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Ok this is kind of spawned by the chat between kalashnikov and insaniak in another thread, about how kalashnikov thought roo's would beat you/drown you, because of what he'd head.

Insaniak set him straight, that you are more likely to die from one of the dumb fethers jumping infront of your car at 120km down a country road than beating you down.

What other animals do people think will actually kill them in Australia?

And which ones don't they know about? For example; the cassowary. That thing is one of the freakiest animals we have IMO. Seriously, look



Its coming for you. They use that bony crest on their head to leg it through the jungle in northern queensland. It is pitch black at night (literally, night vision is useless under the canopy because there is no light to amplify), all you can hear are light thuds and cracking noises. The next day your mate has gotten 0 sleep because he woke up to a baby cassowary on his right, and a mum on his left. They can kill you with a single kick, and the noise of blanks don't scare some of them anymore...

Now I for one know nothing about bears. Is it true they run faster than you, climb faster than you, and will just destroy you unless you curl up and pray to whoever you hold dear?

Bears are all them things and more. apparantly this is how you deal with one.

Source

Remain calm. Do not run. Stand still and talk to the bear in a calm voice

Arm your pepper spray

Do not try to get closer to the bear

If the bear does not get closer to you, slowly back away, talking to the bear in a quiet, monotone voice. Do not scream, turn your back on the bear, run, kneel down or make direct eye contact

Watch the bear and wait for it to leave

If the bear does not leave or approaches you, yell and wave your arms to make yourself look bigger. Throw objects, blow a whistle or an air horn. The idea is to persuade the bear to leave

If you are with others, stay together and act as a group. Make sure the bear has a clear escape route

If the bear keeps advancing, and is getting close, stand your ground. Use your bear pepper spray (if the bear is within seven metres) or anything else you can find or use to threaten or distract the bear

Do not run or climb a tree

At least you'll see those bears first.

Funnel web spiders...

I thought every critter in Stralia is deadly?

We have some imported ones that aren't, like rabbits.

Drop bears are one of the mythological australian dangerous critters.

At least, that's what my australian buddy tells me.

I hear the trouser snakes can be deadly.

NSFW

Drop bears aren't a myth.

They are a legend!
They only attack American tourists though. Canadians seem fine - the maple leaves all over their clothing and packs seems to work as a deterrent.

But yeah, like not_u said, not all of our critters are dangerous.
Some of the sheep are quite docile.

As for the rest, it's a pretty mean bunch.
The inland and coastal Taipans (snakes) are bad - inland prefer the drier climes away from the coast, on the wrong side of mountains from most of our civilised areas.
The (Sydney) Funnel web is now pretty much all up and down the east coast - and the hotter it is, the more aggressive they get.

Also up north you get the crocs, the cassowaries, the box jellies, the other stingers, and various varieties of rays (Steve Irwin was done by one).

Lets not forget about Brown and Tiger snakes. Both pretty damn deadly but i don't think people ever die from them because the anti venom is so common.
Browns are very poisonous while Tiger snakes aren't so poisonous as they are pugnacious.

Chromedog pretty much hit the nail on the head though.

There is a spider worse then the Sydney funnel web though. That spider is the northern tree funnel web. Stepping on a funnel web has been likened to stepping on a mouse due to the way it crunches and squishes under your foot. Oddly enough their venom is ineffective against cats and dogs. The fangs can also puncture shoe leather.
You know what... stop reading and watch these instead.







Edit - Dammit shouldn't have watched that 2nd vid. Now im not gonna be able to get to sleep tonight.

 n0t_u wrote:
We have some imported ones that aren't, like rabbits.

Lies! All the animals in Australia are out to get you, including the rabbits!

See, it's a rather timid creature.

 nomsheep wrote:
Bears are all them things and more. apparantly this is how you deal with one.

Source

Remain calm. Do not run. Stand still and talk to the bear in a calm voice

Arm your pepper spray

Do not try to get closer to the bear

If the bear does not get closer to you, slowly back away, talking to the bear in a quiet, monotone voice. Do not scream, turn your back on the bear, run, kneel down or make direct eye contact

Watch the bear and wait for it to leave

If the bear does not leave or approaches you, yell and wave your arms to make yourself look bigger. Throw objects, blow a whistle or an air horn. The idea is to persuade the bear to leave

If you are with others, stay together and act as a group. Make sure the bear has a clear escape route

If the bear keeps advancing, and is getting close, stand your ground. Use your bear pepper spray (if the bear is within seven metres) or anything else you can find or use to threaten or distract the bear

Do not run or climb a tree

No. This is how you deal with bears.
Mossberg 500.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Deathshead420 wrote:
Funnel web spiders...

I thought every critter in Stralia is deadly?

Isn't even the grass potentially lethal if you're not vaccinated from their toxins with copious amounts of Fosters?

Or do like me and don't near the woods...or the zoo...or gay nightclubs

In Australia, even the trees are out to kill you
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocnide_moroides

I protest being characterized as an ignorant American fethhead there. I just said that they (Roos) were more aggressive then a North American deer.

