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British movers find massive Australian spider in family's belongings

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Published in Weird News

(UPI) Animal rescuers in Britain said a team of movers unloading a family's shipping container captured an unusual stowaway -- a massive huntsman spider from Australia.

The RSPCA said movers unloading the shipping container of family belongings in Merstham, England, discovered the large spider after it apparently spent three months being transported the more than 10,000 miles from Brisbane, Australia.

Dave Aldridge of Britannia Movers International told the BBC he captured the "handsome critter" after it startled one of his colleagues.

"I had three guys unloading, one ran about two miles up the road when he first saw it," Aldridge said. He's a handsome, furry guy. I caught him in a lunch box and took him home for my six-year-old son to see while waiting for the RSPCA to pick him up.

RSPCA animal collection officer Annie Janes retrieved the spider from Aldridge.

 

"This huntsman spider is quite the traveler, surviving a journey of over 10,000 miles inside the removal container," Janes said.

"From the empty locust shells found in the container it seems he has thankfully been able to find food during that length of time, but it's a long time to go without water, and he's lucky he didn't get squished by any boxes or furniture. When I arrived he had been caught in a box and I carefully put a few drops of water down which he drank for some time, before confining him in a secure carrier.

I carefully confined him and transported him to the Heathrow Animal Reception in Hounslow, who will arrange for him to be rehomed to a specialist. He was about the size of my two hands put together, roughly [7 inches], so quite something to look at! Thankfully I wasn't apprehensive, in my job I have to rescue all sorts of animals so I have had to learn to get used to dealing with spiders."

Janes said huntsman spiders "are not venomous but they can give a nasty bite."


Copyright 2017 by United Press International

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