Wild Life In Oz


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Have any of you seen an "inland Taipan" snake.  Was watching a Nat'l, Geo. Channel special

about the wild life in Oz and the commentators said this is the worlds most

lethal snake.  Also the "King Brown" is another snake at 10' 13 pounds which stated

that this to is also a super deadly snake.  Wow so many things can take you out

especially near or in the desert of Oz.

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1 hour ago, kuma said:

Have any of you seen an "inland Taipan" snake.  Was watching a Nat'l, Geo. Channel special

about the wild life in Oz and the commentators said this is the worlds most

lethal snake.  Also the "King Brown" is another snake at 10' 13 pounds which stated

that this to is also a super deadly snake.  Wow so many things can take you out

especially near or in the desert of Oz.

browns are very common. taipans much rarer around brizzy but have been known. to be honest, i tend to assume a snake looking like that is a brown as far more of them but they do look quite similar. i've had several browns of around five feet in my courtyard. taipan took down a clydesdale on a neighbour's property.

had a brown go between my legs as a kid. was sitting on a rock. it came around it and went through my legs before i could move and it did not see me either. near crapped myself. small one of about three feet. there is a theory that the small ones are more dangerous. they have enough poison to kill a football team when they are born but the big ones have learnt to dry bite (on rare occasion and never rely on that) on very rare occasions. basically, they do not want to waste their poison on a non food item so will sometimes bite without injecting. but you'd be very lucky.

but they are just two of so many different ways to die in australia.

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1 hour ago, jay8354 said:

Everything in Straya is deadly. Especially the drop bears

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Yep. Watch out for those drop bears.

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Reminds me of telling stories about drop bears and hoop snakes on a train to Cairns many years ago some of were scared

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I remember back in 2000 during the Sydney Olympics, I was in Darling Harbour, chatting to a German couple who had just flown in that morning. Had a good chat while watching the games on the big screen in the park, and as it was getting late, they asked me what time they needed to get back into their hotel. I said any time was ok. They looked at me like I was crazy. I asked why and they told me an Aussie friend of theirs in Germany told them they had to be back in their hotel by nightfall. Puzzled, I pressed them for an explanation, they said, "Our Australian friend told us that kangaroos hunt at night." :lol:

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4 hours ago, Fuzz said:

I remember back in 2000 during the Sydney Olympics, I was in Darling Harbour, chatting to a German couple who had just flown in that morning. Had a good chat while watching the games on the big screen in the park, and as it was getting late, they asked me what time they needed to get back into their hotel. I said any time was ok. They looked at me like I was crazy. I asked why and they told me an Aussie friend of theirs in Germany told them they had to be back in their hotel by nightfall. Puzzled, I pressed them for an explanation, they said, "Our Australian friend told us that kangaroos hunt at night." :lol:

hey, when i was in DC, i was told by one bloke that he just loved all our lions and tigers.

in the UK, one woman asked if it was true you could not take cars into towns, because there were too many roos to be able to drive.

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I guess there are a million stories in the "naked city" when it comes to local wild life in ones

area of operations!  Here in the states some of the areas (states) you still have the chance

to be injuired by a puma in Cali. where humans have started moving into the cats range or a bear in Alaska

(brown, griz) if you stumble on a mom bear w/cubs.  I guess in evey country there is something that can

make you meet your maker!  Except maybe Monaco or Paris, Roma, etc, etc,.  But then again getting run over by a scooter

or human on a motor bike could be just as bad!  Thanks all for your input!

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20 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

browns are very common. taipans much rarer around brizzy but have been known. to be honest, i tend to assume a snake looking like that is a brown as far more of them but they do look quite similar. i've had several browns of around five feet in my courtyard. taipan took down a clydesdale on a neighbour's property.

had a brown go between my legs as a kid. was sitting on a rock. it came around it and went through my legs before i could move and it did not see me either. near crapped myself. small one of about three feet. there is a theory that the small ones are more dangerous. they have enough poison to kill a football team when they are born but the big ones have learnt to dry bite (on rare occasion and never rely on that) on very rare occasions. basically, they do not want to waste their poison on a non food item so will sometimes bite without injecting. but you'd be very lucky.

but they are just two of so many different ways to die in australia.

I actually looked up the stats a couple of days ago, and while practically everything that flies, walks, swims or crawls will try to kill you, fatalities are amazingly rare.  Approximately 550 people are admitted to hospital with snake bite, but only two people die of it.  Sharks kill an average of two people a year, and crocodiles only one.  Spider bite?  Nobody has died from one since 1979 ... but it does pay to check under the toilet seat before sitting down because when you are bitten on your gentleman sausage by a redback, you may never live it down.

And Australia is WAY better than New Zealand (or California) because here at least the Earth itself will not try to kill you....

