Deadly And Scary Animals

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I thought the blue bottle was deadly. I am so confuzzled. I would LOVE to visit Australia, but there are too many creepy crawlies that could kill ya

 

Honestly Tizzie, OZ is not so full of scary critters. Oh, except for crocs and great whites and blue-ringed octopii and.......

 

Blue bottles can be so prolific that after a north-east wind, the beach is so covered by them, that driving along the beach you hear nothing but popping sounds over the engine noise.

 

As a toddler, I had tentacles wrapped twice around my chest. My mum tried to rub them off with sand. Ouch. Vinegar, or "Stingose" works just fine.

 

As kids, the folks would take us oyster picking on the rock ledges on the coast. I found the most amazingly colourful little critter in a small rock-pool. It took me a good while to catch this critter, but I wandered over to mum, with the little critter in my hand, to show her.

 

Mum took one look and belted the underside of my hand, sending the little occy into the air. A few years later, the University of Queensland offered money for the supply of live blue-rings for anti-venom research. My family caught dozens of them.

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[tizz]

Cool looking fishj. I will have to show that one to my daughter. My stepfather spent alot of time in Australia researching ofr Wood's Hole Oceanagraphic Institute and has some good stories about strange things found in those waters (I wish now I had paid more attention or taped him or something. So many story and a wealth of information about our oceans will die with him)

[Outlaw2747]

Fish? That is a cephalopod. A mollusk to be more general. The blue-ringed octopus is actually considered the most dangerous octopus for its small and hamrless appearance and plus its beauty leads people to pick it up. I read it is not particularly aggressive but it is one of the few animals that injects tetrodotoxins through a bite (most are found inside of puffers, which you must consume them to be poisoned) with its beak.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrodotoxin That explains the nature of a tetrodotoxin. But the blue-ringed octopus is far from being the only deadly cephalopod. This is the one I would fear...

 

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Giant squid still get washed up on shores around the globe. Last one's we had were on Tasmania's shores. Over fifty feet long, from memory.

 

Back in the days when whaling was popular here, scientists measured scars on sperm whales, who eat giant squid, by grabbing them and ramming them into the bottom several times. The sucker-pad scars they leave on the whale's head indicates there are still squid out there in the hundred-foot plus category.

 

Another beasty that is still common round here is the stonefish. I've come face to face while snorkelling. Scary critters, and deadly.

 

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[tizz]

My stepfather's boat caught a giant squid in teh 70's

[Outlaw2747]

Giant squid still get washed up on shores around the globe. Last one's we had were on Tasmania's shores. Over fifty feet long, from memory.

 

Back in the days when whaling was popular here, scientists measured scars on sperm whales, who eat giant squid, by grabbing them and ramming them into the bottom several times. The sucker-pad scars they leave on the whale's head indicates there are still squid out there in the hundred-foot plus category.

 

Another beasty that is still common round here is the stonefish. I've come face to face while snorkelling. Scary critters, and deadly.

 

 

I seen tons of pictures of stonefish, they are cousins to the lionfish and scorpionfish. They look EXACTLY like a stone and are said to have 13 spines on that back. How appropriate. I hope I never get to bump into those guys.

 

Giant squid has fascinated me for years. A giant cephalopod that has only two natural predators (that we know of so far), the sperm whale and the sleeper shark. The battles are quite legendary and a live fully grown one (except juvelines) has never been photographed alive. It would be quite scary to see one of these guys. The largest eyes in the world and one of the most intelligent invertebrates.

 

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But the squid pictured in the last post (I'll post it again.) and the one succeeding it are photos on one of the worlds most deadliest predators. The jumbo flying squid AKA the Humboldt Current Squid (the locals call it roja diablo) is one animal to fear. They can grow up to six feet long, can hunt in packs, and have huge suckers equipped with spines and a disproportionally large beak used to sever flesh. People have dived with these animals with no problems while other divers were said to felt like "a bar room brawl" and some even ended up as deadly. The scariest thing about them is how they will literally watch you before quickly striking and the fact they are nocturnal and grow different colors doesn't help either. Surprisingly, they are hunted for food as much smaller individuals are more common. Found in the Pacific from South America to as far north as Monterey Bay.

