Huntsman Spider, Borneo, Malaysia, 1996

Deep in uncharted depths of Borneo's Gunung Buda, two cavers warily eye a female huntsman spider protecting her egg sac. Though the dangers of mapping a previously unexplored cave far outweigh the bite of this spider, one caver admits, "their bite is bad, but nobody has died from one."

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Searching the Depths of Borneo's White Mountain," January 1999, National Geographic magazine)