00:00:05.021 --> 00:00:05.854
- Okay.

00:00:11.611 --> 00:00:12.528
Here we go.

00:00:14.818 --> 00:00:15.651
That's it.

00:00:24.095 --> 00:00:26.655
Well here I am, December 14.

00:00:26.655 --> 00:00:28.849
- [Stuart] Took a new,
my camera that I had only

00:00:28.849 --> 00:00:31.122
just recently bought and a new macro lens

00:00:31.122 --> 00:00:34.837
out into the bush just south
of Canberra where I live.

00:00:34.837 --> 00:00:38.795
- So what I'm hoping to do is
get pictures of little stuff,

00:00:38.795 --> 00:00:42.962
pretty things out here in the
magic wilderness, so cool.

00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:46.393
Whoa.

00:00:55.553 --> 00:00:58.107
- Gives you a real buzz just
to see the tiny little hairs

00:00:58.107 --> 00:01:02.158
on creatures and their
eyes and the way their eyes

00:01:02.158 --> 00:01:04.118
are made up and just the colors,
the little hints of color

00:01:04.118 --> 00:01:05.349
that are in there.

00:01:05.349 --> 00:01:06.921
Stuff you don't see with
the human eye normally.

00:01:06.921 --> 00:01:09.598
I've been there for an hour or so,

00:01:09.598 --> 00:01:13.765
and I approached this big
boulder and saw a yellow leaf.

00:01:16.312 --> 00:01:19.280
And on that leaf was a red
and blue thing and as I looked

00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:21.318
closer it looked like a spider.

00:01:21.318 --> 00:01:22.485
Bent down and.

00:01:25.829 --> 00:01:28.321
Looked on the monitor and
yeah, it's a good shot,

00:01:28.321 --> 00:01:31.571
and kept going looking for other stuff.

00:01:34.906 --> 00:01:37.239
That's where it all started.

00:01:46.067 --> 00:01:49.067
(crickets chirping)

00:01:51.409 --> 00:01:53.688
Went home and some of the better images,

00:01:53.688 --> 00:01:55.848
including the one of
the red and blue spider

00:01:55.848 --> 00:02:00.375
I put on Flickr which is
a photo-sharing website.

00:02:00.375 --> 00:02:02.088
They started coming fairly readily.

00:02:02.088 --> 00:02:03.086
"Great spider!

00:02:03.086 --> 00:02:04.085
"So colorful!"

00:02:04.085 --> 00:02:05.740
"This is an amazing jumping spider!

00:02:05.740 --> 00:02:07.179
"The colours are brilliant."

00:02:07.179 --> 00:02:10.489
Then, probably an unnamed
species of Maratus,

00:02:10.489 --> 00:02:12.289
new to science.

00:02:12.289 --> 00:02:15.455
Had no idea, had never
even heard of Maratus.

00:02:15.455 --> 00:02:18.930
And to that I replied,
"Wow, new to science!

00:02:18.930 --> 00:02:21.861
"Find that hard to believe
considering how many scientists

00:02:21.861 --> 00:02:25.194
live nearby in my hometown of Canberra."

00:02:26.609 --> 00:02:29.442
(punk rock music)

00:02:45.571 --> 00:02:48.571
(inquisitive music)

00:02:49.406 --> 00:02:52.298
- In the past I've
discovered about 200 species

00:02:52.298 --> 00:02:54.818
of these tiny little mites
that live in sediment

00:02:54.818 --> 00:02:58.340
on the ocean floor and nobody
actually had seen them before.

00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:00.699
So there's heaps of work
discovering new animals

00:03:00.699 --> 00:03:03.699
and describing them and naming them.

00:03:05.091 --> 00:03:09.055
One day, looked around,
discovered this little photograph

00:03:09.055 --> 00:03:12.008
of something I had never seen before,

00:03:12.008 --> 00:03:13.731
something blue and I love blue.

00:03:13.731 --> 00:03:16.054
I'm partially colorblind
and blue is the color

00:03:16.054 --> 00:03:18.209
that just stands out for me.

00:03:18.209 --> 00:03:19.731
I thought, "What is this?

00:03:19.731 --> 00:03:20.732
"Where was it?

00:03:20.732 --> 00:03:22.537
"Where is this animal,
where can I find it?"

00:03:22.537 --> 00:03:24.814
So I tried finding out
who is the photographer,

00:03:24.814 --> 00:03:26.564
who took the picture?

00:03:32.063 --> 00:03:35.774
- Here we are picking up fucking litter.

00:03:35.774 --> 00:03:38.341
It's a good job, good
exercise, just walk along,

00:03:38.341 --> 00:03:42.052
in amongst all that crap
and litter have it open

00:03:42.052 --> 00:03:44.023
in your mind that you might
find something valuable

00:03:44.023 --> 00:03:46.569
and yeah, nearly every
day you'd find something.

