Many months have passed with nothing interesting to share. I decided to post to Facebook and ask for questions that I could answer here.
Chad asked, “What’s your favorite non-USA rattlesnake?”
My favorite American species gives a clue to my favorite rattlesnake from outside of the US. Crotalus molossus molossus, popularly known as the Western or Northern Black-tailed Rattlesnake, is found in the US and also northern Mexico. It is my favorite snake, period. As currently classified, it is the nominate race of three subspecies, with C. molossus nigrescens (Mexican Black-tailed) and C. molossus oaxacus (Oaxacan Black-tailed) found to the south. These other races of “molo” are my favorite rattlesnake(s) from outside the USA. Close in second and third would be two closely related species, the Basilisk Rattlesnake (Crotalus basiliscus) and Totonacan Rattlesnake (Crotalus totonacus). This group of three species is definitely my greatest area of interest.
Chad asked, “What’s your next lifer tarantula to find and photograph?”
That’s a tough one. My future travel plans include a return to Costa Rica and a return to Arizona. I doubt I’d find a lifer in CR since we found 14 species during my first trip there in 2006 and I wouldn’t really be tarantula hunting much during my upcoming trip (a third trip there in Summer 2020 was canceled due to COVID). I’ve found and photographed undescribed and I think all of the described species in Arizona. Maybe I’ll hit Utah or even California on my next trip west. That would be a chance to look for a “bird list” lifer. I really want to go to Borneo again and that would be another opportunity to find something new (at least to me) and photograph it. That trip would be all about snakes though. So, I’d hope my next lifer tarantula might be another new sky island species. Or maybe we should spend some time in Texas looking for A. moellendorfi. That seems to be the least common American species.
Chad asked, “What’s your dream camera and lens?”
My Nikon D500’s capabilities far exceed my own. I love it and don’t really covet another body. It is an APS-C (cropped frame sensor) camera, which has advantages and disadvantages. The D500 erases most of the disadvantages since it is amazing in low light and has an incredible no-noise ISO range. For those not into photography, the big advantage to crop sensor cams is a 1.4X magnification “crop factor”, which means a 200mm lens is the same as a 380mm lens on a full-frame. I suppose if I really got into landscape photography I’d want to get a full-frame body. I’d add a D810 then since everything I have read and seen in YouTube vids has convinced me that the D850 really is unnecessary (not worth the added expense). I am more intrigued by mirrorless cameras and for some reason always gravitate towards the Sony Alphas rather than the Nikon models like the Z7. If “dream camera” means the one I would select if I could have any single body for free then I would go for the new Sony ⍺1, a 50 megapixel, 30 frames per second, 8K video beast with a $6500 price tag! I need to research mirrorless cameras more. The compact size and high-def, high megapixel image and video capabilities are enticing, and the models of interest are full-frame. But the D500 was my dream camera before I got it and I don’t really need more.
As for the lens, I finally sold my Sigma 150-600mm telephoto zoom and look forward to replacing it with the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 for my bird and other wildlife photography. But that is a practical and affordable and realistic addition. I think my tax refund will go towards adding it to my kit. My dream lens would be Nikon’s 600mm f/4 I guess. I don’t see me buying a $13,000 lens in this lifetime, though. Or spending enough time focused on birds to make an expensive prime necessary. My next lens will probably be something like the Nikon 60 or 100mm macro or, maybe, Laowa 15mm.
John asked “What’s your favorite bird of prey?”
Golden Eagle on the Arizona/New Mexico border
The harpy eagle! It is a massive Latin American raptor that I dream of photographing. Maybe I’ll see one in Costa Rica! That’s not likely though, as except for a small region of Panama they are mostly gone from Central America (and Mexico). The harpy is most often encountered in the Brazilian Amazon. I’ll just have to get there someday.
Of those I have photographed I would say the Golden Eagle in Arizona or the Crested Hawk-Eagle I photographed in Sri Lanka. I love owls though too, and my favorite raptor pic is probably one of a Great Horned Owl.
Crested Hawk-eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus), Yala National Park, southern Sri Lanka
John asked: What’s your favorite non-venomous US snake?
A photo is worth a thousand words ~
Green Ratsnake (Senticolis triaspis), Chiricahua Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona
John asked: “True spiders...which catch your interest, attention the most..?”
