Animal Crackers

[SonofOahu]

Mother Nature. This spider is eating the guts of a little tree frog while another tree frog sits nearby and watches.

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[SonofOahu]

We have an entire herd of Bison that live within city limits and I've never heard of anyone being hurt by one. Leave the big bastards alone and they arent gonna bother you none either.

So true. We have several herds in my area, including a few large herds in Custer State Park. Heck, you can drive through a herd, sit in the middle of one and watch them scratch themselves on your car or lick salt off of it in the winter, or even get out and take pics as long as you use common sense and don't get too close or antagonize them. Even the most obtuse, never-seen-a-cow city slicker should still be able to recognize that a bison pawing the ground and shaking its head is trying to warn you to back off. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: at least half of all the people on Earth are blithering idiots with no more sense than a lobotomized sheep.

Are these wild or ranch owned? Like, would you be able to just sit in your "backyard" and shoot one during what I assume is bison season?

My friend lives in SD, and their plot of land is gigantic. She and her husband both hunt, well, mostly the husband, and we were planning on visiting (post COVID).

[Bishop2b5]

Are these wild or ranch owned? Like, would you be able to just sit in your "backyard" and shoot one during what I assume is bison season?

My friend lives in SD, and their plot of land is gigantic. She and her husband both hunt, well, mostly the husband, and we were planning on visiting (post COVID).

The ones in the videos are semi-wild. The woman getting twirled around on the horns of one was at the park just a few miles from my house. I've driven down that road and seen herds there a dozen times. They're definitely not tame like at a petting zoo, or domesticated and totally ok with being handled by humans like dairy cattle. They're wild, but used to humans being around. However, you don't want to approach them or antagonize them.

Hunting is very limited. I only know of one bison hunt in SD, and that's at Custer State Park where the woman got twirled. It's a non-trophy hunt that's just for culling the herd which has to be kept to a certain level due to land resources. They round up a lot of the animals in the fall and sell them in addition to the hunt. I "assume" you could hunt them on a private ranch, but I don't know that for sure. You'd have to check. I do know this, they're about the best tasting thing ever. Imagine the most perfect, juiciest, tender steak you've ever had. Now multiply that by 2 or 3. That's bison.

Watch this video. Despite the title, there's no attack of any kind. It's a typical experience of driving through a couple of herds in Custer State Park near my house. The people in the video are annoying, but this is exactly what a drive through the park is like. Don't bother the bison and they don't pay much more attention to you than if you were a rock.

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[Irish#1]

UPDATE

My son had taken that pic at his house. The next day, he says both are still there, pretty much in the same place they were. Yesterday, he sends a little clip showing the spider now in the crosshairs of a praying mantis. They were heading to a soccer game and didn't have time to stick around to see what happened. When they got back, the praying mantis was still there but no sign of the spider.

[SonofOahu]

The ones in the videos are semi-wild. The woman getting twirled around on the horns of one was at the park just a few miles from my house. I've driven down that road and seen herds there a dozen times. They're definitely not tame like at a petting zoo, or domesticated and totally ok with being handled by humans like dairy cattle. They're wild, but used to humans being around. However, you don't want to approach them or antagonize them.

Hunting is very limited. I only know of one bison hunt in SD, and that's at Custer State Park where the woman got twirled. It's a non-trophy hunt that's just for culling the herd which has to be kept to a certain level due to land resources. They round up a lot of the animals in the fall and sell them in addition to the hunt. I "assume" you could hunt them on a private ranch, but I don't know that for sure. You'd have to check. I do know this, they're about the best tasting thing ever. Imagine the most perfect, juiciest, tender steak you've ever had. Now multiply that by 2 or 3. That's bison.

Watch this video. Despite the title, there's no attack of any kind. It's a typical experience of driving through a couple of herds in Custer State Park near my house. The people in the video are annoying, but this is exactly what a drive through the park is like. Don't bother the bison and they don't pay much more attention to you than if you were a rock.

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My friends went on one those bison hunts and the amount of meat they had is crazy. Thinking about it, though, what the hell would I do if I went up there and successfully shot a bison? Can you imagine how much it would cost to ship it to Hawaii? I once called an elk farm to check on how much I could get a shipment for... the shipping was 2x the cost of the meat.

