Curly Hair Tarantula
The curly hair tarantula is just one arthropod comprising the over 900 species of tarantulas. All tarantulas have an exoskeleton that protects their internal organs. When they grow bigger, they need to molt their exoskeleton to form a new, larger one. These carnivores are generally harmless, feeding on other insects. Tarantula Hermione Granger eats crickets, mealworms, and Dubia roaches in her habitat at the reptile house.
Roaches*
The Zoo Sanctuary is home to two different colonies of roaches- Domino Roaches and Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Domino Roaches communicate with each other using chemical pheromones. The Madagascar Roaches use hissing as part of the mating ritual. They also hiss when they feel threatened. They make four different hissing sounds to communicate with one another; male fighting hiss, two different mating or courtship hisses and an alarm hiss
Blue Feigning Death Beetles*
They are found in the deserts of the Southwestern United States (southern California to Utah and New Mexico) and northwestern Mexico. When threatened, their defense strategy is to appear dead, and therefore inedible, to their predators. The beetles will lay still on their backs with their legs up sometimes as long as 30 minutes.
Millipedes*
The Zoo Sanctuary is home to two species of millipedes- the Chocolate Desert Millipede and the Rainbow Millipede. Millipedes are often mistaken for centipedes, but unlike centipedes, millipedes are non-venomous. You can tell a millipede from a centipede by the millipede’s tube-shaped body with many segments, each of which sports two pairs of legs on the bottom of the body segments. Centipedes have flatter bodies with one pair of legs on the side of each body segment.
Honey Bees
The family Apidae is a large and very diverse group of bees. Honeybees nest in large cavities or hives and are social. These pollinators pollinate approximately 80% of the crops we consume across the United States. You can help bees by resisting the urge to use weedkillers and allow dandelions and clover to grow. You can also plant bee-friendly plants like mint, lavender, honeysuckle, and roses.
A colony of honeybees can be seen at the Zoo Sanctuary. In the wetlands area near the mini donkeys, you may find junior zookeeper campers donning bee suits and investigating bee boxes.