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17 minutes ago, gweilgi said:

I actually looked up the stats a couple of days ago, and while practically everything that flies, walks, swims or crawls will try to kill you, fatalities are amazingly rare.  Approximately 550 people are admitted to hospital with snake bite, but only two people die of it.  Sharks kill an average of two people a year, and crocodiles only one.  Spider bite?  Nobody has died from one since 1979 ... but it does pay to check under the toilet seat before sitting down because when you are bitten on your gentleman sausage by a redback, you may never live it down.

And Australia is WAY better than New Zealand (or California) because here at least the Earth itself will not try to kill you....

earthquakes are very rare here - at least big ones. apparently we have a great many tiny ones, but we do not even notice. i guess probably everywhere does.

there is even a song about getting bitten by a redback on the toilet seat! bro-in-law got bitten. quick trip to hospital. redbacks are our version of black widows. the dangerous one is the funnel web spider. we do have them here but more down south. they are nasty.

i assume the croc stats don't include tourists. i would be surprised if we didn't feed our crocs at least a few idiot tourists a year. the problem is that crocs are protected and are increasing significantly. and they are not afraid to go into populated regions and head further and further down the coast. i suspect they will bring in some sort of cull. tough on the crocs.

we seem to have had quite a few more shark attacks in recent years. not sure why. i think the stats are probably skewed because there were quite a few years where nothing happened. attacks are increasing. a mate runs the Qld shark netting and general shark program. he does not go in the water. tells endless horror stories (my fave is actually about a dolphin. i think they called it marty. we always think they are so smart but marty was bottom of dolphin class. one of the anti-shark measures is lines put out under buoys baited. when he told me the story a few years ago, marty had been caught and released 39 times). i've always believed that far more people die from shark attacks than get reported. anyone disappears, it is a drowning, unless proof of attack. i'm sure more than a few are thanks to the noahs.

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2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

earthquakes are very rare here - at least big ones. apparently we have a great many tiny ones, but we do not even notice. i guess probably everywhere does.

there is even a song about getting bitten by a redback on the toilet seat! bro-in-law got bitten. quick trip to hospital. redbacks are our version of black widows. the dangerous one is the funnel web spider. we do have them here but more down south. they are nasty.

The funniest case I heard about was a construction worker in the Western suburbs of Sydney.  He sat down in a portal at the site and was bitten on his todger by a redback.  Four months later, the exact same thing happened to him again ...

 

2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i assume the croc stats don't include tourists. i would be surprised if we didn't feed our crocs at least a few idiot tourists a year. the problem is that crocs are protected and are increasing significantly. and they are not afraid to go into populated regions and head further and further down the coast. i suspect they will bring in some sort of cull. tough on the crocs.

Crocs and alligators killed 15 people in total between 2006 and 2015.  This is the official figure and of course does not include unexplained disappearances.

 

2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

we seem to have had quite a few more shark attacks in recent years. not sure why. i think the stats are probably skewed because there were quite a few years where nothing happened. attacks are increasing. a mate runs the Qld shark netting and general shark program. he does not go in the water. tells endless horror stories (my fave is actually about a dolphin. i think they called it marty. we always think they are so smart but marty was bottom of dolphin class. one of the anti-shark measures is lines put out under buoys baited. when he told me the story a few years ago, marty had been caught and released 39 times). i've always believed that far more people die from shark attacks than get reported. anyone disappears, it is a drowning, unless proof of attack. i'm sure more than a few are thanks to the noahs.

 

In all of 2016, there were 16 attacks, of which two proved fatal.  There is surely a degree of under-reporting (Harold Holt, anyone?), but by the same token, there is also a fair degree of over-reporting.  People are mortally afraid of sharks because the media love reporting every single attack at length and at levels that sometimes approach hysteria.  IMO, Spielberg and "Jaws" have a lot to answer for...

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19 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

hey, when i was in DC, i was told by one bloke that he just loved all our lions and tigers.

Reminds me of the stories Austrians tell of Americans arriving in Vienna and asking where the kangaroos are....

 

19 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

in the UK, one woman asked if it was true you could not take cars into towns, because there were too many roos to be able to drive.

Funny ... but I recall hiring a car when investigating the wineries of Margaret River and being officially banned from driving during the hours of dawn and dusk.  When I inquired, I was told that this was because this is when roos are most active.  

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6 minutes ago, gweilgi said:

Funny ... but I recall hiring a car when investigating the wineries of Margaret River and being officially banned from driving during the hours of dawn and dusk.  When I inquired, I was told that this was because this is when roos are most active.  

 

i assume you mean dusk and dawn?

was that for insurance purposes?

seems very odd otherwise. did you hire the car down there? you'd think a simple bull bar would solve that.

