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From
the pages of 'The British Tarantula Society Journal'
The Tarantula Keepers Guide
by Stanley
& Marguerite Schultz.
ISBN 0-7641-0076-9 Published by Barrons
Many years ago - more, in fact, than I care to
remember - I was putting the finishing touches to the old
Tarantula ID Guide. It was to be published by an infant
Fitzgerald, and was intended to be the first tarantula
book to aspire to offer more than the lamentable twaddle
by Browning, published by the pet shop publisher TFH.
Printers plates had been prepared, contracts signed and
then one evening my old travelling companion Vince
Hull-Williams, plonked a new book beside my Guinness and
for one dreadful moment my heart missed a beat and my
stomach went into free fall. My god, I thought, I've been
pipped at the post! I sat and read it, my pint untouched,
and after an hour breathed a sigh of relief Schultz's
approach was completely different from my own, and the
end result was a very different book. Looking back, the
two books in many ways complemented each other - at a
time when the hobby was in it's infancy and knowledge was
sparse. At the time I concluded it was a first class read
and even today I can find much to admire about that first
edition.
Well, now it's back, and this is no reprint with a touch
of slap and tickle. The new book is a full blown
re-write, packed with good, solid research and hard
earned knowledge gained over two decades of tarantula
keeping. An excellent read, well worthy of any
enthusiasts' book shelf and for those of you who are
thinking, "Do we need yet another How To Keep ...
?", I can assure you that this one is special. It is
,vhat can only be described as a touch of Schultz. This
can be defined as well researched text, a pleasant and
easy going style of writing, plus of course that it is
liberally laced with thoughtful, homespun views on
environmental philosophy. A gem of a book which, I
suspect, will in time become a classic for those who want
more than just pretty pictures,
The book itself is divided into logical sections and
subsections, such as The Physical Tarantula (Anatomy
& Physiology), The Name Of The Tarantula (Taxonomy
& Classification, Identification), Natural History
(Distribution, Lifestyle, Behaviour), The Useful
Tarantula (Food, Mythology & Religion, Arts &
Entertainment, Witless Pranks), The Pet Tarantula
(Ethical Considerations, Maintenance, Problems), Catching
Your Own (Techniques, Hazards, Personal Safety), The
Wellbred Tarantula (Breeding Stock, Care &
Maintenance), Ravaging The Planet (Exploitation,
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species),
The Enthusiast Conspiracy (The Necessity, Wired Netted
and Webbed), Publish! Publish! Publish! (The Photographic
Tarantula, The Written Word), Epilogue and two
Appendices: Tarantula Species as Pets and a Bibliography.
I think you will agree that there isn't much that the
Schultz's have left out. It really is the most complete
book written on tarantulas to date, and I cannot
recommend it enough.
And for those of you who do like pretty pictures, the
book contains over 100 high quality photographs (superb
colour photographs as well as several unique scanning
electron microscope photographs of the fangs, urticating
hairs and palate plates), as well as numerous
professional illustrations. The novice will learn so much
about the hobby and more from this book by simply picking
it up and reading it from cover to cover (it will take
them considerably more than an hour!), and the
experienced keeper will gain almost as much I am sure. I
found it a particularly easy book
to refer to at any point throughout it's pages, and its
comprehensive index made this task even simpler. I
strongly recommend that you all purchase this publication
now!
© Copyright 'The British Tarantula
Society', 1996,1997
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