You wouldn’t think that tarantulas are a particularly valuable commodity, considering the fear they induce in most people due to their frightening appearance. Why would anyone pay much money for an ugly, hairy spider? Who would want to actually keep one for fun as a pet? Well, you are in for a surprise because the illegal market for tarantulas is booming, and illegal activity involving tarantulas is only increasing over time. There are many people that are fascinated by these creatures and can’t get enough of them; and they are willing to pay insane amounts of money to add more to their collection.
The illegal tarantula trade may be a little known section of the black market, but it is rampant, and with people becoming more and more interested in exotic animals, it is steadily increasing. The expanding number of people traveling to places that have exotic tarantulas, the rising awareness of these creatures people have gained through social media, as well as the growing commercial interest in these and other exotic animals are fueling the illegal trade of tarantulas. Many scientists have reported a great deal of illegal activity in relation to tarantulas, and most believe it is fueled mostly by people that make a hobby out of collecting these exotic pets and are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for just one of these spiders.
The demand for tarantulas is growing rapidly, and traders are having to find ways to meet that growing demand. Traders are now having to hire locals to hunt down tarantulas in the wild. The captured spiders are then smuggled out and sold to collectors and breeders searching for the newest, most distinctive and exotic tarantulas on the black market. While some become pets, others are killed and mounted on display in a box or enveloped in resin. What makes tarantula poaching especially cruel is that these spiders are long-lived, with some reaching 30 years old, and the females procreate late in their life and infrequently. Poaching takes a serious toll on the tarantula population, and they take a long time to recover from these harvests. Scientists are afraid that this could have a much wider negative effect on our ecosystem in general, and other problems such as climate change and the destruction of their habitats are threatening their different species even more. Many of the most exotic and interesting tarantulas that people collect through the black market could end up being wiped out completely. The collectors buying the tarantulas may not have bad intentions, and actually have a love and appreciation for these exotic creatures. Unfortunately, that love could spell the end of their pets existence.
Do you know anyone that owns exotic tarantulas? How do they find ones to purchase, and do they know whether the seller obtained them legally?
