Australian wildlife: deadly even to other deadly Australian wildlife

[nineveh_uk]

Snake eats crocodile after battle. This is not encouraging me ever to visit Australia.

In other news, my giant project has temporarily lifted allowing me to deal with the giant backlog of stuff left in its wake, the days really are getting significantly longer (especially when not cloudy), which is lovely, and I have bought a pair of red shoes. As this is the time of year when I am utterly bored of my work wardrobe, this is excellent, as it allows me to do something new without significant effort.

Comments

[antisoppist]

I dunno, at least the snakes and crocodiles are too busy attacking each other to bother attacking anyone else.

Red shoes are good. Unless you are in Hans Christian Andersen.

[nineveh_uk]

I do not think I am in Hans Christian Anderson, but will make sure not to wear them to church, just in case.

[quillori]

Of course, a while back we had Crocodile eats shark - now all we need is 'shark eats snake' and we'll have a nice game of rock paper scissors going on. But seriously, Australia is absolutely marvellous, and has several non-deadly native creatures! Just avoid salt water, fresh water, anywhere there could be snakes and anywhere there could be spiders, and you'll be just fine! (Except for being injured by kangaroos, koalas, magpies, goannas, Australian drivers...)

The red shoes sound lovely.

[nineveh_uk]

I love the bit in whichever Patrick O'Brien it is that Stephen gets stung by a platypus after finally managing to see one.

Are possums deadly/dangerous? They look quite cute.

[clanwilliam]

Apparently Australian possums buck the trend and are harmless, but US ones are vicious little buggers.

That snake has probably been killed by a spider now.

[nineveh_uk]

Congratulations to Australian possums! Though given their environment, they are probably evolving some deadly defence mechanism as we speak.

[sgac]

The latest thing in my neck of the bush is snake repeller devices. They're little mushroom-shaped things that you stick in the ground in your garden and they beep. Beeep beeep beeep every thirty seconds. It's the new soundtrack to summer.

[nineveh_uk]

Like cat repellant devices, only snakes don't poo in your flowerbeds... But do they actually work?

[sgac]

How do you tell? Only by negative data. We've not seen one yet, but for every snake you see, there's more you don't see.

[nineveh_uk]

Again, that does not endear me to Australian wildlife ;-)

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

I was going to say "I have visited Australia and it was fine so far as wildlife goes", but just remembered the daughter of family friends whom we stayed with, who had been bitten by a redback spider. (She was fine; apparently it had probably bitten something else not long before, so didn't have a full load of venom. That's not something I ever want to have to worry about.)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

And you're not even safe inside your house/hotel room! Though according to Wikipedia, the replacement of outhouses by plumbed indoor toilets has reduced the incidence of bites to the genitals....

[bsg-aussiegirl.livejournal.com]

Funnelwebs are a much worse prospect than a redback.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Neither sounds good to me!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

The site I use for my morning weather report always plasters stories like that across the top. I've learned to scroll down to the temperature without looking. I don't want to know.

On the other hand, red shoes make everything better :)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I find that sort of thing quite interesting - just as long as its happening no-where near me. Sometimes it is good to live in a country with relatively harmless wildlife and landscape features.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Eek! I read an interview with Cate Blanchett the other day in which she said she was scared of spiders and anyone who wasn't scared of spiders didn't live in Australia. But the thought of being slowly wrestled to death by a snake in water over the course of five hours is even scarier.

The longer days are such a boost to the spirits. I can quite see why a pair of new red shoes was just the thing.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I suspect that if it were me vs. the snake, it would be over in a lot less than five hours. Not that this is much comfort.

I am wearing my new red shoes today! It is sunny as well, so I hope the combination will be inspiring.

[sonetka.livejournal.com]

I have to admire the sang-froid of the people who stuck around taking photos instead of immediately fleeing the scene before catching either animal's eye. (Incidentally, I trust you've heard this relevant song on the subject? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNEeq5qGh8I)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

One can only hope they had telephoto lenses.

I was not aware of that song, thank you!

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Come on, Australia is awesome! And most of the things that can kill you are more scared of you than you are of them.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

This is not helpful if their response to being scared of me is to bite/sting/otherwise poison!

Though my main reason for never having been to Australia nor likely to go in the immediate future is that it is a very long way away.

[bsg-aussiegirl.livejournal.com]

LOL I love that that clip has gone viral! Of course, it must be a fresh water croc. Nothing takes on a saltie and survives, I'd say.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

They are pictures that deserve to be known!