{"id":266816,"date":"2026-02-04T07:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266816\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:37:13","slug":"is-the-purple-kneed-tarantula-from-paddington-in-peru-actually-real-meet-the-real-life-creepy-crawlies-found-in-the-jungles-of-south-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266816\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the purple kneed tarantula from Paddington in Peru actually real? Meet the real-life creepy-crawlies found in the jungles of South America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While the main star of Paddington in Peru is two-legged and sports a blue duffle coat, there was an eight-legged furry creature that had us talking when watching the film.<\/p>\n<p>When the Brown family find themselves trekking into the Peruvian jungle to search for Aunt Lucy, they encounter the purple-kneed tarantula. But is it real?<\/p>\n<p>Is the purple-kneed tarantula real?<\/p>\n<p>The purple-kneed tarantula isn\u2019t actually real \u2013 but it is based on real spider species found in South America.<\/p>\n<p>The visual effects team at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.framestore.com\/work\/paddington-peru\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Framestore took inspiration from several species<\/a>, including the Avicularia purpurea \u2013 also known as the Ecuadorian purple tarantula or Ecuador purple pinktoe.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"724\" height=\"483\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-155232006.jpg\" alt=\"The Purple Pinktoe Tarantula\" class=\"wp-image-151318\"\/>The Ecuadorian purple tarantula (Avicularia purpurea) is one of the spider species that the Framestore visual effects team based the purple-kneed tarantula on &#8211; Getty<\/p>\n<p>As its name suggests, it can mainly be found in Ecuador in the Amazon region and has a striking purple-blue iridescence. Luckily for Mr Brown, who suffers from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/insects-invertebrates\/science-of-arachnophobia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">arachnophobia<\/a>, the largest thing it eats is small rodents.<\/p>\n<p>Another species is Avicularia juruensis which is found in South America \u2013 predominantly in Colonia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. It\u2019s also known as the Amazonian pink toe spider or Peruvian pinktoe tarantula.<\/p>\n<p>The bright hue of these spiders might be explained by their environment: in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/birds\/why-researchers-studied-over-4000-preserved-songbirds-from-londons-natural-history-museum\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2022 study<\/a>, scientists found that birds species tended to be 30 per cent more colourful towards the equator.<\/p>\n<p>So if you find yourself trekking through the Peruvian rainforest, you won\u2019t encounter a purple-kneed tarantula \u2013 but you will find plenty of other arachnids.<\/p>\n<p>Top image: the purple-kneed tarantula from Paddington in Peru. Credit: StudioCanal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the main star of Paddington in Peru is two-legged and sports a blue duffle coat, there was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-266816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}