The "Domestication" of Tarantulas - Why our Pets Are Not Quite Wild Animals

A couple of years ago, I stumbled on an article about the "inadvertent domestication" of animals raised for the sole purpose of being released back into the wild. This is when, despite our best efforts, captive animals were becoming inadvertently domesticated by temporarily or even permanently adapting to a captive environment , which was making them less fit to survive in the wild. This could often occur within a single generation of captive-reared animals.

And that got me thinking...

Many species of tarantulas have been actively bred in captivity for decades, so is it possible (or likely, even) that the animals in our collections have adapted over multi-generational captive breeding to be better suited to being kept in our home? 

In essence, is there a fundamental difference between our captive bred spiders and their wild counterparts? Is human selection making allowing them to thrive in our care?

In this episode, we will explore the theory of tarantula domestication and why I think that it’s important to consider that the spiders in our collections might not necessarily be true wild animals.

NOTE: I am NOT talking about them becoming tame, like dogs or cats. Spiders are not and never will be tame animals. We are specifically asking if they could have been changed by years of being bred and kept by humans.