00:03:46.569 --> 00:03:48.494
Not always money, it could
be something really weird.

00:03:48.494 --> 00:03:49.774
I found a sex toy once.

00:03:49.774 --> 00:03:51.296
You're always finding hypodermic needles.

00:03:51.296 --> 00:03:55.463
And I found a suitcase once
full of someone's law degree

00:03:57.413 --> 00:04:00.261
and had six ties in it
and six pairs of shoes,

00:04:00.261 --> 00:04:02.288
just weird shit.

00:04:02.288 --> 00:04:04.857
- Eventually I got hold
of Stuart, Stuart Harris,

00:04:04.857 --> 00:04:07.940
had no idea who that person was.

00:04:07.940 --> 00:04:09.809
All I knew was his Flickr site.

00:04:09.809 --> 00:04:12.702
There were bird pictures,
there were pictures of women

00:04:12.702 --> 00:04:14.785
in bikinis and half nude.

00:04:22.008 --> 00:04:24.892
I told Stuart this was a new discovery.

00:04:24.892 --> 00:04:27.092
I don't think he had an idea
that he'd found anything

00:04:27.092 --> 00:04:29.848
scientifically interesting.

00:04:29.848 --> 00:04:32.648
You cannot just simply post
a picture on the internet

00:04:32.648 --> 00:04:34.131
and say, "This is a new species

00:04:34.131 --> 00:04:36.371
"and that's what I'm calling it."

00:04:36.371 --> 00:04:38.871
We had to find another animal.

00:04:39.809 --> 00:04:42.937
(punk rock music)

00:04:42.937 --> 00:04:43.937
- Can't be that hard.

00:04:43.937 --> 00:04:45.255
I'll just go back to that same place

00:04:45.255 --> 00:04:48.453
and look for that yellow
leaf and maybe the spider

00:04:48.453 --> 00:04:50.620
will be hanging out there.

00:04:52.058 --> 00:04:55.090
Couldn't drive out there
fast enough, really.

00:04:55.090 --> 00:04:56.766
Here we go.

00:04:56.766 --> 00:05:00.266
Go and find it, go and find a new species.

00:05:05.771 --> 00:05:07.335
In the car park.

00:05:07.335 --> 00:05:08.336
(phone ringing)

00:05:08.336 --> 00:05:09.462
Ah.

00:05:09.462 --> 00:05:10.295
Go away.

00:05:14.326 --> 00:05:17.326
(inquisitive music)

00:05:24.179 --> 00:05:28.346
Spent a good couple of hours
at that spot and wasn't there.

00:05:42.489 --> 00:05:45.048
I remember years and years
ago someone's mentioned

00:05:45.048 --> 00:05:46.686
a movie called Blue Velvet.

00:05:46.686 --> 00:05:49.377
This would have been late '80s, I suppose.

00:05:49.377 --> 00:05:52.222
Done by an American
director called David Lynch.

00:05:52.222 --> 00:05:54.743
Many years later I've
now watched it, I reckon,

00:05:54.743 --> 00:05:55.576
100 times.

00:05:57.381 --> 00:06:00.214
(cinematic music)

00:06:10.572 --> 00:06:12.504
The mystery and the allure
of mystery has always been

00:06:12.504 --> 00:06:15.447
part of my life the last 20 years.

00:06:15.447 --> 00:06:17.102
If you scratch the surface a little bit

00:06:17.102 --> 00:06:19.452
and look inside it can be a bit dark

00:06:19.452 --> 00:06:21.535
and it's not as it seems.

00:06:26.823 --> 00:06:28.292
- I asked Stuart about the location

00:06:28.292 --> 00:06:31.663
and luckily he had no
problems with giving it to me.

00:06:31.663 --> 00:06:34.208
When looking for peacock
spiders, best time is really

00:06:34.208 --> 00:06:37.848
early in the mornings, and it's
not easy coming from Sydney.

00:06:37.848 --> 00:06:40.572
Booroomba Rocks is about
a four hour drive away.

00:06:40.572 --> 00:06:44.572
3am in the morning I left
and started searching.

00:06:47.928 --> 00:06:50.086
My color-blindness gives me one advantage,

00:06:50.086 --> 00:06:54.015
I'm able to spot things
that are camouflaged.

00:06:54.015 --> 00:06:57.932
So I'm not getting blinded
by color, basically.

00:06:58.769 --> 00:07:01.769
I've got quite good at finding them.

00:07:05.969 --> 00:07:08.971
Kept walking up and down
the track and had to return

00:07:08.971 --> 00:07:10.804
emptyhanded to Sydney.

00:07:12.821 --> 00:07:14.724
I find this very strange that somebody

00:07:14.724 --> 00:07:17.263
could just walk up a track
one day, find this little

00:07:17.263 --> 00:07:21.813
blue thing sitting on a
leaf, taking a photograph,

00:07:21.813 --> 00:07:23.730
and then it's vanished.

