Tarantula Maps?

[Stuart Common]

I thought about doing this just as a bit of fun for my blog, but perhaps it would be a nice resource for everyone to contribute to?

I was browsing flickr and it can show a map with where photos were taken, so I thought about doing the same for my blog showing where my spiders were from in the world using google maps, with photos and spider names etc?

I thought perhaps that this may be of interest to the wider community so would anyone else be interested in joining in with this, or have any suggestions?

I would be more than happy to set it up and to coordinate peoples access to add photos/locations etc

Thanks

[matthew spooner]

hi stuart, as a club we do mini beast road shows for village/school/charity fetes etc, we also do educational classes in schools. we aim for all of our shows to be as educational as possible, telling people all about tarantulas, bugs and reptiles etc. we take about 50-60 tarantulas along to these shows, each marked with a coloured spot, which corresponds with an identical dot on a giant map of the world, indicating where in the world that particular species comes from. i would be very interested in helping with this as i believe it would be handy to us as well as an educational aid. please can you keep me informed of the progress of this project and just let me know of anything i can do to help.

[Chris Sainsbury]

Hi
Sounds a really nice idea but I don't think it will take off like you hope it too unless you go out and take most, if not all the photos yourself.

Most people who go out to all the different places to find tarantulas are very protective of the locations of the different species that they find, and rightly so.
It takes a lot of time, planing and indeed money to visit these places, and I asure you that once there it is bloody hard work to find them. Even if you have the locations from someone else it is still not an easy ride but it does make things easier.
Most people who go out will and do share their information about locations to other people going out the same way, but before hand there are certain agreements that are made whether it be a shareing in any taken photos or a number of collected specimens, if they are collected etc etc (there are many things that could be asked in return).

There is also quite a large sigma or fear if you like, that if locations are posted willy nilly on an internet web site it is like a free for all for any would be Tom, Dick or Harry to go out a strip it for the pet trade, or more likely the dead insect trade, although I personely don't think either make as big an impact on populations as what is often suggested. But still I for one would not like to be the person to test this out.

Ok, so I now sound all negative and can already feel the replies from the idiot crowd about how tarantulas, or indeed any animal not being just yours to view in the wild, but should be made aviable to anyone who wishes to see them etc, etc, etc....well go sue me then go look yourself as I don't respect this opinion, so neither care about it, but here is an alternative:-

Maybe still do your world map but instead of exact locations on the map just do country of origin. Then you can use many photos of what is in the pet trade and you can also find out the information of county of origin quite easy by going to The World Spider Catalog web site.

I still think this would be a nice little project and could be useful to many if it is done in a good way.

Hope this helps
Chris

[matthew spooner]

chris, if there are any negative replies to your post, bloody well ignore them, everyone is entitled to their opinion

[Stuart Common]

Chris:

Indeed, I probably didnt put alot of info in my original post, I wasnt meaning to put a specific location as in you can find this species at this exact spot, google maps allows you to add an area rather than a specific point, so for a simple example, you could highlight Mexico as a country, spider is a Red Knee, and have info on what is found there in general

[matthew spooner]

Chris:

Indeed, I probably didnt put alot of info in my original post, I wasnt meaning to put a specific location as in you can find this species at this exact spot, google maps allows you to add an area rather than a specific point, so for a simple example, you could highlight Mexico as a country, spider is a Red Knee, and have info on what is found there in general

that sounds a lot more do-able stuart. where there any specific species you was thinking of or was you thinking of trying to work up to all of them?

[Stuart Common]

Well, I originally thought of adding on firstly the T's that I own myself, then decided that it would be quite a bare map lol but to use that as a starting point and work my way through those particular genus' and to let others put on photos of their T's and which country they come from etc.

Bear in mind that I just thought of the idea about 6am this morning and I'm still half asleep hehe

[Chris Sainsbury]

Ah ok Stuart. soz proberly just a little missunderstanding on my part.

