Featured Animal: Red Knee Tarantula

The red knee tarantula (also known as the red-kneed tarantula) is a type of burrowing tarantula that inhabits the pacific mountains of Mexico. The red knee tarantula is most well known for it's hairy body and the red bands that are along it's legs.

The red knee tarantula inhabits the complex scrub-forest habitat and semi-desert regions where there is an abundance of food. The red knee tarantula needs to burrow and so is rarely found on rock faces.

The Red Knee tarantula is found in Mexico, south-western United States and Panama. They are quite common now to be kept as pets as they are slow growers and they have a beautiful body in colour and shape. The red knee tarantula also has a bite that could hurt a human but would not be harmful.

The red knee tarantula typically grows to around 20cm in length but some red knee tarantula individuals have known to become much bigger. The red knee tarantula has a relatively long lifespan for a spider as many get to be older than 30 years of age.

The female red knee tarantula is often bigger than the male red knee tarantula and the female red knee tarantula also tends to be more aggressive. Female red knee tarantulas tend to live longer than the smaller male red knee tarantula due to the fact that they have a more fierce temperament.

The red knee tarantula is a carnivorous animal and preys on a number of other animals in it's natural environment. The red knee tarantula mainly eats insects along with small mammals, birds and reptiles that fall into the burrow where the red knee tarantula is hiding.

Due to the relatively small size of the red knee tarantula, the red knee tarantula has many predators across Central America. Birds, large reptiles and various mammal species all prey on the red knee tarantula, often waiting until the red knee tarantula comes out of it's burrow before attacking it.

The female red knee tarantula lays an average of 40 eggs which are laid in a silk sack generally between the months of May and August. The red knee tarantula babies hatch out of their eggs in about a month and it takes the red knee tarantula babies nearly a year to reach adulthood.