00:07:26.974 --> 00:07:30.139
Didn't make any sense to me.

00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:32.722
(creepy music)

00:07:49.566 --> 00:07:51.698
- My father told me as a three year old

00:07:51.698 --> 00:07:54.289
there was often big
huntsmen crawling over me

00:07:54.289 --> 00:07:57.329
in the cot, I was always
scared of spiders.

00:07:57.329 --> 00:07:58.246
I still am.

00:08:01.727 --> 00:08:04.900
One of those idyllic suburban
upbringings here in Canberra.

00:08:04.900 --> 00:08:06.493
(mumbles)

00:08:06.493 --> 00:08:09.931
You know, school was
good, parents were good,

00:08:09.931 --> 00:08:12.463
had a back yard to play in.

00:08:12.463 --> 00:08:13.963
It was all lovely.

00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.790
Things changed in 1974,
my mother passed away

00:08:29.790 --> 00:08:32.207
when I was nine years of age.

00:08:36.293 --> 00:08:39.460
Everything was sort of shaken up then.

00:08:41.414 --> 00:08:43.997
And I know my father struggled.

00:08:45.178 --> 00:08:47.845
I was never the same after that.

00:08:50.296 --> 00:08:52.419
And I ended up leaving school in year nine

00:08:52.419 --> 00:08:55.002
about halfway through the year.

00:08:55.902 --> 00:08:58.426
To get some quick cash one
night we stole a blind dog

00:08:58.426 --> 00:09:02.593
collection box from the local
shops, a Labrador thing.

00:09:04.425 --> 00:09:06.774
We ran down the local oval
at night with this thing

00:09:06.774 --> 00:09:08.741
to knock its head off
and get the money out

00:09:08.741 --> 00:09:11.508
and my first bit of media
exposure was the headlines

00:09:11.508 --> 00:09:12.925
"Youth remanded."

00:09:16.867 --> 00:09:18.907
My dear grandmother came down from Sydney,

00:09:18.907 --> 00:09:22.346
my father's mother to look after us.

00:09:22.346 --> 00:09:25.821
Nan, as I call her, was
effectively my mother.

00:09:25.821 --> 00:09:28.059
The closest female I had in my life.

00:09:28.059 --> 00:09:29.986
Nan would ask every now and then,

00:09:29.986 --> 00:09:32.214
whatever relationship I was in,

00:09:32.214 --> 00:09:34.463
"Are you gonna get married?

00:09:34.463 --> 00:09:38.630
"It would be nice to have
a grandchild through you."

00:09:39.464 --> 00:09:42.797
And things like that so what can you do?

00:09:48.708 --> 00:09:51.541
(classical music)

00:09:56.454 --> 00:09:58.784
- When I was growing
up as a boy in Germany

00:09:58.784 --> 00:10:01.778
and just watch these
spiders walking around

00:10:01.778 --> 00:10:03.342
on the walls and was just
fascinated by these little

00:10:03.342 --> 00:10:04.675
jumping spiders.

00:10:06.337 --> 00:10:10.504
Once I find something interesting
I just don't let it go.

00:10:13.576 --> 00:10:16.748
I often compare them with
kittens with too many legs

00:10:16.748 --> 00:10:18.746
or with little puppies.

00:10:18.746 --> 00:10:21.857
I wish sometime this
love for peacock spiders

00:10:21.857 --> 00:10:24.299
and jumping spiders in
general will just rub off

00:10:24.299 --> 00:10:28.466
onto the other spiders and
everybody will just love them.

00:10:31.139 --> 00:10:33.134
At the time probably
Stuart was also looking

00:10:33.134 --> 00:10:35.390
for the spider, but I
had no way of knowing

00:10:35.390 --> 00:10:37.464
because we lost contact somehow.

00:10:37.464 --> 00:10:39.430
Stuart changed email addresses

00:10:39.430 --> 00:10:41.930
and the one I had didn't work.

00:10:48.709 --> 00:10:51.959
- Spend all day looking for the fucker.

00:10:55.226 --> 00:10:57.494
As a matter of scale
you're looking for a spider

00:10:57.494 --> 00:11:00.213
that four to five millimeters long.

00:11:00.213 --> 00:11:03.337
In a park that's hundreds
of square kilometers,

00:11:03.337 --> 00:11:06.254
thousands of square kilometers big.

00:11:07.663 --> 00:11:11.246
A very small needle in
a very big haystack.

00:11:14.303 --> 00:11:16.068
I suppose up to that point in time,

00:11:16.068 --> 00:11:19.017
I never really felt I'd achieved anything.

00:11:19.017 --> 00:11:22.459
I never rose to any great
heights in anything I'd done.

00:11:22.459 --> 00:11:26.209
So I really felt like
this is an opportunity,

00:11:27.748 --> 00:11:31.915
an inherent opportunity to
prove I was worthy of something.

