Rare Spider Leads to a Construction Project Shutdown - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

The appearance of a rare species of spider has shut down a multimillion dollar construction project planned for a highway in San Antonio, Texas. The Braken Bat Cave meshweaver hasn’t been spotted in about 30 years, so the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is working with the Federal Highway Administration to figure out how the project can go ahead without destroying the spider’s possible habitat.

According to a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Transportation: "This is the second individual spider that's ever been found. It's not like we found 1 of 5 thousand individuals in a species. This is the second time this species has ever been seen by human eyes.”

Natural cave features have been discovered on the site of the under pass so the project is currently under evaluation.

There are a few cases of multimillion dollar construction projects being shut down or temporarily stopped due to their location in an endangered animals habitat. For example, the solar thermal energy project planned for California’s Mojave Desert would have displaced many desert tortoises.

What do you think? How can we protect animal rights and continue development?