Australians seem to have a soft side for arachnids that the rest of the world just can’t understand. A video showing an Australian woman saving a giant spider from getting swept away by a fierce current during a flood was posted on the web that has sparked commentary and confusion from the rest of the planet.
The community that Andrea Gofton lived in was experiencing some of the worst floods in almost a decade. Almost 20 inches has fallen just since the beginning of March. Everything is flooded, from homes and roads to whole towns being declared disaster areas. Thankfully, however, the drenched citizens have for the most part escaped the disaster unscathed.
That’s only considering the humans that live there, though. The poor animals inhabiting the area weren’t so lucky. Dens, burrows, and other animal homes were completely flooded and the animals didn’t exactly get much help from the human government, leaving many without a home. On top of that all of their food sources are buried under raging waters where water predators, including crocodiles, sharks, and snakes are starting to explore these new rivers to see what unsuspecting prey they can find.
Amidst this crazy flooding and all the chaos surrounding it Gofton came across an absolutely massive spider, literally a huge tarantula named the bird-eating spider that has huge venomous fangs, clinging desperately to a tree branch hanging over raging flood waters, trying to keep from joining the other animals that were swept away by the water. Gofton couldn’t simply leave the poor giant spider in such danger. She had to try and rescue it. This is where the viral video comes in. Gofton taped her daring rescue of the spider and posted it on the internet. You can see her first put her hand near the spider in the hopes it will jump on. When that doesn’t work she snaps off the branch the spider is clinging to and carried it to an avocado tree close by and set it free. Of course, the rest of the world has a bit of a different reaction when they see this brave act of heroism. The general response to watching it comes in the form of screaming at Gofton on the video to “kill it with fire” or some other shriek of terror.
Have you seen this video of the giant spider being saved by Gofton? What would do in that situation?
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