LA JUNTA, Colo. — Finding a mate is risky business this time of the year for the Colorado brown tarantulas that populate southeastern Colorado.
In the late summer, thousands of male tarantulas scour the plains for a mate — provided they can safely cross the roads that stripe the Arkansas Valley.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said the breeding expedition happens every year in areas around La Junta and the Comanche National Grassland. It's not a migration, but just a quest for romance.
The male tarantulas live just a short time after reaching sexual maturity at age eight, hence their eager search for a mate. The National Park Service said males can travel as many as twenty miles in search of a mature female, and that is what is occurring during the tarantula migration.
Females are larger than the males and reach maturity between 8-10 years. According to the National Park Service, it is not uncommon for females to live over 20 years. Once females make their burrows, they tend to stick close to them for the entirety of their lives.
Males rarely live one year past maturity and usually die during or shortly after migration because they are killed by vehicles while crossing the roads or they become the victim of predators like tarantula hawk wasps, coyotes or even female tarantulas.
"They're gonna be dead by Christmas," Colorado State University professor Whitney Cranshaw said in a 2015 9NEWS story about the male tarantulas. "Once they wander and mate and it gets cold, they don't make it."
The tarantula can attain a body length of up to two inches and a leg span of up to five inches. Despite their large size and fearsome reputation, tarantulas pose little hazard to humans.
"They're not a dangerous spider. They don't have venom that would hurt people. They're not going to bite unless you physically grab them," Cranshaw said.
La Junta Tarantula Fest
Comanche National Grassland, the country’s fourth largest grassland with more than 440,000 acres of short-grass prairie and canyon lands, is a special home for Colorado brown tarantulas.
Nearby La Junta will host its third annual Tarantula Fest on Friday, Sept. 27, and Sunday, Sept. 29, where visitors to the grassland can catch a glimpse of the fuzzy arachnids.
The National Park Service said visitors should not harass or handle tarantulas, but instead observe and photograph the tarantulas as they make their annual trek in search of a female.
“The Comanche National Grassland welcomes you to come view the tarantulas and enjoy the grassland,” said Chandra Ochoa, a customer service representative with the grassland. “Please leave no trace. Take photos from afar and give tarantulas space to be themselves in their natural habitat.”
Cranshaw hopes that Coloradans will get to better know the spiders and fear them less.
"Americans are weirder about spiders than pretty much any place on the planet," Cranshaw said. "By a long shot."