13 Sep The Creation of Fat Spider Week!
Spider week
While sitting at my desk one day, I was asked “Have you ever heard of Katmai’s fat bear week?”. Of course I was immediately intrigued to see where this conversation was going. Jon, who is part of the interpretation team, explained to me that he had an idea for the Congaree to hold a Fat Spider Week. After spotting many Golden Silk Orb Weavers during my walks on the boardwalk, I had acquired quite an interest in them. Therefore, I was absolutely stoked to be invited to help work on this project that shows off one of my favorite Congaree critters.
So how will spider week work?
Spider Week involves a tournament style bracket that allows viewers to vote on social media for who they think should be deemed the ultimate fat spider. Personally, I like to refer to them being declared as the “goldest girl” instead of the “fattest spider”. Throughout the week, viewers will vote daily on their favorite spider to try and bring them to victory. Spiders will be eliminated through the process until there is only one victorious spider left.
Step 1: Find the contestants
Here at the park, the Golden Silk Orb Weavers are referred to as the Golden Girls. I was tasked with finding the 16 goldest girls of the Congaree to compete in our tournament. Over the course of a few days, I walked around the park gathering pictures of all the spiders that I could reach with the camera. Now this may sound like a simple task but the mosquitoes made it quite difficult. In the park, we have a meter outside the visitor center that displays the level of mosquitoes. Personally, I like to call it….the sketer meter. On the first day that I went out to take pictures, the meter ended up being set to a 6 which is labeled as “war zone”. Unfortunately, I did not find this out until after I had come back from my picture taking mission. During my picture taking mission, I faced some very ruthless mosquitoes. As I sat still trying to take pictures of my spiders, I had 15 – 20 mosquitoes on each arm. Nothing could have prepared me for how uncomfortable that many mosquitoes preying on you at once feels. In the end, I got the mission complete and was able to acquire enough spider pictures for our bracket. I’d also like to believe that I befriended some of the spiders as I took their picture. I found myself talking to them multiple times in hopes that they would pose for the perfect shot.
Step 2: Prepare for social media
After collecting pictures of the spiders, it was time to start preparing for what was going to be put on social media. I spent a couple days working on a bracket to display all the spider contestants. From there, I had to figure out what days the voting would occur and how the bracket would play out until a winner was declared. Hopefully the bracket will be put on social media soon!
Step 3: Educate
Recently, we have had several visitors ask us why we are not killing our spiders. This is because the Golden Silk Orb Weavers often get confused with the Joro spider. The Joro spider was introduced into the United States from East Asia. Therefore, they are considered an invasive species. Confusion occurs because the Joro spider looks very similar to the Golden Silk Orb Weaver. Therefore, I felt that it was appropriate to create a “Can You Spot the Difference?” infographic to go in the visitor center. The graphic shows how you can spot the differences between the two spiders and tell them apart. I am really proud of that infographic because the information felt meaningful and I felt like it helped visitors learn something new.
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