than the Rosies; they only work with female tarantulas, and not all of them have the personality necessary to be a “Rosie.” I loved the idea that all the tarantulas were hanging out together somewhere behind the scenes, waiting for their turn to meet people!
Photo Credit: Butterfly Pavilion
Throughout the rest of the “Spiders Around the World” exhibit, I met a bunch of other species of tarantulas. This excerpt from the Butterfly Pavilion website describes the exhibit:
“This year’s Halloween-inspired spider collection showcases more than 20 different tarantula species from across the globe such as the Colombian Pumpkin Patch Tarantula and the Sapphire Ornamental tarantula to get in the Halloween spirit! Meanwhile, extraordinary spiders like the African Rear-Horned Baboon and the Mexican Red Leg Tarantula will encourage guests to view invertebrates with curiosity and wonder, not fear.”
Here are a few tarantulas from this exhibit:
This Mexican Red Leg Tarantula was really cute! I think it was the smallest tarantula in the exhibit. I learned that despite their size, they can hunt mammals, insects, reptiles, and other arachnids.
Photo Credit: Hailey Robe
I also loved seeing the “Itsy-Bitsy Spiderling Nursery,” where we saw tons of baby spiders!
The Butterfly Pavilion website describes this exhibit: “New on display in October, spiderlings from four distinct tarantula species, all born in the Butterfly Pavilion’s laboratory as part of a special breeding program.”
Photo Credit: Hailey Robe
After walking through the butterfly exhibit (which was great!) we got to the other part of the spider exhibit: the Spider Zone. This one was a little tougher for me – these spiders were objectively cool but actually much scarier to me than the tarantulas. The description from the Butterfly Pavilion website says:
“Butterfly Pavilion also invites guests to engage with some new friends in Spider Zone, an exotic enclosure filled with hundreds of free-roaming orb-weaving spiders, the Zone, is eight times larger than in 2022, at 80-feet it takes over a third of the Wings of the Tropics ’s butterfly conservatory. Inhabited with weavers, including Malaysian species as big as a human hand, guests walk amongst spiders with no separation, and get up-close with them and their intricate webs. Discover their brilliance and significance during this special exhibition celebrating spiders and the incredible impact they make in our world.”
It’s hard to tell in this picture, but these spiders were big. The exhibit was full of orb-weaver spiders, including the banded garden spider, the giant lichen orb weaver, the giant wood spider, the golden orb-weaver, and the yellow garden spider.
These spiders were cool and made some beautiful webs, but something about their appearance was way more frightening to me than the tarantulas. I think they look a little sharper and meaner, instead of fuzzy.
Photo Source: Hailey Robe
I also liked the plaque on arachnophobia they displayed in the exhibit – I think it really summed up the common issues people (including me) have with spiders while encouraging people to confront and identify that feeling.
Photo Source: Hailey Robe
The text reads: “Arachnophobia is the intense fear of spiders and arachnids and can cause reactions from discomfort to panic. It can affect up to 15% of the population. A fear of spiders may be explained by how humans have evolved, what we’ve learned from our culture, and our experiences. This fear sometimes makes sense because humans learned a long time ago that avoiding venomous animals such as spiders led to less danger.
Media and folklore depicting spiders as dangerous can also strengthen this fear. Often the spiders we see in movies and television shows are actually very harmless, but because they pose little threat to the cast or crew, they can easily be filmed in ways that make them appear frightening or aggressive.
People with arachnophobia frequently attribute their fear to traumatic experiences fro their own childhood, or seeing others react to spiders with fear or disgust.
In this exhibit full of spiders, take a moment to assess how you are feeling. Where do these feelings come from for you?” (Followed by a Spanish translation).
The highlight of the experience was definitely the tarantulas, but we saw lots of other great invertebrates too! I’ll have to post about the butterflies, bees, sea urchins, and starfish at some point - they were awesome. I had a great time at the Butterfly Pavilion and definitely recommend people visit! I’ll definitely be back to visit Rosie again. 🤎
