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 Frazzled wrote:

We run this fething place. Any animal that's dangerous we kill or remove from an area we want to live in. And we build systems and tech that keeps them the hell away from us the rest of the time. As a result, despite there being animals with strength or venom or whatever that could really mess up a human, and some animals being quite aggressive, the number of humans that die to any kind of animal each year basically rounds to zero.

You clearly have not been to the radioactive mutant zone that is New Mexico.

Also I avoid barracuda easily with an innate fear of the ocean, and killer drop bears with an equally innate fear of Australia.

Australia, we all remember the kangaroo cavalry you used so effectively in Borneo. How could the Japanese have known you would use them as antiaircraft by using them to literally jump guys with knives at their aircraft. Dude.

gak, Texas, you've never had to knife fight a white tail deer. And I have very Australian, if not downright Catachan, ideas about what constitutes a 'knife'. And New Mexico isn't that bad. Take your iodine tablets make sure you're dosimeter is good, some sealed water containers, and get into your half track with quad fifties and you'll be fine.

The government does not pick winners and losers, those are chosen in THUNDERDOME!

 nels1031 wrote:
Well, not exactly horrifying, but today I learned that Western Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world.

Found out via MMAFighting.com, where UFC former midfleweight champ Luke Rockhold rode on into open workouts. Will wonders never cease?

There's a herd of feral wallabies in the Trossachs in Scotland.

Also, a story I like, but can't verify, is that the spider that causes the most deaths in Australia is a perfectly harmless brown house spider, that likes to hide behind the sun visor in cars. You flip the sun visor down, a spider falls in our face, and you panic and crash into a tree.

... good god....


... are all the cliches true.. ?

A little dose of Australia, in Virginia!

ARTINSVILLE, Va. — A Virginia police officer found an unlikely occupant inside a car parked on the side of the road.

WTVR reports that Martinsville Officer Chase Bennett spotted a vehicle on the side of a road last Tuesday and pulled up behind it to check up on the driver. When he approached the vehicle, he was surprised to see a kangaroo inside.

The driver, Laura Steere, told the officer she was OK and that she was checking on her kangaroo, according WDBJ. The officer couldn’t resist snapping a photo with the animal.

“His ears got me the most. His ears were just kinda flopping out,” Officer Bennett said. “Who’s going to say no to seeing a kangaroo?”

Steere said she was on her way home to Infinity Acres Ranch, which is an exotic animal ranch that offers educational programs.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
Well, not exactly horrifying, but today I learned that Western Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world.

Found out via MMAFighting.com, where UFC former midfleweight champ Luke Rockhold rode on into open workouts. Will wonders never cease?

There's a herd of feral wallabies in the Trossachs in Scotland.

Also, a story I like, but can't verify, is that the spider that causes the most deaths in Australia is a perfectly harmless brown house spider, that likes to hide behind the sun visor in cars. You flip the sun visor down, a spider falls in our face, and you panic and crash into a tree.

Well, we have antivenin for the redback and funnel web spiders (the killers) so there's been no documented fatalities from their bites in decades.
The "brown house spider" is the Huntsman (which can - and do - hide behind your wing-mirrors (in the housings), in your air vents and on the visor.). It's disturbing enough to have this majestic AF 8-legged cheetah run across the inside of your windscreen while you are doing 110 (km/h) down the freeway. It's much different when it drops onto your face to give you an 8-armed hug. They aren't harmful to humans with regards to bite toxicity (the bite WILL hurt, they have large fangs, but it's not toxic to us).

That spider pulling a mouse up a fridge? Yeah, a huntsman. They range from an inch or so across to your hand sized and up to dinner plate if climate and food supply are agreeable.

Another "giant spider" story.



A Brisbane dad was so shocked to see a massive spider dangling a gecko double its size in its fangs he covered his children's eyes to shield them from the horror.

See that's the problem. In Texas we would kill that, and then burn the town. Humanity advanced by killing the predators, not averting youngling eyes. Humanity First!

I don't have enough caffeine for that level of 'nope' this morning. Why didn't dad just kill it? Was he afraid of it blocking his newspaper and overpowering him?

 Frazzled wrote:
See that's the problem. In Texas we would kill that, and then burn the town. Humanity advanced by killing the predators, not averting youngling eyes. Humanity First!

I dunno, fraz, the last time Texas saw a spider that big, they shipped it off to Desert Rock, Arizona.

A spider landed on my hand like 2 weeks ago, and i played around with it, let it run around my hands, then i let it out the window. When they're not being threatened by us, and fighting for their lives, spiders can be quite cute

Yes, Kurri Kurri did have a mullet festival.

It's a small town about 30-40 minutes' drive away from where I live. They (like many of the local small towns near it) used to be prosperous off the back of the coal mining industry and haven't really got used to the idea of the 20th century yet, let alone the 21st.

They also do a nostalgia for the 50s festival annually. This alone says enough about the place.

Nostalgia just ain't what it used to be.

I would take the huntsman spider or funnel web over the brown recluse any day of the week. Now your snakes, jellyfish, and even the fething trees? You can keep those. Just build a wall around the whole island imo. We can't risk any getting out.

