A motorcycle ride near Fresno, Colombia, turned into an unexpected wildlife rescue when Junior Arboleda Franco and his son, Thiago, spotted a large tarantula sitting in the middle of the road.
At first, Franco thought he would simply continue driving.
But as he got closer, he realized the dark shape ahead was a spider.
“I thought I’d just drive past it, but when I got closer, I realized it was a tarantula,” Franco told The Dodo. “So, I turned around [and parked].”
The spider was enormous, with legs spread wide enough to make her appear almost as broad as Franco’s head.
Franco immediately became concerned that a passing vehicle might hit her.
Rather than leave the animal in danger, he decided to stop and move her somewhere safer.
“I told my son, ‘Let’s pick it up and rescue it,’” he said.
Footage captured by a camera mounted on Franco’s motorcycle shows him doing exactly that.
Although Franco had seen similarly large spiders before, he had always observed them from a distance.
The animal is believed to have been a Colombian lesserblack tarantula.
Despite her intimidating appearance, Franco said fear was not what went through his mind in the moment.
His main concern was getting the spider away from traffic before a vehicle reached her.
“When I saw it there in the middle of the road, the only thing I thought was that a car might run it over, so I had to act fast and get it out of harm’s way,” Franco said.
Holding such a large tarantula was still a striking experience.
“I didn’t feel afraid, but I was truly amazed to see such a huge animal in my hands,” he added.
With Thiago watching, Franco carefully carried the spider away from the roadway and placed her in a safer area nearby.
For Franco, the rescue became about more than simply helping an animal.
It was also an opportunity to show his son how compassion can extend to creatures that people might normally fear or avoid.
Franco said he hopes Thiago learns to treat animals with kindness, regardless of how intimidating they may look.
“I think it was the perfect moment to teach my son a valuable lesson,” he said.
The experience was especially meaningful because father and son do not get to spend every day together.
Due to their circumstances, Franco and Thiago live in different cities and only see one another from time to time.
That made sharing the rescue even more memorable.
“Because of life circumstances, we live in different cities and only see each other occasionally, so sharing an experience like this with him was very rewarding for me as a dad,” Franco said.
What could have been a brief encounter on the road instead became a moment of compassion — and a lesson Franco hopes his son will remember long after the tarantula disappeared safely back into her surroundings.