By Lilit Marcus | CNN
A vacationer tried to keep away from a wild animal in a nationwide park and bought in a automotive accident. Nevertheless it wasn’t a bear or bison that brought on the motive force to freak out – it was a tarantula.
In accordance with a press launch issued by the Loss of life Valley Nationwide Park in California, two vacationers from Switzerland had been in a campervan on October 28 when the motive force noticed the spider and slammed on the brakes. That brought on a person on a bike, who’d been using behind the van, to crash into the again of their automobile.
The motorcyclist was taken to a close-by hospital. The spider, in response to the park’s assertion, “walked away unscathed.”
Whereas tarantulas are simply one of many many wild animals present in Loss of life Valley – the nation’s hottest and driest nationwide park – they aren’t essentially the most often noticed.
Because the park’s press launch explains, the arachnids spend most of their time residing underground, solely rising to seek out mates. Fall is the commonest season for them to return above floor.
Nonetheless, the park urges Loss of life Valley guests to not panic in the event that they see an eight-legged creature.
“Tarantulas are slow-moving and nonaggressive. A tarantula’s chew is reported to be much like a bee sting, and isn’t lethal to people.”
There have been different human-animal encounters in America’s nationwide parks over the previous few years, however most of them had been the results of folks attempting to get near animals as an alternative of away from them.
Earlier this yr, employees at Yellowstone Nationwide Park had been pressured to euthanize a bison calf after a customer tried to select up the animal.
The person pleaded responsible to 1 rely of “feeding, touching, teasing, horrifying or deliberately disturbing wildlife” and was fined $500.
This week, a piece of the Blue Ridge Parkway nationwide park in North Carolina was closed after a number of incidents of “guests feeding and making an attempt to carry a younger bear.”
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