Elle Hunt.
ZOE COOPER, of Ngaio, emailed us photos of herself with tarantulas in Guatemala and Belize, and challenged us to do the same.
‘‘I was the only one brave enough to do it when my family visited Central America at Christmas . . . The tarantula felt sticky and furry on my arm,’’ Zoe said.
Although Sophie Speer was confident enough in herself to let Zoe win this round, I was determined not to be shown up by a 9-year-old, and visited Wellington Zoo’s new tarantulas.
I’m no arachnophobe, but seconds after stepping into Hero HQ, I regretted my show of bravado back in the office: Tarantulas are not, in fact, cute.
The new exhibit, which opened last week, is home to 50 tarantulas, and that number is expected to grow as keepers move towards creating a self-sustaining population of the spiders.
Of the 50, I was introduced to Ella, a Brazilian black tarantula, who was Brazilian, black, and about the size of my palm.
As I held out my hands to receive her from the keeper, I asked if she bit – and immediately wished I hadn’t when he said: ‘‘Well, she can.’’
But I was assured that although tarantula bites are venomous, the toxicity of their venom is about the same as a bee or a wasp, and given the opportunity between fight and flight, most would choose the latter.
It turns out that tarantulas, like their common or garden relatives, pose no real threats to humans; we receive them squeamishly purely because of how they look, which is a bit shallow of us, really.
The tentative steps Ella took on to my palm were a timely reminder that she was more scared of me than I was of her, and suggested my worst fear – that she would sprint up my arm and begin devouring my face before keepers could reach for a tranquiliser gun – was probably unfounded. @fibby17 Was nearly finished my lunch in Midland Park when a plague of pigeons drove me and three others away. Don’t feed the pigeons, people! #wellington @jess_balu The buskers on Cuba Street today singing ‘‘A Hard Day’s Night’’ were absolutely adorable and I was humming the rest of the way home. #SoSweet @clairebraddock Happy birthday @mojocoffeenz. 10 years of indulging those caffeine fixes with great coffee. #Wellington loves you!!