Minibeasts Behind the Scenes: Wellington's Zoo's new experience. Video / Mark Mitchell
The zookeeper is holding a palm-sized scorpion inches from my face.
"Can it leap?" I ask nervously.
"That's a good question," he replies.
Not a reassuring start to the answer, but as it turns out, I have nothing to be worried about. Its physical proportions and mechanisms mean it's too heavy to lunge directly into my face, or so I'm told.
Visitors to Wellington Zoo typically don't get this close to the invertebrates anyway. Usually they're separated by a thick layer of glass. But the zoo is changing things up.
Starting from today, visitors can book a behind-the-scenes experience to go inside the habitat for reptiles and invertebrates, get an up-close look at some of the animals, and see how the keepers perform medical checks.
Team leader of reptiles and invertebrates Dave Laux is giving me a sneak preview, starting with a look at Nesbit, the emperor scorpion.
Nesbit has the wow factor under a dark light. Laux takes him out of his enclosure and shines the torch on him, revealing a blue UV glow.
Visitors view an emperor scorpion under an ultra violet torch as it sits in the hand of Wellington Zoo's Dave Laux, team leader of reptiles and invertebrates. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The next highlight is a giant African millipede, whose many legs move like a Mexican wave as she makes her way up Laux's arm. She stops and gives his hand a "test nibble" to see if he's "dead or dying", and therefore food. He tells me the sensation is similar to a very light pinch.
We then move along to the Goliath stick insects, which can reach up to 25cm long.
Laux dangles one in front of me from a sprig of eucalyptus, warning me not to worry if she reaches towards me as she would likely just think I'm "part of her environment".
I'm completely out of my element here, but even so, I'm thrilled to see these animals so close. It's hard not to like them when Laux describes them so enthusiastically, and with so much appreciation.
The "grand finale" of the experience is when Laux brings out a Chilean rose tarantula and places her gently on a small set of scales, nudging her fuzzy brown legs back onto the platform as she attempts to wander off.
NZME reporter Melissa Nightingale watching zookeeper Dave Laux displaying a Goliath stick insect as part of Wellington Zoo's new Minibeasts experience. Photo / Mark Mitchell
My question arises again - can she leap at me? How fast can she move if she wants to?
But again, I'm pretty safe. Tarantulas can lunge short distances but generally only if they're trying to catch food. They spend a good deal of time conserving energy, and generally only move in a range of one square metre for their whole lives.
And certainly Rosita doesn't seem to have any inclination to go anywhere. She sits motionless on the scales for at least another 10 minutes as I talk with Laux.
After a while he tucks her away back into her enclosure, beside other tarantulas named Petal and Blossom. Not the type of names you would expect venomous, befanged creepy crawlies to have, but here we are.
Participants cannot touch the animals, but being able to see them so close is more than enough.
It's a worthwhile experience, especially considering 10 per cent of the profits go towards conservation efforts.
"Invertebrates make up a huge percentage of all terrestrial life on Earth, I believe it's over 84 per cent," Laux said.
They also make up 97 per cent of all animal species.
A giant African millipede crawls along keeper Dave Laux's arm as part of Wellington Zoo's new Minibeasts experience. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Laux referred to them as an "ecological keystone species", without which the world as we know it would not exist. Without invertebrates, we wouldn't have crops, trees, waterways, or crucial food chains, he said.
"Without invertebrates we don't have tigers, we don't have elephants, we don't have the wild world that we love."
Laux said it was "really important to be a champion for the little guy because they're so commonly overlooked".
