VEGHEL/TILBURG – A woman from Veghel was surprised by an unexpected guest on Sunday when she unpacked her suitcase at home after a holiday in Costa Rica. She hadn’t come home alone; a brown-black scorpion had traveled with her. However, the traveler was not happy with this living souvenir and had the animal collected by the animal ambulance. But that doesn’t mean the scorpion will be brought back home.
“Our employees at the emergency center asked the woman for photos of the animal, which she immediately sent. We immediately saw that it was a scorpion,” says a spokesman for the Animal Ambulance Brabant Noord-Oost. Scorpions do not occur in the wild in the Netherlands and cannot survive here.
Protective clothing
That is why, according to the spokesperson, a team from the animal ambulance was quickly sent to Veghel: “In cases like this, we prepare for the worst, because we do not know whether the animal is poisonous.” The animal ambulance has experience with this, because sometimes snakes or reptiles are also collected. “Ambulance officers don protective clothing and take materials with them to contain the animals.”
After the scorpion was captured, the animal was transferred to De Oliemeulen Zoo in Tilburg. The park has experience with the shelter of poisonous animal species and is in contact with experts. According to Mathijs Marskamp, who was involved in the research into the animal, taking the scorpion with you was an unfortunate coincidence: ,,When you travel, you don’t assume that you are taking something alive with you. But tropical animals such as scorpions often seek shelter. Then it may happen that you take one with you to the airport.”
Tropical animals such as scorpions often seek shelter. Then it can happen that you take one to the airport
Occurs in Costa Rica and the Antilles
“At first we thought it was an Asian species,” says Marskamp. The researchers found this striking, because the woman herself indicated that she had been to Costa Rica. “The animal looked a bit like it, but there are many scorpion species that resemble each other.” After some calling around with experts, that mystery was soon solved; it’s about a centroroides-Scorpion. The species, with a poison that is not harmful to humans, is also found in the Antilles in addition to Costa Rica.
But the scorpion will never go home again, says Marskamp: ,,It is difficult to bring back a tropical animal like a scorpion. There are many rules and flying back can give such a beast a lot of stress.” The zoo does not want to take that risk. “The scorpion is doing well now, so we will continue to take care of it in De Oliemeulen,” says Marskamp about the scorpion, which has already eaten its first meal after the perilous adventure.
Bird spider already traveled in Brabant
It is not the first time that a poisonous animal travels to Brabant on an airplane. Last month, a tourist suddenly found himself on his return from Croatia also a scorpion in her suitcase. An animal shelter in Schaijk took care of the animal. And in June Roel from Grave found a tarantula in his backpack after traveling through Colombia for three weeks. The animal ambulance also looked for a shelter for the poisonous spider.
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