Oh come ON! This is getting silly.

[den]

Now goannas produce venom.

And bearded dragons are venomous too. Not only that, the venom contains crotamine which is found in rattlesnakes.

The good news is the lizards don't have the venom delivery system found in snakes and gila monsters. They'll give you a nasty nip but that's about it. With goannas I'm more worried about the claws on their feet, as anyone should be after visiting a mate in hospital with 100 stitches in their back and head after having a frightened goanna run up them.

Will everyone please stop finding dangerous Australian animals? Pretty soon the only safe animals will be some of the sheep.

Comments

New study shows: Aussie sheep's wool fibers are really venom delivery systems

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Hee. At least, this time, it's not JUST Aussie lizards, it's the whole genus of monitors.

Have the best

-=TK

Re: New study shows: Aussie sheep's wool fibers are really venom delivery systems

[jamesb]

That explains my allergic reaction to wool ...

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

"Pretty soon the only safe animals will be some of the sheep"

Only *some* of the sheep? Eeep! :-)

[moonrose.livejournal.com]

And here I was pretty sure that Australian sheep were poisonous too....

[happiestsadist.livejournal.com]

Same here.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Two words:

Killer Sheep (http://www.shawnbehrens.de/kilsheep/photo.htm)

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Except the really cute sheep.

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

My poor Batty, you're starting to sound paranoid. Well, at least your home territory doesn't regularly try to freeze you to death. :)

[ngarewyrd.livejournal.com]

Only in the summer months...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

There is that. All things considered, the weather here is pretty safe. Cyclones usually hit lightly populated areas, tornadoes are rare and we don't have state-stopping blizzards. There are the occasional floods but they're mostly slow moving and only destructive in a wet, muddy way; they don't wash houses and towns away.

We do have drough but that's a threat to animals, plants and bank accounts, not to human life.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Pretty soon the only safe animals will be some of the sheep.

I thought that already was the case?

*grin, duck, run*

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

"He's that most dangerous of creatures- a clever sheep!" :D

They seemed to be focused on the land species. Let's not remind them about the ocean!

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Everything in the ocean is poisonous, venomous, or will eat you,

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Ah, then the plants, domesticated livestock, and farmed produce are all that's left!

(And somehow I suspect that even *those* hide something evil......)

[claire.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be bloody surprised if we spontaneously developed venomous sheep. Of course, then we could export them to NZ. *ponders*

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Everything else seems to be developing venom, why not sheep?

Yeesh!

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

You blokes sure know how to make a tourist or potential immigrant feel welcome, don't ya?

Come to Australia, where everything can kill ya!