@ Matthew. I wouldn't worry, I am pretty thick skined!....or maybe I should I have left out the skined bit?

cheers
Chris

[matthew spooner]

well if it helps with your map at all, here are the details of some of my Ts (the ones i know the details to lol)

brachypelma sabulosum - guatamala
brachypelma angusta - costa rica
brachypelma vagans - mexico/belize
brachypelma smithi - mexico

[Stuart Common]

ok, Ive added Matthew's T's onto the map first basically as a test to see what its going to possibly work like:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109445582910114085736.00044df5865797ee7e6e5

Any feedback much appreciated!

[Kate Arbon]

I think this would be a very good idea. I don't know about everyone else but I often try and find out where my Ts have come from so that I can try and replicate wet/dry seasons or changes in temperature, which I think is especially useful if you are trying to breed. Of course this generally means getting on google and searching around and for a lot of species it's quite tricky, things like Brachypelma it's a bit easier. So a map that shows them all (or as many as possible) would be a good resource IMO.

As Chris said, no need for exact locations, but just general areas. Maybe something where if you scan over the dot it tells you the species, and the habitat, something like "Species name, Country, Mountains/forests/grassland, cool and dry / hot and wet". If that is possible?

EDIT - I wrote that before reading Stuart's post, woops. Good job Stuart. I'm going to leave what I wrote up in case it gives anyone any ideas

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi Stuart,
Sorry to be a killjoy but I actually agree with Chris's original post here. As a member of the Australian Tarantula Association I'm aware that there is a real problem with wild populations at the moment due to people taking them, often I believe for the pet trade. Whilst I'm not suggesting for a second that anyone connected with the BTS or the ATA would take part in this, those who know the location of some of these species are wise to keep such matters secret.
If you look on the www.brachypelmas.co.uk website there is a good location map given, it doesn't matter aboiut these locations as no-one would be stupid enough to nick WC Brachys when there are plenty in the trade and due to CITES they risk prison!
As for Poecilotheria, here's a few rough pointers:-

P. miranda West Bengal (Bangladesh is East Bengal)
P. striata Mysore (SW India)
P. regalis Western Ghats (Bombay down to Coimbatore)
P. rufilata Coimbatore region (I think)
P. formosa Salem area (SE India
P. metallica Gooty region Central India
P. tigranawesseli Calcutta down to Cuttack approx.
P. fasciata North Sri Lanka (Jaffna)
P. smithi Not Known
P. subfusca Central highlands (Badulla, Nawala area)
P. ornata Ratnapura & South Sri Lanka approx.
P. pederseni South Sri Lanka (I presume down to Matara)

Any innacuracies here I apologise, as the info here I believe is pretty well available on the internet anyway so sorry if There's mistakes.

[Stuart Common]

Hi Nicola,

no thats certainly not a problem, Ive had a look at the Brachypelma site and I'd say thats giving more specific information that I was planning.

I am 100% for the conservation of wild tarantulas and their habitats, and certainly wouldnt be asking for details of new finds, just general info which can already be found on the internet but just gathered into one resource to look at on a map, ie. anyone can google a species of tarantula and find out which country it comes from, and thats all I was planning to put on.

Perhaps my problem was that I didnt think enough about it before I wrote the original post but if you have a look at the little test map I posted the link to, you will see that its not going to give any secrets away and thanks for the Pokie details!

[Nicola Dolby]

Great work in progress! The clarity of your pictures is stunning. Ok, the H. maculata comes from the Togo/Ghana region of West Africa and your OBS's species come from Tanzania. Hope this helps.

[Andrew Ferguson]

Can I just be a bit picky of Nicola's Pokie locations? Calcutta and Bombay no longer exist. They are now officially called Kolkata and Mumbai. Sorry to be picky, and even I find myself annoying when I feel I have to correct people on trivial things.

I think Stuart's idea is a good one. I remember ages ago I had a copy of Microsoft Encarta World Encyclopedia (or something similarly titled!). On the map of the world, when you moved the cursor over a region it would pop up with a small selection of the animals that lived there.