00:11:36.224 --> 00:11:38.627
You want to find something
that no one else has found,

00:11:38.627 --> 00:11:39.937
lay claim to it I suppose.

00:11:39.937 --> 00:11:42.666
I mean even though science
does discover new things,

00:11:42.666 --> 00:11:44.219
but it's usually at the bottom of some

00:11:44.219 --> 00:11:46.106
five kilometer deep trench.

00:11:46.106 --> 00:11:47.818
But just in your sort
of relative back yard

00:11:47.818 --> 00:11:50.183
like here in Canberra,
finding something unknown

00:11:50.183 --> 00:11:53.516
to science there is, that's pretty cool.

00:11:56.260 --> 00:11:58.815
- There's a new word
now, citizen scientist,

00:11:58.815 --> 00:12:01.987
and I think Stuart classifies as such.

00:12:01.987 --> 00:12:06.389
Certainly he likes to be
called citizen scientist.

00:12:06.389 --> 00:12:08.429
I think in the old days people just called

00:12:08.429 --> 00:12:11.139
people like that amateurs,
but citizen scientist

00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:14.306
has become quite a popular expression.

00:12:15.346 --> 00:12:17.179
There's certain limitations to this.

00:12:17.179 --> 00:12:20.023
A citizen scientist may not
have the same background,

00:12:20.023 --> 00:12:24.947
education, as one who has
done a PhD and a post-doc.

00:12:24.947 --> 00:12:29.187
- The fact is, I took that photo in 2008.

00:12:29.187 --> 00:12:30.104
It's there.

00:12:31.622 --> 00:12:34.134
It can't be the only one in
existence, there has to be

00:12:34.134 --> 00:12:35.773
more than one.

00:12:35.773 --> 00:12:40.501
So logic told me, I don't
always work on pure logic,

00:12:40.501 --> 00:12:43.467
but logic told me in this
case, it has to be there.

00:12:43.467 --> 00:12:46.022
Therefore I need to keep going back,

00:12:46.022 --> 00:12:50.624
and I'll keep going back
until I find the bloody thing.

00:12:50.624 --> 00:12:54.791
- I'm involved in a mystery,
I'm in the middle of a mystery.

00:12:58.183 --> 00:13:00.499
- You like mysteries that much?

00:13:00.499 --> 00:13:02.499
- He finds an ear in a paddock

00:13:02.499 --> 00:13:04.389
and takes it, as a good citizen should,

00:13:04.389 --> 00:13:06.301
down to the detective and he's told,

00:13:06.301 --> 00:13:08.701
"What are you doing going on this tangent?

00:13:08.701 --> 00:13:11.109
"You're just a lad that
works in a hardware store,

00:13:11.109 --> 00:13:13.068
"you shouldn't be doing
this sort of stuff."

00:13:13.068 --> 00:13:16.254
And so he's basically told
don't look any further.

00:13:16.254 --> 00:13:17.254
But he does.

00:13:22.417 --> 00:13:23.734
- Well.

00:13:23.734 --> 00:13:25.827
Should be near the rocks now, so.

00:13:25.827 --> 00:13:27.984
- My mates, it's so hard
to get 'em to come out

00:13:27.984 --> 00:13:30.150
for anything these days
now that we're a bit older

00:13:30.150 --> 00:13:34.135
and to get them all out here
today was just wonderful.

00:13:34.135 --> 00:13:37.337
Thought with four of us looking
that we had a good chance.

00:13:37.337 --> 00:13:39.854
- Another one of Stuart's
crazy sort of adventures.

00:13:39.854 --> 00:13:43.214
Been involved with a few with him before.

00:13:43.214 --> 00:13:45.978
- I was trying to give
some sort of tuition,

00:13:45.978 --> 00:13:49.811
but my technique wasn't
successful either, so.

00:13:52.494 --> 00:13:55.827
It was a pretty random sort of a search.

00:14:00.584 --> 00:14:01.814
Thoughts went through my head thinking,

00:14:01.814 --> 00:14:04.306
"Well I better find it
'cause what if Alex finds it?

00:14:04.306 --> 00:14:06.653
"He'll probably want it named after him."

00:14:06.653 --> 00:14:08.104
- Bloody scientists if
they saw us out here

00:14:08.104 --> 00:14:10.666
they certainly wouldn't
classify it as a scientific

00:14:10.666 --> 00:14:14.378
exploration, so it is a bit of fun.

00:14:14.378 --> 00:14:18.545
- Bit over it after that
18 K walk with no result.

00:14:19.942 --> 00:14:22.359
Stuart continued on the hunt.

00:14:36.097 --> 00:14:40.097
- Nan would have been 93
when I took that photo.

00:14:41.057 --> 00:14:43.426
And once I told her I found a spider,

00:14:43.426 --> 00:14:44.934
and was looking for it, she'd always say,

00:14:44.934 --> 00:14:46.260
"You found your spider, Stuart?

