Mighty Mite!

Posted December 5, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animals, rare animal
Tags:

– – It’s about the size of a peanut, but its sting can kill you…the Irukandji jellyfish, that is.– Well, it seems that a 29-year-old Australian man was in the waters Thursday off northeast Queensland state, and as a precaution was wearing a full-length “stinger suit,” which protects everything but the hands, face, and feet.   Naturally, the jellyfish immediately stung him in the face! A relative of the widely-feared box jellyfish, the sting of the Irukandji can kill an adult within two minutes, is virtually impossible to see, and is tiny enough to pass through nets meant to keep jellyfish away from popular swimming spots.

There is no antivenom, and the sting can cause blood pressure to soar to 280 over 180, leading to heart failure.   Other symptoms of “Irukandji syndrome” include shooting pains in the muscles and chest, vomiting, restlessness, and anxiety.   Symptoms can last for more than a week.

The swimmer is in serious condition at a hospital intensive care unit…



Comments: 4 Comments

– -Stonehenge “Rocks!”

Posted December 4, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: historical perspectives, mysteries, television, unexplained
Tags: ,

– – Stonehenge is freakin’ awesome!- -I’d like to be buried there…preferably after I’m dead, of course.   A recent MysteryQuest episode considered the purpose of Stonehenge, advancing a theory that sound reverberations inside the ancient English circle of stones induced a trance-like state among participants in rituals held there.  Other theories promoted in the past have considered Stonehenge as a shrine to a god, an ancient solar calendar, or even a sacrificial altar for an unknown pagan religion.

Now we all enjoy throbbing bass rhythms, and the dudes in England 4,000 years ago were no exception!  Wailing on drums around the perimeter of Stonehenge reverbs nicely against those ancient stone monoliths, and grooving on this boots up the old alpha rhythms in your brain, which has been shown neurologically to promote slipping into a trance-like state; think Woodstock 2000 B.C.!   Pretty soon you think you’re rapping with a deity, or at least some dead ancestors.–Far out!–Works for me!

The notion of human sacrifices was discounted by MysteryQuest as an infrequent occurrence, although remains of one poor devil on site called “the archer” revealed that he was used as a human pincushion and punctured with quite a few arrows; that could ruin your whole day!

The episode was in my opinion one of the better ones of this series so far, and I’m up to form a drum circle at Stonehenge if you are…have your people call mine…      😉

Comments: 4 Comments

Gollum-Like Creature Found…

Posted December 3, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, strange happenings, things humans do
Tags:

– – Here at  Foxsylvania, we spend much of our time looking for disgusting and unidentifiable creatures washed up on the shore which might be aliens, monsters, cryptids, or perhaps my old supervisor. It was then regarded as quite a find when this loathsome-looking thing was found by teenagers last September feebly crawling out of a cave in a town while they were playing in  Cerro Azul north of Panama City.

–Well, they did what kids anywhere would do, namely beat it to death with sticks and then threw its lifeless body into a pool of water!   This neatly does away with the need for health insurance or a retirement plan for unidentified life forms.

Regarded by some as a cousin to the Montauk Monster, the creature was later pretty conclusively identified as a hairless sloth, whose last impressions of humans were probably not favorable…and what will those kids say when Santa asks them if they’ve been good?


Comments: 3 Comments

Poaching Goes On…

Posted December 2, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, deplorable practices, furry
Tags: ,

– – I’m not talking about cooking eggs here, but rather the illegal hunting of rare and endangered animals protected by law, often just for a body part such as their hide or the ivory of elephants.

In a three month operation, African authorities in Nairobi, Kenya seized over 3,800 pounds of illegally-taken elephant ivory, together with leopard, crocodile, and snake skins.   Poaching has increased in Kenya in the past two years, with more than 216 elephants killed illegally this year compared to 47 in 2007.

The elephant populations of many African nations were being decimated until a global ban on the ivory trade was implemented in 1989.   In 1973 an estimated 167,000 elephants roamed Kenya, with their population dropping to 16,000 in 1989.  Since the ban on the ivory trade, the Kenya elephant population has grown to 35,000 this year…

Comments: 2 Comments

Deer Season…

Posted December 1, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, deplorable practices, furry
Tags: ,

– – It’s the first day of Pennsylvania’s twelve day deer season as I write, and I had originally planned on posting a disturbing picture of a shot and bloodied deer, the true result of what is euphemistically called, “the harvest.”  We ain’t talking about heads of cabbage here…but I must accept what I can’t change.

