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Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Monday, 30 July 2012

The Antarctic sponge
The absolute granddaddy of all long lived creatures on earth are the Antarctic sponges.  Just because the environment in which they exist is so cold and hostile, these remarkable creatures have evolved to grow unbelievably slowly, so much so that scientists firmly believe that at least  one specimen has lived for no less than 1,550 years. Research is jut beginning to reveal that these ancient organisms may well be hiding medicinal secrets that could answer many of the questions posed by modern heath officials. 


The Lamellibrachia Tube Worms
Colorful and extremely strange tube worms are found in deep sea waters, the most famous of them in the Gulf of Mexico, between 1500 and 2500 ft below the surface. Reaching 10 ft in length, and growing at very slow rates indeed, individuals can easily live over 250 years. Large groups, comprising up to several thousand individual worms, are the usual occurrence, with perhaps 100 different species gathered in the one place. Many are found only at these locations, known as seeps, where hydrocarbon vents, found on the ocean floor, spew out the minerals on which they feed.


The Giant Tortoise
Currently believed to be the longest living vertebrate on the planet, the Giant Tortoise is an amazing creature. An example known as Harriet, rumored to have been captured by Charles Darwin himself, was 176 years old, when died in an Australian zoo in 2006. Another specimen, of the  Aldabra species, also passed away in March 2006, and is thought to have been 255 years old at that time. The Aldabra are the only species remaining in the wild, less than twenty specimens on the Galapagos islands, of a creature with a history going back at least 250 million years.. 


The tantalising Tuatara
Considered to be living fossils, or even the last of the dinosaurs Tuataras have been flourishing for at least  200 million years, as a species, and are undoubtedly among the longest-living vertebrates on the planet. One captive Tuatara, known to be at least 111 years old, recently fathered its first egg, and there are suggestions that these animals can get to 200 years of age. Greenish brown in colour, measuring up to 30 in. in length, and weigh up to 3lbs., Tuataras have spiny crests along thier backs,  male ones being more pronounced. Two rows of upper jaw teeth overlap the one lower jaw  row, a feature unique amongst all living species. These unusual creatures also possess  a paretal eye, thought to be used in judging the cycle of the seasons.


The Geoduck or Saltwater Clam
A very popular seafood in the USA and around the world comes in the form of Clams, but Geoducks,  or Saltwater Clams, are actually among the longest living creatures on the planet, having a life expectancy averaging 146 years,  though there has been one recorded as being 160 years of age. It is thought that they live so long because of low wear and tear on their bodies.


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Nature

Some Really Long Living Creatures Compared To Us

Unknown  |  at  11:50

The Antarctic sponge
The absolute granddaddy of all long lived creatures on earth are the Antarctic sponges.  Just because the environment in which they exist is so cold and hostile, these remarkable creatures have evolved to grow unbelievably slowly, so much so that scientists firmly believe that at least  one specimen has lived for no less than 1,550 years. Research is jut beginning to reveal that these ancient organisms may well be hiding medicinal secrets that could answer many of the questions posed by modern heath officials. 


The Lamellibrachia Tube Worms
Colorful and extremely strange tube worms are found in deep sea waters, the most famous of them in the Gulf of Mexico, between 1500 and 2500 ft below the surface. Reaching 10 ft in length, and growing at very slow rates indeed, individuals can easily live over 250 years. Large groups, comprising up to several thousand individual worms, are the usual occurrence, with perhaps 100 different species gathered in the one place. Many are found only at these locations, known as seeps, where hydrocarbon vents, found on the ocean floor, spew out the minerals on which they feed.


The Giant Tortoise
Currently believed to be the longest living vertebrate on the planet, the Giant Tortoise is an amazing creature. An example known as Harriet, rumored to have been captured by Charles Darwin himself, was 176 years old, when died in an Australian zoo in 2006. Another specimen, of the  Aldabra species, also passed away in March 2006, and is thought to have been 255 years old at that time. The Aldabra are the only species remaining in the wild, less than twenty specimens on the Galapagos islands, of a creature with a history going back at least 250 million years.. 


The tantalising Tuatara
Considered to be living fossils, or even the last of the dinosaurs Tuataras have been flourishing for at least  200 million years, as a species, and are undoubtedly among the longest-living vertebrates on the planet. One captive Tuatara, known to be at least 111 years old, recently fathered its first egg, and there are suggestions that these animals can get to 200 years of age. Greenish brown in colour, measuring up to 30 in. in length, and weigh up to 3lbs., Tuataras have spiny crests along thier backs,  male ones being more pronounced. Two rows of upper jaw teeth overlap the one lower jaw  row, a feature unique amongst all living species. These unusual creatures also possess  a paretal eye, thought to be used in judging the cycle of the seasons.


The Geoduck or Saltwater Clam
A very popular seafood in the USA and around the world comes in the form of Clams, but Geoducks,  or Saltwater Clams, are actually among the longest living creatures on the planet, having a life expectancy averaging 146 years,  though there has been one recorded as being 160 years of age. It is thought that they live so long because of low wear and tear on their bodies.


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The Yeti Crab
The only recently discovered Yeti Crab, long, furry appendages sticking from it that look for all the world  like a sea sloth of some variety, was found during a deep-sea diving expedition in 2006, inhabiting the Pacific Ocean floor, so completely unknown to biologists that a complete new taxonomic family group had to be named to include it. Yeti Crabs are blind and white, their fur supporting colonies of bacteria , as it thrives in the warm waters close by hydrothermal vents, 7,500 ft below the waves.


The Almiqui Solenodon
Until 2003, when the creature was rediscovered in the eastern mountains of Cuba, the Almiqui was believed extinct, by naturalists, for several decades. Belonging in the family group of the Haitian Solenodon, the Almiqui has unusual feature, among mammals,  having saliva which is venomous. Not been seen since 1977, there was great delight when a farmer found a live specimen in 2003. Discovered during the 19th century, and only sighted thirty-six times in 150 years, this creature was highly elusive. The wholesale felling of rainforest decimated all Solenodon populations, and pet dogs, along with house cats, accounted for many more, though it now seems they are slowly coming back.


The Giant Isopod
One of the most disgusting bugs you may never actually see is the truly horrid looking Giant Isopod. Appearing for all the world to be a real-life, pig size cockroach the isopod is in reality related to shrimp and crabs, and a crustacean. Scavengers that feast on the bodies of dead creatures , they wander around the sea floor between 600 and 7,000ft down in the oceans, feasting mainly on dead fish, squid and whale.


The Sao Tome Shrew
Very rarely seen by any human, the  species known as the São Tomé shrew remains very much a mystery, detailed information on appearance and habits very scarce. A male of this species was caught in 1982,almost a full century after it was firs known of their existence.. This secretive mammal was described as having a body covered in dark brown fur,  with long, pink tail, pink feet, and hind legs long enough to be used for both jumping or climbing With rather small, dark eyes, half hidden by facial fur, and large, forward facing ears, the Almiqui has an unusually long snout, surrounded by  pale whiskers 


The Mola Mola/Sunfish
Mola mola, as it is known in native language, but which we would call the Sunfish, is the heaviest in the world as far as bony fish go, averaging as adults 1,000 kg in weight. These behemoths exist by eating mainly jellyfish, but this nutritionally poor prey animal must be consumed in large amounts, if the Sunfish are to develop and maintain their enormous bodies. Females produce more eggs, at one time, than any other vertebrate known on earth. Unfortunately for these magnificent creatures, over-fishing, and a terrible proliferation of plastic waste, often consumed by them in error, causes far too many to expire prematurely, so the species is highly endangered. 