00:14:46.260 --> 00:14:48.593
"You found your spider yet?"

00:14:54.493 --> 00:14:57.300
Seven years ago there was
those terrible Canberra fires

00:14:57.300 --> 00:15:00.829
which obliterated, you can still see it.

00:15:00.829 --> 00:15:04.186
And you just think I
wonder if that was somehow

00:15:04.186 --> 00:15:08.294
that spider and its
colony escaped the fire

00:15:08.294 --> 00:15:10.294
and it was the last one?

00:15:12.582 --> 00:15:14.910
I could look forever and never find it.

00:15:14.910 --> 00:15:17.493
Really does your mind in a bit.

00:15:19.149 --> 00:15:21.539
- Could the fire have destroyed

00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:24.536
basically the whole population?

00:15:24.536 --> 00:15:27.066
This (mumbles) might be rare

00:15:27.066 --> 00:15:29.733
or at the edge of an extinction.

00:15:31.693 --> 00:15:34.541
- Days, weeks, and months
of searching went by.

00:15:34.541 --> 00:15:38.041
Years even, and I still wasn't finding it.

00:15:40.470 --> 00:15:41.492
What do I know?

00:15:41.492 --> 00:15:42.992
What don't I know?

00:15:43.973 --> 00:15:44.806
Help.

00:15:48.828 --> 00:15:51.705
Ah, can I just read you this?

00:15:51.705 --> 00:15:54.500
Hi Stuart, I just had a
look at your website again

00:15:54.500 --> 00:15:56.939
and found a comment
you added 28 hours ago.

00:15:56.939 --> 00:15:58.904
Something about losing data
and wanting to get in touch

00:15:58.904 --> 00:16:02.487
with a spider expert,
which I assume is me.

00:16:03.578 --> 00:16:05.783
I am prepared to give it one last try.

00:16:05.783 --> 00:16:07.696
Cheers, Jurgen.

00:16:07.696 --> 00:16:09.220
- Jurgen, how are ya?

00:16:09.220 --> 00:16:10.861
Finally, finally get to meet you.

00:16:10.861 --> 00:16:11.899
- Nice to meet you.

00:16:11.899 --> 00:16:13.824
- I saw him the first
time at Booroomba Rocks.

00:16:13.824 --> 00:16:18.176
I was quite impressed
by his physical nature.

00:16:18.176 --> 00:16:21.461
- We're the same age, only a
couple of months different.

00:16:21.461 --> 00:16:25.853
I feel inferior academically
to these people,

00:16:25.853 --> 00:16:29.339
I never stuck out anything like that.

00:16:29.339 --> 00:16:32.015
- [Jurgen] The combination
of his local knowledge

00:16:32.015 --> 00:16:35.058
and my intuition about
where these spiders might be

00:16:35.058 --> 00:16:38.433
was making us very optimistic
that we would find it.

00:16:38.433 --> 00:16:41.576
- To be honest I'd rather
find it closer to the carpark.

00:16:41.576 --> 00:16:42.900
- [Jurgen] I had a lot of interesting

00:16:42.900 --> 00:16:45.015
conversations about his past.

00:16:45.015 --> 00:16:49.427
He had lots of different jobs,
and very different from mine.

00:16:49.427 --> 00:16:51.775
- [Stuart] What being
a scientist you enjoy?

00:16:51.775 --> 00:16:52.775
- Sorry?

00:16:52.775 --> 00:16:53.777
- You enjoy being a scientist?

00:16:53.777 --> 00:16:55.491
- Um, actually I asked him,
"Why are you photographing

00:16:55.491 --> 00:16:57.543
"spiders and women?"

00:16:57.543 --> 00:17:01.016
And he just said he's looking
for beauty in everywhere,

00:17:01.016 --> 00:17:04.929
and I think yeah, hey,
this is an interesting man.

00:17:04.929 --> 00:17:06.494
- Birds and birds.

00:17:06.494 --> 00:17:08.494
(laughing)

00:17:08.494 --> 00:17:11.139
I've done a little bit of
research on jumping spiders,

00:17:11.139 --> 00:17:14.061
I couldn't see much on
peacock spiders, eh?

00:17:14.061 --> 00:17:15.571
So how many species are there now?

00:17:15.571 --> 00:17:17.901
- Had lots of questions about science,

00:17:17.901 --> 00:17:20.541
about these spiders, and I
was really intrigued by this.

00:17:20.541 --> 00:17:21.940
Why was he so interested in them?

00:17:21.940 --> 00:17:23.977
I thought he was just interesting
in photographing them.

00:17:23.977 --> 00:17:25.651
No, he wanted to go further.

00:17:25.651 --> 00:17:27.143
- I've never learnt so much in one day

00:17:27.143 --> 00:17:29.294
about something I didn't
know anything about.

