[thechat] animals
Andrew Forsberg
andrew at thepander.co.nz
Fri Sep 28 22:00:55 CDT 2001
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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