Since I made my documentary "In Search of Costa Rican Tarantulas", it has only been available as a paid download at Andrew M. Smith's LoveTarantulas.com. It was only 3 quid, about $4.50 or so, but everybody wants everything for free. I think I saw my half of the proceeds once or twice, but even at dirt cheap prices these downloads are few and far between.
Now, for the first time, I GIVE to you my documentary of our 2006 field trip to Costa Rica, which found 14 varieties of tarantula, for about what it's worth. If you are so inclined you can find this film on my YouTube channel split into two parts as the Love Tarantulas downloads have been. Even for FREE I imagine I'll have to lead some of you ponies to the water, so here are the direct links to watch. If nothing else you can laugh at our neckerchiefs and listen to Andrew.
In Search of Costa Rican Tarantulas - Part 1, 720p
In Search of Costa Rican Tarantulas - Part 2, 720p
Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts
Friday, July 1, 2016
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
#97 - COSTA RICA 2015
Hello again,
I have just returned from an amazing holiday in Costa Rica with my bonus dad Joel. I fell in love with Costa Rica, its people and the pura vida lifestyle during my 2006 field trip there and returned telling anyone and everyone that I would be moving there within a few years. Obviously, that hasn't happened. When my marriage ended I took on a job in Seattle and stayed there for five years until the tragic loss of my beloved mother. I can tell you that this past two week's stay in Costa Rica has rekindled my desire to retire there, but I am now looking at doing it when the time is right, not just spontaneously pick up and leave now.
The key word in the first sentence is "holiday". The Brits I normally travel with on field trips are understandably looking to travel on a budget. We are spider hunters. Jungle trekkers. We don't require fancy accommodations. That said, I am appalled by some of the quarters they are willing to stay in. This trip to Costa Rica was all about holiday and zero about field trip. Joel and I travel in luxury. We are hedonistic and make no apologies for staying in five or six star resorts and living the dream.
My field trip mates like to say "this is a field trip, not a holiday". Well, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to say this is a holiday, not a field trip. We stayed in fine suites with flower petals on our bedding and jacuzzi tubs surrounded my amazing stonework. We ate fine cuisine and enjoyed local flavor and live music. We were comfortable. The trip was not about spiders. It was about showing Joel the majesty of Costa Rica's natural world. We hiked to the top of Poás Volcano. We trekked the Monteverde Cloud forest. We took day and night hikes in the lowland rainforests of Sarapiquí where we stayed in cabins right along the river. We found zero tarantulas and I couldn't have been happier for it. One tarantula and the holiday would have been tainted as part field trip. I wanted to enjoy the fauna of Costa Rica, but without any considerable effort. Those of you who have (or will) check in on my Instagram account (http://www.instagram.com/exoticfauna/) will see many of the spectacular creatures we saw. There are over 160 images from our trip that also show our beautiful hotels and the wonderful food we ate.
For reptiles I saw no snakes, but instead saw caimans and amazing lizards like the emerald basilisk, brown basilisk, spiny-tailed iguana, yellow-headed gecko, myriad house geckos and anoles. For amphibians I got great photos of the "blue jeans" or strawberry dart frog, the green and black dart frog and a few other frogs and toads. I saw many fascinating insects like dobsonflies, blue morpho butterflies, extraordinary katydids, moths and more. The birds were spectacular. Costa Rica is home to 52 species of hummingbird and 30 live in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. I captured amazing images of some. One avian highlight was the aracari (pronounced ahr-uh-SAHR-ee), which I was able to capture with my camera on two occasions, but saw countless others speeding through the rainforest. I even was fortunate enough to lay eyes for the first time on a male Resplendent Quetzal in Monteverde. However, before I could photograph he was gone in a colorful flash of blue and red. Another incredible sighting was scarlet macaws. Each time they were soaring above the trees and eluded my camera. Once again I struck out on seeing a sloth. But I did enjoy other mammals like a nine-banded armadillo on a night hike and some roadside coatis. There is a video of me following a male coati (pronounced kwah-TEE) down the path in the Monteverde Cloud Forest on my Instagram as well. I got a nice image of a two-lined bat, and saw and shot images of other mammals. The primates were a special treat. Near Cañas we encountered a large troop of mantled howler monkeys. As I began photographing them I noticed that one was a white-faced capuchin. It was obvious that the howlers had adopted the capuchin and made it part of the family. During our last breakfast in CR just before heading to the airport a group of capuchins descended from the trees and invaded our resort's open air breakfast area. We learned that they weren't after fruit (the squirrel monkeys go for that), but rather the sweetener packets on our tables. The staff quickly rounded up all of the sugar and then tossed one cheeky monkey a mango that he then focused his attention on.
A trip to Costa Rica without one tarantula or one snake. If it had been a field trip this would be a major disappointment. But, as it was a posh holiday, what we were able to see was nothing short of incredible. My 73-year old bonus dad, who has a bad hip, was a trooper doing the hikes that we did enjoy. But the trip was about chilling and I spent more time in the pool or on the beach than I ever have on any vacation. It was paradise. Joel also caught his first sailfish and I was overjoyed for that.
Did I look at all for tarantulas? Yes. I returned to a roadside in Cañas where we had found many A. seemanni in 2006. Nine years later most of the embankment was eroded and the vegetation had been allowed to overtake the roadside. I found one burrow and went back at nightfall, but had no luck. Three times I visited an area where we had found many M. mesomelas in 2006. The area was under construction and the road bank had been stripped. The soda (little shop/restaurant) that was next to our "honey hole" had been demolished. I also stood right where Paul Carpenter had found our first Sphaerobothria hoffmanni. I searched that embankment and found nothing. I gave it a cursory effort before returning to holiday mode and enjoying a fine Costa Rican coffee on a sun porch while watching darting hummingbirds and various tanagers.
Pura vida, MJ
I have just returned from an amazing holiday in Costa Rica with my bonus dad Joel. I fell in love with Costa Rica, its people and the pura vida lifestyle during my 2006 field trip there and returned telling anyone and everyone that I would be moving there within a few years. Obviously, that hasn't happened. When my marriage ended I took on a job in Seattle and stayed there for five years until the tragic loss of my beloved mother. I can tell you that this past two week's stay in Costa Rica has rekindled my desire to retire there, but I am now looking at doing it when the time is right, not just spontaneously pick up and leave now.
The key word in the first sentence is "holiday". The Brits I normally travel with on field trips are understandably looking to travel on a budget. We are spider hunters. Jungle trekkers. We don't require fancy accommodations. That said, I am appalled by some of the quarters they are willing to stay in. This trip to Costa Rica was all about holiday and zero about field trip. Joel and I travel in luxury. We are hedonistic and make no apologies for staying in five or six star resorts and living the dream.
My field trip mates like to say "this is a field trip, not a holiday". Well, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to say this is a holiday, not a field trip. We stayed in fine suites with flower petals on our bedding and jacuzzi tubs surrounded my amazing stonework. We ate fine cuisine and enjoyed local flavor and live music. We were comfortable. The trip was not about spiders. It was about showing Joel the majesty of Costa Rica's natural world. We hiked to the top of Poás Volcano. We trekked the Monteverde Cloud forest. We took day and night hikes in the lowland rainforests of Sarapiquí where we stayed in cabins right along the river. We found zero tarantulas and I couldn't have been happier for it. One tarantula and the holiday would have been tainted as part field trip. I wanted to enjoy the fauna of Costa Rica, but without any considerable effort. Those of you who have (or will) check in on my Instagram account (http://www.instagram.com/exoticfauna/) will see many of the spectacular creatures we saw. There are over 160 images from our trip that also show our beautiful hotels and the wonderful food we ate.
For reptiles I saw no snakes, but instead saw caimans and amazing lizards like the emerald basilisk, brown basilisk, spiny-tailed iguana, yellow-headed gecko, myriad house geckos and anoles. For amphibians I got great photos of the "blue jeans" or strawberry dart frog, the green and black dart frog and a few other frogs and toads. I saw many fascinating insects like dobsonflies, blue morpho butterflies, extraordinary katydids, moths and more. The birds were spectacular. Costa Rica is home to 52 species of hummingbird and 30 live in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. I captured amazing images of some. One avian highlight was the aracari (pronounced ahr-uh-SAHR-ee), which I was able to capture with my camera on two occasions, but saw countless others speeding through the rainforest. I even was fortunate enough to lay eyes for the first time on a male Resplendent Quetzal in Monteverde. However, before I could photograph he was gone in a colorful flash of blue and red. Another incredible sighting was scarlet macaws. Each time they were soaring above the trees and eluded my camera. Once again I struck out on seeing a sloth. But I did enjoy other mammals like a nine-banded armadillo on a night hike and some roadside coatis. There is a video of me following a male coati (pronounced kwah-TEE) down the path in the Monteverde Cloud Forest on my Instagram as well. I got a nice image of a two-lined bat, and saw and shot images of other mammals. The primates were a special treat. Near Cañas we encountered a large troop of mantled howler monkeys. As I began photographing them I noticed that one was a white-faced capuchin. It was obvious that the howlers had adopted the capuchin and made it part of the family. During our last breakfast in CR just before heading to the airport a group of capuchins descended from the trees and invaded our resort's open air breakfast area. We learned that they weren't after fruit (the squirrel monkeys go for that), but rather the sweetener packets on our tables. The staff quickly rounded up all of the sugar and then tossed one cheeky monkey a mango that he then focused his attention on.