Someone used to work for me from Australia would sometimes be on video chat and a spider would lurch across the ceiling. He had a bucket for containing them.

 techsoldaten wrote:
Someone used to work for me from Australia would sometimes be on video chat and a spider would lurch across the ceiling. He had a bucket for containing them.

Are there no birds in Australia? No grackles, blackbirds, owls or Hawks? No snakes? This might be a factor. Clearly you need wiener dog killing machines and iguanas to deal with this.

 Frazzled wrote:

Are there no birds in Australia? No grackles, blackbirds, owls or Hawks? No snakes? This might be a factor. Clearly you need wiener dog killing machines and iguanas to deal with this.

Yeah, Frazz, they have birds there, however....

Wait.

What

The

feth?!?

That's a few years old. That's a Golden Orb Weaver female in Far North Queensland. Not even the biggest they get up there.

 Frazzled wrote:
Wait.

What

The

feth?!?

Sorry, Frazz, but they need BIRDS


rather than birds


down under.

Oh, we have birds.

Although not so much a "freedom chicken" as feathery deinonichus.



We also have Falcons (which eat birds), hawks (some drop flaming branches in order to start fires to flush prey) and eagles, as well as ravens and quite a few insectivorous birds and lizards (some of whom happily eat spiders).

 chromedog wrote:
Yes, Kurri Kurri did have a mullet festival.

It's a small town about 30-40 minutes' drive away from where I live. They (like many of the local small towns near it) used to be prosperous off the back of the coal mining industry and haven't really got used to the idea of the 20th century yet, let alone the 21st.

They also do a nostalgia for the 50s festival annually. This alone says enough about the place.

Nostalgia just ain't what it used to be.

Please tell me they get David Spade to dress up as Joe Dirt and act as the festival's Master of Ceremony and Mullet Contest Judge!

 chromedog wrote:
Oh, we have birds.

Although not so much a "freedom chicken" as feathery deinonichus.



We also have Falcons (which eat birds), hawks (some drop flaming branches in order to start fires to flush prey) and eagles, as well as ravens and quite a few insectivorous birds and lizards (some of whom happily eat spiders).

Interesting. I am trying to figure out how these large spiders survive where they do not in other locations.

Snakes?

Now someone needs to post the gif of the spider running off with a snake hanging from it's fangs.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Now someone needs to post the gif of the spider running off with a snake hanging from it's fangs.

There it is. However you might want to spoiler it in case anyone around is actually an Arachnaphobe.

 Frazzled wrote:

 chromedog wrote:
Oh, we have birds.

Although not so much a "freedom chicken" as feathery deinonichus.



We also have Falcons (which eat birds), hawks (some drop flaming branches in order to start fires to flush prey) and eagles, as well as ravens and quite a few insectivorous birds and lizards (some of whom happily eat spiders).

Interesting. I am trying to figure out how these large spiders survive where they do not in other locations.

Snakes?

Ah, but they do survive in other locations!

Mostly South America, and also that bowl in the back of the cupboard that you can't quite see inside of.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
There it is. However you might want to spoiler it in case anyone around is actually an Arachnaphobe.

Any Arachnaphobe which has lasted this long in the thread is probably no longer an Arachnaphobe.

Larger tarantulas can't make it here. Too many predators. Larger Mexican tarantulas are generally stopped south of here by that and the environment.

I guess there's a benefit to fire ants after all. They'll murderize any insect.

Maybe its lack of small predatory mammals and grackles. I saw a grackle chasing a mosquito hog once. Looked like one fighter chasing another. Quite cool.

 Frazzled wrote:
[

Interesting. I am trying to figure out how these large spiders survive where they do not in other locations.

Quantity.

And the fact that most insect-eating birds for some reason never think to look for prey under my bathtowel.

The bowl in the back of the cupboard comment gave me a sudden stress spike and cold sweat. I actually don't mind spiders but a huge fething spider darting out of the bowl and down my arm like greased lighting when picked up would result in Flanders style scream followed a shattered jagged bowl piece stabbing everywhere. Not sure why, all these picks look cool and I once spent a full day on a wiki trip about Australia's critters, but the thought of such an unexpected ambush like that....whole town needs to be burned just in case there is another. Can't be complacent about these matters.

 Frazzled wrote:
Larger tarantulas can't make it here. Too many predators. Larger Mexican tarantulas are generally stopped south of here by that and the environment.

I guess there's a benefit to fire ants after all. They'll murderize any insect.

Maybe its lack of small predatory mammals and grackles. I saw a grackle chasing a mosquito hog once. Looked like one fighter chasing another. Quite cool.

I mean, it is my understanding that they have an incredibly bad rabbit and rat problem. So they are definitely missing something important from the food chain.

How are you guys on terrifyingly large birds of prey? Any ridiculously large owls or supersonic falcons? We got some Kingsnakes over here that look like they could take those spiders. Trash Pandas? Please, say you need some trash pandas. We need go get rid of some.