Not surprisingly, John asked me a very similar question for my “self interview” in ARACHNOCULTURE magazine. If you haven’t read that click here to download the issue and check it out. My reply mentioned Heteropoda (Sparassidae), but I also am fascinated by other hunting spiders like wandering spiders (Cupiennius and Phoneutria, etc.) and am, of course, completely enamored by jumping spiders. The photos below represent all three. I’m not as intrigued by web-building spiders, but do especially like spiny orb weavers (Gasteracantha, Macracantha, and their allies).
Phoneutria reidyi, Suriname.
Heteropoda lunula, Pulau Langkwai, Malaysia
Hyllus diardi, Tanjung Rhu, Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia
John asked “favorite North American spot?”
Nobody will be surprised to learn that it is the Chiricahua Mountains and, more specifically, Cave Creek Canyon. I spent the better part of three years there, spending much of the last two camped in the heart of the canyon. I might also choose Barfoot Park for both snake and spider reasons. Outside of the Chiris, I love the Santa Catalina Mountains closer to Tuscon and the Superstition Mountains in the Phoenix area.
John asked “favorite World spot?”
This is a much tougher question to answer. Costa Rica is my favorite place and I look forward to rescheduling my third visit as soon as travel is a reality again. However, if I had to explore one place for a year I think I’d return to Sri Lanka. It was a much different country to explore. We had a hired driver rather than renting our own vehicle, which was odd at first but soon was much appreciated as our driver acted as a translator too and also found us some great street food and off-the-beaten-track places. The country is beautiful. The only thing I didn’t like about it was all the stray dogs. You couldn’t go 100 yards without seeing one on the roads - mangy malnourished things weaving in and out of the chaotic traffic. The latter is hard enough to get used to, as motorbikes with two adults, a child, and a farm animal on them battle with small cars that pass between lanes. I wouldn’t want to drive and our guy really turned into an asset as he calmly kept us safe and happy.
It’s much easier (less exhausting) to stay in the Western Hemisphere for an American, and I also want to return to Suriname. It is a wilder place with far fewer people and we barely scratched the surface when we were there. We were mostly confined to a region from the capital in the north (Paramaribo) south a couple of hours to the Brownsberg Natuurpark and Brokopondo area. There is so much more country to see, including the vast savannahs in the south near Brazil.
John asked “your next goal?”
I don’t know if you mean life goals or what. I’m going to stick with the travel theme and talk about my goals with regards to exploring nature. I’d love to spend at least a couple of weeks this summer back in the Chiricahuas with some trips to other areas of Arizona and maybe Utah. I also look forward to rescheduling the Costa Rica trip Joel and I had booked. Long term, I mentioned that I want to see Borneo again. Within the next few years, I want to join “Kurt Orionmystery” (Guek Hock Ping) of Orion Herp Adventures for one of his guided photo excursions to Borneo including Mount Kinabalu. I dream of seeing Trimeresurus malcomi and other Asian pitvipers with him. Photographing snakes in Borneo with Kurt is a life goal.
Guy asked, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
Ah, life at 67. I’d hope to be living on the road again, touring America, this time in a smaller RV van rather than pulling a large travel trailer behind a truck. Herping, “verting,” writing, and photographing sunsets. My dream used to be to “retire” to Costa Rica, but I’d rather travel periodically to exotic locales with friends like you and live nomadically on my home turf.
Martin asked, “Which country that you haven’t visited yet would you like to travel to, and which creature would you most like to see in the wild?”
That’s a really tough question as I’d like to visit so many. To narrow down a single country I suppose I’d first have to limit myself to New World. As I mentioned above, my dream trip is an expedition with Orion Herp Travel to the highlands of Borneo, and I also would love to visit Langkawi again with the Pennell Clan, but traveling from the U.S. to halfway around the world is tough. It’s two days of misery. So, focusing on Central and South America and trying to decide which creature I’d most like to see to make the choice, I’d say I’d most like to see a jaguar, and perhaps that has its best chance in Peru or Brazil. I love big cats. I’ve been lucky to have fleeting encounters with mountain lions in the Chiricahuas, including the one that dashed in front of my truck as I climbed the main mountain road, and had many sightings (and photographs) of bobcats there. I also saw a leopard in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka from quite a distance. Actually, the creature I’d most like to see is a clouded leopard (which Mark tattooed on my left shoulder), which would mean Asian travel. I guess enduring 15-hour flights is worth it.
Ray asked, “When did your interest in all things spider begin, and what was your first tarantula?”
This was covered in my ARACHNOCULTURE interview. I began collecting bugs and spiders at a very young age and gravitated towards spiders, especially after catching the bold jumping spider, Phidippus audax. By the time I was nine I was keeping both spiders and snakes as pets. My first tarantula was a wild Aphonopelma hentzi found in the forest behind my grandparent’s Arkansas home. In my late teens, I got my first exotic species, which included Brachypelma hamorii and Phormictopus cancerides and that collection quickly increased a hundred-fold as I met Ralph Henning and had access to spiders not in the pet trade.
Wyatt asked, “Best non-tarantula myg (mygalomorph*) experience?”
While we were searching for our new montane tarantula species at high elevation in the Chiricahuas, Chris Hamilton found a specimen of Androdiateus apachecus. I really loved that spider and got some nice images of it (see below).
*For my readers unfamiliar with the term mygalomorph, it is the order that tarantulas belong to, but Wyatt was excluding them and asking for an experience with one of their distant cousins.
Androdiateus apachecus, Onion Saddle, Chiricahua Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona.
Probably the best experience was having a wafer-lid trapdoor spider stroll under my picnic table when I was sitting with guests outside my RV in Cave Creek Canyon. It was as if it just wanted to be seen and photographed. I’m not sure why it was out of its burrow and prowling my campsite.
Entychides arizonicus, Cave Creek Canyon, Chiricahua Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona
John asked, “Favorite weapon?”
My everyday carry handgun. It is a Kimber Master Carry Pro .45 that Joel bought me as a gift. I removed the laser grips and replaced them with VZ grips, and later had a gunsmith rebuild the gun with all Wilson Combat machined internal parts. I carry this customized beauty in a Vedder Holster. My favorite bladed weapon is the Spyderco Yojimbo 2 that I also carry.
John asked, “Favorite vehicle you'd like to have?”
My F150 was my dream vehicle and I love it. However, as mentioned above, I dream of having an RV van - a Mercedes 4x4 Sprinter van with a custom RV interior. Vansmith makes these incredible models and I buy tickets occasionally to try to win one via Omaze. Winnebago does a really awesome van as well on the Mercedes chassis.
John asked, “Next tattoo is …?”
My Mark Pennell inked black & grey sleeves are now complete so I don’t know if I will need more. Maybe just a little gap filler on my left elbow. My left leg still has a bit of space so we’ll see, but I don’t have an itch for more ink. I lost count a long time ago, but I have over 100 hours of work on me already. I suppose I might get a little hand-tapped or hand-poked ink someday.
Cristoffer asked, “What would you say is your biggest accomplishment in your field. Also, why are Ephebopus the greatest theraphosids?”
Ephebopus are cool because of their urticating hairs being at the front. They don’t rub barbs off their asses, they toss them forward! It was a treat to see both E. murinus and E. rufescens in nature during our 2014 Suriname expedition.
My biggest accomplishment in the field was when Dr. Brent Hendrixson and I came across a male wandering in the road on a chilly late October day and I managed to find two females burrows within short order after locating another male roadside. At the time, we thought those four specimens would prove to be a high-elevation population of Aphonopelma chiricahua, but later DNA work proved that it was a new species that Brent and Dr. Chris Hamilton will describe – hopefully in the near future. The next year Brent, Chris, and others joined me to find more at several other sites. That same week we found some other new species.
Richard asked, “How do you feel about more medically significant species becoming more readily available in recent years?”
Highly venomous species have always entered the pet trade. It’s incredible that a mom & pop pet shop might have Leirus quinquestriatus for sale, but it is even more incredible that you never hear about people getting stung. It would only take a few envenomation cases to lead to regulation, but in all the years I was in the pet trade that never happened. In the past, it was mostly dangerous scorpions that were available to anyone and everyone, but I know that true spiders with medically significant venom like Phoneutria are now much more readily available than ever before and scorpion breeding has dramatically increased making more buthids in the hobby. The U.S. doesn’t have restrictions on dangerous arachnids like the UK does. They fly under the radar. I have bred and sold wandering spiders and years ago sold buthid scorpions and, fortunately, there were no mishaps I know of. I don’t know how I feel about the more recent situation. It is true that there has been a marked increase in the availability of dangerous species. It should be noted that there is a tremendous responsibility put on the keeper to not only keep him or herself out of harm’s way but to also keep these little escape artists in proper and secure housing.
