Zimbabwe 2015

Guy Tansley

At the end of 2015, I travelled with Paul Carpenter, his brother Mark and Ralf Konen to Zimbabwe to find and photograph tarantulas and to visit Victoria Falls. Due to the late arrival of the rains that year, this would prove more difficult that first thought but, nevertheless, we found some fantastic tarantulas amidst The Smoke That Thunders.

Day 1. A two hour flight to France then another two hour stop-over before our next flight, eleven hours to Johannesburg.

Day 2. A one and a half hour flight to Harare. Paul, Mark and Ralf were waiting for me in the airport and we headed out to pick up the hire car. Mark guided us to our first hotel and our first round of Lion beers. After food we headed to our rooms to get some well needed sleep. An early start tomorrow for the trip down to Bulawayo.

First impressions. Flying into Harrae there's a lot of farm land here and not much left in between. These patches of land between the farms will hold our quarry so I wasn’t too concerned that we would find what we were looking for. I had similar thoughts on arrival in South Africa some ten years earlier which proved unfounded. The people are friendly and helpful as in South Africa too.

Day 3. Towards Bulawayo. The roads were good, evidence of repairs to pot holes and we were stopped by traffic police several times but without issue. The roads were generally quiet as we made our way through various smaller towns, stopping off for gas and supplies. We checked the roadsides where the grass was burned back but failed to find any theraphosid burrows. Paul found a Lycosid burrow and we photographed several large ground beetles running through the dried leaf-covered grasslands, dotted with acacia trees and eucalyptus. We soon found our accommodation and with beetles flying around the lights, cockroaches on the floor, toads in the dirty swimming pool and millipedes on the lawn, it was perfect! We chatted to the owner who informed us that no tarantulas were on his land and we confirmed this with a short search during the afternoon.

Day 4. An early rise and a search of the hotel grounds. Lots of millipedes here and escorted by Lilly the Labrador that liked to eat everything we found! On the road towards Victoria Falls, we stopped a few times and did a search between switching drivers. Still no tarantulas but dung beetles banging into windshield, land crabs in the distinctive sandy soil, Scolopendra centipedes and huge click beetles still making it worthwhile. We arrived at our next hotel, only two hours from Victoria Falls. Unpacked, we donned our boots for a quick search around the hotel grounds which were on a high hill. Paul and Mark headed one way and Ralf and I headed down the older road which circled the hotel. Embankments proved unfruitful but after turning a few rocks, I was pleased to discover the first tarantula of the trip, a juvenile Ceratogyrus sanderi. Ralf and I took pictures and luckily Mark and Paul soon caught up to share the good news. We headed further down the road and continued searching but after we reached the railway line at the bottom (09), we decided to turn back as it was getting dark.

Day 5. An early start to drive up towards Victoria Falls. As it was only around 100km to the falls, we stopped off a few times en-route to do some searching. As it was the start of the rainy season, the ground is still quite dry so maybe it was still a little too soon for the spiders to be more active? We filmed huge dung beetles rolling dung across the road and flying around. A quick turn-around after checking in to our next hotel, we were out on the road again searching but to no avail due to the sandy soil that seems to cover this region. Lots of elephant dung piles scattered through the forested areas where we were searching, even outside of the park areas which was unexpected. Troupes of baboons on the roadside too. We headed back to our hotel before driving into Livingstone for dinner. We planned to walk but the owner at the hotel advised us that it wasn't very safe. Leopards frequented the trees in town at night and regularly killed local dogs and wild elephants were regular visitors through town, having even broken through our hotels walls in the past to reach the fruit trees.

Day 6. Victoria Falls and a short walk across the bridge of the Zambezi nearby border post into Zambia. As it’s the end of the dry season, there was no water on the Zambia side so we soon returned to Zimbabwe. We paid our $30 each to enter Victoria Falls Reserve and spent a couple of hours photographing the falls from various angles. While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls is classified as the largest, based on its combined width of 1,708 metres (5,604 ft) and height of 108 metres (354 ft), resulting in the world's largest sheet of falling water. One of the natural wonders of the world, it was truly an impressive sight and understandable why the indigenous Tonga name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, translates as The Smoke That Thunders.

Back at the hotel, we dumped our bags and spent a couple of hours searching the surrounding area but to no avail. After dinner we photographed various insects and a small black file snake (Mehelya nyassae) found in the hotel grounds.

Day 7. After breakfast we kitted up and headed back down the circular road to search once again. We spotted another medium sized striped-bellied snake (Psammophis subtaeniatus). I managed to find and excavate a trapdoor spider and Paul managed to find another, smaller C. sanderi under a stone further up the surrounding coal spoil heap from the nearby power plant. After lunch, we spent another few hours searching, this time on the flat valley floor towards the main road. I found a nice Lycosid burrow which contained spiderlings and nearby, a white tent-web spider but the tarantula burrows evaded us yet again. Moving back up in the late afternoon, we dug out a couple of small silk lined holes but failed to find their occupants.