Any way you lot have spiders that eat birds. I have no further questions.



I think an easier list would be "Animals of Australia that won't kill you".

As to bears I find that especially with the far northern variants in Alaska, pepper spray will just make the furry hate machine about to ruin your universe that much angrier with you. For the most part though bears will usually leave you alone if you leave them alone.

Mythology wise I run into more ignorance the other way, people not respecting how dangerous a wild animal is enough. This is especially true with wolves and coyotes in North America, and I'd bet it goes for dingos down under with people who aren't used to them as part of the local fauna. Wild dogs are smart, agile and very adaptive predators. Wolves are something we don't remember the need to be scared of any more in the Americas because they've been gone for so long, but a single human alone? Well the Liam Neeson flick "The Grey" was more accurate in certain parts then most people thought. I see it even more with Yotes then wolves because Yotes are prevalent everywhere, but they're getting bigger, and are starting to work in packs more and more often. Which is actually quite fascinating from a study perspective but if you're a pet owner or a parent, even in suburbia, if you're out towards the plains or the foothills in the American West you need to keep an eye out.

When hiking in the mountains in Cali I carried a .44, mostly for two legged pests. Ran across bears, a mountain lion (right above me), coyotes, and bighorn sheep. All very cool.
Great memories there.

Jeez, that funnel web looks like a Crazed MMA fighter when its taking that Grasshopper on.

All this talk makes me, as a Brit, feel insignificant.

All we have are TB infected Badgers, townie foxes and stinky pigeons.

Most terrifying thing in Oz has to be the Bew bew gwai gwai...

 motyak wrote:
Now I for one know nothing about bears. Is it true they run faster than you, climb faster than you, and will just destroy you unless you curl up and pray to whoever you hold dear?

I hear that they just drop onto you out of trees.

Also this:

Bunyip

Threads like this make me glad I live in the UK, generally the only place you find the bad beasties is airport security and the occasional shipping crate. I did nearly urinate on an adder snake in the countryside once, but if I recall correctly they're likely to just ruin your day as opposed to killing you.

 RossDas wrote:
Threads like this make me glad I live in the UK, generally the only place you find the bad beasties is airport security and the occasional shipping crate. I did nearly urinate on an adder snake in the countryside once, but if I recall correctly they're likely to just ruin your day as opposed to killing you.

I met a particularly fighty robin once...

 purplefood wrote:

 RossDas wrote:
Threads like this make me glad I live in the UK, generally the only place you find the bad beasties is airport security and the occasional shipping crate. I did nearly urinate on an adder snake in the countryside once, but if I recall correctly they're likely to just ruin your day as opposed to killing you.

I met a particularly fighty robin once...

They're not shy of a scrap with a larger bird, wee-man syndrome, me thinks!
On the topic of avians have you seen the footage of golden eagles dragging mountain goats to their deaths from high rocks? I wonder if they'd target humans if they were hungry enough.

 purplefood wrote:

 RossDas wrote:
Threads like this make me glad I live in the UK, generally the only place you find the bad beasties is airport security and the occasional shipping crate. I did nearly urinate on an adder snake in the countryside once, but if I recall correctly they're likely to just ruin your day as opposed to killing you.

I met a particularly fighty robin once...

All we have is bunnies...



and...

 RossDas wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

 RossDas wrote:
Threads like this make me glad I live in the UK, generally the only place you find the bad beasties is airport security and the occasional shipping crate. I did nearly urinate on an adder snake in the countryside once, but if I recall correctly they're likely to just ruin your day as opposed to killing you.

I met a particularly fighty robin once...

They're not shy of a scrap with a larger bird, wee-man syndrome, me thinks!
On the topic of avians have you seen the footage of golden eagles dragging mountain goats to their deaths from high rocks? I wonder if they'd target humans if they were hungry enough.

I'm sure they'd try, golden eagles have been known to take down full size deer. They come down from altitude in a steep give and pop their talons through the squishy bit where the base of the skull and the spine connect that I like to call "The off switch"

I had a chicken hawk fly low and give TBone the evil eye once. I threw a rock at it and grabbed up the wieners. When I came out with the Remy it had boogied.

 Mr. Burning wrote:
Jeez, that funnel web looks like a Crazed MMA fighter when its taking that Grasshopper on.

All this talk makes me, as a Brit, feel insignificant.

All we have are TB infected Badgers, townie foxes and stinky pigeons.

I recall that some of our founding fathers offered to export Rattlesnakes to England as payment for the various officials you were sending over here.

What about the Tasmanian Devil? Aren't they dangerous? (I have no idea)

 whembly wrote:
What about the Tasmanian Devil? Aren't they dangerous? (I have no idea)

Might have been, i think they are extinct now.

Nah, they arn't extinct. Just rare.

Tasmanian Tigers are, supposedly, extinct. Although there are unconfirmed reports of sightings and there is a movement attempting to clone them.