Web of Intrigue

Jess Isden has a PHD in Animal Behaviour, and has spent the past seven years in Botswana, running human-wildlife conflict mitigation programmes with local communities who live alongside large predators. She recently shared these two photos of gemsbuck she encountered in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The one shown above, a very young bull emerging from sub-adulthood into adulthood, has a dense expanse of spider-web between his horns, occupied by live spiders.

When I commented that I’d never seen a web as densely woven as that – it’s like a solid fabric – Jess said the denseness of the web is what caught her attention. She writes, “We saw it from far back, and at very first, thought it might be plastic or something man-made wrapped in the horns. We waited for the animal to come a little closer to the road where we could see with binoculars and camera that it was a web. And there were definitely living spiders in the web too.”

It would be easy to dismiss this phenomenon as merely the result of the bull having walked into a spider web suspended between two bushes and carried it off on his head. My guess is that this is how the web initially came to be there, but if you look closely, you will see that it has been deliberately woven tightly and securely around the horns all the way up, and also goes down onto the animal’s face. The unsupported upper edge of the web has a neat, unbroken finish and there are no holes in the web. This, in conjunction with the unique denseness of the weave, strongly suggests deliberate and ongoing work by the resident spiders. Face it, that animal would have had to walk through a great many webs accidentally to accumulate so dense a fabrication. And when you think about it, it’s an ideal set-up for the spiders: the horns form a perfect frame for such a web, and animals attract insects such as flies, mosquitos and

ticks. Not much vegetation passes between a gemsbuck’s horns, and any peripheral damage can be quickly repaired.

I am not suggesting any sort of symbiotic relationship between spiders and antelope, but merely that these spiders seem opportunistically to have made themselves right at home here and, given the mobility of the animal, have taken necessary precautions by spinning vastly more strands to reinforce their residence and workplace. They’re thinking on their feet, so to speak – not to mention the gemsbuck’s.

Furthermore, in the second photo, the animal on the left also has a partial spider-web (or the beginnings of a newly spun web) low between its horns. When I pointed this out, Jess said she’d seen this at the time, which is why she photographed both animals together. She writes, “If it was just this one [with the small web] I could definitely believe that it had just walked through a web, but it’s the denseness and intactness of the main gemsbok’s web that really caught my attention, and led me to believe that there could be more to it than just wandering through bushes and collecting the odd section of web.” Jess adds, “I still believe that the spider was quite okay with its new ‘mobile home’.”

Of further interest, there are more spiders than one, living in the web. Most spiders are solitary. A few species of communal spiders occur, but they are very rare. My guess is that the gemsbuck walked through a web occupied by a female with babies or fertilised eggs which hatched on board ship. Jess agrees, adding the possibility of the animal having walked through more than one occupied web, though she doesn’t remember seeing any webs around in the bushes that were as thick and dense as this. However, given that an accompanying gemsbuck also had a partial web between its horns, it’s possible this area may have supported several webs.

Dr Jess Isden says her studies have never included arachnids or entomology; both she and I would be very interested to receive any authoritative opinions on this phenomenon. - Gregor Woods

Pangolin, local manufacturer of a series of handgun safes for vehicles (see our Test Report, Jan/feb 2021 edition), and Roxsure Insurance Brokers now offer a value-added package to customers who buy a Pangolin safe.

Quick Track has done research and development to fit and secure the safe with a tracking device. This unit has its own battery and, should the vehicle be stolen, the client can phone a recovery centre which will dispatch a team to retrieve the vehicle and safe.

Pangolin states that if a client has short-term insurance with Roxsure, the firearm in the Pangolin safe will automatically be covered.

Roxsure have also contracted a company that supplies value-added legal services. For R350 a month, the cost of the tracking device and around-the-clock legal advice is included and, if required, legal representation will be available. For example, should a client be arrested by the police and the officers don’t fully understand the law in terms of safe-keeping of a firearm, then the service provider will, at its own cost, send an attorney to the police station, assist the client with his statement, show the required law to the arresting officer to have the charges dropped, if needed post bail on behalf of the client and, in the event the case is not dropped, provide court representation to ensure that the charges are dropped and the case is withdrawn.

The service provider will also assist clients with their firearms licence applications, follow-ups with the licensing department, lodge an appeal if required and, should the client be involved in a shooting incident, provide an attorney, prepare statements for submission, apply for bail and post bail on behalf of the client. For more information contact Andrew on 065-131-9266.

PANGOLIN VEHICLE HANDGUN SAFES UPDATE