Episode Information

Over 100 years ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Lost World, a tale of adventures in a rainforest where prehistoric monsters still roamed. The story was set in the Venezuelan Amazonas region, which remains one of the last unexplored places left on earth, where spine-chilling, real-life creatures do remain. In a drug-fuelled ceremony, the village shaman prays to the spirits of one in particular – the giant tarantula. Everything about this spider is formidable. It has eight eyes and a face which might have been invented by a science fiction writer. With a leg span of over eight inches, it can comfortably cover a dinner plate. Its abdomen is covered with irritating hairs which it releases in showers when threatened. Courting males approach potential mates with extreme caution. Their mating rituals are complex and sensuous but as tarantulas are not immune to their own poison, a wrong move at any time by the male could prove fatal. This is a remarkable story of an ancient peoples respecting the rights, and venerating the beauty and danger, of one of nature’s scariest creatures.