Eating a fried tarantula has become a popular photo opportunity for tourists in Cambodia. However, this delicacy is in danger of disappearing, thanks to deforestation and over-harvesting of the spiders.
The moment you arrive at the market square in Skuon, you see the tarantula vendors. Most are young girls, who think making tourists shiver by putting whole spiders in their mouths is tremendous fun.
“Spider, sir? One for 2,000 riels!”
That’s about 50 cents (42 euro cents) for what is considered a delicacy in Cambodia, and particularly in Skuon, a town on the road to Cambodia’s Kampong Cham province that has earned the nickname “Spiderville.”
But supplies of this traditional snack are running low.
Cashew and rubber plantations are fast replacing Cambodia’s forests, which are also under threat from a massive illegal timber industry. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the county has lost 20 percent of its forest — which is where the tarantulas live.
A women sells fried tarantula spiders in SkuonA women sells fried tarantula spiders in Skuon
Fried tarantulas are sold at public markets, like this one in SkuonImage: Kris Janssens
Spider hunting
Still, in that which remains, spider hunter Soy Lon doesn’t have much trouble finding her quarry. “They dig a hole in the ground,” she told DW. “I’ve been hunting them for more than 20 years, I recognize these places.”
And sure enough, it takes Lon just a few minutes to find a tarantula’s burrow and pull the creature out with her bare hands.
