Real-life spider man on 'Nature'
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
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When water-filtration system designers gather, Martin Nicholas might not fit in. They all share some interests, such as ... well, filtering water. Still, Nicholas may be the only one who spends his spare time traveling the globe in search of mega-spiders.
"I tend to be away probably five or six weeks per year," he says. "I have a very understanding boss." Now he has financial backing as the focus of a "Nature" hour, airing tomorrow.
For the project, he met Stan Lee, the "Spider-Man" creator who admits he knows little about spiders. Nicholas knows plenty. He's been to five continents to study spiders, usually on his own time and his own dime. "It's my extreme sport," he says.
The interest began when he was growing up in small-town England, he says. "I used to feed spiders in the hedgerow where my grandmother used to live."
His proper job in filtration "pays reasonably well," he says. "And it allows me to do what I truly enjoy doing, which is studying the arachnoids."
That's often a solitary task, but in the last year or so, he:
Viewers were attracted to Nicholas' jaunty, self-educated approach. This new hour covers some far-flung missions.
In the Arizona desert, he saw a Tucson blond tarantula attack her suitor. In South America, he found a "Goliath bird-eater tarantula," which doesn't eat birds but does scare humans.
And in Hollywood, he met Lee, 83, a lifelong influence.
"I grew up on a diet of 'Spider-Man' cartoons," Nicholas says.
