INNER VIEW: RAY GABRIEL—Live From Panama
Page 3 of 3 | 2005 Interview by Michael Jacobi
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MJ: What activities outside of the arachnid world do you most enjoy?
RG: Sorry, I don't understand... there is a world outside arachnids (laughter)?!? I enjoy films, especially classic horror like Driller Killer and Sewage Baby, playing chess, scrabble, cards, gardening, music—from 20Õs swing to Rammstein. Sorry, I hate rap and country & western—apart from Johnny Cash.
MJ: Don't apologize. IÕm with you on the rap and country & western comment—and I like Rammstein! Right now you are "Live in Panama"... Tell us a little about the country and people. Have you had any amusing experiences that reminded you that you are from a far different place?
RG: In 2004, I was asked by a friend at the local branch of the Smithsonian Institute to give a talk on spiders and other arachnids. As there are many Americans, Canadians, and Europeans moving into the area, it would be good for them to know whatÕs what. When we arrived we saw all these posters with Dr. Raymond Gabriel (laughter)! I am not a doctor. I just wonder when I will get my certificate (more laughter).
There are 50-plus (theraphosid) species known from Costa Rica, 40-plus from Colombia and only, as I work it out, 13 from Panama. There has just got to be more. Some of the Costa Rican and Colombian species have to be found here as well as well as a few endemic to Panama. After all the mossie (mosquito) and chitras (sand fly) bites I have had this week, I hope I live long enough to find some of them!
MJ: OK, you're moving to Panama. Here's a hypothetical question: Let's say the authorities tell you that you can bring only one tarantula into the country with you. What species would it be?
RG: Many people have asked if I am taking my spiders with me, and I tell them I would not even think of it in case I accidentally introduced a non-native species. But if i was allowed to take only one spider it would have to be one of the larger blue Avicularia species called A. metallica.
MJ: Thanks Ray. Any closing thoughts?
RG: Only to thank you for the opportunity to give this interview, and to ask your readers to keep data and publish, publish, publish. There is so much we don't have written down.
I am off to get some water and then off to the jungle. On my first trip here I found a specimen of an arboreal species that I have never found again—maybe an I. Maybe this trip I will find it! I could not collect it on that first trip as I had no permits.
My thanks to Ray for indulging me with this "inner view"!