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Jumping Spiders Shouldn’t Be This Smart

Stephanie Sammann

2,676,522 views

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Welcome to The Infinite Biosphere - my new channel!

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Images courtesy of Getty Images

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Credits
Written, directed, edited, hosted by Stephanie Sammann
Animation and creative direction by Kirtan Patel https://kpatart.nz/
Branding by Adam Stuart Instagram: adnastu
Intro Animation by Feesh Instagram: feeshanimation

Thanks to Dr. Nathan Morehouse, and Jurgen Otto for their help with this project. Thanks especially to Jurgen Otto for his incredible clips and photos of peacock jumping spiders.
https://www.peacockspider.org

And thanks to Danae Wolfe for her amazing clips of jumping spiders.
TikTok: Chasingbugs
https://www.chasingbugs.com/

Stephanie Sammann is a science communicator and filmmaker who creates in-depth videos about the living world — from animal minds and strange anatomy to the smallest, weirdest insects and the most formidable predators on Earth. She has been described as “the girl who can make shrimp cool." Stephanie collaborates with academics and conservationists around the world to translate complex science into accessible, curiosity-driven stories that bring audiences closer to the natural world. Previously, Stephanie was the creator and host of Real Science.

References:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c...

20 Comments

@Stephanie-Sammann Creator 4 months ago Pinned

I wanted to just remind people to subscribe to this channel! Double check if you are subscribed, you might think you are but you might not be!

And just to clarify this is a new channel, I will not be posting from Real Science anymore. It's not a secondary channel to Real Science, or a spin off, or related to it anyway. Just my new venture since I am not involved with Real Science anymore.

Thanks everyone!! I am floored by the response so far. 🚀🕷😁

@jannovak5481 4 months ago

I worked in a factory and there was a jumping spider living in the tool rack during the summer. He was very cute and kept the rack free from small insects, so I let him live and was always careful not to put anything on him. It was very dry and hot, so I sometimes brought him water in a handkerchief, and if I found an insect, I left it on the rack. I could swear he greeted me every morning. Once he jumped on my hand, hesitated for a moment, but climbed onto my shoulder and worked with me for 2 hours. He often watched me and waved. One autumn morning he was gone and I never saw him again. I am wary of larger spiders, but this tiny, cute creature really grew on my heart. I never thought I would miss a spider. I hope he lived a good life. I will never forget him. ❤

@Dead_Empire 2 months ago

Im a landscaper in FNQ Australia. I see these guys all day everyday day.
They look at you in the face. Bugs never do that.

@thelegendary4457 3 months ago

I had a pet jumping spider and I swear she had a "game". Back then I had to study most of the time so I would put her out of her enclosure in the mean time. I've bought her a little bonsai tree to climb on and chill while I was studying. She used to roam around, groom herself, take naps, watch me aaand bungee jump. Bungee jumping was one of her favourite activities. She climbed on the highest spot, installing her rope, than jump. She always stopped mid air and climbed back up. She repeated this process until she found a different activity. I miss my lil jumper

@kekistanirefugee 2 months ago

I watched this butterfly fall from the sky and land in a weird way. I grabbed my iphone and started recording when I realized a jumping spider was manhandling the thing like the incredible hulk. What was even crazier was after it finished off the moth, it walked towards me, waved and walked away. I'll never forget that.

@waffles23456 4 months ago

The funniest thing happened to me recently with a jumping spider. I was hanging out and noticed there was a jumping spider on my water bottle that was resting on a table. Nearby my bottle was a pole and I saw the spider calculating to jump from my bottle to the pole but wouldn't jump since it was a bit far. It stopped for a second and faced me and raised its rear and arms. I pushed the bottle closer to the pole it wanted to jump on. It positioned itself at the edge of my bottle and when it got within range it finally jumped. What a cool little interaction.

@August6391 3 months ago

Thanks for fighting the battle against AI slop and not letting your voice go to waste!

@yul-fate 3 months ago

this made me realize how much more terrifying cats would be with hydraulics and venom

@HaruArtwork 2 months ago (edited)

I had a wild jumping spider in my apartment for three months.
Every evening at the same time, it would crawl over my books onto the edge of my monitor, watch me for a while, and then crawl onto the screen.
There, it would try to catch my mouse cursor.
And even back then, I thought the movements and behavior reminded me of my cats. :)
It was sooo cute.

@supersportimpalass 4 months ago

There was a guy that kept a jumping spider from November until spring feeding it flies the whole winter. He went to release it outside on a wood pile while sitting 20 feet away. The spider made its way through the grass to where he was sitting and on to his boot. He could see it kept looking at him the whole time and the crazy part is he never handled the spider once while he had it inside its enclosure.

@Jazz-cu6vc 4 months ago

I once met a male jumping spider while I was waiting for the bus. He was pitch black and had vibrant green, reflective mandibles (I think that's what they're called). There was a large gap on the fence he was climbing on, and I noticed he seemed to be calculating how to get across. So I placed my finger close by him, expecting him to crawl on mindlessly like another spider would have, seeing my hand as just another part of his environment that that is too big to be perceived as another living thing like him. However, he turned to face me after I moved next to him. He looked me I the eye, and seemed to be calculating what I was doing. He then moved onto my finger and waited patiently as I placed my hand on the other side of the fence. He hopped off, and looked at me in the eye again. I have a deep love and respect for spiders, but jumping spiders are by far one of my favourites.

@Clevertechly 4 months ago

It’s not the size of the brain, it’s the complexity of the connections.

@qwertystop 12 days ago

0:10 ... Wait a second, no, octopuses and cuttlefish have indications of dreams/REM too, right? Which would seem to indicate dreams go as far back as before differentiation of arthropods, mollusks, and chordates, at least.

@DavidDavis311 4 months ago

You can tell they’re intelligent by how they watch you.

@cucumber1991 4 months ago

Imagine humans did this for mating. You're on minute 59 of dancing your heart out, and accidentally you trip on your shoe, so she kills and eats you

@astralphoenix7905 4 months ago

I had a jumping spider in my apartment window. my mom and me named it george.
when we walked nearby it would look at us.
one day george crawled onto my jacket. it kept looking at me.
the best part though was when my mom walked over.
George looked at her and raised one leg like it was waving.
I haven't seen george in a long while and know they must be dead by now which is really sad but i'll never forget my spider housemate.

@glowinthedarkshark9396 2 months ago

I FUCKING KNEW IT. years of arguements with my family about spiders being special and sentient to a level of almost human awareness. when one looks at you they REALLY LOOK.

@surrenderdaily333 4 months ago

You can't say for certain there are no jumping spiders in Antarctica. Someone may have left a dog bowl upside down before the ice showed up!

@Dahrenhorst 4 months ago (edited)

Anthropologists say that developing the ability to throw something with the goal to hit an object as precise as possible was probably the one decisive step leading to the complex brain of homo sapiens millions of years later.
Now imagine this spiders not only throw something, but jump themselves with the goal to catch a moving target. There are complex automated calculations necessary to be successful: they need to know about their own power, the own weight, the wind direction and velocity, the distance to the victim and its position relative to the own, and the trajectory and speed of its movement. Those little spiders are truly impressive.

@GarroshTV 3 months ago

I got a jumping spider a few weeks ago. Yesterday, when I wanted to take her out of her enclosure to feed her she jumped first on my hand, then on my arm and then I have no Idea to where.
I searched her for 30 minutes only to find her back in her enclosure.

Such a smarty.