 

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It would be freaky being mobbed by a bunch of big squidleys. The beak of one I found on Moreton Island was twice the size of sulphur-crested cockatoo.

[hugo]

These animals viciousness pales in comparison to the female homo sapien. They lure you into their presence with that hole between their legs and before you know it you are not just literally getting fucked.

[Outlaw2747]

These animals viciousness pales in comparison to the female homo sapien. They lure you into their presence with that hole between their legs and before you know it you are not just literally getting fucked.

 

Now THAT, I can definitely agree with.

 

Though many would consider the American breeds and hybrids as one of the most notorious.

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These animals viciousness pales in comparison to the female homo sapien. They lure you into their presence with that hole between their legs and before you know it you are not just literally getting fucked.

 

 

Now that is probably the funniest thing I've read all week.

[Vortex]

Hey vortex you'll like this. (the beginning of a lifetime total and utter fear of spiders)

 

I decided one summer to do my mom a favor and totally clean out our garage. We had old doors on teh ground to make a floor. I decided that if I was gonna clean it better do it right. So I picked up one end of one of the doors to drag onto the yard when EEEP! are you ready........

 

 

About 500 wolf spiders came running out, over my feet and onto the lawn. OMG I damn near jumpt the 15 feet to the picnic table and started screaming bloody murder. I was about 11 at the time and just about every mother on teh block came running to the yard thinking I was being attacked. They very quickly saw what I was screaming my bloody head off about and joined me atop the table and joined into the most blood curdling chorus of screams ever to hit my little neighborhood. FINALLY one of the dads came out to investigate the horror and saved us all from a yard full of big nasty ugle scary viscious wolf spiders. He ran around like a mad man stomping on them. I think it was about 4 months before we could talk everyone into coming over for a BBQ. I still have nightmares about that day and will run faster that the Flash everytime I come across one of these evil buggers.

 

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Tizz i would have just crawled on the table and literally cried.......

 

Ughhh...now im freaking creeped out again!

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Tizz i would have just crawled on the table and literally cried.......

 

Ughhh...now im freaking creeped out again!

 

Aaaah, arachnaphobia. The simple pleasures of life.

 

I had one of these bird spiders drop on my head. I thought my mate had placed his hand on my noggin and squeezed it gently. I turned around, and eeeeep did the old knock-the-top-off-my-head dance, to a fast mexican beat. Lucky they are pretty harmless. It took some shaking off. Brrrrrrrrrr.

 

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Camping out with my son one night at Douglas Daley hot springs, the lad went looking for firewood. He came back white as a sheet. Seen a big snake, he said. We went to have a look, and indeed, it was the biggest fucking snake I've seen in the wild. An olive python, maybe eleven feet long, and as thick as my thigh.

 

Apparently harmless, like most pythons, there was one incident near Darwin, where a young bloke woke up to find an olive python swallowing his arm. It was up to the elbow, and took some convincing to let go. The boy's fingers were beginning to dissolve.

 

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[tizz]

No, there's nothing creepy about the Australian outback LOL

[builder]

No, there's nothing creepy about the Australian outback LOL

 

Exactly. Thousands of tourists visit our shores. Many of them make it home again.

[Komrade Vostok Hazard]

I don't know why anyone would want to go to THAT country. Guess some people like the risk of being a shark, reptilian or bug the size of someone's head's breakfast.

[builder]

I don't know why anyone would want to go to THAT country. Guess some people like the risk of being a shark, reptilian or bug the size of someone's head's breakfast.

 

We don't have grizzly bears.

