Photographer finds venomous human-hand sized spider guarding babies under his bed

15 October 2021, 12:38

By Alice Dear

The photographer's picture of the incredible discovery bagged him the award for Urban Wildlife in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

A photographer's shocking picture of a Brazilian wandering spider hiding under his bed has made him one of the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Gil Wizen won the Urban Wildlife Award as part of the prestigious competition, which is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum.

The photographer snapped the picture of the deadly spider – which feeds on frogs and cockroaches – while he was visiting Ecuador.

After becoming suspicious about the amount of spiders in the room he was staying in, he looked under his bed to discover the Brazilian wandering spider guarding hundreds of baby spiders.

Brazilian wandering spiders produce toxic venom which can be deadly to mammals, including humans.

Before the spider was moved safely outside, Gil snapped this shot of the human-hand sized arachnid, using forced perspective to make it appear larger.

The picture – named The Spider Room – was one of 50,000 entries submitted into the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition from 95 countries.

You can see some of the other winners' incredible photographs here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/

The 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition opens for entries on Monday 18 October 2021 and closes at 1130am GMT on Thursday 9 December 2021.