Gordon Grice's Blog, page 25

Injecting Snake Venom

"There's something in a snake's venom that helps its prey accept death."

Fascinating video. The title's a bit misleading, as this is really about the health benefits of snake venom. 

Wildlife Classics: Legend of the Squid

The KrakenA Wildlife Classic by Alfred Tennyson

Below the thunders of the upper deep,Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleepThe Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights fleeAbout his shadowy sides; above him swellHuge sponges of millennial growth and height;And far away into the sickly light,From many a wondrous grot and secret cellUnnumbered and enormous polypiWinnow with giant arms the slumbering green.There hath he lain for ages, and will lieBattening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;Then once by man and angels to be seen,In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.


Related Post: The Apocalyptic Giant Squid

Birds by Hondecoeter

Melchior d'Hondecoeter was a Dutch painter of the 1600s. 

The Best of Fungi

Fly Amanita (photos by D'Arcy)
Meat
Witches' Butter
Fungal Interlude #1 (photos by Parker)
Fungal Interlude #2 (photos by Parker)
Fungal Interlude #3 (photos by Parker)
Fungal Interlude #4 (photos by Parker)
A Mystery Resolved in Rust
Fungi: Killing Stuff, Eating Plastic

Animal Movies: Blood of the Beasts

This 1949 documentary by Georges Franju is probably the most beautiful film ever made about slaughterhouses. Like many things I post here, this is not for the sensitive or the squeamish. (I really mean it this time.) But if you are open to an admittedly upsetting experience, you will find much to ponder in this great film. 

Up Close with a Coyote

Photography by Dee Puett

Python in Bathroom

Could be worse; others have found big contrictors emerging from the toilet.  I'm not clear why bathing the guinea pigs involves leaving the door open, nor indeed whether one actually needs to bathe guinea pigs.


Yikes! Woman finds 12-foot snake slithering into bathtub - Yahoo News:

"Rodriguez believes the snake got in through a back door that she left open earlier in the day while bathing her guinea pigs."

Guinea Worm

Let’s take a hypothetical, but typical, case: There is a swelling on a man's foot, like a pecan embedded under the skin. The pain is intense. He bathes it in the river to ease the burning. On the second day the blister bursts. From its ruin something like a soggy strand of spaghetti protrudes. 




The next time the man dips his foot into the water, the strand writhes and whitens the water with a milky fluid—eggs released.




Let's say the man is lucky enough to have access to a doctor. The doctor gives him drugs for the secondary infection brewing in the remains of the blister. 



She tapes the worm to a matchstick. 





Every day she takes two turns on the pencil, wrapping another inch of the worm around it. She dare not pull too fast for fear of tearing the worm apart (if that happens, surgery is the only way to extract the rest of it). An inch or so a day; the worm may be two, three, or even four feet long. The man will be at this business of slow extraction for weeks, slowly winching the Guinea worm out. He will be unable to work for three months. Victims without medical help may be crippled by the secondary infections.
The eggs the worm releases into the water hatch and are eaten by microscopic crustaceans called copepods. People accidentally consume these in drinking water. A copepod can't withstand the rigors of the human digestive tract, but the larval Guinea worm can. It burrows through the stomach or intestine to take up residence in the abdominal cavity. When full grown, the worms mate, the male dies, and the female finds her way to the surface of the body, usually on the feet or lower legs. The human body may announce her travels with a fever just before the blister erupts.

from The Book of Deadly Animals

Keith Goes Mad

Check out my favorite actor Keith Sellon-Wright on Mad Men Sunday night. Keith is also the narrator for The Book of Deadly Animals. Now that he’s back from this latest TV gig, he’ll be going to work on an audio version of The Red Hourglass.

Wildlife Classics: Wildebeest

by JH Patterson

I saw a herd of wildebeeste, and with much care managed to get within three hundred yards of them. I singled out the biggest head and waiting for a favourable moment, fired at him, dropping him at once. I ran up to the fallen beast, which appeared to be dying, and told Mahina to drive the hunting knife right through his heart so as to put him quickly out of all pain. As Mahina was not doing this as skilfully or as quickly as I thought it might be done, and seemed unable to pierce the tough hide, I handed him my rifle and took the knife in order to do it myself. Just as I raised the knife to strike, I was startled by the wildebeeste suddenly jumping to his feet. For a moment he stood looking at me in a dazed and tottery kind of way, and then to my amazement he turned and made off. At first he moved with such a shaky and uncertain gait that I felt confident that he could only go a few yards before dropping; so, as I did not wish to disturb the other game around us by firing a second shot, I thought it best just to wait. To my utter astonishment, however, after he had staggered for about sixty yards he seemed to revive suddenly, broke into his ordinary gallop and quickly rejoined the herd. From that time I lost all trace of him, though I followed up for four or five miles.
My friend Rawson about this time had an experience very similar to mine, but attended with more serious results. He had knocked his wildebeeste over in much the same way, and thought it was dead; and as he was very keen on obtaining photographs of game, he took his stand-camera from the Indian who carried it and proceeded to focus it on the animal's head. When he was just about to take the picture, he was thunderstruck to see the wildebeeste jump up and come charging down upon him. He sprang quickly aside, and in an instant up went the camera into the air, followed the next moment by the unfortunate Indian, the wildebeeste having stuck its horn right through the man's thigh and tossed him over its back. Fortunately the brute fell dead after this final effort, leaving Rawson grateful for his escape.