A trip to Costa Rica without one tarantula or one snake. If it had been a field trip this would be a major disappointment. But, as it was a posh holiday, what we were able to see was nothing short of incredible. My 73-year old bonus dad, who has a bad hip, was a trooper doing the hikes that we did enjoy. But the trip was about chilling and I spent more time in the pool or on the beach than I ever have on any vacation. It was paradise. Joel also caught his first sailfish and I was overjoyed for that.
Did I look at all for tarantulas? Yes. I returned to a roadside in Cañas where we had found many A. seemanni in 2006. Nine years later most of the embankment was eroded and the vegetation had been allowed to overtake the roadside. I found one burrow and went back at nightfall, but had no luck. Three times I visited an area where we had found many M. mesomelas in 2006. The area was under construction and the road bank had been stripped. The soda (little shop/restaurant) that was next to our "honey hole" had been demolished. I also stood right where Paul Carpenter had found our first Sphaerobothria hoffmanni. I searched that embankment and found nothing. I gave it a cursory effort before returning to holiday mode and enjoying a fine Costa Rican coffee on a sun porch while watching darting hummingbirds and various tanagers.
Pura vida, MJ
Thursday, November 12, 2015
#95 - A BRIEF GLIMPSE INTO THE SPARASSIDAE
I'm going to begin working on an article for the BTS Journal about the husbandry of huntsman spiders (Sparassidae) with an emphasis on the genus Heteropoda. In fact, I think I may ask Tom Patterson and/or John Apple to co-author it with me. (Tom and/or John please email me some of your tips and tricks to spidershoppe@icloud.com and I'll put you on as co-author. Photos also welcome, preferably by email not text!). I'll write the piece, but I am happy to incorporate info shared by Tom and/or John and have them be junior authors.
But, since I've neglected this blog of late, I thought I would just give you loyal KMBHS readers some photos and a few text blurbs as a sort of preview of this upcoming article. This is exclusive to KMBHS readers and I will share nowhere else. However, I will also be posting some of the new photos to my @exoticfauna Instagram today. I've been neglecting posting there too, and have instead been focused on my @dailyhandgun Instagram.
Yesterday, I shipped out my Heteropoda lunula and H. davidbowie. Yes, I was sorry to see them go, but the truth is that I was really only raising them to get photographs. I had no intention of breeding them as I have neither the time nor the desire to feed fruit flies to a hundred or more tiny huntsman spiderlings. I've mostly stayed away from breeding true spiders for this very reason. Raising even the smallest tarantula species is so much easier than sparassids and ctenids. They require more frequent feeding and tinier food. I don't enjoy making fruit fly cultures and the task of getting the little flies and such into vials with speed demon huntsman and wandering spider babies is time consuming and frustrating.
Here is a brief glimpse into the Sparassidae focusing solely on the genus Heteropoda. There currently are an astounding 197 species in this genus! The species that is one of the most widespread is H. venatoria, which has a pantropical distribution. In fact, although the genus is Asian and Australasian in origin, this species has been introduced around the world. We believe that the spider being sold as Heteropoda "Cameroon Giant" is actually a large form of H. venatoria. H. venatoria is also the type species of Heteropoda, described by Linnaeus himself way back in 1767 but originally as Aranea venatoria. The genus Heteropoda was created 37 years later by Latrielle.
This first image is of a wild-collected specimen of Heteropoda venatoria that was sold to me as "Heteropoda sp. 'Phetchaburi'", suggesting that it was found in the Phetchaburi Province of Thailand.
Of course, as BTS North American Coordinator, and now Editor of its prestigious Journal, I would be remiss if I did not once again solicit your membership. We are putting the finishing touches on the next issue of the Journal right now and I was pleased to see the list of new members to include more Americans including at least two KMBHS readers (John Apple & Kiffnie Holt). Please consider a digital membership if you can't spring for getting the Journal by mail. Here's a link. The upcoming Journal features a major taxonomic revision that I have co-authored. That's all I can say for now ... You'll have to wait until it hits mailboxes some time in December.
My editorial reign begins in the new year and I will look to get my full feature on Sparassidae in one of the three issues of 2016. I hope you've enjoyed this sneak preview and a quick glimpse at three species of the huge genus Heteropoda.
Please remember to follow my @exoticfauna Instagram for pix and such, including spiders and herps but also my other interests like travel and food/drink and tattoos (don't worry I save the firearms for my other IG for the most part). I leave for Costa Rica in three weeks and I will be posting images daily to this account. Now is the time for you to create an Instagram account if you don't have one and give me a follow. I will follow you back. I will be documenting every step of my journey in the land of Pura Vida accompanied by my "bonus dad" Joel.
All the best, MJ
But, since I've neglected this blog of late, I thought I would just give you loyal KMBHS readers some photos and a few text blurbs as a sort of preview of this upcoming article. This is exclusive to KMBHS readers and I will share nowhere else. However, I will also be posting some of the new photos to my @exoticfauna Instagram today. I've been neglecting posting there too, and have instead been focused on my @dailyhandgun Instagram.
Yesterday, I shipped out my Heteropoda lunula and H. davidbowie. Yes, I was sorry to see them go, but the truth is that I was really only raising them to get photographs. I had no intention of breeding them as I have neither the time nor the desire to feed fruit flies to a hundred or more tiny huntsman spiderlings. I've mostly stayed away from breeding true spiders for this very reason. Raising even the smallest tarantula species is so much easier than sparassids and ctenids. They require more frequent feeding and tinier food. I don't enjoy making fruit fly cultures and the task of getting the little flies and such into vials with speed demon huntsman and wandering spider babies is time consuming and frustrating.
Here is a brief glimpse into the Sparassidae focusing solely on the genus Heteropoda. There currently are an astounding 197 species in this genus! The species that is one of the most widespread is H. venatoria, which has a pantropical distribution. In fact, although the genus is Asian and Australasian in origin, this species has been introduced around the world. We believe that the spider being sold as Heteropoda "Cameroon Giant" is actually a large form of H. venatoria. H. venatoria is also the type species of Heteropoda, described by Linnaeus himself way back in 1767 but originally as Aranea venatoria. The genus Heteropoda was created 37 years later by Latrielle.
This first image is of a wild-collected specimen of Heteropoda venatoria that was sold to me as "Heteropoda sp. 'Phetchaburi'", suggesting that it was found in the Phetchaburi Province of Thailand.
Sparassids have a very distinctive appearance with two rows of four eyes and the crab-like habitus. There is perhaps no huntsman spider more spectacular than Heteropoda davidbowie. This species is known from Thailand (Yala), Malaysia (Padang), Singapore and Indonesia (Sumatra) and was given the rock star legend's name by Jäger in 2008. Females may vary from grayish-brown to orange. Males have a median longitudinal reddish line that runs from the eyes to the middle of the abdomen. The following spider is one of those I shipped out yesterday. It is still young, but the beginning of the reddish median dorsal markings are becoming apparent and it is likely a male.
H. davidbowie is certainly a gorgeous spider, and it's "facial makeup" is what led Peter Jäger to name it after the glamour and glitter pop star, but I think the most beautiful is Heteropoda lunula. I will miss having these around more than almost all the tarantulas I have sent away. The species was described in 1857 by Doleschall as Olios lunula. It is known from India to Vietnam, Malaysia, Java, Sumatra and Borneo. Taxonomically, it was transferred to many different genera and species over the years until Jäger reestablished called it Heteropoda lunula in 2002. The photos below will show you why it is my favorite.
Of course, as BTS North American Coordinator, and now Editor of its prestigious Journal, I would be remiss if I did not once again solicit your membership. We are putting the finishing touches on the next issue of the Journal right now and I was pleased to see the list of new members to include more Americans including at least two KMBHS readers (John Apple & Kiffnie Holt). Please consider a digital membership if you can't spring for getting the Journal by mail. Here's a link. The upcoming Journal features a major taxonomic revision that I have co-authored. That's all I can say for now ... You'll have to wait until it hits mailboxes some time in December.
My editorial reign begins in the new year and I will look to get my full feature on Sparassidae in one of the three issues of 2016. I hope you've enjoyed this sneak preview and a quick glimpse at three species of the huge genus Heteropoda.
Please remember to follow my @exoticfauna Instagram for pix and such, including spiders and herps but also my other interests like travel and food/drink and tattoos (don't worry I save the firearms for my other IG for the most part). I leave for Costa Rica in three weeks and I will be posting images daily to this account. Now is the time for you to create an Instagram account if you don't have one and give me a follow. I will follow you back. I will be documenting every step of my journey in the land of Pura Vida accompanied by my "bonus dad" Joel.
All the best, MJ
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
#73 - RANDOM MUSINGS
I missed my Sunday, Funday post two days ago. This is supposed to be the weekly random off-topic nonsense. I was busy at work and with some other things. I worked six days last week and am working six this week so today is my only day off. I have spider orders to pack and ship and I have a seat at my company's "Gold Table" at tonight's local NRA banquet starting at five so I am in a bit of a rush.
Still I can't start my morning without playing with spiders over a few cups of java. I just finally rehoused all of my Heteropoda davidbowie (thankfully without incident) and I cupped up the 2nd instar Avicularia diversipes I just hatched. There were 57 in total. Now I will feed them and try to do some more feeding before I start my packing so I can drop off the packages at FedEx on the way to the banquet.