The Long beaked Echidna
Long-beaked echidnas are neither anteater nor porcupine, instead being very rare, egg-laying mammals, only known to exist in Papua New Guinea. A relative of the platypus, this nocturnal creature spends virtually all its time underground, using the tubular  snout in the hunt  for prey such as worms or insect larvae. Soft foods are the only option, because the echidna does not possess teeth. Hatchlings,  known as ‘puggles’, reside in a sticky pouch on the mothers underside, receiving milk from mammary patches. 


The Longeared Jeboa
The nocturnal, mouse-like Long-eared Jerboa, shaped rather like a tiny kangaroo,  employs an elongated tail, and powerful hind legs, for jumping, both as transport mode and escape mechanism. This highly endangered rodent is found only in the remote parts of the Mongolian Gobi desert, having ears 33% larger than its head, to better listen for prey eating mainly insects. It is the only species of its genus, making it not only rare but extraordinary.


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Nature

Some Truly Weird Animal Species

Unknown  |  at  10:29

The Yeti Crab
The only recently discovered Yeti Crab, long, furry appendages sticking from it that look for all the world  like a sea sloth of some variety, was found during a deep-sea diving expedition in 2006, inhabiting the Pacific Ocean floor, so completely unknown to biologists that a complete new taxonomic family group had to be named to include it. Yeti Crabs are blind and white, their fur supporting colonies of bacteria , as it thrives in the warm waters close by hydrothermal vents, 7,500 ft below the waves.


The Almiqui Solenodon
Until 2003, when the creature was rediscovered in the eastern mountains of Cuba, the Almiqui was believed extinct, by naturalists, for several decades. Belonging in the family group of the Haitian Solenodon, the Almiqui has unusual feature, among mammals,  having saliva which is venomous. Not been seen since 1977, there was great delight when a farmer found a live specimen in 2003. Discovered during the 19th century, and only sighted thirty-six times in 150 years, this creature was highly elusive. The wholesale felling of rainforest decimated all Solenodon populations, and pet dogs, along with house cats, accounted for many more, though it now seems they are slowly coming back.


The Giant Isopod
One of the most disgusting bugs you may never actually see is the truly horrid looking Giant Isopod. Appearing for all the world to be a real-life, pig size cockroach the isopod is in reality related to shrimp and crabs, and a crustacean. Scavengers that feast on the bodies of dead creatures , they wander around the sea floor between 600 and 7,000ft down in the oceans, feasting mainly on dead fish, squid and whale.


The Sao Tome Shrew
Very rarely seen by any human, the  species known as the São Tomé shrew remains very much a mystery, detailed information on appearance and habits very scarce. A male of this species was caught in 1982,almost a full century after it was firs known of their existence.. This secretive mammal was described as having a body covered in dark brown fur,  with long, pink tail, pink feet, and hind legs long enough to be used for both jumping or climbing With rather small, dark eyes, half hidden by facial fur, and large, forward facing ears, the Almiqui has an unusually long snout, surrounded by  pale whiskers 


The Mola Mola/Sunfish
Mola mola, as it is known in native language, but which we would call the Sunfish, is the heaviest in the world as far as bony fish go, averaging as adults 1,000 kg in weight. These behemoths exist by eating mainly jellyfish, but this nutritionally poor prey animal must be consumed in large amounts, if the Sunfish are to develop and maintain their enormous bodies. Females produce more eggs, at one time, than any other vertebrate known on earth. Unfortunately for these magnificent creatures, over-fishing, and a terrible proliferation of plastic waste, often consumed by them in error, causes far too many to expire prematurely, so the species is highly endangered. 


The Long beaked Echidna
Long-beaked echidnas are neither anteater nor porcupine, instead being very rare, egg-laying mammals, only known to exist in Papua New Guinea. A relative of the platypus, this nocturnal creature spends virtually all its time underground, using the tubular  snout in the hunt  for prey such as worms or insect larvae. Soft foods are the only option, because the echidna does not possess teeth. Hatchlings,  known as ‘puggles’, reside in a sticky pouch on the mothers underside, receiving milk from mammary patches. 


The Longeared Jeboa
The nocturnal, mouse-like Long-eared Jerboa, shaped rather like a tiny kangaroo,  employs an elongated tail, and powerful hind legs, for jumping, both as transport mode and escape mechanism. This highly endangered rodent is found only in the remote parts of the Mongolian Gobi desert, having ears 33% larger than its head, to better listen for prey eating mainly insects. It is the only species of its genus, making it not only rare but extraordinary.


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A Caster Bean Plant
A plant that appears green and a little unique in appearance easily hides the potent toxicity behind it. Like all the others, its fresh star shaped leaves often invite many passing herbivores – no wonder many animals stop to ingest and the danger behind these plants are too well hidden to be seen. Resting with the most Deadliest Plant toxin in the world – 6, 0000 times more noxious than cyanide, this plant has been known as a ‘wonder plant’ for thousands of years and you may know it as the Caster Bean plant.
The caster bean plant is a fast –growing suckering perennial shrub which often reaches the size of small trees (39 feet). The glossy leaves vary from a reddish tinge, to dark green and a reddish purple and sit amongst the fruit capsules and varieties of flowers that line across the leaves in twists of red, green and yellow. Doesn’t sound so harmful does it? The secret of their dangerous poison lays not in the leaves, not in the stem but where they can disperse of them the most – their seeds!
Over  50% of the plant is comprised of rich oil – and to assist is a remarkable anti- predatory evolution substance of ricin – a protein toxic to almost every species in the animal kingdom.  If the poison is to become ingested by any passing hungry species, it inactivates the key protein making elements of a cell – a vital component for cells to maintain themselves, so without it – many cells in the animal die, resulting in a domino wave and eventually killing the consumer.
The toxin is just as potent in humans, the only difference is that for us – death is prolonged, often ending in failure of the liver and other major organs, losing life to convulsions and still as of today, there are no existing antidotes. Poisoning, luckily, is not very common throughout society, but unfortunately there have been many cases reported of poisoning via accidental consumption of the seeds. The reason why these seeds cause such harm is due to their ability to delaying symptoms of consumption of up to 36 hours. Symptoms include, burning sensations in the mouth, dehydration, abdominal pain, drop in blood pressure and diarrhoea. The result in delayed treatment – prevents the damaged cells from becoming recovered.
Poisoning only occurs if the consumer has ingested broken down seeds after chewing, as fully intact seeds often pass through the digestive tract without releasing the toxin. The amount of seeds consumed that inflicts death varies on the species: only 4 seeds will kill a rabbit, 6 within a horse, 11 a dog and 4 – 8 seeds for us. Ducks are a remarkable exception as they have become extremely resistant to the seeds – it takes the consumption of over 80 to kill them!Like many harmful substances that are produced from the environment – they are free and easy to farm/ snatch from their habitats. During the 1900’s many people became aware of how deadly ricin really was, and began producing it for biological warfare. Smaller parties even took the substance in to their own hands, using it like a weapon – in the same way a knife or bullet would cause destruction and havoc to the tissues of the body once struck.
A famous case occurred in Waterloo station in London during 1978 – a man named Georgi Markov, one of BBC’s journalists, was murdered whilst waiting at a bus stop. He was stabbed with an umbrella end that injected a pellet containing ricin into his skin.  Markov developed a high fever, suffered from immense pain and died three days later.Despite bearing such a scary substance – the alternative oil held within the seeds are a favourite – being extracted and used world wide. The castor plant is indigenous to the South-eastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa and India but the oils from this plant have been used globally for the past 4,000 years as lamp oil. This is also an ingredient of soap, some medicines, waxes, polishes, candles and crayons. New research may also be proving that the beans substances may even provide a cure for tumours. The global castor seed production is a large 1 million tons per year. The leading producing areas include India (60% of the global yield), china and Brazil. Ethiopia also holds several active breeding sites. Lets just hope that as the demand for the twisty combination of deadly meets handy is used sensibly, and not in the cases of Georgi Markov.
Despite causing worry in human consumers, this plant is a prime species to represent the significant techniques of anti- predatory consumption. Producing the deadliest toxin in the world, yet ensuring attraction to passer pollinators is one of the many impressive and feared plants in the world.


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Nature

The Deadliest Plant in the World

Unknown  |  at  07:02

A Caster Bean Plant
A plant that appears green and a little unique in appearance easily hides the potent toxicity behind it. Like all the others, its fresh star shaped leaves often invite many passing herbivores – no wonder many animals stop to ingest and the danger behind these plants are too well hidden to be seen. Resting with the most Deadliest Plant toxin in the world – 6, 0000 times more noxious than cyanide, this plant has been known as a ‘wonder plant’ for thousands of years and you may know it as the Caster Bean plant.
The caster bean plant is a fast –growing suckering perennial shrub which often reaches the size of small trees (39 feet). The glossy leaves vary from a reddish tinge, to dark green and a reddish purple and sit amongst the fruit capsules and varieties of flowers that line across the leaves in twists of red, green and yellow. Doesn’t sound so harmful does it? The secret of their dangerous poison lays not in the leaves, not in the stem but where they can disperse of them the most – their seeds!
Over  50% of the plant is comprised of rich oil – and to assist is a remarkable anti- predatory evolution substance of ricin – a protein toxic to almost every species in the animal kingdom.  If the poison is to become ingested by any passing hungry species, it inactivates the key protein making elements of a cell – a vital component for cells to maintain themselves, so without it – many cells in the animal die, resulting in a domino wave and eventually killing the consumer.
The toxin is just as potent in humans, the only difference is that for us – death is prolonged, often ending in failure of the liver and other major organs, losing life to convulsions and still as of today, there are no existing antidotes. Poisoning, luckily, is not very common throughout society, but unfortunately there have been many cases reported of poisoning via accidental consumption of the seeds. The reason why these seeds cause such harm is due to their ability to delaying symptoms of consumption of up to 36 hours. Symptoms include, burning sensations in the mouth, dehydration, abdominal pain, drop in blood pressure and diarrhoea. The result in delayed treatment – prevents the damaged cells from becoming recovered.
Poisoning only occurs if the consumer has ingested broken down seeds after chewing, as fully intact seeds often pass through the digestive tract without releasing the toxin. The amount of seeds consumed that inflicts death varies on the species: only 4 seeds will kill a rabbit, 6 within a horse, 11 a dog and 4 – 8 seeds for us. Ducks are a remarkable exception as they have become extremely resistant to the seeds – it takes the consumption of over 80 to kill them!Like many harmful substances that are produced from the environment – they are free and easy to farm/ snatch from their habitats. During the 1900’s many people became aware of how deadly ricin really was, and began producing it for biological warfare. Smaller parties even took the substance in to their own hands, using it like a weapon – in the same way a knife or bullet would cause destruction and havoc to the tissues of the body once struck.
A famous case occurred in Waterloo station in London during 1978 – a man named Georgi Markov, one of BBC’s journalists, was murdered whilst waiting at a bus stop. He was stabbed with an umbrella end that injected a pellet containing ricin into his skin.  Markov developed a high fever, suffered from immense pain and died three days later.Despite bearing such a scary substance – the alternative oil held within the seeds are a favourite – being extracted and used world wide. The castor plant is indigenous to the South-eastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa and India but the oils from this plant have been used globally for the past 4,000 years as lamp oil. This is also an ingredient of soap, some medicines, waxes, polishes, candles and crayons. New research may also be proving that the beans substances may even provide a cure for tumours. The global castor seed production is a large 1 million tons per year. The leading producing areas include India (60% of the global yield), china and Brazil. Ethiopia also holds several active breeding sites. Lets just hope that as the demand for the twisty combination of deadly meets handy is used sensibly, and not in the cases of Georgi Markov.
Despite causing worry in human consumers, this plant is a prime species to represent the significant techniques of anti- predatory consumption. Producing the deadliest toxin in the world, yet ensuring attraction to passer pollinators is one of the many impressive and feared plants in the world.


