DENVER (AP) — Texas brown tarantulas scurry out of their burrows and across fields and roads in southeastern Colorado in search of a mate about this time every year.
But scientists say climate change, theft and human development are cutting into tarantulas’ population, and fewer are emerging year after year.
Entomologist Maia Holmes tells The Denver Post that if the tarantulas in southeastern Colorado die out, they’ll start a domino effect in the ecosystem that will likely allow their prey to multiply and the creatures that eat them to starve.
The shriveling tarantula population is an early indicator that climate change is worsening in Colorado.