Getting to know Washington’s spiders

There are at least 970 species of spiders in Washington State. How the heck do so many spiders—generalist predators—manage to share the space? Join me and Rod Crawford, a spider expert at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, on this foray into spider diversity. In April of this year, we spent a day getting to know spiders, their microhabitats, and the surrounding community in a western Washington conifer forest.

Although this story is focused on spiders in Washington, it has helped open my eyes to these complex, ecologically important creatures wherever I find myself. Many areas don’t have someone like Rod, dedicating their life work to learning about spiders. As with so many groups of small-but-super-important creatures, in many areas we don’t even know what is present, let alone what these species need to thrive or how they interact in the community! This story—and Rod’s extensive body of knowledge—provide a window into this world.

As always, I depend on the support of listeners and readers like you to continue producing stories like this. Many thanks to all of my collaborators and supporters—I couldn’t do it without you. If you’d like to make a donation to my work, visit https://www.patreon.com/wildwithnature.

I produced this episode using audio equipment and facilities provided by Missoula Community Access Television—many thanks to this “community media resource” for their assistance. Two birdsong recordists generously gave me permission to use their recordings of Pacific Wren song in this podcast. Thank you to Ben Meredyk, whose recording appears in the intro, and Erik Ostrander, whose recording is featured at the end. Erik is also the co-host of a podcast, Hannah and Erik Go Birding. Check it out!

You can find Rod Crawford’s Spider Collector’s Journal at https://crawford.tardigrade.net/journal/index.html. Also check out his page debunking the all-too-common myths about spiders: https://www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/biology/arachnology-and-entomology/spider-myths.