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Saturday, 28 July 2012

1 Siafu Ants (Strength In Numbers)


Let’s face it. Africa is an extremely dangerous place and anything can die there very easily. Siafu ants are also called driver ants, safari ants, and army ants. They live primarily in central and east Africa, both in jungle and on savanna. They have no eyes. They communicate and navigate by smelling pheromones, and every few years a colony of 50,000,000 will decide to pick up and move in search of more fruitful hunting grounds.
When they move, they form columns on the ground, with the smaller worker ants inside a tunnel formed by the larger soldier or guard ants. The ants average about an inch long, with the winged males the largest ant known at over 2 inches. They have venom and can sting with their abdomens, but it is insufficient to kill large animals. Instead, they rely on their bite. They have mandibles strong enough to cut through rhinoceros hide. And when the colony relocates, every animal in the entire area of many square miles, including the honey badger, leaves and may not return for weeks.
If one ant attacked you, you could stomp it or pick it off you. But ants don’t play fair. If you come within 25 meters of a colony on the move in column formation, they will smell you and come running to defend themselves. The bite is severely painful and once blood is drawn, your only defense is to run for your life. Attacking the ants is useless. A flamethrower might work but the ants do not know the use of fear and will either run across fiery ground to get at you, or wait until the fire dies away.
They do not run fast and are easy to avoid, provided you are able to get away. They are able to overpower any known animal, having brought down sick or injured elephants that could not escape. They have killed many people over the centuries, always infants or the injured, those who are unable to run. Once they are upon you, there is no easy way to get them off. Other ants will let go if you submerge in water. Siafu ants will hold their breath and bite for 3 minutes under water. A colony can strip an elephant to the bone in a month, and during that time nothing else except bacteria can approach the carcass. Vultures land on it and immediately fly away kicking ants off their feet.
They are used as natural stitches by the indigenous peoples. A single ant is picked up and allowed to bite on either side of a wound, and then the body is pinched off, leaving the head with jaws locked shut. They have venomous stings but hardly ever use them. They kill prey such as grasshoppers and small rodents simply by biting them to death. What they do is overwhelm any animal they can find and bite until the animal is incapacitated by agony. Smaller animals like insects are cut to pieces. The ants will enter the mouth of a larger animal and invade the lungs, biting the whole way, causing death by asphyxia.
2 Clostridium Botulinum(Most Toxic Animal On Earth)
One teaspoon of this bacterium, properly distributed, could kill every single human being in the United States. About 9 lbs (4 kgs) could kill every human in the world. Like the venom of #7, botulinum is a neurotoxin, stopping communication between the brain and the muscles, resulting in paralysis of the diaphragm, then asphyxia.
Botulinum is found in the soil of every continent and ecosystem on Earth, from the Sahara Desert to Antarctica. It is found in soil brought up from the ocean floor. It requires absolutely perfect conditions in order to become active and thus dangerous. You would not be able to contract the toxin by eating dirt, since your digestive juices are too acidic to allow the bacterium to grow and produce the toxin.
But the spores are extraordinarily difficult to kill, able to survive in boiling water for 10 minutes. If you were to can food without boiling it (cold canning), airborne spores may enter the oxygen-free environment of the food and grow very quickly. Upon eating the food, the toxins would be present in your body immediately, and eating only a nibble of a green bean is more than sufficient to kill you within a day. No animal is known to have an immunity to botulinum. A mere 1 nanogram per kilogram dose will kill any living organism on the planet. An elephant weighing 5,454 kgs (12,000 lbs) would die in less than 3 days after consuming 5,454 ngs of botulinum toxin. This is equal to 0.005454 milligrams.
3 Cape Buffalo (Most Unpredictable)
The cape buffalo is by far the most dangerous game animal on Earth. It is sufficiently thick-skinned to require an elephant rifle, and is the animal most responsible for the introduction of double-barreled rifles. A double-barreled rifle offers the hunter an immediate follow-up shot to finish a wounded animal, and cape buffaloes can be counted on to withstand the first shot, even if they are struck in the heart, and still charge. The .585 Nyati caliber was invented for use against this animal. Nyati is Swahili for Cape Buffalo.
You may think touring Africa’s grasslands in a safari jeep is safe, and were it not for the Cape Buffalo, you would be fairly correct. They may charge without any provocation at all, and they overturn jeeps, trucks, and vans by ramming them headfirst. A 2,000 lb male can run 40 miles an hour for more than 100 meters. Some professional hunting guides refuse to hunt them, for fear the paying hunter will miss. The cape buffalo gores and tramples to death over 200 people every year, more kills, possibly, than any other African animal.
4 The Shark (Perfect Killing Machine)
The shark has zero natural predators, except perhaps larger sharks. The largest is the whale shark, but it eats small fish, plankton, and krill. The largest macro predatory shark is the one Steven Spielberg made permanently infamous in “Jaws,” the Great White. In that film, the shark is summed up by Richard Dreyfuss, “All it does is swim, and eat, and make little sharks.” It can reach over 20 feet long, easily weigh 2.5 tons, and still swim 35 feet per second. Michael Phelps set the world record of 100 meters in freestyle at 47.82 seconds. This works out to about 4.7 miles per hour. The Great White can swim 25 miles per hour.
All sharks have a superlative sense of smell to make up for their bad eyesight. Any species can smell a drop of blood in an Olympic swimming pool. They can smell a bleeding swimmer from 5 miles, and with a single bite can tear off 31 lbs of flesh. In theory, sharks are always hungry, and a 20 foot specimen can bite with 4,000 pounds of force, which is more powerful than the impact of a .375 H & H Magnum rifle round.
The shark’s most incredible, virtually X-Men ability is called electroreception. They have organs in their heads called Ampullae of Lorenzini. Every time any animal moves, it generates a very slight electrical field, and sharks can actually sense this electricity. Thus a person treading water looks like lightning to a shark. A great white can detect half a billionth of a single volt. If it is within 100 meters, it can detect the voltage of your heartbeat.
5 The Mosquito (Highest Death Toll)
The mosquito is possibly responsible for more deaths throughout history than any other macroscopic animal. They’re easy to kill, but typically not until they bite you. Then you smack them but the damage is done. Usually, all that happens is you itch for a little while. This is because the mosquito’s saliva contains histamines, which irritate the skin.
The reason they are extremely dangerous is because they transmit diseases infectious to humans and livestock, many of them fatal without treatment. Malaria is the most well-known, which can kill 20% of the time in severe cases, even with treatment. They also transmit West Nile Virus, lymphatic filariasis (roundworms), tularemia, dengue fever, yellow fever, and others. All of these can kill.
In addition to the lethal diseases they carry, mosquitoes can kill on their own. They are feared throughout the Australian outback (just one more reason not to go there) and the southern Sahara, where shallow deluges provide them excellent breeding in the water. When the larvae hatch, they attack in swarms of over 1 billion insects, descending on cows and camels and draining them of blood within 10 minutes.
6 The Human (Only Evil Animal)
Have you noticed that most history books divide eras among major social, political, or disastrous events and that the lion’s share of these are wars? In 200,000 years of the modern human species’ history (our personal history), the only thing we’ve been able to do consistently well is kill each other. All animals fight, but only humans wage war. We are the only species that has ever existed on Earth to have attempted the elimination of entire species. And we are always getting better at it, always pushing scientific knowledge, and almost always one of the first things for which science is put to use is the invention of new methods of murder.
We do it so well that we cannot even face ourselves when we consider it. We devise euphemisms, especially in time of war: it’s not murder – it’s combat, or “defending our freedom,” “target neutralization,” “justifiable homicide,” “soldiery,” “just following orders.”
The human is the only animal ever known to be capable of revenge, hatred, or sadism, and we are intimate with all three. We kill for every reason.
Black powder was originally invented by Chinese alchemists looking for the elixir of life, then used as a means to set off fireworks for amusement. That didn’t last long. Now it is more commonly called gunpowder.
