INNER VIEW: RAY GABRIEL—Live From Panama
Page 2 of 3 | 2005 Interview by Michael Jacobi
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MJ: You have written numerous articles, especially for the BTS journal. Many of these have related to my own favorites, the tiger spiders of the genus Poecilotheria. What is it about this genus that fascinates you most?
RG: I would not really say I am fascinated by just the Poecilotheria, the more I find out about each species the more I find out we don't know. If Andy (Andrew Smith) had not asked me to help gather data, I probably would not have built up the adult Poecilotheria collection I have. But as Pokes are easy to keep, rear, and breed—especially P. regalis—they make a great species for research, such as incubation temperature and communal activity. I think this aspect of keeping Pokes has for me been the most interesting—having a species which I can do this with.
MJ: You mention helping Andrew Smith gather data. You've become involved in his Poecilotheria book project. What specifically are you working on?
RG: I am gathering the data on breeding and husbandry. This sounded very easy to start with, but very quickly became really hard work. A good example is how long does a male Poecilotheria regalis take to mature. Everyone knew around one year, but nothing was written down. So I had to keep the dates eggsacs were laid and when the males (from those sacs) matured to get accurate data for Andy's book. And, of course, that is only one small fraction of the information for one species. There was so much to find out. So I built up breeding groups and collected data on all aspects of everything. I am still writing this up as it is better to have the information published so it can be referenced.
As I said previously, there is so much we don't know even though the hobby is nearly 30 years old. We know much more than we did, but still have at least 99.99% to learn.
MJ: In 2003 alone, your breeding efforts resulted in 51 egg sacs from captive-bred females and an addition 2 from wild-caught females. By my count—based on your article in BTS Journal 20(1)—21 of those sacs resulted in spiderlings. In 2004, you produced 20 egg sacs from 8 species of Poecilotheria [BTS Journal 20(2)]. To what do you attribute your success as a tarantula breeder? If you had to offer up three tips or tricks of the trade, as it were, what would they be?
RG: Number one: buy a book that has tables of climate data for the (natural habitat of the) species you are working on. Two: forget about ever seeing the spiders you are working with again and give them a good depth of substrate so they can create burrows with chambers. Darken most of the tanks you keep arboreal species in with black plastic bags or something like that and, even in these conditions, give them somewhere secure to hide, not just a small piece of bark leaning up against the side of the tank. And number three: play they numbers game. I have 14 females of P. regalis. I have 14 times more chance of getting an eggsac than a person with only one. If you can afford it, buy a good sized amount—say 10 specimens of a species—and keep the first 25% of any resulting young back for your group.
MJ: Of the sacs you produced in 2003 that didn't result in spiderlings, the majority were eaten by the female. What are your thoughts on why females do this and what, if anything, can be done to reduce the phenomenon?
RG: I think the female can detect movement inside the eggsac and can feel when the volume of the contents gets larger. If she does not feel movement or the contents getting larger she probably realises no young will come from the eggsac so eating it will give her good body weight for the next year's breeding. This is one reason i prefer to remove eggsacs from the females and artificially incubate them,. If it is the lack of movement inside the eggsac that causes female to eat them, and 96% of the eggsac is infertile or unfertilised, the remaining 4% might not cause enough movement to prevent the sac from being eaten.
Spiders, I think, are pretty timid and don't like being disturbed. Constant checking to see if the eggsac is there—like I did with my very first eggsac, Holothele incei—scares the female. Therefore, she eats the sac—just like that female H. incei did. But in reality, I don't think anyone knows.
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