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The observation reported by m0lsx (Ping Pong Balls) attracted my attention because it raises so many questions. But rather than risking hijacking that thread I decided to start a new one. Mind you, what I present here is nothing new, just largely ignored. But I find this conjecture immensely fascinating.
1) I have seen virtually no evidence in wild, North American tarantulas of them moving things around the openings of their burrows. And mind you, I've had lots of experience with these creatures in the wild. If they did "rearrange the furniture" around their natural burrows, I would have recognized the fact by now. Thus, I can only draw the conclusion that the act of "playing" with ping pong balls is a completely unnatural phenomenon, not based on any obvious instinctual behavior. And therefore it's almost surely a LEARNED activity or response.
2) Several decades ago, when I was breeding Tliltocatl (Brachypelma) albopilosus (curlyhair tarantulas), I noticed an interesting behavior. Imagine this, if you will. I am seated on the carpet in a small bedroom with three-and-a-half walls covered with shelves of tarantulas, often more than 1300 counting the babies! On my left is a stack of cardboard trays of the type used for marketing 24 soda pop cans each. (BTW, I'm left handed. If you do this, you more probably would reverse my arrangement.) Each such tray holds 40, small, glass, baby food jars. And each jar contains one baby (3rd, 4th, or 5th instar, perhaps) tarantula. At arm's length in front of me sets a quart bottle of tap water with a plunger style pump, and a small Erlenmeyer flask holding perhaps fifty to 100 baby crickets. On my right is a stack of empty, cardboard, soda pop trays.
The technique is to -
1. Grab one of the occupied baby food jars from my left.
2. Remove the cover.
3. Squirt about a half teaspoon to full teaspoon of water from the pump bottle into the baby food jar (depending on how dry it appeared).
4. Grab the flask of crickets and gently tap four to six crickets into the baby food jar with the tarantula.
5. Replace the cover on the baby food jar.
6. Place the processed baby food jar into the empty tray strategically placed to my right.
7. Grab another occupied baby food jar from my left...
8. Repeat as often as necessary.
(Side note: I spent a lot of time on that carpet! I missed watching an entire season of Star Trek: Next Generation by doing so! Had to catch it during the Summer reruns.)
During this repetitive, assembly line procedure I began to notice an interesting behavior. A very few of the baby curlyhairs, perhaps four to six out of 100, learned to run out of their baby food jars onto my right hand and position themselves on the side of my thumb over the open mouth of the jar. They exhibited no readily discernible reaction to my squirting water into their jar. But, when I tapped a few crickets into their jar they'd make a "Hail Mary" style dive into the baby food jar after the crickets. In the majority of occasions they were successful at capturing one of the crickets, sometimes rolling around for a few seconds while dispatching it.
And they did this repetitively until they had a DLS* of 3/4" or so (19 or 20 mm).
There are a number of remarkable aspects about this behavior. It's not as simple as it first seems. First, it is not normal in the wild state for a tarantula to learn to recognize when the lid of their jar is removed. THERE ARE NO LIDS ON THEIR BURROWS TO BE REMOVED IN THE WILD!
And any such disturbance would almost surely be instinctively interpreted as a predator attempting to dig up the burrow to eat the delicious spider at the bottom. THUS, THE ACT OF EXITING THEIR JARS AND POSTING THEMSELVES NEXT TO THE ENTRANCE WOULD REQUIRE THAT THEY DID SO IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO THEIR NATURAL INCLINATION TO HIDE UNDER THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES. They had to LEARN this behavior!
Furthermore, wild baby tarantulas generally live in burrows whose diameter is roughly proportional to the spiders' DLS. (Although I've never seen a published verification of this, much less a statistical analysis or comparison between representative species.) Thus, the baby curlyhairs that I was feeding might ordinarily live in burrows from perhaps the diameter of a common lead pencil up to perhaps one-half inch, just barely wide enough to accomodate the tarantula as it moved up and down the burrow. By comparison, the diameters of the mouths of the baby food jars were an immense "maw," and the depth a terrifying abyss! THUS, MAKING THAT LEAP AFTER THE BABY CRICKETS NOT ONLY REQUIRED AN ACT OF FAITH, BUT WAS IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO THE INSTINCTIVE MESSAGE TO NOT RISK SUCH A DANGEROUS ENDEAVOR. The baby tarantulas had to LEARN this behavior!
For many decades I have felt that tarantulas are actually much smarter than we give them credit for, that they actually are capable of displaying some level of "intelligence" if given the opportunity. My inclination is further supported by a small book (actually a booklet or pamphlet) published by Karen Peebles, Training AND Experimenting With Tarantulas. (2007 and 2009) Lulu Publishing. While this work has received generally poor reviews, it too raises some questions about tarantulas' ability to learn and change their behavior that transcends mere instinctive response.
This topic is also discussed in a thread on another forum. [Note to moderators: Please allow this single infraction to any prohibitions against mentioning other forums, if such exists.]
So, my questions are:
1) Do any of you have any anecdotal experience to support the hypothesis that tarantulas can actually learn and perhaps "think" at some basic level? If so, would you be kind enough to report them in this thread?
2) Have any of you seen any other discussions of tarantula intelligence? Would you please supply me the references?
3) Do any of you know how to contact Karen Peebles? If so, could you either supply me with the contact info directly, or ask her to contact me at [email protected]? PLEASE DO NOT ADVERTISE MS. PEEBLES' E-MAIL ADDRESS PUBLICLY ON THIS FORUM!
Thanks in advance for your participation.