Before starting to type this I posted a new Arachnoboards ad. I still have some clearance items and I've reduced almost all the prices and am still offering 10% off orders of $300+ exclusive of freight charge with free shipping for orders of $500+. There is a surprise on this list as I am offering my five adult female ULTRA RARE Avicularia hirschii AS A GROUP ONLY. I am also considering adding my Pachistopelma. I would love to be the first to breed A. hirschii and add that to my list of USA firsts in the past 12 months (including both species of Pachistopelma and Harpactira pulchripes), which now stands at six I think. However, I have no young to raise for males and my future with the colony looks bleak. I'd rather move them out to someone who might breed them and it would also help me buy the $4000 pistol I currently have my eye on.
Producing six US firsts probably won't even be recognized by the "popularity contests" such as this Reptile Report "Breeder of the Year" thing. Cracks me up how some of the people perennially nominated haven't bred a dad gum thing and others have bred species that everybody and their grandma has bred. Yay, for you and your Psalmopoeus irminia. But this is the way of the hobby ... the people who waste their hours among the Faffbookers and Arachnoboreds get popular and most hobbyists haven't a clue.
I also updated my website listing and corrected a glitch that someone made me aware of. Plus I sent out a wholesale list to try to move out the A. diversipes and I. hirsutum "Recife" I have on hand. I only wholesale to legitimate resellers (licensed businesses) or a few "weekend warriors" I respect and refuse to sell to the newbies, douchenozzles, and USPS illegal shippers.
I also started me day exchanging text messages with Mark Pennell and John Apple. Mark's October 4 arrival is only about 19 days away so time is flying. I still can't believe August has passed and now we're already half way through September. I am excited to have my best mate here again along with other close friends during my October 9 mini-ArachnoGathering at my home. Y'all are still welcome as long as you RSVP and ask for address. It's BYOB, but I'll be supplying the food. If you want to "stock the bar" with a bottle of booze I favor whiskey - Irish or American bourbon - vodka (especially Belvedere, Grey Goose and Ketel One). After my recent overconsumption of tequila - AFTER finishing the lion's share of a bottle of Jameson Black Barrell - I'd rather avoid that devil's spirit!
Mark's tattoo schedule is already fully booked. He wants to have more down time this trip. I will be going to work when he has his tattoos scheduled so that I don't desert On Target completely. I'm working my way up the ladder there and don't want to stay away for too long.
I'm starting to get my Costa Rica trip all planned and I'll be gone and away from the Internet for a glorious 10 days at the beginning of December. When I do have signal I will just be posting some images to my @exoticfauna Instagram account. I hope y'all are following me there and/or on Twitter using same name. As you know, I don't Faffbook any more.
I don't miss FB one bit. For a guy who checked it on his phone or iPad or laptop dozens of times throughout the day it was amazing how "cold turkey" I shunned it and never even thought about it again. I really was fed up with all the idiots and staying away from AB and FB is good for my mental health. I am very intolerant of ignorance and I admit it is a personal flaw. I'm not just intolerant, every little thing tends to annoy me. I'm so OCD and so into proper writing, spelling and grammar that it's like nails on the blackboard just reading some of the atrociously written posts. I've already commented on how much capitalizing species names drives me batty, and now I see another newbie dealer who does scientific names in all lower case, without properly capitalizing the genus. Who the fuck does he think he is? e.e. cummings? You don't get to make stylistic choices with scientific names. There is only one way to write them.
Talking about editing and copy editing leads me to an announcement. This is not public and I am only sharing it with you, my faithful KISS MY BIG HAIRY SPIDER audience. Please keep it among our friendly little group until it is formally announced. I am excited to inform you that I will be taking over as Editor-in-Chief of the BTS Journal. I have already been serving as primary copy editor. That is, I am the first to rewrite submitted articles to correct grammar and make them as concise and clear as possible. All articles need substantial reworking and those translated from another language take even more effort. However, now Peter Kirk is turning the reins over to me completely. As many of you know, I published seven issues of my own magazine, ARACHNOCULTURE, from 2005-2007. Now I will again be guiding a publication, only this time it will be the world's premier arachnocultural and arachnological publication. It is looking like I am taking on quite a project here as not only will I be the Editor-in-Chief, but it is likely that I will also take over the pre-press layout of the magazine in order to stay on top of publication schedule. The BTS Journal will be my primary focus in the arachnid hobby. Any other activities including breeding, lectures, and event hosting will be secondary. This makes it even more unlikely that there will be an ArachnoGathering #3. Sorry. If any of you want to volunteer to come on board with AG and contribute some hard work to making it happen please let me know. If I get several helpers - AND NARBC GIVES ME THE GO AHEAD - it may still happen.
This is another busy week and my blog entries may be limited. If anyone out there wants to do a "guest blog" now is the time to volunteer. m.a.jacobi@icloud.com.
cheers, MJ
Still I can't start my morning without playing with spiders over a few cups of java. I just finally rehoused all of my Heteropoda davidbowie (thankfully without incident) and I cupped up the 2nd instar Avicularia diversipes I just hatched. There were 57 in total. Now I will feed them and try to do some more feeding before I start my packing so I can drop off the packages at FedEx on the way to the banquet.
Before starting to type this I posted a new Arachnoboards ad. I still have some clearance items and I've reduced almost all the prices and am still offering 10% off orders of $300+ exclusive of freight charge with free shipping for orders of $500+. There is a surprise on this list as I am offering my five adult female ULTRA RARE Avicularia hirschii AS A GROUP ONLY. I am also considering adding my Pachistopelma. I would love to be the first to breed A. hirschii and add that to my list of USA firsts in the past 12 months (including both species of Pachistopelma and Harpactira pulchripes), which now stands at six I think. However, I have no young to raise for males and my future with the colony looks bleak. I'd rather move them out to someone who might breed them and it would also help me buy the $4000 pistol I currently have my eye on.
Producing six US firsts probably won't even be recognized by the "popularity contests" such as this Reptile Report "Breeder of the Year" thing. Cracks me up how some of the people perennially nominated haven't bred a dad gum thing and others have bred species that everybody and their grandma has bred. Yay, for you and your Psalmopoeus irminia. But this is the way of the hobby ... the people who waste their hours among the Faffbookers and Arachnoboreds get popular and most hobbyists haven't a clue.
I also updated my website listing and corrected a glitch that someone made me aware of. Plus I sent out a wholesale list to try to move out the A. diversipes and I. hirsutum "Recife" I have on hand. I only wholesale to legitimate resellers (licensed businesses) or a few "weekend warriors" I respect and refuse to sell to the newbies, douchenozzles, and USPS illegal shippers.
I also started me day exchanging text messages with Mark Pennell and John Apple. Mark's October 4 arrival is only about 19 days away so time is flying. I still can't believe August has passed and now we're already half way through September. I am excited to have my best mate here again along with other close friends during my October 9 mini-ArachnoGathering at my home. Y'all are still welcome as long as you RSVP and ask for address. It's BYOB, but I'll be supplying the food. If you want to "stock the bar" with a bottle of booze I favor whiskey - Irish or American bourbon - vodka (especially Belvedere, Grey Goose and Ketel One). After my recent overconsumption of tequila - AFTER finishing the lion's share of a bottle of Jameson Black Barrell - I'd rather avoid that devil's spirit!
Mark's tattoo schedule is already fully booked. He wants to have more down time this trip. I will be going to work when he has his tattoos scheduled so that I don't desert On Target completely. I'm working my way up the ladder there and don't want to stay away for too long.
I'm starting to get my Costa Rica trip all planned and I'll be gone and away from the Internet for a glorious 10 days at the beginning of December. When I do have signal I will just be posting some images to my @exoticfauna Instagram account. I hope y'all are following me there and/or on Twitter using same name. As you know, I don't Faffbook any more.
I don't miss FB one bit. For a guy who checked it on his phone or iPad or laptop dozens of times throughout the day it was amazing how "cold turkey" I shunned it and never even thought about it again. I really was fed up with all the idiots and staying away from AB and FB is good for my mental health. I am very intolerant of ignorance and I admit it is a personal flaw. I'm not just intolerant, every little thing tends to annoy me. I'm so OCD and so into proper writing, spelling and grammar that it's like nails on the blackboard just reading some of the atrociously written posts. I've already commented on how much capitalizing species names drives me batty, and now I see another newbie dealer who does scientific names in all lower case, without properly capitalizing the genus. Who the fuck does he think he is? e.e. cummings? You don't get to make stylistic choices with scientific names. There is only one way to write them.
Talking about editing and copy editing leads me to an announcement. This is not public and I am only sharing it with you, my faithful KISS MY BIG HAIRY SPIDER audience. Please keep it among our friendly little group until it is formally announced. I am excited to inform you that I will be taking over as Editor-in-Chief of the BTS Journal. I have already been serving as primary copy editor. That is, I am the first to rewrite submitted articles to correct grammar and make them as concise and clear as possible. All articles need substantial reworking and those translated from another language take even more effort. However, now Peter Kirk is turning the reins over to me completely. As many of you know, I published seven issues of my own magazine, ARACHNOCULTURE, from 2005-2007. Now I will again be guiding a publication, only this time it will be the world's premier arachnocultural and arachnological publication. It is looking like I am taking on quite a project here as not only will I be the Editor-in-Chief, but it is likely that I will also take over the pre-press layout of the magazine in order to stay on top of publication schedule. The BTS Journal will be my primary focus in the arachnid hobby. Any other activities including breeding, lectures, and event hosting will be secondary. This makes it even more unlikely that there will be an ArachnoGathering #3. Sorry. If any of you want to volunteer to come on board with AG and contribute some hard work to making it happen please let me know. If I get several helpers - AND NARBC GIVES ME THE GO AHEAD - it may still happen.