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12 minutes ago, gweilgi said:

In all of 2016, there were 16 attacks, of which two proved fatal.  There is surely a degree of under-reporting (Harold Holt, anyone?), but by the same token, there is also a fair degree of over-reporting.  People are mortally afraid of sharks because the media love reporting every single attack at length and at levels that sometimes approach hysteria.  IMO, Spielberg and "Jaws" have a lot to answer for...

in fairness to the sharks, holt was stupid enough to go for a swim in massive seas. though there is a very credible argument that he did so deliberately, knowing what the inevitable consequences would be.

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4 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

 

i assume you mean dusk and dawn?

was that for insurance purposes?

seems very odd otherwise. did you hire the car down there? you'd think a simple bull bar would solve that.

OK, "in the twilight hours".  Happy?

:lol:

Yes, I believe this was for insurance purposes.  We hired the car in Perth and drove down.  As it happened, I quite happily ignored these restrictions and did not even spot a single (live) roo in my entire week.  Nor, happily, did I spot a single police car -- which would likely have proved as painful to me as a collision with a kangaroo.

 

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6 minutes ago, gweilgi said:

OK, "in the twilight hours".  Happy?

:lol:

Yes, I believe this was for insurance purposes.  We hired the car in Perth and drove down.  As it happened, I quite happily ignored these restrictions and did not even spot a single (live) roo in my entire week.  Nor, happily, did I spot a single police car -- which would likely have proved as painful to me as a collision with a kangaroo.

 

even if you'd hit one, cops would not have cared. they don't chase insurance policy details. only issue would have been loss of excess/insurance cover if you were hit, or hit, a roo.

and while you might see plenty on a usual trip, the one you hit is the one you don't see!

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On 5/6/2017 at 0:08 AM, Ken Gargett said:

browns are very common. taipans much rarer around brizzy but have been known. to be honest, i tend to assume a snake looking like that is a brown as far more of them but they do look quite similar. i've had several browns of around five feet in my courtyard. taipan took down a clydesdale on a neighbour's property.

had a brown go between my legs as a kid. was sitting on a rock. it came around it and went through my legs before i could move and it did not see me either. near crapped myself. small one of about three feet. there is a theory that the small ones are more dangerous. they have enough poison to kill a football team when they are born but the big ones have learnt to dry bite (on rare occasion and never rely on that) on very rare occasions. basically, they do not want to waste their poison on a non food item so will sometimes bite without injecting. but you'd be very lucky.

but they are just two of so many different ways to die in australia.

My god, a Clydesdale?  That's an obscene level of toxicity...how can you walk around barefoot?

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1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

even if you'd hit one, cops would not have cared. they don't chase insurance policy details. only issue would have been loss of excess/insurance cover if you were hit, or hit, a roo.

and while you might see plenty on a usual trip, the one you hit is the one you don't see!

the old days of cane cutting, the cutters would always walk around barefoot even though the canefields were full of snakes, mostly very nasty. but their feet were so tough from this, snakes might have broken fangs. i know my great uncles, who invented a harvesting machine, would have to be told by workers in their factory when they had stepped on molten metal and their feet were burning.

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If and when I visit remind me to keep my shoes on (spiders, snakes, lizards) and not swim to far off the beach (sharks, croc.'s)

and make sure I have insurance for the rent - a car (roo.s, kola.s).  Would love to visit Bris. in the furture.

How far from Japan is Australia and has anyone flown from Japan to Oz.  Thanks.......

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12 hours ago, kuma said:

If and when I visit remind me to keep my shoes on (spiders, snakes, lizards) and not swim to far off the beach (sharks, croc.'s)

and make sure I have insurance for the rent - a car (roo.s, kola.s).  Would love to visit Bris. in the furture.

How far from Japan is Australia and has anyone flown from Japan to Oz.  Thanks.......

It's just over nine hours' flight from Tokyo (Narita) to Brisbane.

And the golf courses are excellent, apart form the odd crocodile in the water hazards and invading mobs of kangaroos...

:D

 

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12 hours ago, kuma said:

If and when I visit remind me to keep my shoes on (spiders, snakes, lizards) and not swim to far off the beach (sharks, croc.'s)

and make sure I have insurance for the rent - a car (roo.s, kola.s).  Would love to visit Bris. in the furture.

How far from Japan is Australia and has anyone flown from Japan to Oz.  Thanks.......

Has anyone flown from Japan to Aus? About 28k people in January of this year.

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Wow 9 hrs is some serious flight time.  Not much of a golfer.  For some odd reason

I'd rather just go to the driving range and smack the hell out of the ball and see how far

I can whack the white ball down range.  It is a good way to release the inner anger

that is part of the my male DNA.

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