My question here is will locally bred tarantulas adapt/change with time to our environment?

Example is Scarab's Monocentropus balfouri (Socotra Island Blue Baboon) ? They come from a different environment but with time do you think they will adapt and have more requirements for our environment like more humidity etc?

We talk about the imported Avics that die but once bred here they adapt and survive.

Just curious :tongue:

D I think your question is more of a statement lol. When it comes to environmental evolution things happen a lot faster. In my opinion T's bred locally should be comfortable in our climate and so on with in 2 generations or so. It's physical evolution like growing a horn or something for a survival purpose that takes longer. I think T's are a good example being able to regenerate limbs after a few molts. If they need to be more adapt to climate and temperature's it would happen pretty fast. This obviously means moderate changes. Cant expect a tropical or desert T to ever survive in Antarctica... there are limits.

But we all keep our T's between 22 - 30 degrees, same as they do over seas. So not much will change.
But think about this. Our T's keeps a pretty constant temp as we interfere with nature on a daily basis. In nature a T might experience up to 42 degrees in the desert and that drops to very low temps at night. Now Im betting if you took a pet T back to the desert and leave it.... it wouldn't last very long as it has already adapted to our tanks temp and humidity.

Adaptation happens over a very long time.

I am of the opinion that the only change that would occur would be due to the hemisphere winter summer reversals when comparing local bred and imported Ts. This also means that species from the same hemisphere should not have too much of a problem acclimating if they were to be kept in close enough environment. Swamp for swamp, damp for damp, desert for desert. Like Stan's essay explained, most tarantula species can be grow the wax layer that protects them if the environment encourages it. So I would not call it adaptation (spanning generations) as such. Simply a normal reaction to it's environment where possible.

My two cents worth:

As a botanist I know from experience that plants at least exhibit the ability to adapt to different climatic (or whatever) conditions quite quickly, up to a point, through a phenomenon known as epigenetics.

This is a relatively new field but in a nutshell it describes certain, heritable changes in the phenotype of an organism through mechanisms other than change in the underlying DNA sequence.

An example I personally am familiar with is certain plants that are adapted to extreme aridity. If adults are collected they have to be treated in future with whatever climatic conditions they are adapted to, else they die. However, seedlings from these are often able to be planted in a normal garden setting, this is a one generation adaption event and, since selective breeding was not involved, must be epigenetic in nature. Unfortunately this does not hold true for all such plant species and the degree of adaptability can differ from species to species.
Perhaps this is similar to your observations regarding Avicularia sp. bred for the first time in SA?

An aside, just checked the Wikipedia article and the phenomenon is observable in animals too...

Traditional selective breeding will definitely play a role in iny animal in captivity, even if you are not selecting for anything consciously. Our T’s are spoilt in comparison to wild specimens if nothing else, sling mortality is waaaaaaaaay lower and any trait no longer needed for survival in an organism can disappear over time and generations without any input from our part, particularly with phenomena such as inbreeding and enough specimens for selection pressures to work on. I had a discussion with Swifty about this the other day in regards to his non-burrowing Curly.

I know my colleagues in entomology and plant protection (using biocontrol agents, usually insects) are always moaning about "lab adaption" in their stock, which happens very rapidly and often renders a culture useless for the purposes of, for instance, release.

With all this in mind, I can virtually guarantee that Ts in captivity are changing from their wild ancestors, and a lot faster than we can imagine.

+1 Inyanga