I already have much of the equipment needed for this project (e.g., the trail camera). The following are aspects of the project that I need to raise money for.

Getting Me to and From the Field Station

This includes flights and the cost of ho(s)tels to sleep in while waiting for a connecting flight (or while waiting for the boat in Puerto Maldonado).

Support Fees

These are fees that I need to pay to Kawsay Biological Station for using their facilities, and fees that I need to pay to experiment.com for using this platform.

Kestrel Drop D3

This is the cost of a Kestrel Drop D3 to monitor air temperature, humidity, and barometric (air) pressure.

Stretch Goal: Travel Medical Expenses

This is the cost of things like travel insurance, malaria prophylaxis, etc., adjusted for the fees that I will need to pay to experiment.com.

Additional Information

FAQs:

Why won't you catch the tarantulas and put transmitters on them?

Capture and handling by humans is usually stressful for wild animals, and this both compromises the animal's welfare and can change the animal's behaviour, affecting study results. Eventually, the animal will "forget" the stress of capture and its behaviour will return to normal, but for short-term studies this effect of capture on behaviour can be an issue.

What if you can't find any tarantulas?

Well, for starters, we know they're there: just recently, a new species of fly was described from specimens that were living on steely blue birdeaters around Kawsay Biological Station! Furthermore, female tarantulas live for years longer than the males do, and adult females of the burrowing species spend the vast majority of their adult lives in or at the entrance to their burrows. Therefore, I can rely on existing knowledge of where burrows have been spotted to reliably track down burrow-dwelling females.

Won't the equipment block the burrow entrance?

Nope! It will all be sitting off of the ground.

Won't the presence of the equipment near the burrow disturb the tarantulas?

Tarantulas don't have very good eyesight. In fact, their eyesight can be described as being very poor, so I don't anticipate this to be the case, no. On that note, even if the equipment "spooks" potential prey, the equipment won't be present at a burrow for long enough to have a meaningful impact on rate of prey capture by the tarantulas.

What if the tarantula leaves its burrow?

Any "walkabout" events will be captured by the trail camera that is monitoring the focal burrow. The trail camera will be set to capture a time lapse sequence. I won't be able to gather any data on body position once the tarantula has stepped out of the camera's field of view. However, I can still count things like number of forays out of the burrow, time spent out of the burrow, etc. Ultimately, mature females of burrow-dwelling tarantula species are basically so-called homebodies, so I don't anticipate "walkabouts" to be a super common occurrence.

You like spiders? Are you crazy?

Yes.

Cover Photo Credit: "Pamphobeteus antinous | Bolivian steely-blue legged bird spider", by John ("snakecollector"), licensed under CC BY 2.0. Image displayed here is cropped relative to the original.

In-Video Tarantula Photo Credit: "Pamphobeteus antinous | Pamphobeteus antinous" by John ("snakecollector"), licensed under CC BY 2.0.