I watched the "Meat Eater" episode where he shot the bison and the others barely even moved. He said that's why they were so easy to over hunt. It's like they don't care.

[Irish#1]

That lady is one sound sleeper. This is going to be hard to top.

‘Worst nightmare’: 4-feet snake pulled out from woman’s mouth in Russia

https://indianexpress.com/article/tr...slept-6578861/

A snake was pulled out from a woman’s mouth after the reptile crawled inside her while she was sleeping. A footage of the horrifying moment when the 4-feet snake was surgically removed from the Russian woman’s mouth has gone viral on social media.

The incident took place at Levashi village in Dagestan, Russia, when the woman was sleeping in the yard of her home, according to a DailyMail report. On feeling unwell, the woman went to the hospital and was put under general anesthesia after doctors realised there was something in her stomach. Later, the doctors removed the snake from the woman’s mouth, with fear writ large on the faces of the surrounding medical staff. However, it is not clear whether the snake was dead or alive on being retrieved.

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[Bishop2b5]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/...?ocid=msedgntp



A Lincolnshire wildlife park in Britain had to remove 5 recently acquired African Gray parrots due to their language. Apparently they were all exceptionally foul-mouthed and the more people reacted and laughed, the more the parrots did it. Most people found it entertaining and funny, but the park decided the birds were so bad that it wasn't appropriate for kids.

[Irish#1]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/...?ocid=msedgntp



A Lincolnshire wildlife park in Britain had to remove 5 recently acquired African Gray parrots due to their language. Apparently they were all exceptionally foul-mouthed and the more people reacted and laughed, the more the parrots did it. Most people found it entertaining and funny, but the park decided the birds were so bad that it wasn't appropriate for kids.

Sounds like my kind of park.

[Irish YJ]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/...?ocid=msedgntp



A Lincolnshire wildlife park in Britain had to remove 5 recently acquired African Gray parrots due to their language. Apparently they were all exceptionally foul-mouthed and the more people reacted and laughed, the more the parrots did it. Most people found it entertaining and funny, but the park decided the birds were so bad that it wasn't appropriate for kids.

The Brits are to F'in proper lol.
Growing up my godparents had talking birds. We'd constantly try to teach them foul phrases (foul for back then).

[Irish2155]

Sounds like my kind of park.

Sounds like my uncle.

[Irish#1]

Can you imagine what they were thinking? "This thing is eating 5lbs of food a day and tried to bite me."

French couple trying to buy Savannah cat get tiger cub, instead

Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A French couple who purchased what they thought was an exotic Savannah cat from an online ad ended up turning the feline over to authorities when it turned out to be a tiger cub.

Prosecutors in La Havre said the couple encountered an online ad in 2018 offering a baby Savannah cat, a cross between a domestic cat and an African serval, for sale.

The couple paid about $7,000 for the kitten, but after about a week in their care, the couple suspected the feline was not a Savannah cat, which is legal to keep as a pet in France, but a Sumatran tiger, an endangered species native to Indonesia.

The prosecutors said the incident sparked a two-year investigation that culminated this week with nine people being arrested. The couple who purchased the cat were among those arrested, but were later released by police.

Authorities said animal trafficking charges are being sought in the case.

The tiger cub now is in the care of the French Biodiversity Office.

[Irish#1]

I might have pissed my pants if this was me.

Video of mountain lion stalking hiker for 6 minutes goes viral

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/lo...es-goes-viral/

[NDBoiler]

I might have pissed my pants if this was me.

Video of mountain lion stalking hiker for 6 minutes goes viral

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/lo...es-goes-viral/

Sounds like the hiker may have inadvertently come between the mom and cubs, which is the worst place to be.

[Bishop2b5]

I might have pissed my pants if this was me.

Video of mountain lion stalking hiker for 6 minutes goes viral

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/lo...es-goes-viral/

Pretty wild. She didn't just drive him away from her cubs, she kept following and threatening him for several minutes. He handled it pretty well, though he sure was in a high pucker situation.

