Every September, the small town of La Junta, Colorado puts on a whole festival to celebrate a beloved local animal: the tarantula! Around this time of year, thousands of mature male tarantulas start to migrate en masse – but until recently, scientists didn’t know what triggered them to move out of their cozy burrows. On today’s show, biologist Dallas Haselhuhn explains how they solved the mystery, and how climate change could affect future treks.

Want to hear about more critter mysteries? Email us and let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.


Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

This episode was produced by Berly McCoy and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Robert Rodriguez was the audio engineer.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy