This Tarantula became a scientific celebrity. Was it poached from the wild?

In February, the Journal of the British Tarantula Society published a paper describing a new species of tarantula, which was discovered in a national park in Sarawak, Malaysia. While the male of the species was an unremarkable brown, the female had eye-catching, electric blue legs.

“The paper absolutely will not be retracted, because it’s a completely legitimate published paper,” he said. “It’s this very strange, slightly colonial attitude of, ‘We know better than developing countries, so their laws don’t matter.’” For Henriques and others, this sort of collection raises deep ethical concerns. “We’re the scientists, the ones who are supposed to know better and who should be leading by example,” he said. “If we can’t follow the rules, why are we demanding that others do?”

“The fact is that people make a big thing out of this tarantula or whatever else it is instead of making a case out of the need to protect where this animal lives, which no one does,” said Heiko Bleher, an independent freshwater fish expert who has researched and collected specimens in 218 countries.

If all you need is a little blood sample and you go to a friendly hobbyist down the road and take a few drops of blood from a captive animal, would you really go through due diligence of making sure that animal was properly collected? Shortly after the news broke, Brazilian officials began an investigation, citing laws enacted in 1942 forbidding the export of all fossils from the country. Martill stands by his decision to publish.

While some researchers simply give up, others travel on tourist visas and undertake collections without a permit. “Most field-working entomologists have some experience with this,” said Petr Svacha, an entomologist at the Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic. “Believe me, it is frustrating to do useful work while hiding like a criminal.”

Svacha added that, like most entomologists he knows, he also readily works with specimens that he obtains from hobbyists and commercial sellers. Whether or not these specimens were collected legally is not something he asks about, he said, “because it is absolutely unimportant.”

Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)

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