This is another busy week and my blog entries may be limited. If anyone out there wants to do a "guest blog" now is the time to volunteer. m.a.jacobi@icloud.com.
cheers, MJ
Sunday, July 5, 2015
#32 - TALES FROM THE FIELD #3
In my last installment of my ongoing "TALES FROM THE FIELD" series we were in Suriname. I told stories about a somewhat bizarre visit to a native Maroon village, our open air viewings of Game of Thrones and more. The first installment shared stories from Costa Rica with ice axes in my feet, cat-chased green iguanas and rear-fanged snakes held for photos by Brit mates who had no clue of their venomous bite until afterward. I'd like to add a few more glimpses into each of these field trips here.
The ice axe was certainly my first "what the fuck" moment in Costa Rica, but I learned that it was the perfect tool for the job and I highly recommend it for digging out embankment burrows. But it remained a source of amusement six years later in the jungles of Suriname. We had arrived for one of several daily visits to Brownsberg Natuurpark in search of Theraphosa blondi. Andrew was ALWAYS the last person ready each morning and usually just when we thought he would finally climb into the car he'd have to take a last minute latrine trip or retrieve one last piece of gear. Paul, Guy and I were already dressed for the jungle, but Andrew liked to ride to the site (it was a 30 minute drive to Brownsberg and then a tortuous drive uphill on a rutted and dangerous clay road) in comfy clothes. He'd wear shorts and sandals and then change once we stopped for our first hike into the dense rainforest. So there he was in the middle of the red clay road on the ascent to the top of Brownberg stripped down to his whitey-tighties. It was a moment I couldn't resist. Here was a grey and pasty white famous arachnohistorian naked except for his skivvies. I grabbed my camera and asked him to pose with his ice axe. To his credit he was very willing, as long as I promised that I would never share the image with anyone. Sorry, but I keep my promises and that picture is safe with me. But if I ever need a good laugh I have that image on my hard drive. A man I revered for many years and then became one of my best friends; a man who is famous the world over as a tarantula expert; a man who has cultivated an image as an eccentric Victorian-in-the-modern-age arachnohistorian, standing with only his nob and bollocks covered holding the ice axe in a menacing pose. He knows never to piss me off or that photo will become a viral Internet meme!
Costa Rica was the country I fell most in love with. I still dream of retiring there. It was my first field trip with Andrew and our team and I cherish all my memories of that expedition. One story that will always be remembered is my encounter with a Centruroides limbatus scorpion. Our lodging was at Capazuri outside of Cañas in central Costa Rica. It was our 3rd base camp out of 4. We discovered that this area and many others within a short drive were teeming with Aphonopelma seemanni. It almost seemed too easy. All we had to do was take a stroll down the dirt road in back of the hotel and there was burrow after burrow holding adult female A. seemanni. This was dry country and the trees along the road held black spiny-tailed iguanas (Ctenosaura similis). Whenever you'd approach or try to photograph they would wedge themselves into the knotted branches and tree holes. We also found scorpions and another species of tarantula (presumably a Crypsidromus sp.). While we stayed at Capazuri we would locate burrows by day and then to return at night to photograph the resident tarantulas. It was great fun walking down the road and shining our flashlights ("torches" to my mates) on the dry dirt embankment and seeing all of the striped legs at the burrow mouths. The seemanni were tremendously abundant. Paul had taken to catching katydids during the day and tying string to them to sort of "fish" for the tarantulas and offer them a meal.
We always use two-way radios as our normal practice is to split into two two-man teams and spread out our search. This night I was teamed with Andrew, who was well-known for breaking protocol and wandering off alone. To be fair, I liked to do the same. So while Paul and Mark (brothers) went off somewhere out of sight it wasn't long until Andy and I lost sight of each other. Fortunately Andy was the one who carried the radio. Eventually Paul and Mark walked back my direction and the three of us "played" with all of the exposed female A. seemanni. We would catch various katydids and crickets and grasshoppers and chuck meals to the girls. I was kneeling along the roadside embankment photographing one spider when I saw a very large scorpion hastily moving alongside the bank. I had brought a camcorder to Costa Rica and I filmed the scorpion moving about the roadside. I wanted to get still shots of it the next morning so I decided I would capture it. But as I've "tailed" thousands of scorpions throughout my career, I neglected to get out my forceps and capture it safely. I reached for it's telson and before long it felt like someone had slammed my thumb in a car door. I was tagged by a hot scorpion and the pain was initially pretty intense. I clearly remember stating the obvious, "Well, that was stupid."
I must interject here to say that those of you who know me are aware that I am heavily tattooed. I wasn't then, but my arms and legs are covered now. I am famous by both of my tattoo artists for being "a rock" who can sit for 8 hours without flinching. I enjoy being tattooed. My pain tolerance is very high and I can even nap while getting tattooed. But this sting hurt! My thumb began to swell and my mates started to worry. I knew well that the best thing to do when envenomed by snake, scorpion or whatever is to remain calm. A racing heart only expedites the effects. We radioed Andy and he found his way back. He insisted on walking me back to our shared room, which was a good thing as I had become disoriented and my hand felt like it was on fire. Back at the room I reached into my kit for antihistamines and painkillers. I took about 4 times as many Benadryl as is advised and downed at least four Tylenol as well. I laid on my back on my bunk and held my arm dangling off the side towards the floor, keeping my hand well below my heart. I was sure I would be fine, but my mates were more worried. I actually dozed off and they kept checking on me during the night to see that I was OK. The pain had subsided and it was becoming more swollen and itchy than anything. Eventually I slept until morning and by then the effects had mostly dissipated. There was still a bit of swelling and the sting site was itchy. A few more Benadryl and it was on to another day. This was the last time I didn't use my forceps for Buthidae scorpion catching on a field trip. We found some beautiful Tityus paraensis in Suriname years later, which are not only hotter than the C. limbatus, but larger and more beautiful. I kept my body well away from their stingers.
Returning to Suriname ... I coined the term "Arachnohistorian" to describe Andrew Smith. He initially trained as a history teacher before studying science and his works center around the early collectors and arachnologist. He always takes us to historical sites on our field trips and we always bemoan the diversion from tarantula hunting. Our Suriname field trip was based on Madame Maria Sibylla Merian's famous trip there and her paintings of the "bird eating spider" that gave rise to the name Avicularia. Andrew wanted to visit the oldest cemetery in search of a tombstone of one of her relatives or something. I'm not much on history and don't pay much attention. We just are left with no choice but to humor him and spend a day out of the field. In fact, when we arrived at the cemetery I was happy to let him wander about while I stood on the street and walked the neighborhood looking at shops and people and buying a cool drink. The cemetery was in the capitol city of Paramaribo where over half of all Suriname's population resides. It was surrounded by a six foot brick wall and I stood alongside the wall smoking a cigar. I soon realized that the poorly kept cemetery, which was overgrown with weeds had another use. I watched men who appeared homeless climb over the wall and squat behind tombstones to defecate. My displeasure at spending a day doing this instead of chasing spiders, frogs and lizards began to increase exponentially. I warned Andrew to watch his step and to be on alert for the small brown men that were "dropping trou" among the dead. Sometimes our trip moments are surreal.
I'll conclude this entry with a return to 2006 and Costa Rica. As an arboreal specialist, the spider I most wanted to see was Psalmopoeus reduncus. But locating arboreal species can be very hard work and we had already found Tapinauchenius plumipes and Avicularia sp. I knew that the "Psalms" would be tougher and they were widespread throughout the country. So, we decided that we would not focus on them, but just hope we stumbled on to one as we searched for ground-dwelling species. Mark Carpenter is Paul's half-brother who is his junior by about a dozen years. He is not a spider man. He travels with us just to see the world and spend time with his brother in exotic locales. But he has an astonishing and very annoying habit of finding spiders before us "real spider men" on many occasions. We were in an affluent suburb near where we expected to find Cyclosternum sp. As it turned out we never located any "tiger-rumps" on our trip, and it was the only disappointment of a wonderful expedition. After spending a good deal of time in rural areas away from anything other than sparse villages with little shacks or houses, it was a bit strange to be walking past manicured lawns and some nice modern houses. But this was the type locality for our target and that afternoon we walked past saying "hola" and "buenas tardes" to Costa Rica's "upper class". It was balmy and a bit off-putting to be trespassing on the neighborhood. Mark paused at a knotted tree on the other side of a roadside fence and then asked "Michael, is this Psalmopoeus you are looking for a bronze spider that lives in trees?" This is just one of several similar occasions like this on the trip. Mark had found the spider despite not really knowing what he was looking for. He just liked to shine his "torch" into tree holes and the like and he had discovered the spider I had most wanted to see! We were able to capture it and get photographs before releasing it later.