 

We do have leaping crocs, wild boars to 500 pounds, and did I mention 20 foot long white pointers? A young man in Adelaide was being towed behind his boat on a surf-board, when a great white nailed him.

 

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[angie]

I would LOVE to get the change to see a great white in action (without actually being in the water). Like they did on the Discovery Channel on Shark Week...They dragged a penguin carcass behind the boat, and then when the shark was about to bite they would whip it out of the air and the shark would go after it. FUCKING COOL. Now that I think about it, I would probably go down in one of those cages. Sharks are way cool and the ones at the Aquarium are usually pretty lame. Never get to watch em' feed.

[Vortex]

Aaaah, arachnaphobia. The simple pleasures of life.

 

I had one of these bird spiders drop on my head. I thought my mate had placed his hand on my noggin and squeezed it gently. I turned around, and eeeeep did the old knock-the-top-off-my-head dance, to a fast mexican beat. Lucky they are pretty harmless. It took some shaking off. Brrrrrrrrrr.

 

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so much for me wanting to visit your country..........EEP

 

Oh that camel spider thing (the picture with 2 desert spiders clinging together)...guess they arent spiders after all...but arthropods...

 

heres a creepy little video

 

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/camelspider.html

[tizz]

OMG my daughter is OBSESSED with sharks. She LOVES the great white. She is utterly hooked on the BBC Blue Planet series and some video "In Search of The Great White" She can tell about as much info on teh damn things as any scientist LOL

[Komrade Vostok Hazard]

When I was younger I had a brief obsession with wanting to go around shooting sharks with anti-tank rifles and blowing them up. Don't ask.

[angie]

OMG my daughter is OBSESSED with sharks. She LOVES the great white. She is utterly hooked on the BBC Blue Planet series and some video "In Search of The Great White" She can tell about as much info on teh damn things as any scientist LOL

 

Shark Week actually fell on my vacation this year. I was up until 2 or 3 a.m. every night watching it! When we went to Boston, I spent the first day in the hotel just watching the sharks..My poor BF was soooo sick of sharks by the end of that week!!

[Outlaw2747]

Ummm... spiders are arthropods too. A camel spider is what is called a solfugid. Centipedes, scoripons, insects, spiders...all arthropods as well. Basically any animal with segmented legs is considered an arthropod which basically means "jointed feet".

 

But one shark I admire for its beauty, strength, and bravery...the shortfin mako. It is also one of the scariest sharks you want to go face to face with. Ever seen the teeth on those guys? Very few sharks would ever try to provoke a mako. Usually during a feeding frenzy, these sharks will chase away a group of blue sharks. You gotta be pretty brave to do that.

[TerroristHater]

so much for me wanting to visit your country..........EEP

 

Oh that camel spider thing (the picture with 2 desert spiders clinging together)...guess they arent spiders after all...but arthropods...

 

heres a creepy little video

 

 

 

If that spider fell on me, I would probably soil myself.

 

 

-TH

[tizz]

Ummm... spiders are arthropods too. A camel spider is what is called a solfugid. Centipedes, scoripons, insects, spiders...all arthropods as well. Basically any animal with segmented legs is considered an arthropod which basically means "jointed feet".

 

But one shark I admire for its beauty, strength, and bravery...the shortfin mako. It is also one of the scariest sharks you want to go face to face with. Ever seen the teeth on those guys? Very few sharks would ever try to provoke a mako. Usually during a feeding frenzy, these sharks will chase away a group of blue sharks. You gotta be pretty brave to do that.

 

 

We have one on the wall over our freezer inteh garage. I will try to take a pic and load it up. I spent the whole summer playing "MAKO" in teh pool (as it is the fastest shark and leaps out of the water) LOL I told my kid is OBSESSED!!!!!

 

My dad spent time as a shark hunter and dies missing a piece of thumb that he had lost to a hammer head. I have no love for sharks, they scare the crap out of me (but somehow never made me miss a good swell) Go figure LOL