Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Students get peek at deadly spider
"I was getting out of my vehicle in the IGA parking lot and a lady (from the store) handed it to me," Major Pratt biology teacher Bonnie Morris said Thursday. "This thing was alive and in a jar."
Morris described the arachnid as a large, hairy, brown creature sporting bright red fangs, with a body about 2.5 inches long and a full length of 5.5 inches from the front leg to the back leg.
The high school biology teacher took it back to her Grade 12 students, who proceeded to search the Internet for a possible match to the spider's visual characteristics.
"Based on what we could see, it was a Brazilian wandering spider," Morris said. "They're pretty lethal and pretty aggressive. We're just lucky that nobody got hurt, and that nobody decided to take it out and play with it."
Brazilian wandering spiders have been given the nickname the banana spider as they are occasionally discovered as stowaways within banana shipments. They're normally found in tropical South and Central America.
The 2007 Guinness World Records refer to the Brazilian wandering spider as the world's most venomous spider -- known to cause human deaths from bites. The spider, safely sealed in its glass jar, made its way around each of the school's classrooms, so the kids were able to see one of nature's unusual creatures.
"It's exciting for them to know they were part of it too," Morris said. "If it is what we think it is, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. They'll probably never see anything like that again."
A representative from Manitoba Conservation picked up the spider from the school so it could be properly identified and catalogued.
When contacted by the Brandon Sun, an IGA spokesperson said they weren't able to comment on the matter.
-- Brandon Sun
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 8, 2009 A6
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