Day 8. Back to Bulawayo. Stopping in a lay-by to check directions after some crossroads, Paul found silk, a moulted skin and egg sac remains in a tree. Investigation with torch and endoscope revealed the bared fangs of a defensive Pterinochilus murinus adult female. There was a juvenile sock web above her in the same tree and this larger female was around 3.5' off the ground in a hollow. She proved easy to extract, attacking the forceps initially but once out she was unexpectedly docile. A search of the surrounding patch of scrub revealed juveniles in trees and I successfully extracted one from behind loose bark that was not so cooperative, raising her legs in threat and striking readily. Ralf found another large silken retreat approximately 2' off the ground in a nearby tree. Inside was another adult female, slightly smaller than the first, again, with the more typical murinus attitude. Hundreds of photos later, we returned all of the spiders to their original retreats.

We drove another hour or so for lunch at our next hotel which was near a nature reserve watering hole. Initially there wasn't much to see apart from several storks but just as we were preparing to leave, out of the trees in the distance came a large herd of elephants. They lingered and drank from the water hole for about 15 minutes before heading back into the trees.

After another hour or so in the car, we spotted a patch of searchable land that looked different from the usual sand covered scrub that covered most of this area. As we spread out to search, there were good rocks to turn and the grass wasn't overly grazed by cattle. Rock-strewn ground peppered with larger boulders and after a few minutes I found silken burrow remains under larger stones which made me confident we were in the right area and it wasn’t long before I was called back towards the car to learn that Mark had found a classic African obligate tarantula burrow. Around one inch in diameter with a silken veil, torchlight revealed pale brown legs inside. Paul eased the occupant out - an adult female C. sanderi. She was defensive on extraction but soon calmed down for photographs. We returned the spider and continued towards Bulawayo, arriving at our next hotel on the outskirts, just after nightfall.

Day 9. A visit to the Natural History Museum. $10 entry but a very good selection and display of both live and dead specimens, especially the invertebrate section. Downstairs there were various live snakes on display.

We searched the roadsides as we headed towards Gweru but turned up nothing and it only took a few hours to reach our next hotel. A quick turnaround and we headed back out to continue our search. Our first stop proved unsatisfying due to the sandy soil so we headed on until the terrain changed back to soil. Within half an hour, I had found silk around a tree hole and Paul, a small juvenile shed skin under a rock so we decided it was worth working this area for a while. Ralf found a small burrow and he tickled out the familiar legs of a theraphosid. Calling Paul and Mark over, we managed to extract the spider unharmed. The ground was densely packed and filled with grass roots so it was hard work but luckily the burrow wasn't too deep, around 5". This spider was something different, medium sized and lacking any distinctive foveal horn of other Ceratogyrus sp. and we later identified it as sub-adult Ceratogyrus pillansi. Photos done, we returned the spider as usual.

Day 10. Headed towards Kadoma, searching along the way. Paul thought he had found another burrow at our second stop but it turned out to be another Lycosid. We were just about to leave and as the others climbed into the car I told them, "just one more rock!" and I checked out the rocks just behind the car along the roadside. Under the final one I turned was another beautiful adult female C. sanderi. Photographed and returned, we continued on.

Within a few hours we were checked in at our final hotel for the trip and after a lunch, we drove north for another afternoon of searching. Suitable areas were unsuccessful but in one patch of very different rocky habitat, we found flat rock scorpions (Hadogenes sp.) under stones but sadly, no tarantulas.

Day 11. Final day in the field. A much cooler, cloudier and breezier day. After breakfast we headed north to continue our search. Mark spotted a burrow turreted with leaves near the roadside and we were unsure of its occupant as it didn't respond to tickling. Paul believed it to be another large Lycosid burrow but I wasn't so sure. We decided to leave this one for later in the day and continued our search. After finding a spiderling, we worked the area more intensely. Paul turned one of the larger rocks and underneath was the characteristic silken retreat of a tarantula. After some digging the occupant was revealed as another C. sanderi, this time a very nicely coloured specimen.

By late afternoon, we returned to the original burrow found by Mark. As I began to work on it, Paul and I had a little wager that if it was a Lycosid, I would pay for dinner and if it was tarantula, he would. I tickled the burrow first and within seconds we had our answer. The legs of yet another C. sanderi came into view! The light was fading so we headed back to our hotel and dinner courtesy of Paul, a few beers and then bed to prepare for the journey home.

This article first appeared in the Journal of the British Tarantula Society, 32 (1): 17-23 (2017).