[Irish#1]

Pretty wild. She didn't just drive him away from her cubs, she kept following and threatening him for several minutes. He handled it pretty well, though he sure was in a high pucker situation.

Pucker might be an understatement!

[Irish#1]

Had never heard of these Killer Hornets until seeing something on the news over the weekend. They found the nest by putting a tracking collar on one of the hornets. lol

'Murder hornet': First nest found in US eradicated with vacuum hose

The first nest of Asian giant hornets found in the US has successfully been destroyed by scientists. The nest, in the state of Washington, was found by putting tracker devices on the hornets and it was sucked out of a tree using a vacuum hose.

The invasive species insects, known as "murder hornets", have a powerful sting and can spit venom. They target honeybees, which pollinate crops, and can destroy a colony in just a matter of hours.

The nest in Washington was found when entomologists, scientists that study insects, used dental floss to tie tracking devices to three hornets. The nest of around 200 insects was then discovered in the city of Blaine close to the Canadian border.

On Saturday, a crew of scientists wearing protective suits vacuumed the insects from the tree, which will now be cut down to remove any further nests.

Asian giant hornets are among the world's largest wasps - the queens can reach over 5cm (2in) long. Their venomous sting can penetrate humans' protective clothing but the number of people they kill each year is low - about 40 annually in Asia, according to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.

Normally their natural habitat is in areas of Asia from China to Japan, but in 2019 there were several sightings of single "murder hornets" in North America. A nest was destroyed in Vancouver Island in Canada in December last year.

Globally, conservationists are deeply concerned about falling insect populations. But it can be permissible to kill some insects if they are an invasive species - one that is not native to an area and preys on other insects there.

Honeybees are under threat due to loss of food after habitat destruction, pesticides, and disease.

When an Asian giant hornet enters a honeybee colony, it begins a "slaughter phase" in which it kills bee after bee and can destroy the colony in a few hours.

[Legacy]

Mount Rainier’s first wolverine mama in a century is a sign of the species’ comeback

[Old Man Mike]

Several lifetime banned members of IE spotted in Montana.
All were packin'.

[NorthDakota]

Several lifetime banned members of IE spotted in Montana.
All were packin'.

What brought you out west old man Mike? Trying your hand at being Leo in The Revenant?

[Irish#1]

Mount Rainier’s first wolverine mama in a century is a sign of the species’ comeback

That's pretty cool. Hopefully this is the beginning of a positive trend.

[Irish YJ]

poor little guy

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They found a small owl inside of this year’s Rockefeller Christmas tree, he hitched a ride all the way to NYC and is now being treated and cared for at a wildlife rehab facility. <a href="https://t.co/f4PkBm6MGo">pic.twitter.com/f4PkBm6MGo</a></p>&mdash; Allison Esposito Medina (@techladyallison) <a href="https://twitter.com/techladyallison/status/1329133725779628033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Irish#1]

Poor little guy is right. It had to be terrified during his first road trip.

[Bishop2b5]

The circle of life can be savage.

[Irish#1]

This is pretty cool. Thousands of sea turtles stunned by the cold blast in Texas were pulled from the Gulf to help them survive. Saw a clip on TV where the floor in a large room was completely covered with turtles.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/a...n-texas-island

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...es-texas-navy/

[Bishop2b5]

This is pretty cool. Thousands of sea turtles stunned by the cold blast in Texas were pulled from the Gulf to help them survive. Saw a clip on TV where the floor in a large room was completely covered with turtles.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/a...n-texas-island

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...es-texas-navy/

I'm not sure this is a great idea. I get that those doing it mean well, and if this was a critically endangered species I might concede that that it was better than letting them go extinct. I wouldn't have a problem with it if they were victims of an oil spill or some other disaster that we were directly responsible for. This, however, is a natural phenomenon where nature should probably just be allowed to run its course. Rescuing all those turtles is preventing nature from weeding out the ones least capable of dealing with extreme weather. That's how nature improves the overall fitness of the species and makes them capable of surviving the next cold snap: by removing the least cold-tolerant ones from the breeding population and leaving those most able to endure it to produce the next generation. I don't think this is a horrible thing the turtle rescuers are doing, but it's not helping in the long run.