Of course, the Costa Rican tarantula that was at the top of the entire team's wish list was Megaphobema mesomelas. This is a cloud forest spider and is most often associated with Monteverde. However, this is a national park and we try to avoid them. We don't collect, but we still have to dig out many burrowers and this would land us in trouble inside Monteverde. So we found a high elevation location east of Monteverde and took a scenic drive uphill. Costa Rica has little stands that sell cold drinks, beer and snacks or even lunch. These oases are called sodas. We came upon one that was surrounded by the fog and had a spectacular view of verdant mountains across a valley enveloped by mist and fog. We stopped for a refreshment and next to the soda was a long and steep grassy embankment. We would find many M. mesomelas here in just one quarter mile stretch of road. While the guys had wandered off to search the embankment I had myself a cold drink and spoke to the owner. I explained that we were searching for spiders using my best Spanish. He spoke a bit of English as well. Before long some young workers returned with a plastic jug containing a spider. It was a beautiful adult female orange wandering spider (Cupiennius coccineus). I explained that these were mostly harmless to humans and didn't bother challenging my Spanish ability with explaining that their venom was very deadly to arthropod prey. I took the spider out and held it for photographs. Meanwhile, the lads had found burrows holding M. mesomelas, but had yet to successfully "tickle one out" and did not want to start digging right next to the soda. The owner of the soda disappeared for ten minutes or so and when he returned he had a small cardboard box in his hands. He gave it to me and I opened it to see one of the most beautiful spiders I've ever laid eyes on in the field. It was a stunning, freshly molted female M. mesomelas. I thanked him and ran to where the guys were working burrows to show them the prize. We returned to the soda and the owner showed Andrew where he had dug up the spider for us. He knew it lived there and it was just behind the soda near his storage area. We wanted to give the guy a tip, but he refused. So we ordered a round of celebratory cold beers and some snacks from him before returning to the embankment to tickle out a few more.
I suppose I should remind you here that my entire Costa Rica story, which was originally published as the only article in the final ARACHNOCULTURE magazine, is on my website. If you want to read the story of the entire trip with images click here for the first of 30 webpages that contain the article and select the "Next Page" link to progress through the pages.
Hope your fourth was safe. Thanks for reading! MJ
The ice axe was certainly my first "what the fuck" moment in Costa Rica, but I learned that it was the perfect tool for the job and I highly recommend it for digging out embankment burrows. But it remained a source of amusement six years later in the jungles of Suriname. We had arrived for one of several daily visits to Brownsberg Natuurpark in search of Theraphosa blondi. Andrew was ALWAYS the last person ready each morning and usually just when we thought he would finally climb into the car he'd have to take a last minute latrine trip or retrieve one last piece of gear. Paul, Guy and I were already dressed for the jungle, but Andrew liked to ride to the site (it was a 30 minute drive to Brownsberg and then a tortuous drive uphill on a rutted and dangerous clay road) in comfy clothes. He'd wear shorts and sandals and then change once we stopped for our first hike into the dense rainforest. So there he was in the middle of the red clay road on the ascent to the top of Brownberg stripped down to his whitey-tighties. It was a moment I couldn't resist. Here was a grey and pasty white famous arachnohistorian naked except for his skivvies. I grabbed my camera and asked him to pose with his ice axe. To his credit he was very willing, as long as I promised that I would never share the image with anyone. Sorry, but I keep my promises and that picture is safe with me. But if I ever need a good laugh I have that image on my hard drive. A man I revered for many years and then became one of my best friends; a man who is famous the world over as a tarantula expert; a man who has cultivated an image as an eccentric Victorian-in-the-modern-age arachnohistorian, standing with only his nob and bollocks covered holding the ice axe in a menacing pose. He knows never to piss me off or that photo will become a viral Internet meme!
Costa Rica was the country I fell most in love with. I still dream of retiring there. It was my first field trip with Andrew and our team and I cherish all my memories of that expedition. One story that will always be remembered is my encounter with a Centruroides limbatus scorpion. Our lodging was at Capazuri outside of Cañas in central Costa Rica. It was our 3rd base camp out of 4. We discovered that this area and many others within a short drive were teeming with Aphonopelma seemanni. It almost seemed too easy. All we had to do was take a stroll down the dirt road in back of the hotel and there was burrow after burrow holding adult female A. seemanni. This was dry country and the trees along the road held black spiny-tailed iguanas (Ctenosaura similis). Whenever you'd approach or try to photograph they would wedge themselves into the knotted branches and tree holes. We also found scorpions and another species of tarantula (presumably a Crypsidromus sp.). While we stayed at Capazuri we would locate burrows by day and then to return at night to photograph the resident tarantulas. It was great fun walking down the road and shining our flashlights ("torches" to my mates) on the dry dirt embankment and seeing all of the striped legs at the burrow mouths. The seemanni were tremendously abundant. Paul had taken to catching katydids during the day and tying string to them to sort of "fish" for the tarantulas and offer them a meal.
We always use two-way radios as our normal practice is to split into two two-man teams and spread out our search. This night I was teamed with Andrew, who was well-known for breaking protocol and wandering off alone. To be fair, I liked to do the same. So while Paul and Mark (brothers) went off somewhere out of sight it wasn't long until Andy and I lost sight of each other. Fortunately Andy was the one who carried the radio. Eventually Paul and Mark walked back my direction and the three of us "played" with all of the exposed female A. seemanni. We would catch various katydids and crickets and grasshoppers and chuck meals to the girls. I was kneeling along the roadside embankment photographing one spider when I saw a very large scorpion hastily moving alongside the bank. I had brought a camcorder to Costa Rica and I filmed the scorpion moving about the roadside. I wanted to get still shots of it the next morning so I decided I would capture it. But as I've "tailed" thousands of scorpions throughout my career, I neglected to get out my forceps and capture it safely. I reached for it's telson and before long it felt like someone had slammed my thumb in a car door. I was tagged by a hot scorpion and the pain was initially pretty intense. I clearly remember stating the obvious, "Well, that was stupid."
I must interject here to say that those of you who know me are aware that I am heavily tattooed. I wasn't then, but my arms and legs are covered now. I am famous by both of my tattoo artists for being "a rock" who can sit for 8 hours without flinching. I enjoy being tattooed. My pain tolerance is very high and I can even nap while getting tattooed. But this sting hurt! My thumb began to swell and my mates started to worry. I knew well that the best thing to do when envenomed by snake, scorpion or whatever is to remain calm. A racing heart only expedites the effects. We radioed Andy and he found his way back. He insisted on walking me back to our shared room, which was a good thing as I had become disoriented and my hand felt like it was on fire. Back at the room I reached into my kit for antihistamines and painkillers. I took about 4 times as many Benadryl as is advised and downed at least four Tylenol as well. I laid on my back on my bunk and held my arm dangling off the side towards the floor, keeping my hand well below my heart. I was sure I would be fine, but my mates were more worried. I actually dozed off and they kept checking on me during the night to see that I was OK. The pain had subsided and it was becoming more swollen and itchy than anything. Eventually I slept until morning and by then the effects had mostly dissipated. There was still a bit of swelling and the sting site was itchy. A few more Benadryl and it was on to another day. This was the last time I didn't use my forceps for Buthidae scorpion catching on a field trip. We found some beautiful Tityus paraensis in Suriname years later, which are not only hotter than the C. limbatus, but larger and more beautiful. I kept my body well away from their stingers.
Returning to Suriname ... I coined the term "Arachnohistorian" to describe Andrew Smith. He initially trained as a history teacher before studying science and his works center around the early collectors and arachnologist. He always takes us to historical sites on our field trips and we always bemoan the diversion from tarantula hunting. Our Suriname field trip was based on Madame Maria Sibylla Merian's famous trip there and her paintings of the "bird eating spider" that gave rise to the name Avicularia. Andrew wanted to visit the oldest cemetery in search of a tombstone of one of her relatives or something. I'm not much on history and don't pay much attention. We just are left with no choice but to humor him and spend a day out of the field. In fact, when we arrived at the cemetery I was happy to let him wander about while I stood on the street and walked the neighborhood looking at shops and people and buying a cool drink. The cemetery was in the capitol city of Paramaribo where over half of all Suriname's population resides. It was surrounded by a six foot brick wall and I stood alongside the wall smoking a cigar. I soon realized that the poorly kept cemetery, which was overgrown with weeds had another use. I watched men who appeared homeless climb over the wall and squat behind tombstones to defecate. My displeasure at spending a day doing this instead of chasing spiders, frogs and lizards began to increase exponentially. I warned Andrew to watch his step and to be on alert for the small brown men that were "dropping trou" among the dead. Sometimes our trip moments are surreal.
I'll conclude this entry with a return to 2006 and Costa Rica. As an arboreal specialist, the spider I most wanted to see was Psalmopoeus reduncus. But locating arboreal species can be very hard work and we had already found Tapinauchenius plumipes and Avicularia sp. I knew that the "Psalms" would be tougher and they were widespread throughout the country. So, we decided that we would not focus on them, but just hope we stumbled on to one as we searched for ground-dwelling species. Mark Carpenter is Paul's half-brother who is his junior by about a dozen years. He is not a spider man. He travels with us just to see the world and spend time with his brother in exotic locales. But he has an astonishing and very annoying habit of finding spiders before us "real spider men" on many occasions. We were in an affluent suburb near where we expected to find Cyclosternum sp. As it turned out we never located any "tiger-rumps" on our trip, and it was the only disappointment of a wonderful expedition. After spending a good deal of time in rural areas away from anything other than sparse villages with little shacks or houses, it was a bit strange to be walking past manicured lawns and some nice modern houses. But this was the type locality for our target and that afternoon we walked past saying "hola" and "buenas tardes" to Costa Rica's "upper class". It was balmy and a bit off-putting to be trespassing on the neighborhood. Mark paused at a knotted tree on the other side of a roadside fence and then asked "Michael, is this Psalmopoeus you are looking for a bronze spider that lives in trees?" This is just one of several similar occasions like this on the trip. Mark had found the spider despite not really knowing what he was looking for. He just liked to shine his "torch" into tree holes and the like and he had discovered the spider I had most wanted to see! We were able to capture it and get photographs before releasing it later.
