Rachael Howe
Today I was part of a 4 person expedition to Mount Arid to looks for spiders with Jeremy Wilson. We knew it was going to be a long day so we packed our gear and donned our long sleeved shirts, hats, gaiters, gloves and heavy duty boots. We were going completely off grid so had a first aid kit, a satellite phone and radios with us.
The drive out to Cape Arid took approximately 2 hours. Lots of sandy tracks, kangaroos, rabbits, and amazing views. We started hiking and quickly realised that we were going to have some trouble getting through the thick, burnt bushland. A relatively short hike of about 1.5km took us over an hour but was well worth it.
Jeremy taught us how to identify spider holes and trap doors and we soon had lots of digging to do to get to the spiders. Our first one gave us a bit of a fright, making a run for it and ending up on Jeremy’s back! I finally got it into a specimen jar to bring back to the lab. The trap door spiders were a bit of a challenge to dig out, with their burrows often zig zagging on their way down into the ground. Have a look at the video to see the process in action. We found lots of critters, including a couple that may be new species. We will have to keep in close communication with Jeremy for updates!
