With their ornately colored bodies, rhythmic pulsations, and booty-shaking dance moves, male peacock spiders attract the attention of spectating females as well as researchers. One such animal behavior specialist, Madeline Girard, collected more than 30 different peacock spider species from the wilds of Australia and brought them back to her lab at UC Berkeley. Under controlled conditions, she recorded their unique dances in the hopes of deciphering what these displays actually say to a female spider and how style and standards differ between species. (Plus, try the dancing spider matching game.)
All peacock spider footage ©Madeline Girard
Credits
Produced by Luke Groskin
Spider Footage and Stills by Madeline Girard
Music by Audio Network.
Additional Stills and footage provided by Phillippe Fassier, Damian Elias, Carl Flatow, Youtube User TheSugar2s
and Onedublin.org
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Meet the Producer
About Luke Groskin
@lgroskinLuke Groskin is Science Friday’s video producer. He’s on a mission to make you love spiders and other odd creatures.