When people think about tarantulas, they hardly think about a spider doing a cute little dance – but many T owners are VERY familiar with the “happy” tarantula dance and other silly behaviors these spiders do!

What is the “happy” tarantula dance?

It’s a common behavior that occurs after a tarantula has caught its prey and it really looks like the spider is proud of itself! The tarantula will often go high on its tip toes and start moving in a little circle, often times spinning its abdomen (which looks more like its butt) around in circles while making webs with its spinnerets.

Now, because my Grammostola rosea, Spidey, spends 90% of her precious life randomly fasting, I don’t have any great videos of this special tarantula dance, although I have seen it once or twice! So thankfully, YouTube is a thing and there are great tarantula owners out there with tarantulas with normal appetites (ahem, Spidey, take a hint lol). Here are some great videos featuring the “happy” tarantula dance:

Now you know what a tarantula dance looks like, let’s talk about why tarantulas even do this!

This has stumped tarantula owners for a long time! No one really knows why they do this, but we believe there is a scientific or evolutionary reason.

Some believe that tarantulas might do this to help them lay down webbing so they can “listen” (through vibrations) for potential threats while they’re eating (since their fangs are occupied). With their web around them while they eat, they might be able to sense vibrations or an incoming threat (or perhaps more prey items) more easily.

Some suggest it may be more of a hygiene thing to prevent any prey guts of remnants from messing up their living area, since they are very tidy creatures. Others believe they do this tarantula dance to make a sort of “feeding mat” to either save leftovers for later (I’ve seen Spidey do this before) or to help them hold prey while they digest it (since this can take a pretty long time sometimes!).

There are several theories about the mysterious “happy” tarantula dance, and any of them could be right. Either way, the tarantula dance is a happy sight to see and one that should be videotaped often 🙂 What do you think this tarantula dance is about?

By the way, I am in the middle of creating a monthly tarantula magazine – if you’d like to be a part of that, you can visit the magazine’s Patreon page to subscribe or make a submission! You can also contact me at theavenmag@gmail.com for more info!

If you want to learn more about tarantulas, feel free to check out my big tarantula guide (I talk about lots of tarantula facts and enclosure/care tips). You can also get free tarantula tips by signing up for my newsletter or subscribing to my YouTube channel! I release new tips every Tuesday for Tarantula Tuesday! And I also sell some pretty cool tarantula t-shirts, if I do say so myself 😉

Featured image via screen capture