00:17:29.294 --> 00:17:32.711
Peacock spiders, like a peacock the bird,

00:17:33.659 --> 00:17:36.220
have a very ornate and brilliant display

00:17:36.220 --> 00:17:40.371
where they have a flap of
skin that they open up.

00:17:40.371 --> 00:17:42.533
When they're in the normal
sort of passive stage

00:17:42.533 --> 00:17:45.210
it's all neatly folded up
like a handkerchief, really.

00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:47.463
I'm wondering if this was
indeed a peacock spider

00:17:47.463 --> 00:17:51.630
and if it did have a display,
what would it look like?

00:17:54.466 --> 00:17:55.299
Oh dear.

00:17:56.778 --> 00:17:58.421
The word thorough doesn't
really do it justice.

00:17:58.421 --> 00:18:00.222
I mean, we weren't
going far off the track,

00:18:00.222 --> 00:18:03.935
but no blue and red peacock spider.

00:18:03.935 --> 00:18:06.819
- [Jurgen] It got a bit
disheartening, the whole search.

00:18:06.819 --> 00:18:08.694
- [Stuart] I could tell that
Jurgen was probably thinking

00:18:08.694 --> 00:18:10.770
that it was never gonna be found.

00:18:10.770 --> 00:18:14.520
- I just put this into
the "too hard" basket.

00:18:19.136 --> 00:18:22.737
- We kept in touch, but
I might ask a question

00:18:22.737 --> 00:18:25.296
with a lot of enthusiasm
and then answer would be

00:18:25.296 --> 00:18:27.017
very matter of fact.

00:18:27.017 --> 00:18:28.850
Yes Stuart, no Stuart.

00:18:32.579 --> 00:18:35.017
Part of me, the big
softy within me sometimes

00:18:35.017 --> 00:18:39.184
wished he could be a bit
more, I don't know, warm.

00:18:43.184 --> 00:18:44.264
Would he be a friend of mine

00:18:44.264 --> 00:18:46.536
if it wasn't for peacock spiders?

00:18:46.536 --> 00:18:47.936
I don't know, probably not.

00:18:47.936 --> 00:18:51.449
I mean, I don't walk in
a circle of scientists.

00:18:51.449 --> 00:18:54.116
He's not as buff, buffy as I am.

00:19:00.814 --> 00:19:03.481
(clock ticking)

00:19:12.419 --> 00:19:14.169
Found the spider yet?

00:19:20.611 --> 00:19:22.178
Oh Alex, come on.

00:19:22.178 --> 00:19:25.678
We're getting a real buzz from the search.

00:19:26.929 --> 00:19:28.216
Come on mate.

00:19:28.216 --> 00:19:30.785
Anyway we got up around
this massive boulder

00:19:30.785 --> 00:19:32.285
and nature called.

00:19:34.782 --> 00:19:37.782
So I wanted to go way off the track.

00:19:44.172 --> 00:19:47.213
So I dug me hole, did me
business, and then headed

00:19:47.213 --> 00:19:48.713
back to the track.

00:19:51.054 --> 00:19:54.065
And then I was approaching
a very flat, large

00:19:54.065 --> 00:19:55.148
granite rock.

00:19:59.051 --> 00:20:01.291
I looked over at the
rock and on top of a twig

00:20:01.291 --> 00:20:02.374
I saw a jump.

00:20:03.410 --> 00:20:04.856
(exciting music)

00:20:04.856 --> 00:20:06.292
Right, fuck, Alex, Alex!

00:20:06.292 --> 00:20:07.293
Bring the bag!

00:20:07.293 --> 00:20:09.786
I've got it, I need a container,

00:20:09.786 --> 00:20:12.369
I haven't got a container, man!

00:20:13.372 --> 00:20:15.251
Quick man, I'm gonna take a photo first.

00:20:15.251 --> 00:20:16.084
Blurry.

00:20:18.059 --> 00:20:19.809
Container, container.

00:20:25.211 --> 00:20:26.211
(claps)

00:20:26.211 --> 00:20:28.291
Jammed it, now like that.

00:20:28.291 --> 00:20:29.939
And that was it.

00:20:29.939 --> 00:20:31.770
Look at that!

00:20:31.770 --> 00:20:33.343
Look at the red and the
blue, same as in the photo.

00:20:33.343 --> 00:20:35.090
And here it is three years later!

00:20:35.090 --> 00:20:36.736
And so it was in the container,

00:20:36.736 --> 00:20:39.658
of course I had the little look

00:20:39.658 --> 00:20:42.259
and there it was and I
see him in this container,

00:20:42.259 --> 00:20:45.626
this little spider sitting
there with its (mumbles)

00:20:45.626 --> 00:20:49.265
looking at me going,
"Who the fuck are you?"

00:20:49.265 --> 00:20:53.432
Finally we got reception on
our phones so I pulled over.

00:20:56.139 --> 00:20:58.806
(phone ringing)

00:21:00.550 --> 00:21:01.955
Hello, hello?

