Hundreds of UK's biggest spiders released in Britain

Hundreds of the biggest spiders found in the UK have been released into the wild.

Fen raft spiders are native to the UK and the largest spiders that reside here – so large that they eat fish. But fen rafts have become extremely rare in Britain and after being listed as endangered, zoo keepers at Chessington World of Adventures decided to take action.

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In 2011, Chessington helped to change the spider's dwindling population, which is largely affected by human encroachment, by working on the rearing and releasing of them into the wild.

Over a two-year period, 400 spiderlings were released. The reintroduction of this species into new areas worked and wild numbers almost doubled during this time.

The programme was so successful that zoos no longer have to rear the spiders to keep the population up.

Keith Russell, a supervisor within the zoo team at Chessington, said: "The successful work on reintroducing the fen raft species is a great example of the good zoos can do in helping conserve endangered species in the wild."