Around 200 Montserrat Tarantulas Hatch In Chester Zoo For The First Time Ever [VIDEO]

For the first time ever, about 200 Montserrat tarantulas have hatched being in captivity at the Chester Zoo in Cheshire. As not much is known about the spider species tarantula, which is native to the Caribbean island of Montserrat, breeding of the species became essential in order to understand more about the hairy brown creatures.

It was back in 2013, when a zoo keeper brought a dozen of the spiders to the zoo after he observed them in the wild during several field trips. Since then, the spiders were put under careful study and now, finally, a female Montserrat tarantula has given birth to 200 baby spiders, reported BBC.

Gerardo Garcia, Chester Zoo's curator of lower vertebrates, said it was a virtual race against time where the sexual synchronicity was matched between males and females in order to create successful breeding conditions. The problem was the difference between the lifespan of female spiders and their male counterparts. Garcia said that while male Montserrat tarantulas on an average live 2.5 years at the most, female Montserrat tarantulas live for a much longer time. The female spiders also mature much slowly as compared to their male counterparts. He added that they were very nervous while trying to perform match-making as the male spiders were very few in number, reported Tech Times.

Another major problem was that there was threat that the female Montserrat tarantulas could take the male as a prey instead of viewing them as partners, as the case is with many invertebrates. Furthermore, after a successful mating, when three female tarantulas became pregnant, they surprisingly disappeared.

Gracia said that the spiders dug a burrow on the ground and disappeared. In fact, the tarantulas do not feed and do not even show up. Fortunately, the tiny spiderlings eventually started to pop up from below the earth. The spider babies are currently being kept in individual pots and are fed with small flies. It is expected that the Montserrat tarantulas will become part of a breeding program in 12 months' time. For now, there are no male adults left in the colony.

Watch the spiders in the video below.