Spiders have been the centre of horror stories and gained legions of terrified “fans”, but in nature, you couldn’t find a more fascinating 8 legged friend. The park is home to thousands of species of spiders and when on a Kruger Park safari you might be lucky enough to spot the Baboon Spider.
Called baboon spiders because the last two segments of the spider’s legs looks similar to a baboon’s finger, these spiders are in need of conservation. Including a new species recently found the Kruger National Park, there is now a known total of seven different species. To laymen, it is not easy to tell them apart as they are all large, hairy and robust. They are about ten centimeters, with brown, grey, yellow and black colouring.
Baboon spider can survive in a variety of habitats, such as dry scrubland, savannah woodland or grassland but prefer lightly wooded areas. Baboon spiders rarely interact with humans as they prefer staying in a natural habitat not houses or gardens.
Burrow Homes
Baboon spiders live in burrows and females seldom leave the burrow except to hunt. Males will leave the burrow when they are looking for females. Baboon spiders take between 5 and 7 years to build a burrow. When looking for females the male baboon spider have a variety of techniques to entice the female out. Female baboon spiders have been known to live up to 30 years. Baboon spider burrows are about 30 cm deep and shaped like a boot. The entrance is about 5cm in diameter and the baboon spider lines the tunnel with silk. Around the top they will spin grass and leaves in order to make a ridge. The hole is then closed lightly with silk web cap to repel rain or dust. Here the baboon spider will spend most of its life, in the depths of its burrow.
It is interesting to note that baboon spiders only build one burrow in their lifetime. They will repair a damaged burrow but should the burrow be destroyed, the baboon spider will die. After they have reached the age of 5 years they seem to lose their inclination to build again.
Baboon spiders are nocturnal and are seldom seen around in the day. At night they play a game of patience, waiting just inside their burrows for the unsuspecting prey to walk past. They then grab the prey with their legs and quickly inject venom into it. They mostly prey on insects, other spiders, scorpions, birds, lizards or small snakes. Once it has its prey it will drag it down into the burrow to consume it.
A Careful Game of Courtship
For the male baboon mating is an exhausting procedure that usually ends in his death. After carefully luring the female to the top of her burrow, he has to hold back her fangs, as she will as soon eat him as mate with him. Once he has her fangs carefully out the way, he uses his two back legs to collect his sperm and place it in her genitalia. This is a tiring procedure, and being smaller than the female, he normally gets eaten for his effort. The female will lay up to 200 eggs that she places in a sac at the bottom of her burrow. Of those 200 eggs, very few spiderlings survive once they have left the nest.
