I wanna talk about this weird, rather uncomfortable grey-area that I occupy as both a keeper of spiders and an observer of spiders with conservation in mind. That grey area is between science and ‘the hobby’, for want of a better term.

The scientist in me has a pretty visceral reaction to the practice of illegally gathering specimens for export from their native countries to satisfy demand from the exotic animal trade. But the spiders I have in my collection here were mostly acquired from that exact trade.

Now, where possible, I only acquire captive bred/hatched specimens and do try to steer clear of wild caught animals. That said, I do have a few wild caught specimens in my possession that I have acquired through trusted sources in the UK.

HOWEVER, the trustworthiness of my sources is neither here nor there as they will be acquiring their stock legitimately from licensed exporters who are, no doubt, also running a legitimate business... but the further back you trace this, the more likely you are to encounter...

... illegal collection & smuggling of specimens. Getting hold of paperwork to prove where & when specimens were collected is like looking for the golden ticket. Not exactly forthcoming in many cases.

This is an issue that has been increasingly brought to the forefront of my mind in the last 4 months or so, particularly since I started trying to get to the bottom of where the parentage of my captive bred Deinopis sp. originated from in Africa and when they were imported.

It bothers me more and more each time I think about it and I know that if I wanted to try and get a solid ID on any of my spiders here, most scientists won’t touch them without paperwork proving they were brought into captivity legitimately. And rightly so.

So, I am straddling this area between having a collection of fascinating, exotic spiders that I am able to study and record data from, but none of it is ‘legitimate’ because I suspect their original point of entry into captivity happened under dubious circumstances.

I put effort into breeding the animals I have for my own research but also so that there is a population of them in captivity to satisfy demand without necessitating even more illegal collection. Maybe I’m being naive? In any case, ideally, I would like to learn more about...

... legal collection of specimens and how it is facilitated so that, in future, I can aim towards ridding myself of any involvement, no matter how remote, in the illegal collection of spiders from the wild.

And that’s basically it. Ta daaaa.