Nature on PBS, how do I love thee?

[servermonkey]

Last night's episode of Nature dealt with the venomous, and sometimes deadly, creatures found in Australia. I learned a couple of things, and I post them here, well, because I can:

• According to the narrator, jellyfish are large nervous systems, with no brain.
  
• Jellyfish have multiple stomachs. Moo.
  
• There were a couple of guys that were catching a specific species, tagging it, and releasing it back into the wild. I have never seen that in my life.
  
• Now, I've seen spiny urchins before, but I've never seen them moving. Pretty cool, and intimidating looking--though it probably was time lapse photography, huh?
  
• Not only are there spiny sea urchins, but there's a flower urchin. Cool looking, but not very friendly.
  
• There's a snail with venom that causes almost instantaneous paralysis to its victim. It uses this venom to catch fish.
  

The close ups of the defense/offense mechanisms were amazing.

You know, considering all this about jellyfish, I wonder why in MTG, the Man-O'-War isn't more deadly. Silly card game.

Comments

[tajessa.livejournal.com]

Well, looking at the picture, I'd say that that's one of the ones that isn't deadly. We call them Man-O'-Wars, too, or bluebottles, and around my part of the country we get big plagues of them in summer. They'll give you a nasty sting, but they won't kill you (unless you've got an allergy, but that's another story). I'm guessing they were referring to the Box Jellyfish, which is pinkish, lives up north in the tropics, and is basically the deadliest marine animal you can find.

We also have the Blue Ringed Octopus, which hangs out in rock pools, has attractive iridescent blue bands when it's pissed off, and is basically a magnet for toddlers to pick up and squeeze; and what I'm guessing you were talking about above, the Coneshell, which has a barbed tongue to kill its prey, but goes for overkill to such an extent that it can also kill humans. It's also really pretty and lends itself to being picked up. (I actually have an *empty* shell at home.) And Saltwater Crocodiles (they be mean mofos) and White Pointers, and really venomous sea-snakes. And that's not even getting into the terrestrial side of things, where we have 9 of the top 10 most dangerous and/or venemous snakes in the world, and even our cute cuddly animals can disembowel you with a kick (kangaroos) or write off your car if you hit one (wombat).

Note: this information overload is brought to you by the letter "I volunteer at a zoo and have to know a lot of weird shit", the number "I am also a biology student" and the phrase "also, Australians tend to be inordinately proud of the fact that we have more things that can kill you per square inch than anywhere else on earth."

[lorelei-aisling.livejournal.com]

Wow! Those Box Jelly fish sound even scarier than Funnelweb spiders. How many people tangle with Box Jellies? Or funnelwebs?

[servermonkey.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, those guys were tagging box jellies. I was in awe at all the different stuff, so I may be remembering incorrectly, though.

Ew, I have a love/hate relationship with spiders. I like that they keep other bugs away. I don't like waking up nearby or something, you know?

[lorelei-aisling.livejournal.com]

I didn't miss read that they tangled them instead of tagged them.

I was just wondering how many people get into trouble with the jellyfish.

[servermonkey.livejournal.com]

That's a good question. Surely, somewhere out there, there are some numbers.

[servermonkey.livejournal.com]

Oh, I also wasn't sure if I had specified tagging box jellies. . .I must be tired, and lazy.

[servermonkey.livejournal.com]

Yup, Nature was in Australia, covering all the deadly species found there. I completely left out the story about a person's canoe being attacked by a salt water croc. I changed the channel to spare Abby's eyes from it. They were also referring to the Box Jellyfish. Mean ol' suckers.

You've scored some major LJ friend points with me with your depth of biology knowledge. :)

unrelated

[mineral777.livejournal.com]

awesome URL for a 1stp shooter game under 100k
http://theprodukkt.com/

Re: unrelated

[servermonkey.livejournal.com]

And now, for something completely different! :)

[zenostortoise.livejournal.com]

it is true.

but then, remember, this is the game where you can get your face owned by an angel but angry hoardes of skeletons that come to life are 1/1 and useless, except to regenerate.

[servermonkey.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, you'd think Restless Dead, Drudge Skeletons, etc. would be a bit hardier.

I've never been a fan of the 2/2 vanilla creatures. I always liked creatures that "did" something, you know? Still, I love my card flopping.