* DLS = diagonal leg span
1) I have seen virtually no evidence in wild, North American tarantulas of them moving things around the openings of their burrows. And mind you, I've had lots of experience with these creatures in the wild. If they did "rearrange the furniture" around their natural burrows, I would have recognized the fact by now. Thus, I can only draw the conclusion that the act of "playing" with ping pong balls is a completely unnatural phenomenon, not based on any obvious instinctual behavior. And therefore it's almost surely a LEARNED activity or response.
2) Several decades ago, when I was breeding Tliltocatl (Brachypelma) albopilosus (curlyhair tarantulas), I noticed an interesting behavior. Imagine this, if you will. I am seated on the carpet in a small bedroom with three-and-a-half walls covered with shelves of tarantulas, often more than 1300 counting the babies! On my left is a stack of cardboard trays of the type used for marketing 24 soda pop cans each. (BTW, I'm left handed. If you do this, you more probably would reverse my arrangement.) Each such tray holds 40, small, glass, baby food jars. And each jar contains one baby (3rd, 4th, or 5th instar, perhaps) tarantula. At arm's length in front of me sets a quart bottle of tap water with a plunger style pump, and a small Erlenmeyer flask holding perhaps fifty to 100 baby crickets. On my right is a stack of empty, cardboard, soda pop trays.
The technique is to -
1. Grab one of the occupied baby food jars from my left.
2. Remove the cover.
3. Squirt about a half teaspoon to full teaspoon of water from the pump bottle into the baby food jar (depending on how dry it appeared).
4. Grab the flask of crickets and gently tap four to six crickets into the baby food jar with the tarantula.
5. Replace the cover on the baby food jar.
6. Place the processed baby food jar into the empty tray strategically placed to my right.
7. Grab another occupied baby food jar from my left...
8. Repeat as often as necessary.
(Side note: I spent a lot of time on that carpet! I missed watching an entire season of Star Trek: Next Generation by doing so! Had to catch it during the Summer reruns.)
During this repetitive, assembly line procedure I began to notice an interesting behavior. A very few of the baby curlyhairs, perhaps four to six out of 100, learned to run out of their baby food jars onto my right hand and position themselves on the side of my thumb over the open mouth of the jar. They exhibited no readily discernible reaction to my squirting water into their jar. But, when I tapped a few crickets into their jar they'd make a "Hail Mary" style dive into the baby food jar after the crickets. In the majority of occasions they were successful at capturing one of the crickets, sometimes rolling around for a few seconds while dispatching it.
And they did this repetitively until they had a DLS* of 3/4" or so (19 or 20 mm).
There are a number of remarkable aspects about this behavior. It's not as simple as it first seems. First, it is not normal in the wild state for a tarantula to learn to recognize when the lid of their jar is removed. THERE ARE NO LIDS ON THEIR BURROWS TO BE REMOVED IN THE WILD!
And any such disturbance would almost surely be instinctively interpreted as a predator attempting to dig up the burrow to eat the delicious spider at the bottom. THUS, THE ACT OF EXITING THEIR JARS AND POSTING THEMSELVES NEXT TO THE ENTRANCE WOULD REQUIRE THAT THEY DID SO IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO THEIR NATURAL INCLINATION TO HIDE UNDER THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES. They had to LEARN this behavior!
Furthermore, wild baby tarantulas generally live in burrows whose diameter is roughly proportional to the spiders' DLS. (Although I've never seen a published verification of this, much less a statistical analysis or comparison between representative species.) Thus, the baby curlyhairs that I was feeding might ordinarily live in burrows from perhaps the diameter of a common lead pencil up to perhaps one-half inch, just barely wide enough to accomodate the tarantula as it moved up and down the burrow. By comparison, the diameters of the mouths of the baby food jars were an immense "maw," and the depth a terrifying abyss! THUS, MAKING THAT LEAP AFTER THE BABY CRICKETS NOT ONLY REQUIRED AN ACT OF FAITH, BUT WAS IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO THE INSTINCTIVE MESSAGE TO NOT RISK SUCH A DANGEROUS ENDEAVOR. The baby tarantulas had to LEARN this behavior!
For many decades I have felt that tarantulas are actually much smarter than we give them credit for, that they actually are capable of displaying some level of "intelligence" if given the opportunity. My inclination is further supported by a small book (actually a booklet or pamphlet) published by Karen Peebles, Training AND Experimenting With Tarantulas. (2007 and 2009) Lulu Publishing. While this work has received generally poor reviews, it too raises some questions about tarantulas' ability to learn and change their behavior that transcends mere instinctive response.
This topic is also discussed in a thread on another forum. [Note to moderators: Please allow this single infraction to any prohibitions against mentioning other forums, if such exists.]
So, my questions are:
1) Do any of you have any anecdotal experience to support the hypothesis that tarantulas can actually learn and perhaps "think" at some basic level? If so, would you be kind enough to report them in this thread?
2) Have any of you seen any other discussions of tarantula intelligence? Would you please supply me the references?
3) Do any of you know how to contact Karen Peebles? If so, could you either supply me with the contact info directly, or ask her to contact me at [email protected]? PLEASE DO NOT ADVERTISE MS. PEEBLES' E-MAIL ADDRESS PUBLICLY ON THIS FORUM!
Thanks in advance for your participation.
* DLS = diagonal leg span
Seeing as we are discovering that so many animals are more intelligent than first thought, making the rights of animals be questioned more, and relatively hardly any research has been done on tarantulas, I don't see why it isn't likely that there is some type of intelligence there we haven't yet revealed. And also maybe an intelligence so unlike human intelligence that maybe we still look in the wrong places with the wrong methods but don't know it yet. 