King Baboon Spider

• GeneralIt digs burrows over 1 m deep and can live more than 25 years.
• It stridulates by rubbing the bristles of its chelicerae and produces an audible hiss as a warning before it strikes.
• Unlike the American tarantulas, the African ones have no urticating hairs: they defend themselves by biting, and their venom causes intense pain and prolonged cramping.
• It is one of the longest-lived tarantulas: females can live more than twenty-five years.
• It is extremely fossorial: it digs tunnels up to two metres deep and virtually never leaves them, so in captivity it is a species that is almost never seen.
• It stridulates when disturbed: it rubs the bristles on its chelicerae and pedipalps to produce an audible hiss, a warning uncommon among tarantulas.
• Unlike the American tarantulas, the African ones have no urticating hairs; their defence is stridulation and, failing that, the bite.
• Its venom is not lethal to people but causes severe, prolonged pain and cramps.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (arachnid)

Habitat and environment

Dry savannah and arid scrub

Sources consulted: Karsch (1885); British Tarantula Society; World Spider Catalog

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.