Of course, the Costa Rican tarantula that was at the top of the entire team's wish list was Megaphobema mesomelas. This is a cloud forest spider and is most often associated with Monteverde. However, this is a national park and we try to avoid them. We don't collect, but we still have to dig out many burrowers and this would land us in trouble inside Monteverde. So we found a high elevation location east of Monteverde and took a scenic drive uphill. Costa Rica has little stands that sell cold drinks, beer and snacks or even lunch. These oases are called sodas. We came upon one that was surrounded by the fog and had a spectacular view of verdant mountains across a valley enveloped by mist and fog. We stopped for a refreshment and next to the soda was a long and steep grassy embankment. We would find many M. mesomelas here in just one quarter mile stretch of road. While the guys had wandered off to search the embankment I had myself a cold drink and spoke to the owner. I explained that we were searching for spiders using my best Spanish. He spoke a bit of English as well. Before long some young workers returned with a plastic jug containing a spider. It was a beautiful adult female orange wandering spider (Cupiennius coccineus). I explained that these were mostly harmless to humans and didn't bother challenging my Spanish ability with explaining that their venom was very deadly to arthropod prey. I took the spider out and held it for photographs. Meanwhile, the lads had found burrows holding M. mesomelas, but had yet to successfully "tickle one out" and did not want to start digging right next to the soda. The owner of the soda disappeared for ten minutes or so and when he returned he had a small cardboard box in his hands. He gave it to me and I opened it to see one of the most beautiful spiders I've ever laid eyes on in the field. It was a stunning, freshly molted female M. mesomelas. I thanked him and ran to where the guys were working burrows to show them the prize. We returned to the soda and the owner showed Andrew where he had dug up the spider for us. He knew it lived there and it was just behind the soda near his storage area. We wanted to give the guy a tip, but he refused. So we ordered a round of celebratory cold beers and some snacks from him before returning to the embankment to tickle out a few more.
I suppose I should remind you here that my entire Costa Rica story, which was originally published as the only article in the final ARACHNOCULTURE magazine, is on my website. If you want to read the story of the entire trip with images click here for the first of 30 webpages that contain the article and select the "Next Page" link to progress through the pages.
Hope your fourth was safe. Thanks for reading! MJ
Thursday, July 2, 2015
#29 - TALES FROM THE FIELD #1
Some of you have attended my lectures on my travels in pursuit of tarantulas. I never collect. I find, observe and photograph. And I'm known to scare up a few snakes along the way. You may have also seen my videos, either on my YouTube Channel, many of which are short clips of snake wrangling or tarantula spiders. I hope to add some from my recent Sri Lanka expedition soon. Others of you may have purchased my one hour documentary on our team's 2006 field trip to Costa Rica from Andrew Smith's Love Tarantulas. It's only five bucks. Give it a go.
Our field trips consist of four man teams with a roster of five. Each year one is not involved. Andrew Smith is typically the de facto leader and my teammates also include Paul Carpenter, Guy Tansley and Mark Carpenter. These trips typically last three to four weeks and as I am the sole American they take on an air of classic British wit with deadpan delivery of sarcasm and self-deprecation. They love to "take the piss" out of each other and their big American companion is an easy target.
Four blokes spending three weeks or more together is bound to create tensions that are eased by humor (or do you say humour?) and relentless sarcasm. Trekking jungles is hard and sweaty work and we are very serious about our tarantula hunting. But during down time over a few beers, or whenever you get the chance to poke fun at a mate, sharp-tongued wit is unleashed with a fury. In short, we have a blast.
But certain stories always stick out in my mind. Some may be "you had to be there" to be found amusing, but I thought I share some memories of our experiences outside of fieldwork.
The first tale is from my first trip with the team. It was 2006 and Costa Rica. I cannot tell you how excited I was to be going on a tarantula adventure with Andrew Smith. When his Tarantula Classification Guide was released many years earlier I paged through it incessantly and wondered who this Andrew M. Smith was. We would meet in person for the first time at the ATS conference in 2003 in Carlsbad, New Mexico. He was the keynote lecturer and delivered one of his many fascinating lectures on Poecilotheria. He was with his American mate, the late Michael Sullivan, and I bought a copy of his Tarantulas of USA & Mexico out of the backseat of Michael's dusty 4x4. We would meet again soon thereafter when he once again spoke for ATS, this time in Phoenix. We had become fast friends who have enjoyed many a whiskey and cigar together. He asked me to join him in Costa Rica and I jumped out of my skin. I was going to travel with a legend and I couldn't have been more eager and excited. Of course, we are now dear mates who have spent many hours together around the world and at his home in southeast London. But then I was a bit starstruck.
Jump ahead to my arrival in Costa Rica. Through a booking error I arrived a day after the team so they had already had a day to sort our rental car and some provisions. When I arrived at the airport in San Jose I met Paul and his brother Mark for the first time and the four of us piled into the little hired car. I deferred to my new English mates and climbed in the back despite being by far the tallest and heaviest. I kept mostly silent as I was the new guy and wasn't going to force my strong and obnoxious American personality on then from the start. They know me differently now ;)
Costa Rica drives American style so right hand driving was a bit foreign for Paul and Andy tried to use his multitude of maps to navigate our way out of the capitol and to the northeast where we wanted to begin. We had not chosen a base camp and we made every decision on the fly throughout the field trip. But Andrew had maps, notebooks, journals and his omnipresent pipe and scarf and we rolled up and down winding roads trying to make progress away the urban center of Costa Rica. Mark and I were wedged in the backseat with one or two of my bags between us. My legs were bent however I could get them and my knees seemed to be in my chin. I felt a pain in my right foot and wondered what was digging into me, but I could barely move my long legs. I'm 6' 2" and on this trip I probably was about 240-250#. What they would call seventeen and a half stone. The ball of my right foot became more and more cramped and pained. The floorboards of our silver Daihatsu or whatever it was were definitely attacking my foot. I tried to shift my body over so I could reach down and explore. I felt a bar of sorts and grabbed onto an aluminum handle and pulled up an ice axe. Here I was sweating my cornfed American arse off in the claustrophobic rear seat of some Costa Rican rental, and for some bloody reason we had an ice axe in the car. We were thousands of miles from the flippin' Andes!
Andrew then regaled me with a tale of Martin Filmer, from whom he had learned the "ice axe" technique for digging out embankment burrows for tarantulas. Andrew had come to the balmy tropics with something made for vertical ascents of frozen waterfalls, only he had cut part of the handle's length off to make it more compact and easy to swing repeatedly to entrench soil. A sawed off ice axe, if you will. Suitably educated, I placed it where it wouldn't assail me and began wondering about these three pasty Britons. My thought was interrupted by the ringing of a phone. After a confused delay I realized that it was my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. It seemed I had joined a local network and was about to receive an expensive phone call. It was my friend Glenn who was watching my dog and parrot and keeping an eye on my shoppe. I had another friend named Keith who would work for me from time to time and he was caring for my reptiles, amphibians and tarantulas. Glenn was just calling to check in, but now that I knew I had cell reception I started a conversation about where we were going to stay not only that night, but make our first base camp. We were headed in the direction of La Selva Biological Station and I began riffling through my Lonely Planet guide looking for accommodation. I was the only teammate who spoke any Spanish and I did my best using my cell phone to see if anything nearby could provide lodging for three Brits, one American and a sawed-off ice axe. As luck would have it, I found La Quinta Sarapiqui, an excellent eco-lodge and a place that will again be my first base when I return to Costa Rica with my stepfather in early December. We would find this a glorious place to stay and it had a library of field guides and identification posters hanging all around the common area. The breakfast buffet was delicious and I tried to eat my weight in the most amazing pineapple I've ever enjoyed. The grounds were teeming with wildlife. The staff put out fruits at feeding stations and attracted a dazzling menagerie of colorful birds. Emerald basilisks prowled the stream edge and brush surrounding the lodging. I chased many up a tree or under the porch of a cabin. Dart frogs, both green and black Dendrobates auratus and "blue jeans" D. pumilio could be found on the grounds and the wooden walkways over the adjacent ponds revealed caiman. They even had a makeshift butterfly flight. Geckos darted about catching nocturnal flying insects while we played card games, dominos and had our evening cocktails. By sheer luck I had found us nice clean rooms with hot showers, good food and drink and creatures galore. Eventually feeling came back to my right foot.
