Australia is fucked up
 

Okay, so from watching various TV shows, I know y'all have the most venomous snake, I know you have platypuses which have terribly painful venom, I know you have spiders that give me nightmares, and that you have big sharks that hang out around shore. Now, I find out on National Geographic that you also have these tiny jellyfishes that can kill people?

For fuck's sake, I get a jellyfish sting here, it's a somewhat annoying burning for 20 minutes. You get a sting from one of those, and if you don't die, you are in excruciating pain for days or even weeks and for some vague reason they can't put you under anesthesia.

I tell ya, watching nature shows isn't making me want to visit....ever.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

I know, those nature documentaries aren't making me enthusiastic about visiting Australia either. If I go, I'll be wearing an environmental suit.

But you got to admit that Australia has some fucking cool creatures.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

So does the local zoo. :P

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

Heh.

Well, the tiny little jellyfish aren't really that common, and neither are the Box ones that can kill you in under a minute. Most people who get stung cop it from a Bluebottle ("Portugese Man Of War") and the biggest problem with those is that their tentacles are extremely long and so cause large amounts of pain all over the body and nasty scarring. Believe me, it's not a pretty sight watching your father douse your screaming 5-year-old brother in vinegar because he's become entangled in one of those things. They've both still got scars from the incident.

Seriously though, the only venemous snake I've encountered that didn't turn and run at the sight of humans was a yellowback that was poking around my aunty's house one winter because of the warmth from their fireplace. Dear aunty thought it was a good time to teach me some facts about living in the Hunter Valley, and showed me how to take its head off with a shovel. Of course, that's illegal, but considering I saw 2 more on the bush hike the next day I wasn't exactly worried about their numbers. But like most of those things, they're more afraid of humans than we are of them.

Except Drop Bears. Those nasty fuckers will tear your head off just because they're bored.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

We were fretting about squirrel attacks earlier, but how 'bout this shiznet:

The Australian Capital Territory Environment Department warned residents to beware after a woman was attacked by a kangaroo while walking her poodle in a city park last week and another woman reported a kangaroo had drowned her golden retriever in a pond and seriously injured two other dogs in an unprovoked attack.Be wary of Roo

Australia is definitely a badass place.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

and if those critters aren't enough to scare you... there's the vegemite

:caught:

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

:scaredbaby:

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

Man most of those things are way out in the bush or whatever and given that 92.7% of our population lives in urban areas (that ranks 19th in the world) one rarely if ever comes across them. We love portraying ourselves as this outback-lovin country but it's a bunch of crap. We fear the outback and everything in it.

Fully support Adora's comments on Drop Bears though. :shudder:

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

Better stay out of the USA, too.

We have monsters:

http://lsweb.la.asu.edu/ddenardo/ima...a/DSC00622.JPG

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

I had to look Drop Bears up and based on the information, I suspect you Australian guys are just pulling our legs. :hmmm:

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

No way! I would never do that. Drop Bears are totally real. The military have to do culling operations every few years when they attack tourists.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

:yup2:

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

I bet a snipe could whip a Drop Bear any day.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

:nope:

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

:laugh:

Oh, and my money's on the snipe.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

Bundy & Coke, anyone?

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

My girlfriend's brother has a wife and kids here in Minnesota. They had some friends of theirs from Texas up here to visit, and the Texans were flabbergasted that they let the kids play barefoot in the yard. Apparently in parts of Texas (as well as New Mexico and Arizona) that invites deadly scorpion bites. Up here the worst that can happen is you step on a bee (I did that once).

A childhood without running barefoot through the grass? Lame.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

Oh you had to bring the terrible memories of Snipe Hunting up didn't you? Nasty things Snipes, I almost lost a finger.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

One time I caught a Snipe, best time of my life. It's stuffed and mounted on the wall of my bedroom. :slide:

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

That won't take up much room then. :giggle:

snipe

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

oh you know that snipes lay gold eggs too right?

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

EEE! Those are cute, I want one!

My brother caught a snipe in our back yard. Mom cooked it for dinner.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

I knew we had a thread on "everything in Australia is out to kill you".

I didn't know it was more than 3975 days old. Or how many no-longer-posters I'd find in it.

Aaanyway:

In Australia: giant spider carrying a mouse is horrifying and impressive | Australia news | The Guardian

Attachment 10346

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

For what it's worth, I very-much doubt that even a Huntsman Spider of that size could successfully overpower and kill a healthy mouse. Even if the spider managed to somehow catch an unwary mouse, it would almost-certainly be incapable of holding onto a struggling mouse long-enough to inject a lethal amount of venom -- and it would be even less likely to be capable of holding on to a struggling mouse long-enough prevent it from escaping before the venom incapacitated the mouse.

I'm not saying the event was necessarily staged, but if the spider did manage to catch the mouse on its own, chances are the mouse was either confined somehow and unable to escape or fight back, or it was already sick/injured.


On the other hand, I'm delighted to see an article in a mainstream news source correctly use the word "chelicerae."

On yet another hand, I'd like to encourage the spiders to eat as many of the invasive, disease-spreading, habitat-disrupting, non-native mice as possible.

Re: Australia is fucked up
 

My first thought upon seeing the video was: "What kind of refrigerator has a sufficiently rough/sticky surface that a spider of that size could cling to it at all, much less while carrying a mouse?".

Are we absolutely certain this hasn't been staged, and the spider is walking on a horizontal surface while the camera is tilted 90 degrees?