[NDBoiler]

Man, can someone in this story at least show a little concern for the human being that got shot as opposed to the dogs? We live in a strange world sometimes.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/enter...es/6815779002/

[Irish#1]

HVAC guy came out to work on the heat pump. Found this frog fried by a jolt of 220. Guess he was looking to stay warm and it didn't work out so well.

[Irish#1]

https://i.imgur.com/MbUcjwI.mp4

[IrishLax]

[TWITTER]https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1364531716996620291?s=20[/TWITTER]

[Irish#1]

That's crazy. I'm surprised it could even see.

[Irish YJ]

didn't know if I should put this hear, the RIP thread, or under awesome videos...

[Irish#1]

This video is about 10 years old but still pretty crazy. Woodpecker is relentless.

[Irish#1]

BRECKENRIDGE, Texas — A Texas man mowing his lawn died after he was attacked by a swarm of “very aggressive” bees, authorities said.

Thomas Hicks, 70, of Breckenridge, died after going into cardiac arrest Monday, KTXS reported. A second patient, Hicks’ wife, Zoni Hicks, was taken to an area hospital for treatment and later released, the television station reported.

“Medics and firefighters entered (the) home through a swarm of bees and started emergency care of (a) patient that had suffered a heart episode,” the Breckenridge Fire Department said in a Facebook post.

Zoni Hicks told KTAB that she had been out grocery shopping. When she returned, her husband was screaming and covered in bees, the television station reported.

“I said, ‘Honey, please don’t go back in the back area, because those bees are back there,’ and he said, ‘I won’t, I promise,” Zoni Hicks told the television station. “He was covered in like, I mean, you couldn’t even see his back and his whole head. He was just covered in killer bees.”“They were stinging him all in the yard. He was running in the backyard, the side yard, the front yard, trying to get them off of him, but they were relentless,” Zoni Hicks told KRBC. “They just wouldn’t stop. They were just everywhere, and they were stinging, and they clung to you.”

Joey Venekamp, a local beekeeper, was brought to the scene and successfully located the hive, which was located in a hollowed-out dead tree, KTAB reported. He removed the hive with hand tools and foam, KTXS reported.

“Once one of them stings it’s going to let off a pheromone and that’s like a red flag to the other ones,” Venekamp told KTAB. “The best thing to do is take cover.”

[Irish#1]

This is pretty crazy. Off duty Houston policeman sees a tiger walking in a neighborhood. Officer pulls his gun when some dude comes outside and takes the tiger into his house. Then he loads it up and takes off fleeing from the police. Police finally find him, but he did something with the tiger and no one has found it yet. Dude is also out on bond for a murder charge,

https://twitter.com/i/status/1391579206262300674

https://abc13.com/pets-animals/murde...rges/10612640/

[Bishop2b5]

The Houston tiger sighting reminds me of another cat story from this week. A Chinese safari park failed to alert the public that 3 of its leopards had escaped. For more than two weeks, park officials kept quiet about it or denied any escape when questioned, while trying to recover the animals on its own. It was only when the locals began reporting seeing the cats that the zoo officials finally stopped denying the truth and admitted they'd escaped two weeks before. Two have been recaptured without incident, but the third is still loose. Some of the top officials at the zoo and the zoo's attorney have been arrested.

[Irish#1]

The Houston tiger sighting reminds me of another cat story from this week. A Chinese safari park failed to alert the public that 3 of its leopards had escaped. For more than two weeks, park officials kept quiet about it or denied any escape when questioned, while trying to recover the animals on its own. It was only when the locals began reporting seeing the cats that the zoo officials finally stopped denying the truth and admitted they'd escaped two weeks before. Two have been recaptured without incident, but the third is still loose. Some of the top officials at the zoo and the zoo's attorney have been arrested.

Let's hope those cats don't cause an outbreak like that damn bat.

[Bishop2b5]

Let's hope those cats don't cause an outbreak like that damn bat.

I talked to my brother this morning and told him about the leopards in China, and said the one still on the loose had been spotted. He immediately replied, "Well yeah, it's a leopard." Groan.