We worked out of four base camps across the country during our three week stay. From each would we drive to a new target location. One day we saw a green iguana run across the two lane road and then soon saw that it was being chased by a domestic/feral cat. I had whoever was driving slam on the brakes and ran into the road after the iguana. Oncoming traffic appeared in the corner of my eye as I scooped up the wriggling three footer. Once the cars passed we posed for a few photos with the lizard before scooting it in a different direction than the cat had ran off. Later we were working a road with Aphonopelma seemanni burrows and Paul went behind a tree to urinate. He screamed, "Michael! Snake!". After making sure that Paul hadn't begun to pee, I ran behind the tree and pulled up the five foot Central American lyresnake. It had a few ticks that I gently removed, and despite the fact that it was beginning to go into a shed it was remarkably placid. After I had my photo taken with my new friend I took photos of both Paul and Andrew holding it. It wasn't until they were done that I admitted to them that it was a rear-fanged venomous snake and a very large one at that. They were not amused by the timing of my confession at all.
More Tales to come ...
MJ
Our field trips consist of four man teams with a roster of five. Each year one is not involved. Andrew Smith is typically the de facto leader and my teammates also include Paul Carpenter, Guy Tansley and Mark Carpenter. These trips typically last three to four weeks and as I am the sole American they take on an air of classic British wit with deadpan delivery of sarcasm and self-deprecation. They love to "take the piss" out of each other and their big American companion is an easy target.
Four blokes spending three weeks or more together is bound to create tensions that are eased by humor (or do you say humour?) and relentless sarcasm. Trekking jungles is hard and sweaty work and we are very serious about our tarantula hunting. But during down time over a few beers, or whenever you get the chance to poke fun at a mate, sharp-tongued wit is unleashed with a fury. In short, we have a blast.
But certain stories always stick out in my mind. Some may be "you had to be there" to be found amusing, but I thought I share some memories of our experiences outside of fieldwork.
The first tale is from my first trip with the team. It was 2006 and Costa Rica. I cannot tell you how excited I was to be going on a tarantula adventure with Andrew Smith. When his Tarantula Classification Guide was released many years earlier I paged through it incessantly and wondered who this Andrew M. Smith was. We would meet in person for the first time at the ATS conference in 2003 in Carlsbad, New Mexico. He was the keynote lecturer and delivered one of his many fascinating lectures on Poecilotheria. He was with his American mate, the late Michael Sullivan, and I bought a copy of his Tarantulas of USA & Mexico out of the backseat of Michael's dusty 4x4. We would meet again soon thereafter when he once again spoke for ATS, this time in Phoenix. We had become fast friends who have enjoyed many a whiskey and cigar together. He asked me to join him in Costa Rica and I jumped out of my skin. I was going to travel with a legend and I couldn't have been more eager and excited. Of course, we are now dear mates who have spent many hours together around the world and at his home in southeast London. But then I was a bit starstruck.
Jump ahead to my arrival in Costa Rica. Through a booking error I arrived a day after the team so they had already had a day to sort our rental car and some provisions. When I arrived at the airport in San Jose I met Paul and his brother Mark for the first time and the four of us piled into the little hired car. I deferred to my new English mates and climbed in the back despite being by far the tallest and heaviest. I kept mostly silent as I was the new guy and wasn't going to force my strong and obnoxious American personality on then from the start. They know me differently now ;)
Costa Rica drives American style so right hand driving was a bit foreign for Paul and Andy tried to use his multitude of maps to navigate our way out of the capitol and to the northeast where we wanted to begin. We had not chosen a base camp and we made every decision on the fly throughout the field trip. But Andrew had maps, notebooks, journals and his omnipresent pipe and scarf and we rolled up and down winding roads trying to make progress away the urban center of Costa Rica. Mark and I were wedged in the backseat with one or two of my bags between us. My legs were bent however I could get them and my knees seemed to be in my chin. I felt a pain in my right foot and wondered what was digging into me, but I could barely move my long legs. I'm 6' 2" and on this trip I probably was about 240-250#. What they would call seventeen and a half stone. The ball of my right foot became more and more cramped and pained. The floorboards of our silver Daihatsu or whatever it was were definitely attacking my foot. I tried to shift my body over so I could reach down and explore. I felt a bar of sorts and grabbed onto an aluminum handle and pulled up an ice axe. Here I was sweating my cornfed American arse off in the claustrophobic rear seat of some Costa Rican rental, and for some bloody reason we had an ice axe in the car. We were thousands of miles from the flippin' Andes!
Andrew then regaled me with a tale of Martin Filmer, from whom he had learned the "ice axe" technique for digging out embankment burrows for tarantulas. Andrew had come to the balmy tropics with something made for vertical ascents of frozen waterfalls, only he had cut part of the handle's length off to make it more compact and easy to swing repeatedly to entrench soil. A sawed off ice axe, if you will. Suitably educated, I placed it where it wouldn't assail me and began wondering about these three pasty Britons. My thought was interrupted by the ringing of a phone. After a confused delay I realized that it was my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. It seemed I had joined a local network and was about to receive an expensive phone call. It was my friend Glenn who was watching my dog and parrot and keeping an eye on my shoppe. I had another friend named Keith who would work for me from time to time and he was caring for my reptiles, amphibians and tarantulas. Glenn was just calling to check in, but now that I knew I had cell reception I started a conversation about where we were going to stay not only that night, but make our first base camp. We were headed in the direction of La Selva Biological Station and I began riffling through my Lonely Planet guide looking for accommodation. I was the only teammate who spoke any Spanish and I did my best using my cell phone to see if anything nearby could provide lodging for three Brits, one American and a sawed-off ice axe. As luck would have it, I found La Quinta Sarapiqui, an excellent eco-lodge and a place that will again be my first base when I return to Costa Rica with my stepfather in early December. We would find this a glorious place to stay and it had a library of field guides and identification posters hanging all around the common area. The breakfast buffet was delicious and I tried to eat my weight in the most amazing pineapple I've ever enjoyed. The grounds were teeming with wildlife. The staff put out fruits at feeding stations and attracted a dazzling menagerie of colorful birds. Emerald basilisks prowled the stream edge and brush surrounding the lodging. I chased many up a tree or under the porch of a cabin. Dart frogs, both green and black Dendrobates auratus and "blue jeans" D. pumilio could be found on the grounds and the wooden walkways over the adjacent ponds revealed caiman. They even had a makeshift butterfly flight. Geckos darted about catching nocturnal flying insects while we played card games, dominos and had our evening cocktails. By sheer luck I had found us nice clean rooms with hot showers, good food and drink and creatures galore. Eventually feeling came back to my right foot.
We worked out of four base camps across the country during our three week stay. From each would we drive to a new target location. One day we saw a green iguana run across the two lane road and then soon saw that it was being chased by a domestic/feral cat. I had whoever was driving slam on the brakes and ran into the road after the iguana. Oncoming traffic appeared in the corner of my eye as I scooped up the wriggling three footer. Once the cars passed we posed for a few photos with the lizard before scooting it in a different direction than the cat had ran off. Later we were working a road with Aphonopelma seemanni burrows and Paul went behind a tree to urinate. He screamed, "Michael! Snake!". After making sure that Paul hadn't begun to pee, I ran behind the tree and pulled up the five foot Central American lyresnake. It had a few ticks that I gently removed, and despite the fact that it was beginning to go into a shed it was remarkably placid. After I had my photo taken with my new friend I took photos of both Paul and Andrew holding it. It wasn't until they were done that I admitted to them that it was a rear-fanged venomous snake and a very large one at that. They were not amused by the timing of my confession at all.
More Tales to come ...
MJ
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Snow, The Donkey, The Party
It's been a long time since I did the stroll...
First post November. Part of the impetus for my blogging is my passion for writing, but with all that has transpired since my last infrequent post I'll have to resort to Cliff Notes.
The Snow First snow, Midwest return. Last night's snowfall wasn't substantial, but it is still on the ground and that is more than Taylor and I saw in Seattle or, for that matter, during our 6 years in Nashville. My little weiner schnitzel of a dog isn't quite buried in it yet, but that will be fun.
Today I will finally publish the online version of the seventh issue of Arachnoculture magazine, which is solely devoted to my "In Search of Costa Rican Tarantulas". I just need to add the photos and upload. Then I will announce and figure out how to proceed with the project. Thanks to Nico Pedersen in Denmark who was eager to see it go online and would send me inquiry messages to light a fire under my ass.
The Donkey Saturday night Bill, our friend Anne and I drove out to an incredible farm near Madison for a amazing birthday party. The guests of honor were Krista, who works at Mke. Art Museum [MAM], and her boyfriend Brad. Brad's family raises and shows champion Belgian horses. They are magnificent beasts that weigh about 2000 pounds and make most horses look like ponies (Belgians are draft horses that are the strongest of the heavy breeds). The party was in the main barn, which has a lodge-like barroom full of ribbons, trophies and photographs. Food was catered and they had full bar service. We toured the barn and fed carrots to the horses. Krista led us to her riding horse (not a Belgian) who was sharing a stall with the creatively named Donkey. I pet him as well and he began to nibble on my finger, which I didn't discourage, which led to him clamping down on it like a vise to where I thought it might snap. Fortunately, all he did was break the skin both sides of my left index finger knuckle and make me bleed. Bill snuck off at one point and was able to ride one, although they aren't really saddle horses. They are so broad that you'd almost have to do the splits! Anne and I were enjoying our wine and didn't get to watch Billy bareback on a 2300 pound horse.
