Watch a tarantula shed its old skin in an eerie timelapse video

A zoo has released a timelapse video of a tarantula moulting its skin and it’s pretty gory.

The video shows a Mexican red-kneed tarantula shedding and wriggling out of its exoskeleton.

Cincinnati Zoo posted the video, taken over seven hours and sped up, on its Facebook page.

Molting red-kneed tarantula

All arthropods molt in order to grow larger. Adult tarantulas molt once a year or once every other year depending on age and species. Young tarantulas molt more often. This time-lapse video shows the 7-hour process of our red-kneed tarantula’s molt.

Posted by Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden on Monday, May 14, 2018

They usually grow to a body size of around 5in.