00:21:01.955 --> 00:21:02.957
- [Jurgen] Hi, Stuart.

00:21:02.957 --> 00:21:03.989
- Guess what Jurgen?

00:21:03.989 --> 00:21:05.884
He goes oh, what?

00:21:05.884 --> 00:21:07.680
You didn't find it did you?

00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:10.513
And I said sure as hell did, mate.

00:21:11.632 --> 00:21:13.558
"I never thought you
would find it," he said.

00:21:13.558 --> 00:21:15.725
"I'll come down tomorrow."

00:21:18.321 --> 00:21:19.642
Well there you go, Jurgen.

00:21:19.642 --> 00:21:20.671
- That's the one.

00:21:20.671 --> 00:21:23.762
- This is it, it's taken
me years to find this one,

00:21:23.762 --> 00:21:26.438
hopefully it survived the journey.

00:21:26.438 --> 00:21:27.552
- I'll see you mate.

00:21:27.552 --> 00:21:28.675
All the best.

00:21:28.675 --> 00:21:29.508
See ya.

00:21:30.350 --> 00:21:33.990
- The trick is with these
spiders to get them to display

00:21:33.990 --> 00:21:36.005
you have to present them with a female.

00:21:36.005 --> 00:21:38.917
Without a female they just
don't show their colors.

00:21:38.917 --> 00:21:42.481
There's always the risk
though that a female

00:21:42.481 --> 00:21:47.122
of a different species
will see the male as prey.

00:21:47.122 --> 00:21:49.832
I've seen that happen
quite a number of times.

00:21:49.832 --> 00:21:52.203
That males were gobbled up by females

00:21:52.203 --> 00:21:54.236
and there was nothing I could do much.

00:21:54.236 --> 00:21:57.653
So I placed Stuart's male onto the scene.

00:21:58.643 --> 00:22:02.477
Introduced a female of a
different species to it.

00:22:02.477 --> 00:22:03.894
And then watched.

00:22:14.758 --> 00:22:19.191
I remember a number of times
I felt maybe I should stop,

00:22:19.191 --> 00:22:21.191
should stop this female.

00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:29.642
I kept photographing and
filming and all of a sudden

00:22:29.642 --> 00:22:30.642
he was gone.

00:22:33.752 --> 00:22:38.004
Must have jumped off the desk
or maybe I've squashed it.

00:22:38.004 --> 00:22:40.920
So really my heart stopped still.

00:22:40.920 --> 00:22:45.597
How can I lose an animal
that was so important for us?

00:22:45.597 --> 00:22:49.680
Just one careless step
and that would've been it.

00:22:52.432 --> 00:22:54.471
- Really, she just seems fluffier.

00:22:54.471 --> 00:22:56.911
Seems much better than when
they did her last time.

00:22:56.911 --> 00:22:58.712
I think a different
person must've done it.

00:22:58.712 --> 00:23:00.166
(phone ringing)

00:23:00.166 --> 00:23:00.999
Ah.

00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:04.315
Why it took three days
for him to take photos

00:23:04.315 --> 00:23:07.991
is 'cause for most of that time
he didn't know where it was.

00:23:07.991 --> 00:23:11.669
And luckily he found it and recaught it.

00:23:11.669 --> 00:23:14.633
- That was very, very lucky.

00:23:14.633 --> 00:23:17.710
Finally he just folded out
his flaps, put his legs

00:23:17.710 --> 00:23:21.877
up into the air and it's the
first moment that I really saw

00:23:22.910 --> 00:23:25.160
what the spider looks like.

00:23:33.750 --> 00:23:34.833
- Here we go.

00:23:36.204 --> 00:23:39.204
(suspenseful music)

00:23:43.086 --> 00:23:44.169
Fuck me dead.

00:23:47.125 --> 00:23:48.208
Check it out.

00:24:18.906 --> 00:24:21.104
(joyful music)

00:24:21.104 --> 00:24:23.141
I was blown away.

00:24:23.141 --> 00:24:24.785
Totally mesmerized.

00:24:24.785 --> 00:24:28.104
It was more than I could imagine.

00:24:28.104 --> 00:24:32.271
Could have been just as I
saw it on that yellow leaf.

00:24:33.582 --> 00:24:36.731
It was like a picture, it
looked like a monkey's face.

00:24:36.731 --> 00:24:37.864
Was just phenomenal.

00:24:37.864 --> 00:24:41.628
And so bright and so colorful,
it's so un-spiderlike,

00:24:41.628 --> 00:24:43.295
it's quite majestic.

00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:57.013
- I'm seeing something
that was always hidden.

00:24:57.980 --> 00:25:01.530
- Doing a reverse Lynch
would be not starting

00:25:01.530 --> 00:25:04.549
with a pristine purity on
the outside and looking

00:25:04.549 --> 00:25:07.256
at the darkness inside as to
starting with the darkness

00:25:07.256 --> 00:25:11.771
on the outside and yet when
you scratch the surface.

