This playful tarantula came out to play with us on a Desert Sampler Tour! Typically, in the southwestern United States, tarantulas live in solitude in desert basins, mountain foothills and forested slopes. They occupy various kinds of nests, with many species taking up residence in burrows or crevices, which may be sequestered in the ground, along cliff faces, among rocks, under tree bark, or between tree roots. Some line the burrow with silk. Some surround the entrance with a silken "welcoming mat," which vibrates like guitar strings, sending signals to the spider, cloistered in its burrow, if potential prey should touch the strands. "A tarantula will attack literally anything that it can subdue: beetles, grasshoppers, locusts, other spiders, small lizards, and mice," said biologist Fred Punzo, quoted by Pete Taylor in National Wildlife magazine.