Dangeraus

[den]

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

THere are sharks. I couldn't fit the words in.

[mrudat.livejournal.com]

Note: "Poisonous Snakes found inside black outline"... and just which bits are outlined in black...

[mrudat.livejournal.com]

You missed one... where's the short furry bats what go 'grr'?

*grr*

[ngarewyrd.livejournal.com]

As it is said, the least dangerous animal of Australia...

Some of the sheep (and we're a little worried about them)

[rosequoll.livejournal.com]

You forgot drop bears. And I like the post subject. =)

[sjwt.livejournal.com]

missing cone fish!!

[mrudat.livejournal.com]

My dad just reminded me that sea snakes can climb up the hull of a ship... no matter if you look at the hull, and ask, how did the little bugger stick to that?!

Blue-ringed octopus?

[falconea.livejournal.com]

I've seen lots of these in Victoria personally - they're gorgeous animals. King Island is infested with them, and they are also all across TAS, SA and into southern WA. I'm not sure how far north they go. In Victoria they're most common right near Melbourne, around the northern part of Port Phillip Bay. By the way, I don't think that there are any snakes in Port Phillip Bay....

There's 2 species - the Northern species, Hapalochlaena lunulata, which has not caused any fatalities in humans, and the Southern species, H. maculosa, which can be deadly. They have a delightful way of killing you - the venom causes muscle paralysis. In all your muscles, including lung and heart muscles. Takes 12 hours or so to wear off. They're researching it for use in human medicine.

The toxin is not made by the octopus - it's generated by a bacteria that lives in the octopus' salivary gland. The same species of bacteria resides in a number of marine animals including puffer-fish, stone-fish and others.

Audrey
Marine Research Group of Victoria

Re: Blue-ringed octopus?

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I'll have to update my map. 8)

Re: Blue-ringed octopus?

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

Very interesting. I saw a blurb about the blue-ringed octopus on the Discovery Channel a while back, and they did mention there were two species, only one of which was deadly. Beautiful creatures, I must say. Beautiful in that "gosh, I'm glad that's on TV and not in my back yard" kind of way.

Fair dinkum warning

[ursuscal.livejournal.com]

But I really should post a map of inner city U.S. crime and violence. It would make Australia look like a sandbox, even with the beautiful box jelly fish and blue-ringed octopus to surprise you whilst bathing.

BTW, I saw a program on "The Animal Planet" showing how a researcher into venom catches box jelly fish by hand. Believe it or not, it's very simple *if* you do it right. You grab the little bugger's top part *above* the water line and lift it right up. If you allow your hand to go below the water line it will curl its tentacles around your hand and you're so much toast with Vegemite. He added that if you gently dragged the tentacles across your chest you'd be dead in about 3 minutes of cardiac arrest.

My favorite, though, is the little mollusk with the pretty shell. You see it and think: how lovely this empty shell would look on my shelf at home, and you put it in your pocket. It then procedes to sting you *through* your clothing, and you can expire in a short time.

Tell me, do you have any marine animals (other than plankton) that *aren't* dangerous? All those gorgeous beaches that I wouldn't set a paw in!

Re: Fair dinkum warning

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

You assume that Aussie plankton isn't dangerous? ;)

Great map, Batty! Highly entertaining.

Have the best

-=TK, who will take his chances with the occasional black widdow and stay in Washington, TYVM

Some of the sheep are okay.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the cone shell. It fires a little poisonous dart into prey. Wonderful.

Surf Lifesavers in the tropics wear pantyhose to protect them from the box jellies. People still ignore the warning signs and go swimming, and someone has to pull them out.

When I was in Darwin I saw some tourists looking at a warning sign, and one said "That's just for the tourists! The locals ignore them." maybe he thought there was another reason for the totally empty beach lapped by tropical waters.

Actually, there was. Apart from box jellies Darwin Harbour is home to salt-water crocodiles.

This country is full of the most amazing range of venomous animals but if you don't do something stupid, like ignore warning signs or pick one up, then you're highly unlikely to even see one.

[tiado-ab.livejournal.com]

Wow, pretty much all of Australia has got something that can be threatening.

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

Ummm, mate... did you forget about the fact that there's poisonous snakes in Tasmania?? In fact all three species are poisonous...

The tiger snake, the brown snake and the whip snake.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

tiger snakes... feh! wusses.

ROFLMAO!

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

Batty this is wonderful!!! You'll make a fortune if you print it up in poster form and sell it to the hapless tourists (prefereably before they're dead).

Can I have one? *grins*

Re: ROFLMAO!

[athelind.livejournal.com]

She's right, you know. You can get it set up on CafePress or something and start selling'em RIGHT NOW. But posters for tourist shops'd be even more fun.

Now you've done it

[ladyursus.livejournal.com]

There were two places in the world my parents wanted to go before they died, and I wanted to go as well. One was Alaska, which I still plan to travel to, and oh you can guess, the other was Australia. Now I have been in the wilderness, but this looks just DEADLY!! *grins* So, if you can tell me what percentage I have of staying alive down there, I may reconsider. Otherwise, maybe I'll take my chances in ICELAND! Ha,Ha.

Re: Now you've done it

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Hardly anyone dies here, now. I might see 2 snakes a year, and one of those MIGHT be the dangerous eastern brown snake. (The other would likely be the venomous but very shy black snake.)

Alaska has animals that will kill you and EAT you. We have animals that will kill you, but then run away.

Re: Now you've done it

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

Funnelweb spiders? Are those at all related to our hobo spiders? I've got those all over my garden, and they have a nasty necrotic bite.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The Sydney Funnelweb used to kill a dozen people a year until antivenine was developed in the early 80s. Oddly enough the venom is only toxic to primate species.

is this what i return to

[(Anonymous)]

hi denden hope all is well down under and you have not got bitten spat on tread on crawlled on slimmed on lately love you your incrediable wonderful still sexy auntie susan

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

king island brown snakes.

and dont forget cigutera poisoning

and the giant queensland stinging tree

and bullants.

you could include european wasps i suppose - they're pretty much everywhere now...

then there's the paralysis tick. and bushfires. and flooding. and bluebottles.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Let's not go crazy. 8)