Gordon Grice's Blog, page 67

What Is This?: The Sequel--Answers

Answers to Wednesday's quiz, in which I asked the immortal question, What the heck is this stuff? Photography by Nik Nimbus.


1. Ice




2. Spider web coated with pollen.




3. Magpie's feather.




 4.Wings of a damselfly




5. Rhubarb leaf.



6. Tree sap.

Leopard Attacks Pregnant Woman

Two people, including a pregnant woman, have been hurt by a leopard in the same Indian city that has witnessed two other  attacks within a month. A total of nine people were injured in the attacks, one fatally. 


Akila Bibi: Pregnant woman, 20s, suffers horrific injuries in leopard attack in India's Guwahati | Mail Online: "Moziz Haq suffered head injuries.


Speaking from his hospital bed, he told AFP news agency: 'It was a thumping, slap-like feeling and I fell on the ground with blood splattered all over me'.


The animal was later tranquilised by forest officials and taken to a city zoo."

Related Post: Earlier Leopard Attack

Hawk Eats Squirrel

Dee photographed this hawk in predatory action in the middle of the city. 















Photography by Dee Puett.

What Is This?: The Sequel

By popular demand, more of Nik Nimbus's amazing photos of the textures of living things. How many can you figure out?


Nik, by the way, has a new radio show, which I recommend highly. It's full of psychedelic sounds from bands like Evil Edna's Horror Toilet. I hadn't heard of Evil Edna's Horror Toilet, but it's easily the best named band in history. I'll be listening for more from them, as well as the Ullulators, Webcore, and Nik's own legendary band, Here and Now. 


1.



2.


3.



 4.



5.


6.

(Answers will appear Sunday.)

Sedaris Recommends Book of Deadly Animals

From David Sedaris's Facebook page:


David will be suggesting the book "The Book of Deadly Animals" by Gordon Grice as his next "Recommended Book" on his spring 2012 tour. Get a jump on your reading!

A Rash of Jellyfish in New Zealand

Biusch/Creative Commons

On the beaches of New Zealand, swimmers have lately been troubled by hordes of larval thimble jellyfish. I wrote about these troublesome critters in The Book of Deadly Animals:

The larvae of this jellyfish are popularly called sea lice, but they are not related to the tiny crustaceans of that name. Though microscopic, thimble larvae cause a rash which sometimes endures for weeks and brings on secondary infections. The larvae generally sting only when trapped by clothing, a habit which concentrates the stings in the areas of the body covered by the swimsuit. (I pause a moment to let you take in the implications.) The larvae can survive dried out for months. Some people have found themselves attacked all over again when they put on the swimming gear they peeled off and hung to dry the summer before.

As the article linked below mentions, some beaches have been troubled by more formidable cnidarians (as jellyfish and their relatives are called). The portuguese man-o'-war (pictured above) is one such relative, a colony that behaves like a single animal. Its stings are, on rare occasions, fatal.


Jellyfish invade Auckland beaches - National - NZ Herald News:

"A similar outbreak of sea bather's eruption occurred last February as La Nina's warm currents encouraged the spread of the jellyfish on eastern Auckland beaches.
The larvae are usually found in warm, still water and are rarely a problem at beaches with heavy surf, such as Piha.
Dr Baker said the only sure-fire way to avoid the rash was to not swim at affected beaches. But swimmers could lessen their risk by not wearing large, baggy clothing and by removing their togs on leaving the water.
Last month, thousands of jellyfish washed up on Wellington's south coast beaches, including the dangerous bluebottle or Pacific man o' war, sparking warnings from authorities.
And a swarm of bluebottles, including one with 2.5-metre-long tentacles, closed Oreti Beach, near Invercargill, this month."

Related Posts:
Giant Jellyfish Attacks New Hampshire
Diana Nyad vs. The Cnidarians[image error]

Bird-Eating Spiders

by guest writer J. Rodney Karr


for Maria Merian
Suriname 1692


Maria mixes reds inside sketched wings
of Rufous hummingbirds, thickens a line
on cylindrical tongues. Guyanan sun
shades pulps of unknown fruits that color four
brown spinnerets still wet enough to smear.
She has watched for hours whistling loops
and light ascensions to delicate nests
in spurge trees. Science is art. The sun gleams
from ruddish feathers puffed in display
and gilds the hairs upon the spider's legs.
But there is no death within this sunlight,
only truth. The bird and spider now join
beneath the palm bark brush, within the branch
beneath Maria's eye where nothing moves
except the hummingbird's eye's eventual light
and color and her mind's eye, color, light.


Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium,
her life's work, translated from the Dutch,
is scrutinized beneath thought and eye, disbelieved
until an Australian zoologist
explores the Amazon. A woman's mind
cannot be trusted. The scientist sees
a tiny bird within the light that moved
centuries before within Maria.
He sees the sudden brown dash, the flinch,
the fang's repeated insertions to liquefy
the viscera, then the bird quickly dragged away.
Within his book he writes in praise of God
the sun in its exactness never lies.


This poem first appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review.
Painting by Maria Merian.

Handling a Black Widow Spider

Beautiful video by Thomas Shahan.

Bull Shark Kills Swimmer in South Africa

SaCaDeLik/Creative Commons


Zambezi shark is another name for the bull shark (Carcharhinusleucas).


Zambezi Shark Attacks, Kills Swimmer in South Africa - Animal Attack - ubAlert:

"A swimmer from Port St. Johns was attacked by a shark and fought with it for five minutes using his surf board. Unfortunately, the shark severely injured him in both arms and in the chest. "

Australia: Scrub Python Attacks Toddler

Mike/Creative Commons
Australia: Python Attacks Toddler, As Snake Tries To Suffocate Him | World News | Sky News:

"The child's mother said she heard the boy's "blood-curdling scream" and went to help but was unable to pull the snake off him.

Neighbours heard the mother cries and eventually freed the two-year-old victim.

The boy suffered four bite wounds after being attacked as he played with a ball in his back garden in Port Douglas.

The snake, which was not poisonous, bit his leg before looping itself around his body, his mother told the local Cairns Post newspaper."

Thanks to Croconut for the news tip.