Scared of spiders?
Then you probably won’t be too happy with Chessington World of Adventures (CWoA), whose zoo keepers have just been given an award for helping release 400 of the UK’s largest eight-legged terrors into the wild.
The popular tourist attraction released fen raft spiderlings, known as the largest of the nation’s 660 species of spider, into the wild as part of a conservation effort for the endangered species.
The zoo keepers have been working since 2011 to help the arachnids, which are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act due to their high risk of extinction.
As part of the conservation efforts, the population of fen raft spiders almost doubled in the UK and zoos no longer have to rear the spiders to ensure their survival.
According to buglife.org.uk, fen raft spiders feed off fellow smaller spiders, but the females are also “very caring mothers”.
Females can reach up to 7cm across.
CWoA won gold at the annual BIAZA awards, which awards zoos for conservation work across the country.
Keith Russell, a supervisor within the zoo team at CWoA, said: “The successful work on reintroducing the fen raft species is a great example of the good Zoos can do in helping conserve endangered species in the wild.
"Here at Chessington we are very pleased to have received such high praise and recognition from BIAZA for the part we played in this project.”
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