“People have a lot of fear of spiders and snakes and lizards and stuff.”
Biology professor Micah Fern removed a gray, quarter-sized tarantula from a glass enclosure on his bookshelf.
“But what I always want to show them is,” he continued, “you know, these animals are not all bad. They’re not always hunting you.”
Fern coaxed the spider across his fingertips.
“The sensation of the toes on your skin is really cool, too,” he said, extending the spider to me. “So, if you feel brave enough —”
I could tell by his chuckle that I visibly hesitated. After a beat, I agreed.
“I’ll try it,” I said. “For the experience.”
Fern prompted the spider — Blondie, he later said her name was — onto my hand. She weighed like nothing on my fingers, but Fern was right: her little legs provided gentle pressure on my skin, just enough to notice. When she was this close, I noticed for the first time how fuzzy she was.
I feel I should preface this by clarifying: I am not a spider person.
Growing up, my mom taught me to keep my room clean to discourage spiders hiding in my stuffed animals and dirty clothes piles. Even today, I still bang my shoes on the floor every morning before I put them on. As my mom always said: you never know when a spider’s hiding in your shoe.
As Fern explained, this sort of behavior is why he encourages people to hold Blondie, as well as the numerous other animals that he cares for in White Hall.
White Hall is famous for its animal displays. They’re the first things you see when you walk through the front door: snakes, lizards, frogs, scorpions, you name it. Since my freshman year, I’ve loved to stroll the halls of White Hall with my friends, sister or boyfriend, peering through glass at the creatures inside.
“It’s kind of like a little miniature zoo, if that makes sense,” junior zoology major Sarah Greenwood, one of the White Hall animal caretakers, said. “Like an exhibit, and [the students] can look and appreciate. That’s how I came to appreciate animals, too.”
Fern explained to me that the animals in White Hall are there for three reasons: to interest tour groups, to give practical ways for science students to interact with animals and for education and outreach outside Union.
Beyond those functions, he emphasized the same point as Greenwood: he works hard to help others develop an appreciation for the animals.
“Snakes are so misunderstood,” Fern said. “People think they’re slimy and dirty and stuff, so getting to actually touch one, getting to see one and have a positive interaction — that makes a big difference. It really changes people’s minds.”
Fern held his ball python, Niche, and allowed her to slide across his arm as he spoke.
“Niche is our therapy snake,” he said. “I took her away from my buddy, who had her sitting in his office, and her tank was too small and she didn’t have anything for her to rub against to shed. I told him, ‘You don’t even want this thing. Let me take it, bring it somewhere that the students will be just enamored.’ One student knitted a sweater for her one time. It’s incredible.”
Other animals in White Hall belong to students. When a student wants to bring their pet to school but can’t keep them in their dorm, the caretakers at White Hall house them in their displays, and the student will come to care for their pet themselves.
Niche is not the only animal in White Hall who was rescued from a rough situation. Along with Niche, the caretakers are still nursing one of the leopard geckos, Lady, back to health.
As Fern explained, Lady once belonged to a child who could not care for her properly.
“She came in looking horrible,” he said. “[Leopard geckos] shed their skin, and they need something to rub against to get it off, so she had nothing to rub against. So [her shed skin] was just covering her eyes, her face; she couldn’t see.”
Like he did with Niche, Fern rescued Lady and brought her to White Hall to nurture her back to health. Today, she receives all the love from students.
“I love Lady,” Greenwood said. “She is so cute. I took her into a lab one time when I was working on something after class hours, and I was so distracted by her, I had to put her back.”
“All the creatures create a web that creates balance,” Fern said. “If you destroy something because it’s icky, or scary, or gross, then you’re messing that up. That’s one thing I’m passionate about: people need to interact with animals to be able to appreciate them.”
That appreciation for the animals is illustrated in my experience with Blondie the tarantula. Holding this tiny, helpless creature that doesn’t even fill the palm of my hand, I felt a swell of admiration for “creepy” animals like Blondie.
“They’re not just animals sitting on a shelf,” Greenwood said. “They’re creatures that God has created and have purpose.”
Photo by Laila Al-Hagal
