WALKERS returning from an isolated beauty spot were alarmed after discovering a large South American tarantula on their car wing mirror.

The creature, which was spotted near Lake Gormire, at the foot of Sutton Bank, near Thirsk, created alarm among several groups of walkers, who feared it could have a dangerous bite, on Saturday.

Hannah Watsham, one of the people who found the spider, said: “I’m afraid we didn’t catch it as our primary concern was getting it off the car and away from the kids.”

The Wildlife Haven Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, in Thirsk, was alerted and rescuers arrived at a small car park on the edge of a woods near Thirlby to find the spider unresponsive.

Krista Langley, who runs the centre with her daughter, Lauren, said it could be difficult to tell if tarantulas have died, so they took it back to the centre.

She said: “It was a bizarre place for a large female Chilean Rose Tarantula to be found. We took it back and tried to warm it up slowly, before we took it to Aquatic Finatic in Northallerton, where it was found the spider had died.”

Mrs Langley said stress or the British climate could have played a role in its death as the creatures are most comfortable in temperatures of between 25 and 30°C.

She said: “It will have been a pet because they can’t survive in this climate.

“It has either escaped or someone has let it out, but they are very slow moving and would not have gone far. Stress could have played a role as they don’t like being touched or being picked up.”

The spider’s native habitat is the desert and scrub regions of Northern Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina and although it can bite when provoked, its venom is not a medical threat.

Rickim Armstrong-Wilde, who spotted the tarantula on a fence, said the creature was beautiful. He said: “I hoped it might have survived as it had moved in the time we waited for it to be rescued and that was without ever touching or disturbing it.

“Poor thing was likely trying to follow the sun’s warmth, but was right on the edge of death. We got there too late. I’m very sad because it was in such a remote location and I feel it must have been dumped.”