Random Facts About The Goliath Birdeater, An Unexpectedly Gentle Giant (12 items)

(#8) Children in Venezuela Hunt And Eat Goliath Birdeaters

The children of Venezuela's Piaroa tribe hunt their own food from an early age. One of their favorite treats are Goliath birdeaters. According to members of the tribe, the spiders taste very good.
(#4) Males Die Not Long After Mating

Male Goliath birdeaters typically die a few months after mating, having fulfilled their biological function. The female spins a web, lays 50 to 200 eggs in that web, gathers the web into a ball, and carries it around. Carrying the egg sac makes Goliath birdeaters unique among tarantula species.
(#11) Three New Species Of Birdeater Tarantulas Were Discovered In 2017

In March 2017, three new species of bird-eating spiders were discovered in the jungles of Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil by Caroline Sayuri Fukushima of the Sau Paulo Institute. The discoveries were part of a project to help better document and track tarantulas of the Avicularia genus, the classification of which Fukushima describes as "a huge mess."

These animals belong to a different genus than the Goliath birdeater, which makes you wonder how many giant birdeating tarantula species there are in the world.
(#5) Like All Tarantulas, Their Eyesight Is Terrible

Despite what you may surmise from looking at them, Goliath birdeaters are not perfect killing machines. Like all tarantulas and most spiders, they have incredibly poor eyesight. To make up for this, tarantulas hunt by sensing vibrations on the ground. When they feel something, they pounce on their prey and subdue it with venom.

Tarantulas make up for poor eyesight by hunting at night, putting them on equal footing with anything that isn't an owl. Or Predator. But why would a tarantula hunt Predator?
(#7) Despite The Name, They Mostly Eat Worms

While it's true Goliath birdeaters attack and eat small birds, they rarely manage to catch avian prey in the wild. In fact, they subsist primarily on worms, supplemented with typical giant spider fare such as insects, lizards, frogs, toads, and even the occasional snake.
(#6) It's A Species Of Tarantula

Goliath birdeater spiders are taxonomically classified as Theraphosa blondi. They belong to Arachnida Class, Aranea Order (spiders), Mygalomorphae Suborder, and Theraphosidae Family. The latter makes them tarantulas, a family of spiders containing at least 947 species. Tarantulas are typically large spiders with hair on their legs and abdomen and two tarsal (at the end of the their legs) claws.

They are burrowing creatures that pose no serious threat to humans and can live as long as 30 years in the wild.