Today I Learned

We have a ladle meant to hold spoons on the stove while they’re not being used to stir. We had a jumping spider appear in it once… which means we didn’t use that for weeks. Only after we didn’t see it move for days did we realize he had died. Loved that lil guy. Now we can set our spoons down again, though.

My (recently deceased) pet jumper really made me grasp that most animal life on Earth has a sense of self and desires beyond basic survival.

I mean, I knew these things as concepts before, some old study decades ago concluded that earthworms have characteristics of consciousness, if not full blown consciousness and self awareness, but there is a difference between reading about it, and experiencing it firsthand.

My spider absolutely loved sunsets. She had a particular spot in her enclosure that she would sit on, and watch the sunset every day. No reason for it beyond she liked to see it. Driven by purely biological needs, jumpers will either be hunting, hiding, or looking for a mate, but they exhibit "recreational" activities.

You can kind of communicate with a jumping spider too. They wiggle their chelicerae to communicate visually. I could put my fingers up near my mouth, and mimic the movements my spider would do. After a few repetitions, she would start to mimic me. I don't thing any grand concepts were conveyed, but I'm pretty sure she was recognizing mimicry from something that was not a spider.

They're really smart, and each one has their own personality, problem is, they don't live very long. Her last day was a hard day to say the least.

They are absolutely fascinating. Sure, I'm certain a lot of videos ham it up a bit because of the way they look around and do certain things but generally animals with that much visual acuity have a lot of processing power to deal with the info so its not a far stretch at all to imagine there is something more to their intelligence.

Spiders in the genus Portia show behaviour which is really fascinating, not only do they use their eyes to actively hunt but they 'plan' attack routes - they can see their prey, plan a route to get closer, which involves breaking line of sight for extended periods yet still remember where to go and where the prey was. They also exhibit strong learning traits and pattern recognition. Absolutely fascinating, and adorable, things. I really want to get a pet jumping spider, one of the big ones.

The are definitely figuring stuff out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtlvZGmHYk

They are pretty friendly and also quite considerate. Females, when they aren't disturbed and find enough food, often spend their entire life in their web and never leaving it. So it's not actually that big of a deal to have some in or around your house if you know where they are and leave them alone. The males do wander around sometimes, but they are actually harmless.

I briefly enjoyed this same revelation until it jumped onto my face.

I've been trying this since I had an encounter with one a few years back and noticed how frickin cute they actually are. They have this very interesting way of moving, like a robot, plus they have baby animal proportions making them appear cute. And if you observe them for a bit you'll notice them observing you right back. You can almost see the gears turning in their little heads.

I still have a pretty severe case of arachnophobia but it has gotten heaps better with just watching these cute little spider puppies from a safe distance.

Well, yeah, that's natural selection. The cute ones tend to have higher career salaries on average, so they are able to attract female spiders to mate with.

Which not only gives them depth perception, but depth perception using only a single eye.