Things have slowed down a bit with museum events. I am off all week, but did work four parties last week. There haven't been any weddings in November, which I suppose is normal but I got married in November and our friend Courtney was in a wedding party Saturday night (and therefore couldn't join Anne, Bill and I for the horse experience) so I know weddings take place year-round. It should get busier with the holiday season, but the economy definitely has caused many corporate events to cancel, no doubt to look for less expensive venues.
I have been playing a lot of online poker and doing quite well, especially with single table sit and gos. With the winter setting in I will spend more time with my indoor passions like poker, guitar, books and movies, but I will look for any chance to get outdoors, hopefully to play a little disc golf when it isn't too cold or windy.
I took Bill to see Gov't Mule here in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago and it was a great time. The first set was especially great. It was nice to "reclaim" the band for myself. I was quite passionate, even obsessed, with this band for some time and it is how I met my ex-wife. I believe this Mke. show was my 43rd ass-kicking, as Gov't Mule shows are referred to. Anyway, post-separation/divorce I stopped listening to them for the most part, but then decided to "reclaim" with a show during my brief stay in Seattle. That didn't go too well as I went alone and just felt freaking lonely. So, taking Bill and having a good time was awesome and I now can enjoy Warren Haynes and Company again!
The Party Our Helloween Bash was a good time and we had a pretty good turnout. I have some photos up on my Facebook page. I enjoy hosting parties, especially bartending and making people special drinks. My pumpkin martinis went over very well - too well for a couple people. We had a blazing bonfire in the backyard and many people were introduced to the household critters, some touching a tarantula for the first time.
The End I guess there was less to report than I thought. In closing, congrats to Barack Obama, please view Earthlings [nature, animals, humankind - make the connection] (I haven't eaten meat since watching it and won't) and remember to sing a new song and tip your bartender.
Respect and protect, MJ
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Return, Revisited
Half way through October and this is my first post of the month. I will herein randomly ramble.
I've never seen so many neck tattoos in my life. Yesterday was a grueling day of people watching, forced upon me by a trip to the DMV and two, count 'em two, trips to the Milwaukee Tow Lot. And the observation of the huddled masses that has stuck with me most is the whole gruesome neck ink thing. Oh, there were plenty of bad tattoos on other parts of the body, but when I see the prevalence of neck tattoos I can't help but wonder what these people were thinking. Twenty, thirty, forty years from now there are actually going to be senior citizens with tattoos on their necks. Not to mention grandmothers and grandfathers with giant holes in their distended ear lobes, but that's a whole 'nother rant. I have two tattoos, but they are on my calf and ankle where they can easily be hidden by long trousers as the situation dictates. When your neck and hands and even head and face are decorated you have made a whole different commitment to your personal aesthetic.
My Jeep was towed. I thought it was stolen, as I couldn't imagine how it could be towed from the curb in front of the house. Turns out Milwaukee is a tad militant about towing vehicles with a few unpaid parking tickets. And here's the kicker, I never even saw one single parking ticket on my SUV and was oblivious to my transgression. A nighttime parking permit is required on all streets of Milwaukee. We live in a residential neighborhood without driveways so all parking is on the street. It took 2.5 months to accumulate four unseen parking tickets, which is crime so heinous that my Jeep was yanked from the curb and deposited in the care of the city. I had the pleasure of calling the tow lot to find out if I vehicle was there, and sharing some unpleasantness with a rude and sarcastic civil servant. She was just the first of several similarly gruff individuals I would interact with throughout the day. Fortunately, Bill's bike was in the shed. He often takes it to work, but I was able to borrow it to pedal the 25 blocks to the tow lot. It was the first time I had been on a bike in many years and I was glad the lot was within striking distance. After waiting for an hour I was told that they wouldn't release the Jeep to me because the title I had was signed over to me, but never registered in my name. I never registered it in Washington after I bought it because I knew I would leave the state and I didn't want to have to pay for title transfer and plates in WA only to have to do it all over again elsewhere. So... I jumped back on the bike and pedaled all the way home where I called the DMV. I then rode the bike a couple of miles the other direction and waited an hour again for the opportunity to experience the charm of the sour woman who I dealt with at the DMV. There was further hassle due to the way the title was signed over and, short story long, I finally got $261 worth of license plate and title and began the double-trek all the way back to the tow lot where they discovered the VIN number had an error. But they released it to me anyway at the bargain price of a hundred bucks, sold me the requisite nighttime parking permit that would have circumvented the entire horror, and I was on my way. So now the vehicle is legal, but is stuck at the curb because it needs brake work and those funds went up in the flames throughout the day.
But the bike ride was fun, providing both exercise and an environmentally sound way to transport my carcass. As I mentioned in the previous blog, I want a bike. And now I have one. Coincidentally, my dad was visiting yesterday evening. I regaled him with the above story with even more excruciating detail and he told me if he had known I would ride a bike he would have loaned me his. So this morning he made a return trip to bring me the bike and I now have alternate transportation. So the brake-challenged gas guzzler can sit... weather permitting, of course.
What else is new...?...? Well, I have been working to get the online e-zine version of my ARACHNOCULTURE magazine going, and continue to work on it today. I am first creating the web version of the seventh issue, which was dedicated to my 2006 trip to Costa Rica. I will eventually get the six previous issues online also, but probably not until after I create a brand new 8th issue. Keep your eye on my Exotic Fauna website, especially the ARACHOCULTURE page.
I'm excited to report that I will again be joining Andrew Smith on a tarantula expedition. I was unable to join him on last year's field trip to the Pacific coast of Mexico, and won't join him this year for his return to Mexico either. But, in 2009, about 13 months or so from now, I will again be part of the team as we travel to Africa to search for tarantulas and other critters in Sierra Leone!
All the best, MJ
I've never seen so many neck tattoos in my life. Yesterday was a grueling day of people watching, forced upon me by a trip to the DMV and two, count 'em two, trips to the Milwaukee Tow Lot. And the observation of the huddled masses that has stuck with me most is the whole gruesome neck ink thing. Oh, there were plenty of bad tattoos on other parts of the body, but when I see the prevalence of neck tattoos I can't help but wonder what these people were thinking. Twenty, thirty, forty years from now there are actually going to be senior citizens with tattoos on their necks. Not to mention grandmothers and grandfathers with giant holes in their distended ear lobes, but that's a whole 'nother rant. I have two tattoos, but they are on my calf and ankle where they can easily be hidden by long trousers as the situation dictates. When your neck and hands and even head and face are decorated you have made a whole different commitment to your personal aesthetic.
My Jeep was towed. I thought it was stolen, as I couldn't imagine how it could be towed from the curb in front of the house. Turns out Milwaukee is a tad militant about towing vehicles with a few unpaid parking tickets. And here's the kicker, I never even saw one single parking ticket on my SUV and was oblivious to my transgression. A nighttime parking permit is required on all streets of Milwaukee. We live in a residential neighborhood without driveways so all parking is on the street. It took 2.5 months to accumulate four unseen parking tickets, which is crime so heinous that my Jeep was yanked from the curb and deposited in the care of the city. I had the pleasure of calling the tow lot to find out if I vehicle was there, and sharing some unpleasantness with a rude and sarcastic civil servant. She was just the first of several similarly gruff individuals I would interact with throughout the day. Fortunately, Bill's bike was in the shed. He often takes it to work, but I was able to borrow it to pedal the 25 blocks to the tow lot. It was the first time I had been on a bike in many years and I was glad the lot was within striking distance. After waiting for an hour I was told that they wouldn't release the Jeep to me because the title I had was signed over to me, but never registered in my name. I never registered it in Washington after I bought it because I knew I would leave the state and I didn't want to have to pay for title transfer and plates in WA only to have to do it all over again elsewhere. So... I jumped back on the bike and pedaled all the way home where I called the DMV. I then rode the bike a couple of miles the other direction and waited an hour again for the opportunity to experience the charm of the sour woman who I dealt with at the DMV. There was further hassle due to the way the title was signed over and, short story long, I finally got $261 worth of license plate and title and began the double-trek all the way back to the tow lot where they discovered the VIN number had an error. But they released it to me anyway at the bargain price of a hundred bucks, sold me the requisite nighttime parking permit that would have circumvented the entire horror, and I was on my way. So now the vehicle is legal, but is stuck at the curb because it needs brake work and those funds went up in the flames throughout the day.
But the bike ride was fun, providing both exercise and an environmentally sound way to transport my carcass. As I mentioned in the previous blog, I want a bike. And now I have one. Coincidentally, my dad was visiting yesterday evening. I regaled him with the above story with even more excruciating detail and he told me if he had known I would ride a bike he would have loaned me his. So this morning he made a return trip to bring me the bike and I now have alternate transportation. So the brake-challenged gas guzzler can sit... weather permitting, of course.
What else is new...?...? Well, I have been working to get the online e-zine version of my ARACHNOCULTURE magazine going, and continue to work on it today. I am first creating the web version of the seventh issue, which was dedicated to my 2006 trip to Costa Rica. I will eventually get the six previous issues online also, but probably not until after I create a brand new 8th issue. Keep your eye on my Exotic Fauna website, especially the ARACHOCULTURE page.
I'm excited to report that I will again be joining Andrew Smith on a tarantula expedition. I was unable to join him on last year's field trip to the Pacific coast of Mexico, and won't join him this year for his return to Mexico either. But, in 2009, about 13 months or so from now, I will again be part of the team as we travel to Africa to search for tarantulas and other critters in Sierra Leone!
All the best, MJ
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