Garricks rainforest video brought back some memories.
For instance some perilous aussie wildlife encounters, not all of which were the obvious. E.g our rural neighbours had a stand of acacia trees up behind their house. From some of those trees were suspended football sized sacs full of grubs and a kind of fungusy dry green powder. As a kid you might be inclined to knock it down with a bat or large stick but that powdery substance could literally take the breath away with lethal results.
More true tales from insomnia territory -
A couple of times per year weāll hear a rattling sound in the ceiling, itās a snake, not a rattlesnake of course but a snake traversing across the tv aerial cable, maybe a non venomous green tree snake, or a deadly eastern brown, a carpet [boa, i.e diamond head python] or black snake. Thereās other types but these are most common. They come into the roof looking for mice etc. Ive seen dead mice or rats lying around the place with no apparent sign of injury, maybe someone baited their roof but maybe a snake tagged them but not with the full strike and they escaped some tens of metres before succumbing.
The council picked up a tip truck load of rocks from a paddock a couple of hundred metres behind our house. The council guys counted 57 eastern brown and tiger [similar to eastern brown but with striped underbelly] snakes and another dozen when they tipped out the load. In no way am I exaggerating.
The closest I ever came to getting tagged by a large [7ft] eastern brown was when I swung a ride on mower around into some long grass, suddenly this thing reared up about 3 or 4 feet in front and it was primed to fully strike me bc the noisy āviolenceā of the lawn mower was a life and death threat to it. I threw the steering bar forward as I bailed out the back, ran to the garage to get my bhundi [six foot section of polythene pipe] but it escaped into some bushes at the front of the house and I left it at that and went back to work.
These type of encounters arose as a subject when talking to my parents a couple of years ago, I swear we were still relaying our individual experiences and those of people we know, for about an hour.
But in fact serious incidents are quite rare as snakes actively seek to avoid unnecessary risk. They could be crawling all over you but wonāt bite unless attacked. Accidental disturbance is a danger bc a snake may interpret as attack. But we would walk around in the middle of night in summer in pitch darkness, no worries, tread heavily so they detect your presence, donāt make sudden changes of direction while increasing speed, that way you donāt accidentally tread on one and get bit.
When we were small children, my brother found one in the yard and was naively holding it to his chest like a puppy. It latched onto his nipple and wouldnāt let go. Iāll never forget the look on his face.
I got bit by a field mouse, it drew blood, got bitten on the hand by a dog, that hurt. A leech got on my leg, I got it off but its ājawsā remained under the skin and got a bit infected, itās okay now.
I felt a tick burrowing into my leg, I thought I could get it off quickly enough but some barbs remained, they turned up months later some inches further up the leg, in pus filled sores. I squeezed em out and that was the end of it.
A woman my parents knew, goanna fell out of a tree onto her back. The deep scratches turned septaecemic, the poor lady became a mental wreck because of it.
Never saw my old man take a day off through sickness or injury, even when a bullock cracked his ribs against a stockyard fence. Then one day after working on a tractor amongst some high scrub he fell mysteriously ill, knocked flat for three days, suspected spider bite, redback maybe.
Yonks back, something caught my eye through the window, outside on the cut grass in the side yard of the house. It was our months old kitten doing a strange kind of ādanceā gradually moving backwards. Then out from under the house came a big eastern brown, into the thorn hedge beyond, the kitten still swinging claws at it.
As toddlers we would crawl around under that house, found a snakeskin under there once.
I came unexpectedly face to face with a large razorback pig, in a sunflower field. It looked like a small buffalo or bison with the thick fur around the shoulders.
It took off heading for the lone hill spur jutting out onto the plain, about three quarters of a mile away. It needed to cross through three mesh fences to get there but didnāt miss a beat, it knew exactly where the openings in those fences were even though each fence was obscured from the last from its point of view.
You do have interesting wildlife over there, Iāve got to say I like being able to go to the toilet without being bitten by a man killing spider though. Those salties as well. Iād like to think Iād could go all Steve Irwin on one, but probably not.
Australiaās awesome. Pretty much everything will kill you if you give it half a chance. The cuddly looking wombat will rip chunks out of you if you put yourself in its way, and can literally beat large animals to death with its ass, which has a large bony plate in it.
One thing thatās not obvious about kangaroos is they have huge claws. One of my fav places is Bonorong nature park in Tasmania. They have I dunno, a hundred roos maybe, you can just hang out with them. They give you sacks of food for them. So Iām going around feeding the roos, and this big buck comes up, eye to eye, (Iām 6ā 1") reaches out verrrry gently with his claws as long as my fingers and grabs my food sack. So Iām this stupid, I take the sack back and turn away and feed some other roos. I guess he decided not to kill me since Iām still here.
Iāve been stung literally dozens of times by these little bastards as they infested our lawn when I was a kid. Itās Rhytidoponera metallica, cool name, aka green head ant, green ant, metallic pony ant but you donāt want to know about the bite from personal experience.
The venom is formic acid, most unpleasant, quite painful indeed and caused swelling of glands under the arms and in the groin.
From the wiki -
The green-head ant possesses a highly potent sting that can be painful but is short-lived.[13][20] An icepack or commercially available spray can be used to relieve the pain, but individuals experiencing an allergic reaction are normally taken to the hospital for treatment.[14] The venom is powerful enough to cause anaphylactic shock in sensitive humans.
Large wild buck roos can be very dangerous, a relo of mine had to jump several metres into a dry creek bed to avoid a charging wild buck.
People have been kicked to death by kangaroos coming through their windscreen into the cabin of vehicles, itās rare but no urban myth. Similarly, snakes have been thrown up from the front wheels into open windows. If unable to avoid running over one then windows should be wound up pronto.
Tame roos are one thing when theyāre playing with humans butā¦
āThe red kangaroo from Australia has a lightning fast double kick that can tear you open from sternum to top of legs. One kick of lightning speed and a force of 850 PSI. At 185 pounds and 6 foot tall they can pack a punch.ā Jan 8, 2018
maybe youre just off camera?