The Wright Brothers pioneered human aviation for the purpose of enabling aerial warfare, because in their opinion this would make national invasions impossible, and would thus negate all warfare in the first place. Wishful thinking. Tesla envisioned his “death beam” for the same purpose. Einstein had no idea his Special Theory of Relativity could be used to split atoms for the purpose of killing people. When Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi explained to him what was being done at The Manhattan Project, he burst into tears.
Consider all the kindhearted, nonviolent people through the ages, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. What do we do to them? Hate them, harm them, kill them out of spite.
The human is an unnatural animal because of all this. It does not fit into any environment, except perhaps the urban environment. We think of ourselves as predators, usually with a sense of pride. Nevertheless, on even terms, the human would not stand half a chance in a fight to the death with most of the other entries on this list. But that only incites us to pick the fight, and we do so by the one method in which we have no equals: thinking. Given the proper preparation (typically guns), we are more than a match for any other organism on this list. And that fills us with malicious and/or “sporting” glee.
7 Inland Taipan (Most Venomous On Land)
The inland taipan must not be confused with the coastal taipan or the central taipan, all three of which are highly venomous. The inland taipan, also called the fierce snake (for its venom), the small-scaled snake, and the two-step snake, averages 6 feet long, with a maximum recorded of 8.2 feet. They are extremely shy and always try to escape any large animal’s presence. It is only by cornering one that it bites.
The median lethal dose of its venom is 30 micrograms per kilogram. It injects an average of 44 milligrams per bite, which is 44,000 micrograms. It can inject up to 110 milligrams. The snake has, however, never actually been known to kill a human. This is because its habitat is in the center of the Australian outback, where very few humans ever bother to venture, and also because you have to work very hard to make it bite. Its diet consists entirely of rodents, and it does not strike once and then wait for the prey to succumb. It bites up to 8 times to hasten the process.
The venom itself is comprised of taipoxin, named after the snake. This is one of the most powerful natural toxins ever known, and stops the brain’s communication with the muscles, causing death by asphyxia. Antivenin is 100% successful, provided that you don’t have 200 miles to travel to a hospital. A bite on the calf, injecting 44 mgs, will drop a 200 pound human within 300 meters of running or 45 minutes of resting pulse. Herpetologists have claimed that, provided it were devenomized, the snake would make an outstanding aquarium pet given its docile temperament.
8 Sea Wasp Box JellyFish (Most Venomous In Sea)
Everyone is always asking what animal packs the deadliest venom in the world. Here, once and for all, are the two answers. Sea life has abounded for about 3 billion years longer than life on land, and the longer nature has to evolve its animals, the nastier, deadlier, more perfect (see #4) they get. There are many species of box jellies, but Chironex fleckeri, also called the sea wasp, is by far the most notorious.
It can weigh up to 4 and half pounds (2 kgs), with a bell that can reach the size of a basketball, with 15 tentacles up to 10 feet long beneath. Its infamous venom was once thought to glow in the dark, but cannot. Instead, the venom absorbs and reflects the slightest sunlight into and out from the tentacles, giving the jelly an ethereal glow even at twilight. Luckily, this enables you to see it coming. It uses its venom to immobilize fish, and if you were to become wrapped within the tentacles long enough, it would dissolve you.
At night, they simply sit on the seafloor. During the day, it hunts for shrimp, minnows, and other small fish. Sea turtles are able to eat box jellies and do frequently. They have extremely thick skin that shields them from the stings. If you are stung only slightly by a sea wasp jelly, you will not die, but you will wish you would. The pain is described as “excruciating,” “exquisite,” “beyond belief.” Children do not cry when they are stung. They scream. Lifeguards have claimed that simply cutting off the limb that has been stung would hurt less than leaving it attached.
If you were to be wrapped up in the jelly’s tentacles, which happens quite often off the northern coast of Australia, the cnidocytes in the venom would stop your heart in 3 minutes. That is 180 seconds. This assumes you do not drown before escaping the sea, because the venom also shuts down the brain’s communication with the muscles. The sea wasp has killed 63 people since 1884, most of them off Australia. Its range extends at least into the Philippines, to Malaysia.
9 The African Lion (Speed & Strength Unmatched)
The tiger is slightly larger than, and just as fast as, the lion, but the lion just edged out the tiger because the lion is the only cat known to science that works as a team with other lions to hunt. This enables it to bring down prey far larger than itself. Lions are possibly the smartest of cats; the members of a pride will stealthily arrange themselves around a herd of prey animals, and when the ambushers are in position, they signal to the drivers with a cough or sneeze, whereupon the prey is driven into an ambush and several are brought down, saving the lions from a drawn-out chase.
A full-grown male lion is about 6 inches taller than a tiger and weighs anywhere from 330 to 550 lbs (150-250 kgs), averaging 400. This size makes it sound as though the lion should be ungainly, but the opposite is true. He can charge 50 mph for over 100 meters. Male lions have been seen jumping 4-rail fences with cows in their mouths. They can spring 12 feet straight up into the air and leap 40-foot gorges. Their mortal enemy, the hyena, is no match for them one on one, but even when they attack in packs, a single male lion can stand his ground admirably.
Video shows a pride of lionesses being robbed of its kill by a pack of hyenas, and then killing more prey, only to be robbed again. The lionesses finally “complained” to the male in charge by grunting at him until he woke up. He saw the hyenas eating within 200 meters, walked to within 50 meters of them, then charged and killed 9 of them before the rest fled. One swipe of his forepaw cut one in half across the spine.
Lions have been known to slash the tires of safari jeeps to immobilize them and the tourists inside. To ward them off, the guides play recordings of elephants trumpeting. Hunting them is still legal, but conservation makes it expensive (as it should), and only old specimens or man-eaters are taken. The two most infamous remain the Tsavo maneless man-eaters of 1898. From March to December, they killed and ate as many as 135 railway workers in Tsavo, Kenya. They were gigantic, even for lions, measuring 9 feet, 8 inches, and 9 feet, 6 inches long, and required 8 men to carry them. Their hunter, Col. John Patterson, shot the second no less than 8 times with a .303 Lee-Enfield, which has power comparable to the .30-06, before the lion succumbed.
10 The African Bush Elephant (Brute Strength)
The king of the jungle is a title that still misleadingly belongs to the elephant, not the lion. Neither of them lives in any jungle in Africa. The African elephant is the largest land animal on Earth and has zero natural predators (man doesn’t count as natural). The ones you’ve seen in zoos are simply not the same as those in the wild. In zoos, elephants know humans are no threat; in the wild, any animal that is not a herbivore is a threat, and elephants are smart enough to know which is which.
In the wild, they are docile to a point. You may stand 100 meters from one and it will pay attention but not attack. Or it may charge you from 500 meters as soon as it sees you. Of course the largest land animal is sure to be also the most powerful, and the elephant is, but it possesses an intelligence that may rival that of some primates. This is not quite so difficult to fathom given that it has an 11-pound brain.
The elephant is the grandest of the Big Five game animals of Africa, and although it is still legal to hunt them, a license to kill just one will cost about $50,000. Hunters are only permitted to kill solitary old bulls or cows that are not long from natural death. The money goes to conservation efforts. Despite their size, they disappear very easily in tall brush and their ears enable them to hear you long before you hear them. Their olfactory sense is extraordinary, enabling them to smell you from 1 mile. And because they are gargantuan, they generally do not run away or hide. Full-grown elephants have zero natural predators. Nothing dares tangle with them. They can run 25 miles an hour for 100 meters, which is faster than Usain Bolt.
They are hyper-aggressive during musth. Musth is the bull elephant’s reproductive hormones, mostly testosterone, all of which rise 60 times higher than normal. This makes the elephant want to mate with any cow it sees, and fight everything else. Musth causes the bull extreme irritation and puts him in a severely foul mood.
It is during musth that bulls have been known to charge through 2 direct hits from a .460 Weatherby Magnum (ordinarily more than sufficient to drop one in its tracks), and trample the hunter to death, flip safari jeeps and gore through chassis; 6-ton bulls have been witnessed flinging black rhinoceros 14 feet over their heads, kicking down 4-foot-thick trees, and snapping anchor chains used to hold them. They are smart enough to angle their tusks into the chain links and pop them loose if they cannot overpower the iron.