00:25:11.771 --> 00:25:14.688
You know, something more beautiful,

00:25:15.700 --> 00:25:19.533
something more true,
real, honest is revealed.

00:25:40.660 --> 00:25:43.699
Jurgen sent me the scientific paper.

00:25:43.699 --> 00:25:46.253
Eight known species of
peacock spider in Australia,

00:25:46.253 --> 00:25:48.654
plus one new species.

00:25:48.654 --> 00:25:50.539
And there it was, the next line down was

00:25:50.539 --> 00:25:53.622
and this species was Maratus Harrisi.

00:25:59.580 --> 00:26:01.749
I just wanted to tell Nan, you know?

00:26:01.749 --> 00:26:05.861
It was a case of Nan,
Nan, are you listening?

00:26:05.861 --> 00:26:06.694
Yes, yes.

00:26:07.573 --> 00:26:09.749
Nan, you know that spider
I've been looking for?

00:26:09.749 --> 00:26:11.296
Yes.

00:26:11.296 --> 00:26:12.892
Well, it's now official.

00:26:12.892 --> 00:26:17.059
It's been named after me and
therefore it's taken your name.

00:26:21.062 --> 00:26:25.229
I think she knew that I've
achieved something anyway,

00:26:26.344 --> 00:26:28.019
and I hadn't been able to present her

00:26:28.019 --> 00:26:30.696
with a grandchild or anything like that.

00:26:30.696 --> 00:26:34.863
I gave her a hairy little
blue and red spider instead.

00:26:46.029 --> 00:26:47.093
- How are you, Jurgen?

00:26:47.093 --> 00:26:48.093
- Hello, how are you?

00:26:48.093 --> 00:26:49.095
- How are you mate?

00:26:49.095 --> 00:26:50.773
- It might be in the interest
of a professional scientist

00:26:50.773 --> 00:26:53.450
to maintain a distinction
between citizen scientist

00:26:53.450 --> 00:26:56.937
and "real" scientist
but you have to wonder

00:26:56.937 --> 00:27:01.104
whether there is such a big
distinction really there.

00:27:03.828 --> 00:27:06.654
It became a new world for Stuart.

00:27:06.654 --> 00:27:11.293
Now he was able to show
this spider to other people,

00:27:11.293 --> 00:27:14.638
not only a new animal but
one that he discovered

00:27:14.638 --> 00:27:17.665
and he photographed, he put it on the map

00:27:17.665 --> 00:27:21.832
and people all of a sudden paid
attention to Stuart Harris.

00:27:23.974 --> 00:27:27.578
- The relationship between
biodiversity and (mumbles).

00:27:27.578 --> 00:27:29.853
- That's a great thing to work on.

00:27:29.853 --> 00:27:31.384
- Even when I played
football when I was young

00:27:31.384 --> 00:27:33.654
I never had a coach take
me under his wing and say,

00:27:33.654 --> 00:27:38.546
"Stuart, I can see your
potential, I want to help you."

00:27:38.546 --> 00:27:41.093
Whereas Jurgen seemed to be doing that.

00:27:41.093 --> 00:27:44.931
Write a little qualifying
statement talking about Harrisi

00:27:44.931 --> 00:27:47.171
and the journey that there was to find it,

00:27:47.171 --> 00:27:51.388
and he said some very
generous words about how

00:27:51.388 --> 00:27:55.555
determined I was and how
committed I was to finding it

00:27:57.134 --> 00:27:59.618
and that without those qualities

00:27:59.618 --> 00:28:01.502
this would have never been discovered.

00:28:01.502 --> 00:28:04.341
Nice words to me were
like salve for my heart.

00:28:04.341 --> 00:28:07.674
I felt true appreciation for my efforts.

00:28:11.781 --> 00:28:13.099
Oh that's number one.

00:28:13.099 --> 00:28:14.099
I call it cricket stumps.

00:28:14.099 --> 00:28:15.185
It's got three white stripes on its back.

00:28:15.185 --> 00:28:16.184
(laughs)

00:28:16.184 --> 00:28:17.821
- It does, yes.

00:28:17.821 --> 00:28:19.321
- That's gorgeous.

00:28:29.346 --> 00:28:31.679
(murmuring)

00:28:44.772 --> 00:28:46.413
- This is the method they gave us.

00:28:46.413 --> 00:28:48.627
Like I wouldn't have chosen this method.

00:28:48.627 --> 00:28:50.252
But that's science for you, you gotta work

00:28:50.252 --> 00:28:52.085
within the parameters.

00:28:53.700 --> 00:28:55.739
I think you'd agree with me
that there is a morphology

00:28:55.739 --> 00:28:58.855
between the different species which seems

00:28:58.855 --> 00:29:00.188
very consistent.

00:29:19.822 --> 00:29:22.739
(mysterious music)