Worlds Most Dangerous Animals?

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by ScaryMonster, Oct 8, 2009.

  1. dixonmassey Valued Senior Member

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    Did somebody already say "humans"

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    ? Mosquitoes don't stand close.
     
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  3. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Yep. You should have known

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  5. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    In California the rangers tell us that a brown/black bear won't necessarily attack a human unless he's starving or ill. However, he does want to be acknowledged as the dominant party in the encounter. According to these authorities, staring him in the eyes is the worst possible thing you can do. They recommend dropping to the ground and looking pathetic. After a couple of minutes of showing off he'll probably just leave you there.

    But they tell us the best thing to do is make a lot of noise while we're walking, so the bear won't even be there.

    Grizzlies are another matter. If you're close enough to see one, you're pretty much dead meat. The same is true of polar bears. There's a town on Hudson's Bay that is the northernmost seaport in Canada. Every year during the brief period when the ice melts and the polar bears migrate to the land, they don't allow their children out at night. Halloween is the exception, and on that night every car in town is posted on the city line to form a bear barricade.
    Australia was the last continent to be occupied by European invaders, and it's still not heavily populated. They just haven't gotten around to wiping out all the native fauna the way they have in the Americas. However, they did a great job on the thylacine (the "marsupial wolf"). There hasn't been a verified sighting in about seventy years.
    It's not that unusual for a female mammal to be impregnated by more than one male. Dogs have one uterus but it's divided into two "horns" to fit in the available space, and each side can typically carry four fetuses. A female in heat will resolutely mate with every male in the vicinity. That way they will all assume that at least one of the puppies is theirs and they will protect them from predators--and from the other females who sometimes kill each other's litter.
     
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  7. ScaryMonster I’m the whispered word. Valued Senior Member

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    That’s not strictly true, if you compare Australia and the United States 200 years ago you’d still find that the ratio of venomous animals is much higher.
    I don't know why that's so but it is.

    I heard an interesting story about someone who’s cat that was repeatedly bitten by a funnel web spider, the owner got bitten trying to get the spider away from the kitten.
    The woman fell into a coma and almost died and the cat that had got much more venom injected was not effected.
    Because of some strange quirk of evolution this spider’s venom is only deadly to insects and primates.
     
  8. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    That's true, I forgot about that.
    So what would be the purpose of two vagina's and two uteri in Koala's, in your opinion?
     
  9. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    Not that dangerous relatively speaking but just look at it!

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  10. iori57 Registered Member

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    most dangerous are definitely humans... one nuclear bomb and bye bye everything

    but the stone fish is dead scary..
     
  11. Search & Destroy Take one bite at a time Moderator

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    The thing IS, where rockfish chill, is not where anyone but a tourist would stand anyway. If you are walking around barefoot on some rock, right near the shoreline in some 3ft deep water you are asking for

    rockfish, sharp shells, reeallly cutting sharp rocks (from all the wave activity), as well as urchins, stingray, or even spiny lobster it doesn't matter. People shouldn't walk there.

    However if you are a diver, and you step on one out in the middle of the reef, it is still no excuse because you shouldn't be stepping on a reef!

    Tourists trample and destruct a lot of coral by stepping on it. If stonefish stop the destruction, so be it!

    While I'm at it I'm gonna send out a brief bulletin announcement:

    Look where you step when in the ocean please.
     
  12. John99 Banned Banned

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    wow. i wonder if you were attacked by a shark could you wrap your arms around its undebelly and your legs and just hold onto it. it would not be able to bit you but you would have to let go sooner or later. of course you would need a breathing apparatus.

    most likely you would need some kind of ropelike device to be able to reach with your arms, your legs would have to dig in around the body and would risk the chance of letting go due to getting tired. then you would be dangling.

    what would a sharks defenses be?

    1. it would scrap the bottom, IF it is intelligent enough, but then it could be programmed for just this scenario.

    2. it could wihhle around\thrash.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2009
  13. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    I have to laugh at "just this scenario". As if evolution selected for this behaviour because "shark-hugging" happens a lot around the world

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  14. ScaryMonster I’m the whispered word. Valued Senior Member

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    Piranha

    "There exists a legend that piranhas will skin and eat a human being alive, which is said to have been started with American President Teddy Roosevelt's visit to Brazil, and a spectacle set up by Brazilian fishermen. To guarantee a good show for the adventure-loving Roosevelt, local fishermen blocked off a portion of an Amazon tributary with nets and dumped hordes of starving piranhas into it when the U.S. president explored the region on a hunting trip. Then they sliced up a cow and tossed it in the river, setting off a wild feeding frenzy that quickly reduced the carcass to bones—the "instant skeleton" now associated with piranhas. Roosevelt presented piranhas as vicious creatures in his 1914 book Through the Brazilian Wilderness. Hollywood would later emblazon the image for posterity. An example of this perception of piranhas in media appears in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, where a henchwoman named Helga is shown being fed to pet piranhas owned by the film's main antagonist, Blofeld." Wiki.

    piranhas big teeth but just fish.
     
  15. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    Actually, if there's one animal that is dangerous because it actively hunts humans at times it's this one:

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    Unlike any of the other animals such as sharks or piranhas. And the reason being is that we grew up with them (evolutionarily speaking)
     
  16. ScaryMonster I’m the whispered word. Valued Senior Member

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    I don’t find Lions to be especially noble creatures, a lot of the attributes like nobility and courage are not really qualities that exist in Lions.
    Male Loins are lazy and opportunistic, they will turn on the dominant male of the pride if they think they can defeat him, if they accomplish this the male Lion will kill all the cubs that are not his own to bring the females in the heat. A mating male Lion engaged in sex will shoot his wad in less than 1 minute, it’s a wander how he can keep all the Lionesses interested?

    I guess she just closes her eyes and thinks of England. Which is probably why the Lion is the symbol for the British monarchy

    Bears are much better lovers!


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    Foreplay is very important to Bears!
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2009
  17. John99 Banned Banned

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    the problem here is that all creatures recognize or are very conscious of their own species facial features.

    the lion has a frown. if lions had smiles they would be much more easy going. that frown is permanent though. it is a shame for them, i believe. how do they look at eachother and see this sadness? it must effect them psychologically.
     
  18. ScaryMonster I’m the whispered word. Valued Senior Member

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  19. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    Actually, when I look at that picture of the lion, I don't see a frowning. Must be just an individual thing.
     
  20. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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  21. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    That's only by association with another organism: the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

    Fleas by themselves are intrinsically not dangerous animals
     
  22. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    Or what about these "prawns" from South Africa:

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  23. Dredd Dredd Registered Senior Member

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    One fellow made a convincing argument that it is homo erectus / homo sapiens, but that presumes those creatures are animals.

    At any rate, they are quite dangerous.
     

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