00:00Tarantulas are on the move, but not for the reason most people think.
00:05I'm itchy thinking about it.
00:06Acura, the meteorologist Tony Lomack, normally chasing tornadoes, is now chasing tarantulas.
00:11And joining us live from La Junta, Colorado, to explain what some of these tarantulas are chasing.
00:21Well, fortunately, they're not chasing me.
00:23And folks, I'm not going to lie.
00:24This is one of my favorite non-weather stories specifically to do.
00:29It came out here about four years ago to check this out for the first time.
00:34It is cooler than you think for so many more reasons than you would think.
00:40We are getting into that time of year where we start to get into tarantula mating season.
00:45There's a misconception that this is a migration.
00:49It is not a migration.
00:50These tarantulas don't want to go anywhere outside of southeast Colorado because the prairies, the grasslands, are some of the best places for them.
00:59They have no intention to leave.
01:00What they are on the hunt for, the males in particular, they're looking for mates.
01:05And they are running around all over the place down here across southeast Colorado.
01:10And they are on the hunt to look for those mates.
01:13A lot of the males all be out.
01:15They'll come out usually in the time right after sunrise and during sunset when it's a little cooler during the day.
01:21They head out and they start moving around.
01:24It is the mate-gration, as I like to call it.
01:27And they're out on the hunt.
01:29Right now we're kind of early in the season.
01:31You kind of hear some of the stories about how you might see dozens upon dozens of tarantulas crossing the road at any given point.
01:37Well, yesterday me and the folks that were running around only saw about three of them.
01:43We say 3.25, but we'll let that secret ride into the afternoon when I give the package and tell the story of our tarantula chase.
01:53But this time of year we start to get into the peak season for that mating.
01:56And as a result, these tarantulas, they start to work their way around.
01:59And it has become a tourist attraction for folks down here in southeast Colorado, bringing people in from all over the world.
02:06We talked to one of the city folks here about this, and they give some details as to what goes on this time of year.
02:13This is an exciting time of year for us.
02:16It's our tarantula trek season that we have.
02:19Usually runs, September is a big month for us.
02:22We've seen tarantulas as early as August into November, but it's the tarantula trek mating season.
02:28So it's our expedition where the male tarantulas are out looking for mates.
02:34And we have 400,000 acres of public land where it's ripe for the viewing of the tarantulas.
02:44And we talk about that 400,000 acres in the Prairie National Grasslands down this way here.
02:49Highways like you see behind me here, this is U.S. 50.
02:52You will see those tarantulas crossing the road.
02:54Now, obviously, if you want to stop on the highway is not the best place to do that.
02:59So many county roads offer up the ability to do that, especially as you get into the national grasslands.
03:05That offers plenty of places to pull over and take a look.
03:09Obviously, you don't want to disturb the guys.
03:11You want to look from a distance if you can.
03:14Typically, they're very, very harmless.
03:15They want about as much to do with us as, I would say, Ari wants to do with them.
03:21So keeping a distance is a good thing.
03:23Obviously, stay off the private property.
03:25But this is a big attraction out in this area here.
03:29We'll see more people start to influx into the region, especially as we get closer to the end of September,
03:33where they actually here in La Junta have the Tarantula Fest the last weekend of the month,
03:38which includes a parade and all the fall festival type stuff.
03:41But instead of pumpkins or witches or ghosts, we go with another Halloween-themed do.
03:47And that would be the tarantulas here in southeast Colorado.
03:50But always fun.
03:52I enjoy tracking them down.
03:54It was a very big thrill for all of us, even though we've all done this before
03:58when we spotted our first couple yesterday down in the grasslands.
04:01So plenty of fun video to be had here across the day.
04:05So if you're into this thing or you're not, stick around.
04:08We've got all sorts of fun stuff to talk about.
04:11All right.
04:11Thanks, Tony.
04:12And you know what?
04:13You sold Ari.
04:15She's coming next year.
04:16Yeah.
04:16I mean, look at it.
04:18I'm not going to look at it.
04:19It's like a hamster.
04:19It's cute.
04:20I'm not looking at it.
04:21I'll go for the hamster track next year.
04:23Tony, we appreciate it.
04:24We love the hat, too.
04:25Looking good out there.
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