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Top 10 Deadliest Animals

Unknown  |  at  03:10

1 Siafu Ants (Strength In Numbers)


Let’s face it. Africa is an extremely dangerous place and anything can die there very easily. Siafu ants are also called driver ants, safari ants, and army ants. They live primarily in central and east Africa, both in jungle and on savanna. They have no eyes. They communicate and navigate by smelling pheromones, and every few years a colony of 50,000,000 will decide to pick up and move in search of more fruitful hunting grounds.
When they move, they form columns on the ground, with the smaller worker ants inside a tunnel formed by the larger soldier or guard ants. The ants average about an inch long, with the winged males the largest ant known at over 2 inches. They have venom and can sting with their abdomens, but it is insufficient to kill large animals. Instead, they rely on their bite. They have mandibles strong enough to cut through rhinoceros hide. And when the colony relocates, every animal in the entire area of many square miles, including the honey badger, leaves and may not return for weeks.
If one ant attacked you, you could stomp it or pick it off you. But ants don’t play fair. If you come within 25 meters of a colony on the move in column formation, they will smell you and come running to defend themselves. The bite is severely painful and once blood is drawn, your only defense is to run for your life. Attacking the ants is useless. A flamethrower might work but the ants do not know the use of fear and will either run across fiery ground to get at you, or wait until the fire dies away.
They do not run fast and are easy to avoid, provided you are able to get away. They are able to overpower any known animal, having brought down sick or injured elephants that could not escape. They have killed many people over the centuries, always infants or the injured, those who are unable to run. Once they are upon you, there is no easy way to get them off. Other ants will let go if you submerge in water. Siafu ants will hold their breath and bite for 3 minutes under water. A colony can strip an elephant to the bone in a month, and during that time nothing else except bacteria can approach the carcass. Vultures land on it and immediately fly away kicking ants off their feet.
They are used as natural stitches by the indigenous peoples. A single ant is picked up and allowed to bite on either side of a wound, and then the body is pinched off, leaving the head with jaws locked shut. They have venomous stings but hardly ever use them. They kill prey such as grasshoppers and small rodents simply by biting them to death. What they do is overwhelm any animal they can find and bite until the animal is incapacitated by agony. Smaller animals like insects are cut to pieces. The ants will enter the mouth of a larger animal and invade the lungs, biting the whole way, causing death by asphyxia.
2 Clostridium Botulinum(Most Toxic Animal On Earth)
One teaspoon of this bacterium, properly distributed, could kill every single human being in the United States. About 9 lbs (4 kgs) could kill every human in the world. Like the venom of #7, botulinum is a neurotoxin, stopping communication between the brain and the muscles, resulting in paralysis of the diaphragm, then asphyxia.
Botulinum is found in the soil of every continent and ecosystem on Earth, from the Sahara Desert to Antarctica. It is found in soil brought up from the ocean floor. It requires absolutely perfect conditions in order to become active and thus dangerous. You would not be able to contract the toxin by eating dirt, since your digestive juices are too acidic to allow the bacterium to grow and produce the toxin.
But the spores are extraordinarily difficult to kill, able to survive in boiling water for 10 minutes. If you were to can food without boiling it (cold canning), airborne spores may enter the oxygen-free environment of the food and grow very quickly. Upon eating the food, the toxins would be present in your body immediately, and eating only a nibble of a green bean is more than sufficient to kill you within a day. No animal is known to have an immunity to botulinum. A mere 1 nanogram per kilogram dose will kill any living organism on the planet. An elephant weighing 5,454 kgs (12,000 lbs) would die in less than 3 days after consuming 5,454 ngs of botulinum toxin. This is equal to 0.005454 milligrams.
3 Cape Buffalo (Most Unpredictable)
The cape buffalo is by far the most dangerous game animal on Earth. It is sufficiently thick-skinned to require an elephant rifle, and is the animal most responsible for the introduction of double-barreled rifles. A double-barreled rifle offers the hunter an immediate follow-up shot to finish a wounded animal, and cape buffaloes can be counted on to withstand the first shot, even if they are struck in the heart, and still charge. The .585 Nyati caliber was invented for use against this animal. Nyati is Swahili for Cape Buffalo.
You may think touring Africa’s grasslands in a safari jeep is safe, and were it not for the Cape Buffalo, you would be fairly correct. They may charge without any provocation at all, and they overturn jeeps, trucks, and vans by ramming them headfirst. A 2,000 lb male can run 40 miles an hour for more than 100 meters. Some professional hunting guides refuse to hunt them, for fear the paying hunter will miss. The cape buffalo gores and tramples to death over 200 people every year, more kills, possibly, than any other African animal.
4 The Shark (Perfect Killing Machine)
The shark has zero natural predators, except perhaps larger sharks. The largest is the whale shark, but it eats small fish, plankton, and krill. The largest macro predatory shark is the one Steven Spielberg made permanently infamous in “Jaws,” the Great White. In that film, the shark is summed up by Richard Dreyfuss, “All it does is swim, and eat, and make little sharks.” It can reach over 20 feet long, easily weigh 2.5 tons, and still swim 35 feet per second. Michael Phelps set the world record of 100 meters in freestyle at 47.82 seconds. This works out to about 4.7 miles per hour. The Great White can swim 25 miles per hour.
All sharks have a superlative sense of smell to make up for their bad eyesight. Any species can smell a drop of blood in an Olympic swimming pool. They can smell a bleeding swimmer from 5 miles, and with a single bite can tear off 31 lbs of flesh. In theory, sharks are always hungry, and a 20 foot specimen can bite with 4,000 pounds of force, which is more powerful than the impact of a .375 H & H Magnum rifle round.
The shark’s most incredible, virtually X-Men ability is called electroreception. They have organs in their heads called Ampullae of Lorenzini. Every time any animal moves, it generates a very slight electrical field, and sharks can actually sense this electricity. Thus a person treading water looks like lightning to a shark. A great white can detect half a billionth of a single volt. If it is within 100 meters, it can detect the voltage of your heartbeat.
5 The Mosquito (Highest Death Toll)
The mosquito is possibly responsible for more deaths throughout history than any other macroscopic animal. They’re easy to kill, but typically not until they bite you. Then you smack them but the damage is done. Usually, all that happens is you itch for a little while. This is because the mosquito’s saliva contains histamines, which irritate the skin.
The reason they are extremely dangerous is because they transmit diseases infectious to humans and livestock, many of them fatal without treatment. Malaria is the most well-known, which can kill 20% of the time in severe cases, even with treatment. They also transmit West Nile Virus, lymphatic filariasis (roundworms), tularemia, dengue fever, yellow fever, and others. All of these can kill.
In addition to the lethal diseases they carry, mosquitoes can kill on their own. They are feared throughout the Australian outback (just one more reason not to go there) and the southern Sahara, where shallow deluges provide them excellent breeding in the water. When the larvae hatch, they attack in swarms of over 1 billion insects, descending on cows and camels and draining them of blood within 10 minutes.
6 The Human (Only Evil Animal)
Have you noticed that most history books divide eras among major social, political, or disastrous events and that the lion’s share of these are wars? In 200,000 years of the modern human species’ history (our personal history), the only thing we’ve been able to do consistently well is kill each other. All animals fight, but only humans wage war. We are the only species that has ever existed on Earth to have attempted the elimination of entire species. And we are always getting better at it, always pushing scientific knowledge, and almost always one of the first things for which science is put to use is the invention of new methods of murder.
We do it so well that we cannot even face ourselves when we consider it. We devise euphemisms, especially in time of war: it’s not murder – it’s combat, or “defending our freedom,” “target neutralization,” “justifiable homicide,” “soldiery,” “just following orders.”
The human is the only animal ever known to be capable of revenge, hatred, or sadism, and we are intimate with all three. We kill for every reason.
Black powder was originally invented by Chinese alchemists looking for the elixir of life, then used as a means to set off fireworks for amusement. That didn’t last long. Now it is more commonly called gunpowder.
The Wright Brothers pioneered human aviation for the purpose of enabling aerial warfare, because in their opinion this would make national invasions impossible, and would thus negate all warfare in the first place. Wishful thinking. Tesla envisioned his “death beam” for the same purpose. Einstein had no idea his Special Theory of Relativity could be used to split atoms for the purpose of killing people. When Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi explained to him what was being done at The Manhattan Project, he burst into tears.
Consider all the kindhearted, nonviolent people through the ages, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. What do we do to them? Hate them, harm them, kill them out of spite.
The human is an unnatural animal because of all this. It does not fit into any environment, except perhaps the urban environment. We think of ourselves as predators, usually with a sense of pride. Nevertheless, on even terms, the human would not stand half a chance in a fight to the death with most of the other entries on this list. But that only incites us to pick the fight, and we do so by the one method in which we have no equals: thinking. Given the proper preparation (typically guns), we are more than a match for any other organism on this list. And that fills us with malicious and/or “sporting” glee.
7 Inland Taipan (Most Venomous On Land)
The inland taipan must not be confused with the coastal taipan or the central taipan, all three of which are highly venomous. The inland taipan, also called the fierce snake (for its venom), the small-scaled snake, and the two-step snake, averages 6 feet long, with a maximum recorded of 8.2 feet. They are extremely shy and always try to escape any large animal’s presence. It is only by cornering one that it bites.
The median lethal dose of its venom is 30 micrograms per kilogram. It injects an average of 44 milligrams per bite, which is 44,000 micrograms. It can inject up to 110 milligrams. The snake has, however, never actually been known to kill a human. This is because its habitat is in the center of the Australian outback, where very few humans ever bother to venture, and also because you have to work very hard to make it bite. Its diet consists entirely of rodents, and it does not strike once and then wait for the prey to succumb. It bites up to 8 times to hasten the process.
The venom itself is comprised of taipoxin, named after the snake. This is one of the most powerful natural toxins ever known, and stops the brain’s communication with the muscles, causing death by asphyxia. Antivenin is 100% successful, provided that you don’t have 200 miles to travel to a hospital. A bite on the calf, injecting 44 mgs, will drop a 200 pound human within 300 meters of running or 45 minutes of resting pulse. Herpetologists have claimed that, provided it were devenomized, the snake would make an outstanding aquarium pet given its docile temperament.
8 Sea Wasp Box JellyFish (Most Venomous In Sea)
Everyone is always asking what animal packs the deadliest venom in the world. Here, once and for all, are the two answers. Sea life has abounded for about 3 billion years longer than life on land, and the longer nature has to evolve its animals, the nastier, deadlier, more perfect (see #4) they get. There are many species of box jellies, but Chironex fleckeri, also called the sea wasp, is by far the most notorious.
It can weigh up to 4 and half pounds (2 kgs), with a bell that can reach the size of a basketball, with 15 tentacles up to 10 feet long beneath. Its infamous venom was once thought to glow in the dark, but cannot. Instead, the venom absorbs and reflects the slightest sunlight into and out from the tentacles, giving the jelly an ethereal glow even at twilight. Luckily, this enables you to see it coming. It uses its venom to immobilize fish, and if you were to become wrapped within the tentacles long enough, it would dissolve you.
At night, they simply sit on the seafloor. During the day, it hunts for shrimp, minnows, and other small fish. Sea turtles are able to eat box jellies and do frequently. They have extremely thick skin that shields them from the stings. If you are stung only slightly by a sea wasp jelly, you will not die, but you will wish you would. The pain is described as “excruciating,” “exquisite,” “beyond belief.” Children do not cry when they are stung. They scream. Lifeguards have claimed that simply cutting off the limb that has been stung would hurt less than leaving it attached.
If you were to be wrapped up in the jelly’s tentacles, which happens quite often off the northern coast of Australia, the cnidocytes in the venom would stop your heart in 3 minutes. That is 180 seconds. This assumes you do not drown before escaping the sea, because the venom also shuts down the brain’s communication with the muscles. The sea wasp has killed 63 people since 1884, most of them off Australia. Its range extends at least into the Philippines, to Malaysia.
9 The African Lion (Speed & Strength Unmatched)
The tiger is slightly larger than, and just as fast as, the lion, but the lion just edged out the tiger because the lion is the only cat known to science that works as a team with other lions to hunt. This enables it to bring down prey far larger than itself. Lions are possibly the smartest of cats; the members of a pride will stealthily arrange themselves around a herd of prey animals, and when the ambushers are in position, they signal to the drivers with a cough or sneeze, whereupon the prey is driven into an ambush and several are brought down, saving the lions from a drawn-out chase.
A full-grown male lion is about 6 inches taller than a tiger and weighs anywhere from 330 to 550 lbs (150-250 kgs), averaging 400. This size makes it sound as though the lion should be ungainly, but the opposite is true. He can charge 50 mph for over 100 meters. Male lions have been seen jumping 4-rail fences with cows in their mouths. They can spring 12 feet straight up into the air and leap 40-foot gorges. Their mortal enemy, the hyena, is no match for them one on one, but even when they attack in packs, a single male lion can stand his ground admirably.
Video shows a pride of lionesses being robbed of its kill by a pack of hyenas, and then killing more prey, only to be robbed again. The lionesses finally “complained” to the male in charge by grunting at him until he woke up. He saw the hyenas eating within 200 meters, walked to within 50 meters of them, then charged and killed 9 of them before the rest fled. One swipe of his forepaw cut one in half across the spine.
Lions have been known to slash the tires of safari jeeps to immobilize them and the tourists inside. To ward them off, the guides play recordings of elephants trumpeting. Hunting them is still legal, but conservation makes it expensive (as it should), and only old specimens or man-eaters are taken. The two most infamous remain the Tsavo maneless man-eaters of 1898. From March to December, they killed and ate as many as 135 railway workers in Tsavo, Kenya. They were gigantic, even for lions, measuring 9 feet, 8 inches, and 9 feet, 6 inches long, and required 8 men to carry them. Their hunter, Col. John Patterson, shot the second no less than 8 times with a .303 Lee-Enfield, which has power comparable to the .30-06, before the lion succumbed.
10 The African Bush Elephant (Brute Strength)
The king of the jungle is a title that still misleadingly belongs to the elephant, not the lion. Neither of them lives in any jungle in Africa. The African elephant is the largest land animal on Earth and has zero natural predators (man doesn’t count as natural). The ones you’ve seen in zoos are simply not the same as those in the wild. In zoos, elephants know humans are no threat; in the wild, any animal that is not a herbivore is a threat, and elephants are smart enough to know which is which.
In the wild, they are docile to a point. You may stand 100 meters from one and it will pay attention but not attack. Or it may charge you from 500 meters as soon as it sees you. Of course the largest land animal is sure to be also the most powerful, and the elephant is, but it possesses an intelligence that may rival that of some primates. This is not quite so difficult to fathom given that it has an 11-pound brain.
The elephant is the grandest of the Big Five game animals of Africa, and although it is still legal to hunt them, a license to kill just one will cost about $50,000. Hunters are only permitted to kill solitary old bulls or cows that are not long from natural death. The money goes to conservation efforts. Despite their size, they disappear very easily in tall brush and their ears enable them to hear you long before you hear them. Their olfactory sense is extraordinary, enabling them to smell you from 1 mile. And because they are gargantuan, they generally do not run away or hide. Full-grown elephants have zero natural predators. Nothing dares tangle with them. They can run 25 miles an hour for 100 meters, which is faster than Usain Bolt.
They are hyper-aggressive during musth. Musth is the bull elephant’s reproductive hormones, mostly testosterone, all of which rise 60 times higher than normal. This makes the elephant want to mate with any cow it sees, and fight everything else. Musth causes the bull extreme irritation and puts him in a severely foul mood.
It is during musth that bulls have been known to charge through 2 direct hits from a .460 Weatherby Magnum (ordinarily more than sufficient to drop one in its tracks), and trample the hunter to death, flip safari jeeps and gore through chassis; 6-ton bulls have been witnessed flinging black rhinoceros 14 feet over their heads, kicking down 4-foot-thick trees, and snapping anchor chains used to hold them. They are smart enough to angle their tusks into the chain links and pop them loose if they cannot overpower the iron.

