Gordon Grice's Blog, page 99
February 5, 2011
Return of the Dobsonfly
After a recent post about dobsonflies, my friend Conrad phoned to confirm that these insects do indeed bite.
Some years ago, Conrad was camping with friends in Arkansas. He woke to a stinging pain in his hand. The flashlight showed a dobsonfly about four inches long clamped to the flesh between his thumb and forefinger. Except that he'd never seen a dobsonfly, so it actually appeared to be some denizen of Hell. Conrad pried it off and attacked it with his hunting knife. The action must have been pretty wild, because Conrad immediately lost track of the thing. A careful search with flashlights revealed neither the living creature nor any body parts.
He didn't get much sleep the rest of the night.
January 31, 2011
Big Rattlesnake . . . but not that big
Got another of those hoax emails that seem to be circulating all the time. This one purports to show a giant rattlesnake captured in the St. Augustine area. Supposedly the snake was 15 feet long and "could easily swallow a two-year-old child."
The snake and the photos are real, according to Snopes.com, but the angles exaggerate the size. In reality, the Eastern diamondback rattler rarely exceeds eight feet. No rattlesnake has ever swallowed a human child. For Deadly Kingdom, I searched hard for any verifiable cases of snakes eating people--and came up empty. Big constricting snakes, such as Burnese pythons, have occasionally killed people, but without swallowing them afterward. In every case, the snake was a captive specimen.
Real rattlesnakes can be dangerous, of course, but more often things turn out as this case did: humans scared, snake dead.
My video on rattlesnakes:
The snake and the photos are real, according to Snopes.com, but the angles exaggerate the size. In reality, the Eastern diamondback rattler rarely exceeds eight feet. No rattlesnake has ever swallowed a human child. For Deadly Kingdom, I searched hard for any verifiable cases of snakes eating people--and came up empty. Big constricting snakes, such as Burnese pythons, have occasionally killed people, but without swallowing them afterward. In every case, the snake was a captive specimen. Real rattlesnakes can be dangerous, of course, but more often things turn out as this case did: humans scared, snake dead.
My video on rattlesnakes:
January 28, 2011
January 26, 2011
Victim's scars, medical bills replay horrors of chimp attack
A detailed article about a chimpanzee attack from last year in Florida.Victim's scars, medical bills replay horrors of chimp attack - St. Petersburg Times
January 24, 2011
Coyote attacks Halifax meter reader
In Nova Scotia, a meter reader ran into a coyote and her young--and got bitten. His coat stopped the bite from breaking skin. A passerby unleashed his German shepherd, which chased the coyotes away. Details:
CBC News - Nova Scotia - Coyote attacks Halifax meter reader
Possibly the coyote felt her young were in danger.
January 22, 2011
Dobsonfly
We went fishing the first morning. I felt the same damp moss covering the worms in the bait can, and saw the dragonfly alight on the tip of my rod as it hovered a few inches from the surface of the water. It was the arrival of this fly that convinced me beyond any doubt that everything was as it had always been, that the years were a mirage and that there had been no years. The small waves were the same, chucking the rowboat under the chin as we fished at anchor, and the boat was the same boat, the same color green and the ribs broken in the same places, and under the floorboards the same fresh-water leavings and debris--the dead hellgrammite, the wisps of moss, the rusty discarded fishhook, and the dried blood from yesterday's catch.
E. B. White
"Once More to the Lake"
This is one of the great nature essays, in my opinion. But when I first read it, I had to wonder: What the heck's helgramite?
I looked up the answer and then forgot it, but living in Wisconsin has made me much more interested in helgramite, the aquatic larvae of the dobsonfly. You see them in ponds and rivers, these wriggling segmented things that eat other buggy things in the water. They're used for bait. I've read that they sometimes bite unwary fisherman.
It was the adults that really impressed me, though. We caught one somewhere or other and, after looking it over, decided it would make a good meal for our beloved pet toad, Soil. Soil didn't agree. He retreated from the much smaller creature as far as he could, shrinking into himself. The dobsonfly climbed onto Soil's head and bit him. Soil twitched and clawed at himself, but didn't try to run any further. It almost seemed as if he were willing to sit there and be eaten like the pudding he resembled. We were forced to rescue him.
A couple of years later, we were headed into the library one evening when we saw what appeared to be a dragon guarding the door handle. We hid behind the car, but since it only milled around flexing its wings, we approached and made the capture. By tossing a ruler into its jar, we found that it measured five inches. We took a few photos of this monster. This is a male, which, my reading tells me, has mandibles meant for clasping his mate. Supposedly they are too large and unwieldy to use for biting. There's mention, though, of a stinging repugnatorial fluid sprayed from the rear. I took no chances: I kept my hands to myself. Parker also photographed this big male for his slideshow "Wildlife Close to Home." I've run that show here before, but for those who haven't had a chance to see it, here's the rerun.
January 19, 2011
January 17, 2011
Zoo worker loses fingers in chimp attack
Another case of chimps biting off human body parts. This one sounds minor compared to some of the chimpanzee incidents reported here and in Deadly Kingdom.
Neb. zoo worker loses fingers in chimp attack - News, Weather and Sports for Sioux City, IA: KCAU-TV.com
January 16, 2011
Keeper killed by elephant
Purdue grad killed in elephant accident
A keeper has died from internal injuries after an African elephant leaned against her. This is not an uncommon way for captive elephants to kill. Some sources are painting this as an accident, while at least one claims the elephant refused to release the woman.
January 14, 2011
Leopard injures six people
A leopard wandered into the Indian town of Karad, where it was accosted by crowds of frightened people. At least six people were injured. Police tried to control the animal with clubs, but were forced to shoot it when it appeared on the verge of killing a 42-year-old man.
Mumbai Mirror - Mumbai Mirror
