A young Cuban found himself face to face with one of his greatest fears after encountering a large spider in the Plaza de la Revolución in Camagüey and, after much hesitation, accepted the animal walking on his hand.
The scene was shared this Saturday by the profile SobreRuedas in a reel published on Facebook and according to the protagonist's account, the spider was near the water when his friend Edward decided to pick it up without showing much fear.
If there is one thing I have been afraid of my whole life, it has been this animal, confessed the young man while watching in amazement as Edward carried the animal, possibly a tarantula of the genus Phormictopus, on his head.
After insisting for a while, his friend managed to convince him to hold it as well. The moment turned into a small personal challenge.
"They say it's never too late to overcome your traumas," he commented as he let the spider crawl across his hand.
The experience, as he described, turned out to be much less unpleasant than he had imagined.
"The truth doesn't feel as disgustingly unpleasant as I thought it would," she joked, comparing the sensation to having a caguayo, a type of lizard, walking on her skin.
The spider then went through the hands of other members of the group. At one point in the video, the animal remained still on one of them and seemed reluctant to let go, something the young people interpreted as fatigue or a defensive posture.
Finally, Edward picked her up again and laid her down in the grass, in a spot they deemed more suitable than the place where they had initially found her.
In the images, it is not evident that the spider has been harmed and the group ends up releasing it. However, handling a wild animal without knowing the species is not a responsible practice, both due to the potential risk to people and the stress it may cause to the animal itself.
Spiders can bite as a defense mechanism if they feel threatened, so it is advisable to keep your distance from an unknown specimen, avoid touching it, and allow it to continue on its way.
Respect for wildlife also entails refraining from turning animals into objects of play or unnecessary manipulation. Observing them without interference is often the safest option for both people and the animals themselves.
The protagonist even ended up acknowledging the role of spiders in the natural control of insects like mosquitoes and flies, although he couldn't resist joking: "I think they aren't doing their job well, because every day there are more mosquitoes in this country."
What started as an unexpected encounter ended up being a curious experience for the young man, who managed to do something that until that moment had seemed unthinkable to him: calmly holding the animal that had frightened him for years in his hand.
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