A Monster in the Sink

The sink in question

I have to tell you, there are certain things they don't tell you when you move to a new city, including one like Jerusalem that is often thought problematic for a variety of other reasons, and that is: What kind of creature can you expect to spot in your kitchen while you fix your breakfast?

That's what happened today when my dearest friend Y came rushing toward me in a high-pitched voice about the monster in the sink. It was quite a fright, and it isn’t even Halloween yet. We had no idea what we were dealing with, even after I saw it lurking there in the far left-hand corner of the sink peeking out from behind a stack of cereal bowls. It was about four inches in length with lots of legs, and those legs had hair.  So I roughly deduced that what we had on our hands was some kind of tarantula.

Naturally it occurred to me that tarantulas could be dangerous, that their bites might possibly kill you, but I went ahead to find a plastic container so I could trap it. I removed one item from the sink, carefully, without scaring it, thinking it might get in the way of my next maneuver. Then I tipped over a bowl of water that was already sitting there, thinking the water would temporarily bog it down just long enough I could trap it under the plastic takeaway food container, the kind with a tightly fitting flat snap-on top.

With the giant arachnid enclosed within the walls of the upside-down container, I put a heavy bowl on top so it couldn't possibly lift it up to escape. Then I waited several minutes, thinking it would slow down enough, perhaps tire itself out trying to escape, so I could more easily slide the flat lid underneath, seal it up, and take the whole kit and kaboodle outside.

I do believe creatures like this have an important place in nature. You could even argue that they have an important place in the home, since they keep populations of insects in check. Be that as it may... if this monster weren't caught and removed it would have meant always wondering where she might be lurking, or when she might pop up all of a sudden to give us another fright!

While she was inside the container I had a chance to do what I believe everyone would do today under such circumstances. I went to the Schmoogle box and searched for “Middle Eastern tarantula.” Sure enough what popped up on my screen was exactly the type I had caught. It was a "black hairy." The exact same guy you can see here in this Wiki site.

Or if you are brave enough look at this slightly bigger-than-life photo:

Photo by Dror Feitelson, Pikiwiki

Now if you feel inclined go read about it some more in the Wikipedia entry under its Latin name Chaetopelma olivaceum.*

To make it short, this particular variety of tarantula commonly inhabits homes in our part of the world, it is quite fast — this I learned when I let it go in the valley — and its bite, when and if it does bite, stings like a bee, but is not likely to have any remarkable result. They aren't very serious about web building, preferring to trap and attack their prey in a more direct way.

I suppose the next time I see one I'll be better prepared to face the situation. Maybe even a little less intimidated.

Home safety tip: Keep used staples out of the carpet

 (*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaetopelma_olivaceum)

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Diana Barshaw, “The Spider and the Wasp,” Jerusalem Post Magazine,  September 3, 2009.

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Back in 1996, I was traveling through Kinnaur Valley in northern India when the whole busload of men spent the night in sleeping bags on the floor in a huge open room. I scarcely slept all night for the orchestra of snores that surrounded me. In the morning my hand was hurting, and I noticed the two marks side-by-side that indicates a spider bite. During the following days on the road the back of my hand puffed up quite a bit. I can't recall any other case of spider bite in my whole life.

Be well and stay safe!

Jackal in the Botanical Garden

This blog is for dad on Father’s Day with a lot of love and appreciation,
& hope you got the cheese.

Mid-June in Jerusalem’s Botanical Garden is wonderful, but I say that mainly because of its huge pond full of lotuses and waterlilies. In the rest of the garden there are not as many flowers blooming as there had been in May. The hollyhocks are nice, and you can see some amazing huge magnolia blossoms:

It was late, drawing close to closing time, so we were winding our way down the hill toward the entrance, walking slowly, taking the narrowest of trails, when we reached a 3-way junction and started to turn down a stone paved path when we caught sight of it just a few meters away. It caught sight of us at the same time and let out a frightening low growl. My digital camera was turned on and in hand, so I had just enough time to snap one photo before it vanished:

Double click on the photo and it ought to enlarge

My first idea was that it was a fox, but over the next days, looking over the photo, I became convinced our friend Masha was right, and it must be a jackal, even a golden jackal, the type most common in these parts. I found some photos on the internet to compare, including this sample of a smiling golden jackal:

As I said, the jackal did let out a threatening growl, but it also had its tail between its legs.  It absolutely did not express any friendly attitude, just the opposite. It was shocked by our sudden appearance. As far as we could tell it was not part of a pack, as jackals prefer to be, it looked somewhat weak and hungry. Jackals usually feed at dawn and dusk, I understand.

Its fear could have turned to aggression, but he wasn't cornered, and we didn't try to get any closer.

They say canids won’t attack anything bigger than themselves unless they are running with their pack. But exceptions take place when they feel cornered or have pups to protect.

A few years ago, I looked into dholes (Asian wild dogs) a bit because of somebody’s idea they are a kind of cat... I found the very idea that a dog could be considered a cat strange, it made me wonder. But... dholes are catlike in some ways... 

Foxes have cat eyes with the vertical slit-shaped pupils. I had thought that jackal was a fox at first. But at second look, those are not cat eyes, so not a fox.

As wild dogs go, Jackals are so much less frightening than hyenas. I remember how packs of hyenas used to whip through the tall grass in Lumbini at sunset, not far from the library where we stayed, making a frightful racket. But in my mind hyenas might better belong in the family of bears. Well, there are ways of making categories, and human minds are always working on that. If fruits grow only on trees, doesn’t that make bananas berries? Are blackberries not berries?

There have been some news stories in the local papers in the last decade about how golden jackals have been gradually moving into western Jerusalem, in part attracted by the food kind people leave out for the street cats. I don’t feel like blaming anyone. Fault finding is another human tendency that so often gets us all worked up. On a day like today I’d rather contemplate the over-done beauty of the lotus pond.

Wow!  See that?

Read more

“Nine People Treated in Hospital for Jackal Bites,” Jerusalem Post (Feb. 3, 2021).

Sue Surkes, “Snacks for Stray Cats May be Feeding a Rash of Jackal Attacks,” Times of Israel (Feb. 8, 2021).

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) put in their online newsletter a brief story “Jackals in Jerusalem” (Nov. 13, 2013).

Moshe Gilad and Ofer Vaknin, “With Israelis in Coronavirus Isolation, Jackals Are Taking Over Tel Aviv’s Main Park,” Haaretz (April 8, 2020). Great photos give the impression of handsome and noble creatures with families of their own. Perhaps the stories about them occasionally attacking humans have been overblown. After all, even domesticated dogs have been known to attack humans sometimes, right? Relationships come with a certain level of risk, even among us humans. Excuse me my anthropomorphizing, we all commit pathetic fallacies every now and then.