Australia's Deadliest. Thanks for the Fosters beer and the Body Bag.

reply to post by The_Seeker


OMG, does the dingo come close to people?

I can't help thinking about Lindy Chamberlain - do you think the dingo took her baby, really?

An awesome read Zazzy, Steve was a good man indeed and I thoroughly enjoyed the read!

Thought I might add a couple more critters to the list as well.

Firstly an angry little blighter who unfortunately is slowly dying out due to disease and land clearing, the Tasmanian Devil.

And although a kangaroo may seem harmless, corner a big male and he will tear shreds out of you, as will many of our large lizards such as the goanna and race horse lizard.

I've seen a group of tourists circle a large goanna to take photos in the Kimberley a few years ago, the goanna had nowhere to go but up, tore the poor tourist to shreds! The wounds also get infected quickly too.
Very nasty.

Again, awesome thread zaz!

Originally posted by OzWeatherman
Another thing many people dont know is that the male platypus is venemous. It has a couple of spurs behind each ankle. Its is strong enough to kill small animals such as dogs or foxes, but the toxin is not lethal to humans. However it can be extremely painful if someone is "stung" by one

Cheeky little buggers arent they?

But theyre cute and in Blinky Bill Books, lol ive never heard that!!!! Gosh im a tourist here.

The scariest creature in all of Australia to me is the funnel web spider. That is one mean looking spider and deadly.

reply to post by zazzafrazz


hi there zazz,

you left out this little guy, irukandji, a jelly fish that is likely one of the deadliest creatures on earth, pound for pound



en.wikipedia.org...

Hey great thread here.
It's so easy to forget just how many dangerous beasties we share our home with.
Even our birds can be dangerous, I nearly got torn open by an emu kick once. As for our snakes, I've been bitten by an Eastern Brown in Victoria and a King Brown in New South Wales. The latter had me in a coma for a day and a half.
Dingoes are not really a problem as they are fairly timid. I've heard of the occasional bitten tourist at Ularu or Fraser Island but it's usually just a nip from behind. I've slept out in the open with dingoes around and it wasn't a concern.
I find the red back spider everywhere around my place. Thankfullt I've never been bitten by the Aussie relative of the black widow though.
When camping the worst danger comes from the trees of course. The infamous drop bears take out more campers and tourists than all the rest of the beasties combined. Of course because of our National tourism policy we cant share that info with our overseas friends, but they find out soon enough after they get here.
Cheers, and stay safe! Crikey!

reply to post by Chadwickus


ty Chaddy!
Your claws on Aussie Hugh look pretty mean too, IS Wolverine a native?
Now regarding the Tassie Devil, they are dangerous to humans?
I didnt know that either.
Its sad how they are dying out from that cancer. I understand they have found one in captivity with a natural resistance to the disease, I hope they can find a cure for it. They bite each other whilst mating and thats how they transfer the killer disease.

Originally posted by punkinworks
reply to post by zazzafrazz

 

hi there zazz,

you left out this little guy, irukandji, a jelly fish that is likely one of the deadliest creatures on earth, pound for pound

en.wikipedia.org...

Are you kidding me is that how small the Irukandji is? I didnt know it was a killer till today....someone give me a British passport!!!lol
I dont deserve to be an aussie.
They get through the stinger nets, Damn that small. IS there a anti venom for it?

[edit on 5-10-2009 by zazzafrazz]

Excellent thread,my grandparents went over to oz to check the place out in the hope of emigrating in 50's,they only stayed a few weeks due to all the beasties ie spiders etc,i thought our horrible house spiders and daddy long legs were bad but those funnel webs would make me plop my kegs if i saw one in my back garden,thank god we don't have such nastys in uk unless you count scorpions and a black widow lookalike which came over as illegals from cargo ships.

Originally posted by Dragon33

Even our birds can be dangerous, I nearly got torn open by an emu kick once. As for our snakes, I've been bitten by an Eastern Brown in Victoria and a King Brown in New South Wales. The latter had me in a coma for a day and a half.

'

Yep, my sister had a emu kick and a roo kick on the same day...lol
poor bugger isnt good with animals nowadays.

Thank goodness your OK after the brown bite. Coma for a day and a half, sounds like they got o you in time.
Zazz

reply to post by spellbound

LOL Mate they really dont stalk you, was just poking fun.
In fact they, are in general, like a normal dog. Quite harmless, on the most part.
They are renowned for their scavenging, and for being a pest. But like any wild animal, will do what they need if they feel threatened.
Lindy's case was very extreme to say the least.

hehehe great thread
Just yesterday my 2yo lad nearly sat on a Redback Spider in the main st of Perth, But I think with the contents of his nappy at the time the poor spider would have come out worse off.. stopped him in time and put the poor spider in a tree..
(not with my bare hands.. that would have been silly, scooped her up on a bit of paper)

reply to post by The_Seeker


You Ozzies are one of a kind - just like your beasties!

But I am a bit scared of dogs and therefore dingoes. I would really like to know if you believe that happened.

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Am from Tassie, and they dont harm humans, they are only small critters,no bigger than say a small poodle. Plus they dont like fresh flesh. I spose if you got bitten it woud kill you, sorta like a comono dragon bite..healthy...but they avoid humans. The thing that is reall really scary about them is their calls. Its like a bashee or the devil incarnate coming to get you.
And its fantastic that they found one with an immunity, I recall hearing that a little bit ago. Lets hope all goes well.
One animal that was native to Tassie was the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger.
www.naturalworlds.org...

reply to post by spellbound


Yes I do believe it happened, but as I said that was and EXTREME EXTREME NEVER KNOW TO HAPPEN BEFORE case. So dont worry really.

reply to post by The_Seeker


I really hope that little scary animal survives!

It seems to me that Oz has the most prehistoric animals, and the most prehistoric people - JK - but you Ozzies and your animals are defintely one of a kind.

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Hi zazz,
no there is no anti venom for irukandji.
On a discovery channel special about irukandji, both of the scientists studying them were stung during the course of shooting the documentary, they both survived but the woman spent two weeks in the hospital, suffering body wide indescribable pain.
they were lucky and knew what stung them and got to the hospital immediately.

reply to post by spellbound



Ahhhh gotta love our backward (and I have been told we are backward), dont fit in the same square as the norm culture.

reply to post by Dragon33


wow i thought the black widow was a western us thing, they are very common here where i live, i kill one almost every day


i have been bitten by a black widow and it was no fun at all

my entire body was racked with the most intense pain for several hours
it was much worse than a scorpion sting, but very similar.
I have also been bitten by a brown recluse

en.wikipedia.org...

it caused a hole in my hamstring about 1/2" in dia all the way to the bone, that took several weeks to heal.

reply to post by punkinworks


So they kill you?
Its venom must paralyse nerves and shut down respiratory. Yikes