Gail, a Cuban scorn with babies is shown at the Victoria Bug Zoo in Victoria Wednesday June 19, 2019. A scorpion that turned up in a Vancouver resident's home last month following a recent trip to Cuba has now given birth. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Victoria Times Colonist-Darren Stone
June 19, 2019 - 12:15 PM
VICTORIA - A scorpion that turned up in a Vancouver resident's home last month following a recent trip to Cuba has now given birth.
Staff at the Victoria Bug Zoo confirm in an online post that the scorpion has produced about 20 offspring, and the whole family is doing well.
The scorpion, named Gail after the woman who spotted it in her kitchen and had the courage to capture it alive, was initially identified as a potentially deadly species found in the Caribbean.
But experts at the bug zoo have determined Gail is a less venomous species known as the Cuban scorpion or Heteroctenus Garridoi.
They say Gail is doing a fine job of raising the babies, which are currently clustered on her back.
When the offspring get a little bigger, zoo officials say they will be removed from Gail's cage in case she mistakes them for prey and devours them.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2019