A suspected spider smuggler has been arrested after allegedly strapping hundreds of tarantulas to his body as he walked through airport security.
The unnamed 28-year-old South Korean was detained at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima after officers noticed he had a peculiar ‘swollen stomach’.
Concealed beneath his jumper were 300 tarantulas, around 100 centipedes and nine stinging bullet ants in small plastic bags, police said.
All the creatures have since been handed over to animal protection services, said Pilar Ayala, a biologist from Peru’s national forestry and wildlife service.
Ms Ayala said: ‘It was observed that the citizen had placed these specimens in small zip-lock bags with filter paper.
‘They were placed around his body, contained by two girdles.’
Smuggling the tarantulas is highly lucrative and it largely driven by private souvenir collectors.
Expert Alice Hughes, a biology professor at Hong Kong University, told the Telegraph that many collectors try to gather the creatures ‘like Pokemon’.
‘Tarantulas are especially vulnerable to poaching because they’re long-lived – some reach 30 years old – and females reproduce late and infrequently,’ Chris Hamilton, a professor of insect studies at Idaho University, told the BBC.
‘This is terrible for withstanding human disturbance (habitat destruction, pet trade collecting, or climate change) because of how long it takes to regenerate populations.’
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