Last year, Junior Arboleda Franco and his son, Thiago, were riding a motorcycle near Fresno, Colombia, when Franco noticed a large, dark shape in the road. At first, he planned to keep going.
“I thought I’d just drive past it, but when I got closer, I realized
it was a tarantula,” Franco told The Dodo. “So, I turned around [and parked].”
Fearing that the spider, whose outstretched legs made her appear nearly as wide as Franco’s head, would be crushed by a passing car, he decided to save her before it was too late.
“I told my son, ‘Let’s pick it up and rescue it,’” Franco said.
And as video from Franco’s handlebar-mounted camera shows, that’s exactly what he did:
Franco had previously seen spiders like this one — thought to be a Colombian lesserblack tarantula — only from a distance. But despite the animal’s intimidating size, he put aside any hesitation to help.
“When I saw it there in the middle of the road, the only thing I thought was that a car might run it over, so I had to act fast and get it out of harm's way,” Franco said. “I didn't feel afraid, but I was truly amazed to see such a huge animal in my hands.”
As Thiago looked on, Franco placed the spider in a safe spot off the road.
Showing kindness and compassion toward animals — even scary-looking spiders — is something Franco hopes to instill in Thiago.
“I think it was the perfect moment to teach my son a valuable lesson,” Franco said. “Because of life circumstances, we live in different cities and only see each other occasionally, so sharing an experience like this with him was very rewarding for me as a dad.”
