007 Come to Spidey

[speterman]

[Handwriting is pretty shaky and ugly this time around.]

Do you think cats know they're cats? I wonder if animals are aware of what they are. Like us being aware we're humans. I'm pretty sure Pillow thinks she's human. What with her hogging the bed and laying her head on my pillow.

Comments

[eighttimeshandy]

I have a little book on it. [Which is sitting on the table. And it's really more of a pamphlet than a book.]

He's seven years old. [he smiles fondly at the spider, gently stroking his abdomen.] Which leads me to believe he might be female, but I did get him from a magical pet shop, and he's always been fairly docile for a Goliath, so he could have just been bred special?

[speterman]

[He brings his left hand up to tap on the table and watch the Spider's reaction, head tilting in curiosity.]

Goliaths typically have really bad eyesight. They use vibrations to navigate.

[He looks back over at Eriq.]

And there is a good chance "he" is a "she" if that life-span is correct. Generally male arachnids have a sometimes drastically shorter life span than females. Though I'm sure there is ways to get around that via breeding.

Such genes could probably be rendered null after years of domestic life and breeding. Russia domesticated foxes after 50 years, and one of the effects was a life-span increase. It could explain why Trollki is so docile as well.

[Sure is nerding and doesn't realize it.]

It changes behavior dramatically due to the animal, insect or arachnid evolving to better suit its environment. One would be more calm and able to deal with human interaction instead of being threatened by it whilst also the mating lifespan gene could and probably would end up void seeing as there is little need for it in such a relaxed environment.

[He smiles.]

So really, Trollki could easily be male as well.

[eighttimeshandy]

[If Eriq looked like he spaced out at all during that little rant, that's not quite the case. Sure, his eyes went wide, his pupils dilated, and his mouth hung open like there was a web inside and he was trying to catch flies, but he hung onto every. Single. Word.]

[On the other hand, Trollki had a more active response, and tapped back whenever Peter tapped at him]

Wow.

Okay.

[speterman]

[Peter grins at the reaction from Trollki, tapping the table every now and then.]

There was a man, Ivan Pavlov? Have you heard of him? His theory is pretty well known. Haha, the Russians sure are interested in animals, huh? Well, he was a Russian Psychologist, he studied dogs among other things. But he found dogs salivate before eating, at first it would only be when there was food presented to them, but after a while when the handlers that gave them food would walk into the door they would do it themselves. Domesticated dogs have shown learned reactions, that is one of the most well known reactions but there are also people that can have their dogs bark or run to their food bowls when they're hungry. It's generally all the same concept: Classical conditioning -- it's reflexive learning. Humans do it too, we get into routines of things. I'm pretty sure you could at least teach him low function things such as that.

Perhaps tapping certain commands or words to him before following through. After a while when he wants said things he would probably be able to mimic them back to you. I'm not sure as far as intelligent conversation goes, but I was very impressed by Zazzerpan's ability to converse with me, even calling me by my name. So you actually might be able to. It's not something I've studied profusely.

Though, it's general training and teaching. In example: I've taught Pillow to meow when she is hungry, sit on me when she wants attention and unfortunately attack my feet under the covers when she wants to play. The latter an accidental reflexive conditioning that was brought up from me being brave and playing with her when she went to attack my toes.

[He stops talking and taps something onto the table with certain fingers before moving to pet Trollki.]

He's fascinating to say the least. If he is indeed domesticated then it should be a lot easier to teach him things.

[eighttimeshandy]

Oh my gosh. [Eriq slides his elbows onto the table, eyes going even wider. Congratulations, Peter, you just stumbled onto one of his favorite subjects. He would kiss you if kissing didn't seem to get him into horrible situations that he doesn't know how to deal with]

Yes, certainly! Exactly so! He already knows a few small signals, although to be fair, I would honestly say he has trained me. He'll raise his front legs when he wants to be carried, for example, and if I don't respond right away, he'll start waving them and hissing. He also flips his water dish over when his terrarium needs cleaning - if he's feeling helpful, he'll stack the drained husks of his latest victims in a little pile, but that's generally a big if, the little brat.

[He coos the last few words affectionately, leaning in to plop a kiss onto Trollki's butt]

[Which earns him a soft hiss and the spider turning around to pap his cheek. Go away, human, the smart people are talking]

[speterman]

That's interesting, generally when arachnids raise their front legs they feel threatened. You say he does it to signal things to you?

[He keeps some distance between him and the spider but leans down so he's eye level with it, staring in thought. Chestnut eyes then traverse to Eriq.]

He does belong to the tarantula family, though, and they generally have strange behavior depending on the species..

If we can manage to teach him the mundane we might be able to teach him more advanced stuff, if his brain functions well enough. I'm not really all that sure of the capacity of a Goliath's intelligence.

I know people have conversations with gorillas now a days. So you can't always cross everything out of the equation. But I can't promise anything either.

[He smiles sheepishly before rubbing at the back of his neck in nervousness.]

Sorry, animal physiology has always been an interesting topic for me -- arachnids and insects included.