Instead, I will fantasize about a revenge for the antlered, that a mighty champion might arise to turn the tables on the hunters.  I will pray for a Rambuck, since turnabout is fair play…“God would have mercy on them, ‘Rambuck’ will not…”

Pray for the prey…

Comments: 5 Comments

–Diver Dan!

Posted November 30, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, scalies, television
Tags: ,

– – Kid’s shows used to have special effects that weren’t terribly special.  Take, for example, Diver Dan, a cheesy black and white show from the early 1960’s that was shot through a large fish tank with the human cast simply on the other side of the tank acting out their scenes! Diver Dan wore a clunky old-style deep sea diving suit, and talked to anthropomorphic fish-marionettes that floated by.- -Here, Diver Dan is shown with the affable Finley.

Some of the fish characters were a hoot, however, and included the evil Baron Barracuda with his sidekick, Trigger Fish, who was usually shown smoking a cigarette!  Don’t ask me how he managed to get it to stay lit underwater…they were innocent and politically incorrect times, anyhow…  

Comments: 2 Comments

Camel Chaos!

Posted November 29, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animal oddities, animals, environmental, strange happenings
Tags:

– – And you thought that Joe Camel was bad?- -About 6.000 feral camels are rampaging through a remote Australian town, causing chaos and terrifying the 330 or so locals! The community of Docker River is said by the Northern Territory government to be “under siege!”  Apparently the surreal situation began about four weeks ago with 25 or 30 camels, but more and more continued to arrive, looking for water.  On a number of occasions, the camels have barged into people’s homes, tearing up bathrooms and ripping apart water pipes!   At least Joe Camel only peddled carcinogens.

The camels are part of a wild herd of over a million camels which roam the central Australian desert.  They are the descendants of camels introduced to the country in the 19th century when white settlers built roads and rail across the Outback, and used camels for transportation.   They were set free afterwards, and have been breeding and multiplying ever since.  With few natural predators and abundant land in which to roam, the camel population has soared, putting pressure on  native species by reducing food resources, destroying habitat, and spreading disease.

Sadly, the camels will be culled, rounded up to be taken out of town and shot.   It is said that the camel population needs to be reduced by about two-thirds to reduce catastrophic damage…a sad testimonial to what can happen when humans introduce non-native species to a fragile ecosystem…

Comments: 2 Comments

Bizarre Calf Mutilations!

Posted November 28, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animals, mysteries, strange happenings, unexplained
Tags:

– -A creepy string of calf mutilations in southern Colorado has a rancher and sheriff’s officials mystified.  Four calves were found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks; the dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage.  One even had its tongue removed…

There were no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks.  Additionally, there were no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion, which usually leave pools of blood or drag marks from carrying off their prey.

There have been other unexplained calf mutilations in the area, including three last March.  One of the other calves, found dead on a ranch near Trinidad, had its ears removed…

…some,  of course, believe that the mutilations are the work of aliens, and a UFO chaser has been to the Costilla County pasture to investigate.  The truth is out there!

Comments: 4 Comments

Turkeys and T-Rex…

Posted November 27, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, cool things, evolution, science
Tags:

– – Dinosaurs, like turkeys, had a wishbone, called a furcula.–I love that name so much I wish I had one, too…fur-cula! It was really the fusion of two collarbones at the sternum, where a bird’s flying muscles link up.  It’s elastic and great for flying.

Turns out that T-Rex and the Velociraptor had wishbones, too.  While they of course didn’t fly*, this discovery is one of the many bits of evidence that shows birds evolved from dinosaurs!

(*Wouldn’t a flying Velociraptor be extremely cool, though?)

– –Happy Thanksgiving from Foxsylvania, BTW!

Comments: 4 Comments

Animal Sacrifice…

Posted November 26, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal rights, animals, deplorable practices, things humans do
Tags: ,

– – Note: This is a potentially upsetting topic not for young viewers. Animal sacrifice is sadly not just an Old Testament thing…it continues to exist in the 21st century.

–Where?–In places like Nepal, where over 200,000 buffalo, goats, chickens, and pigeons were to be sacrificed earlier this week in a ritual to honor Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.  The festival is held every five years, and while criticized by animal rights groups, the festival is defended as a centuries-old tradition.  Animal rights groups carry little power in Nepal…

Animal sacrifice, in contrast,  has a long history in Nepal and parts of neighboring India…

Comments: 5 Comments

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »