A rare 'red-rump' tarantula was discovered by a Donegal woman in a bunch of bananas that she recently bought from her local supermarket - The ISPCA came to rescue the spider to take for a closer inspection. The spider will soon be transferred to Alcorn's Tropical World where his permanent home awaits
A Donegal woman got a surprise when she was taking out her shopping this week - when a tarantula crawled out of her bananas. It was later confirmed as a rare Mexican "red rump" tarantula and was taken in by the ISPCA, who are caring for it and have given it a name, Parker.
"Parker was carefully captured and transferred in a secure box before being admitted to the ISPCA Animal Rescue Centre for a closer inspection," said a spokesperson for the ISPCA. "A veterinary examination confirmed that Parker was very dehydrated and lethargic after his travels but after some water and mini-crickets to eat, he began to perk up very quickly. Parker was placed in an appropriate humid habitat in temperature and moisture levels suitable for his species and was closely monitored over a number of weeks."
All's well that ends well, maybe, except for the woman from Donegal who was presumably terrified to have found such a creature stowed away in her shopping. Not that it would have done much to calm her down at the time, but tarantulas are relatively benign in nature and rarely cause injury to humans at all.
Parker is still in the care of the vets, but will be taken to Alcorn's Tropical World in Letterkenny once he gets back up to spidey-speed. Naturally, the ISPCA social media team saw his arrival as an open goal, especially in this spookiest of weeks. They posted a festive photo of the wee man on their Instagram with the caption:
"Happy #Halloween from Parker, the stowaway Tarantula who is thriving well in #ISPCA care. This little guy has already grown in size and is continuously spinning elaborate webs all around his enclosure!"
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Ireland