Francisco asked, “What do you know about that 4 Theraphosa sp?”
I don’t know anything about a fourth species. I am no longer active in the hobby and I am not a member of any discussion groups. My Tarantula Bibliography has been defunct for quite some time. I am out of touch with matters such as this.
Christina wrote, “The reptile and invertebrate hobbies often seem to go hand in hand, so I am asking this with the assumption you've either worked with or studied reptiles to a degree. What species of reptiles have you worked with, which are your favorite thus far, and what would you like to work with in the future?”
I spent the better part of four decades immersed in the reptile and invertebrate hobbies equally.. In fact, there was a time when I was much better known in snake and gecko breeding circles than in the tarantula hobby. I specialized at one time or another in pythons, arboreal vipers, kingsnakes, and geckos. In the 80s, I had an extensive snake collection and my favorites were Indian Pythons, which I had a federal permit for as it is an endangered species, and Kinghorn’s Amethystine python. I bred Indian and Burmese pythons almost 30 years ago and many species of colubrid and boid. Another favorite was Dumeril’s boa, which used to be much rarer. I bred them in 1990 and displayed them at the first Florida National Reptile Breeder’s Expo at a time when captive-bred Dumeril’s were few and far between. Later in my reptile-keeping career, I gravitated toward carpet pythons and geckos. I bred a lot of crested and gargoyle geckos and my favorite was chahoua. My first breeding of them was one of my biggest herpetocultural thrills.
I don’t wish to work with any in the future. My animal-keeping days are over. I am too interested in travel and a nomadic lifestyle for “pets.” I devote my energy to photographing herps and inverts in nature.
Mark asked, “When are you coming to visit?”
How about Lectures 2022? Isn’t it your turn to come here? Meet me in Arizona in August! I have loved every trip to England. I’m well over a dozen now. I think next time I will make a pit stop in Belfast and add Northern Ireland to my country list. I look forward to visiting. You’ve got a place for me to crash now so I could do it on a budget!
Princess Sophie Pink asked, What has been the best experience when seeing tarantulas in the wild. And are there differences between the behaviour of wild tarantulas and your captive-bred ones?”
Finding new species is always a treat. We were lucky to find several new Sky Island species in late 2018-2019. I talked about one of them earlier in this post. The day that Brent and I found four of our new Chiricahua Mountain species we weren’t even looking for tarantulas. We serendipitously stumbled onto the first male, which made us stop and search the area. One more male on the roadside led us to my discovery of two females in burrows. Outside of the US, I have been so lucky to observed dozens of species. My favorite tarantula is Poecilotheria subfusca so my 2014 Sri Lanka trip was quite special. Finding both “types” was an unmatched thrill, but so was seeing both mature male and female P. ornata in the Makandawa Rainforest. In Suriname, we found the Goliath Tarantula by first locating a spiderling and then searching the area using endoscopes and found an adult female. That was quite the experience, but then so also was every find. We observed Tapinauchenius, Avicularia, Ephebopus, etc. Going back to Costa Rica in 2006, that was my first overseas trip to look for tarantulas. I remember that I found one of our first burrows of the trip. That was an exciting three weeks.
In captivity, we impose an environment on our spiders. They are forced to do their best with what we offer. With naturalistic vivaria, or even large tubs of deep substrate for burrowing species, we give them a poor approximation of their natural habitat, but at least their behavior whether it is digging a substantial burrow or building a retreat in a cork bark tube is appropriate. It’s the spiders kept in small terraria with a shallow depth of soil and maybe a little hiding place that cannot act naturally. As keepers it is our duty to do our best to allow tarantulas to create a natural retreat and leave them alone to adapt to the situation.
Going back to my favorite tarantula, I have kept P. subfusca in naturalistic terrariums exposed to my best approximations of natural environmental conditions; that is, approximating both temperature range and humidity levels. However, you cannot easily provide rainfall in captivity. You can try using waterfalls. My best attempt at creating the cloud forest conditions the highland “form” experiences was when by employing the unique housing I detailed in an ARACHNOCULTURE article. Click here to download. Under these conditions, with appropriate hollowed logs and cork tubes for retreats, I had both P. sp. highland and P. smithi acting as naturally as possible.
In truth, we are fortunate that tarantulas are fairly undemanding captives. But that doesn’t alleviate our responsibility to keep them in conditions that allows for behavior similar to what they would exhibit in nature.
Ryan asked, “When you produced Pachistopelma bromelicola and Pachistopelma rufonigrum, did you find they have a dependence on Aechmea sp. bromeliads (or similar)? Were there any major difficulties you encountered with these species, and if so what were they? My final question - are there any other Aviculariinae species that have you observed in situ that tend to gravitate towards bromeliads for their habitat? … Oh, and to tack onto that first part - have you observed Pachistopelma exhibiting the same “bromelicolous” behavior (if I’m using that term correctly?) in captivity, or do you find them to just be opportunistic?”
I didn’t find keeping and breeding Pachistopelma to be difficult or much different than that of any avicularines. They weren’t dependent on bromeliads, but housing them in heavily planted terrariums featuring Neoregelia and Aechmea allowed them to act as naturally as possible. If I just gave them, for example, Pothos and cork bark I am sure they would have found a suitable place to build a retreat and it wouldn’t have impacted breeding success.
What’s interesting about the habitat of Pachistopelma (I’ve never encountered them in nature, but what I have researched and read) is that the bromeliads are microenvironments – oases within a very harsh, hot, and dry coastal habitat. They are dependent on the bromeliads because conditions outside them are not favorable. In captivity, I kept their enclosures fairly warm and dry and focused my misting on the plants themselves, watering the bromeliads and the spiders at the same time once each week. Still, you can’t create a natural gradient in a small area. But I did my best to have the bromeliads provide a humid escape from the drier surroundings of the terrarium.
I’ve found Avicularia in bromeliads, but they will make retreats in just about anything – beneath cork bark, in curled leaves, in corrugated roofing, you name it. They are very opportunistic and adaptable and can be encountered in buildings placing their retreats in any dark corner.
Nicola asked, Has it stopped snowing there yet?
It has. The Chicago winters are much milder now than they were during my youth and early adulthood. It’s unseasonably warm as February comes to a close and the snow is melting away.
Tom asked, “Who are you?”
Just some reptile and arachnid-obsessed guy who loves to travel and photograph creepy crawlies. I like writing too.
Chad asked, “What’s your favorite hockey team? And why is it the Minnesota Wild?”
My favorite team is the Chicago Blackhawks, but you know that. The Wild has a decent team this year.
JT asked, “What's your favorite Tarantula species to keep? And what's your favorite food you have ever eaten regionally, while mostly looking for Tarantulas?”
A communal group of Monocentropus balfouri is hard to beat.
As for food, the key is eating street food – what the locals eat. Touristy places try to cater to Western palates and the results are disappointing. In Sri Lanka, we stayed at one hotel that was a small family-run place and we basically ate what the family was having that night. It was almost like a bed and breakfast. Still, it seemed like they toned down the spices for us. Our best meal was eating vegetable roti from roadside stands. We fed the five of us with drinks for like $5 American! And it was spicy and delicious. I could have eaten it every day and bemoaned every crap meal in a hotel afterward. It’s the same thing everywhere. In Malaysia, we went to an open-air market and got fabulous dishes for ridiculously low prices. My advice for travelers is to get away from the tourist hotels, avoid restaurants and look for lines of locals. That said, if you are staying in a nice resort you can find some great food, especially at breakfast. And some small hotels do serve local cuisine. You just have to tell them that you want it just like they eat it or they’ll think you don’t want spicy.
One of my favorite meals I’ve eaten abroad was this $3 plate of Char Tway Keow made fresh at an open-air food stall in a market in Penang, Malaysia (see below). The cold Tiger lager washed it down nicely!
Thanks for reading! I’m happy to have blogged again. Just a reminder: my website Publications and Media pages will direct you to more of my writing. You can download issues of ARACHNOCULTURE plus articles I published in the Journal of the British Tarantula Society.