[thechat] animals

[Andrew Forsberg]

How about spiders?

I'm fairly sure the spiders on 'arachnophobia' were NZ Avondale 
spiders. Totally harmless, I'm told.

Recently discovered I am highly allergic to one particular type of 
venom: that which comes from an enormous black spider that lives in 
our garage / woodpiles. Grrr. Didn't even feel the bite -- wandered 
around for a few months with a massive black lump on my pinky's 
knuckle. I shit you not, couldn't bend the thing for a good three 
months. It was most embarrassing, as I was teaching at a tech at the 
time, and students and co-workers would stare at my hand while I was 
demonstrating something on the screen. Nothing like weird, infected / 
infectious looking wounds to help you feel like a mutant.

AFAIK, the kiwis are ok. There's a bit of a problem with domestic 
cats in rural areas, and wild cats of course, and everyone has always 
had it in for the possums. The main problem is some bird-sanctuary 
island called something or other (doh -- you can tell I'll have the 
facts straight :-) where there were no rats, possums, or cats until a 
few years back, and I think DOC found a few traces of them recently.


>Doh!
>
>Sorry Andrew - you are right on the money!  Rats!  I was rambling about
>Australian animals and animal export laws.
>
>My bad,
>
>RonL.
>
>(Who actually does pretty good in the 'science and nature' and 'arts and
>literature' categories ... and is all too often tripped up by
>'Geography' ... and often 'History'... <shrug />)
>
>
>Hmmm ... I THINK I read a nice article (in National G) recently
>suggesting a downturn in the Kiwi bird population ... it was only a
>suggestion, however, due to the problems in trying to research those
>crafty little buggers!

-- 
Andrew Forsberg
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