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Friday, 27 July 2012

1 The Malaysia’s Rainforest
Being the top of the best and beautiful tropical rain forest in the world, the Malaysia’s rainforest is the world’s most biodiversity forest. However, the forest also suffered from human destruction. There were studies that had been investigated that by the year 2020 the Malaysia’s rainforests will be extinct.


2 The Sinharaja Rainforest
Sri Lanka is considered as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world. Their rainforest is the last viable one of its kind and the UNESCO considered them as one of the Worlds Natural Heritage Site. 18% of its natural rainforests had been destroyed. The civil war occurred that time have also caused deforestation.


3 The Madagascar’s Rainforests
Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world. It has rainforests that houses approximately 80% of plans and animals which are hard to find in other parts of the world. The same story applies on it. The forest was threatened by people due to small scale agricultural purposes, mining, both legal and illegal loggings and charcoal production. Due to this activity, the forest was damaged and 90% of its original size was destroyed. Efforts of the Madagascar government have initiated the conservancy mechanism of their rainforest.


4 The Colombia Rainforests
Columbia is known as the 4th largest country in South America. It is home for rich tropical rainforests that considered as one of the highest biodiversity hotspots in the world. However, based on the current reports from United Nations the legal and illegal activity in the country such as mining, logging, development of energy, clearing of tress for small and large scale agricultural projects like oil palm plantations and cocaine farming are the major caused of human encroachment of the forest. The government of Columbia is now moving to preserve the forest.


5 The Papua New Guinea Rainforest
The highland part of this country is covered with tropical rainforests. Approximately 70% of the entire area of PNG is being sheltered. There are more than 950 various species of birds and mammals are found in the rainforest. There are at least 20,000 different species of plants are existing there as well. Due to commercial logging and clearing of the area for the purpose of agricultural and plantation concerns, the rainforest had suffered from human threat too. The local government of the country is encouraging developed countries to conserve their own rainforest in order for them to minimize the industrialized emission from deforestation.


6 The Kelp Forests
The kelp forest in Australia had large sources of sea weeds. Some of these weeds grow for about 80 meters in total length. However, based on the recent reports, the total original land area of Kelp Forests had been declining and only 5% of its original size remains. This rainforests is very essential habitat for marine creatures. The main products from Kelp are being manufactured to thicken the foods like ice cream and jelly. Natural disaster such as El Nino is one of the major causes why the Kelp Forest had been heavily destructed. The increase in the sea water temperatures and decrease of dissolved levels of nutrients is the ultimate outcome of this scenario.


7 The Sumatra’s Rainforest
The region of Sumatra is the largest region in Indonesia. Considering its large area, it is ranked as the 6th largest island in the world. This rainforest has various plant and animal life which are considered unique and hard to find in other parts of the world. However, it had suffered from human encroachment because the Indonesian citizens have exploited the trees from legal and illegal logging as well as with the expansions of oil palm plantations


8 The Valdivian Rainforest
The rainforest is situated at the southern part of Chile in South America. Based on a certain non-profit organization, conservation international have ranked this rainforests to be included in top 25 world’s biodiversity hotspots. Around 90% of the plant life and approximately 70% of animal life in this rainforests are considered rare and hard to find in other parts of the world. The economic uprising of Chile comes from their main product which is wood pulp manufacturing and forestry that are found in this rainforest. However, this rainforest was threatened from human encroachment due to the establishments of highways. However, in exchange of damaged properties in this rainforest the local government of Chile had replaced it with pine trees and eucalyptus trees farms


9 The Mau Forest
This rainforest is considered as the largest indigenous forest that is situated in the Rift Valley. It covers the entire 675,000 acres and tagged as the largest water catchment in Kenya. Three countries including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (all are part of East Africa) is the location of Lake Victoria in which the river flowing from Mau Forest provides it with clean water. Since this forest has fertile soil, most of the people in Kenya attempted to deforest the forest to acquire more land due to its agricultural and economic purposes in the country. The local government of Kenya had already moved towards protecting the forest from people who are trying to threaten it. People living in the forest were evicted as well.


10 The Congo Basin Forest
This forest serves as the second largest rainforest in the world. It covers a total of six countries including Cameroon, Central Africa, Democratic Republic and Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. This rainforest stands for 70% of the entire continent vegetation and in consists of approximately 600 various species of trees and about 10,000 different types of animals. This rainforest was endangered from deforestation in the continent as its trees are being cut down to be used for commercial and industrial establishments. It was cleared for farming purposes too. After the civil war in the region, people living in it have been forced to encroach and live inside the rainforest.


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Top 10 Most Beautiful Tropical Rainforests

Unknown  |  at  11:27

1 The Malaysia’s Rainforest
Being the top of the best and beautiful tropical rain forest in the world, the Malaysia’s rainforest is the world’s most biodiversity forest. However, the forest also suffered from human destruction. There were studies that had been investigated that by the year 2020 the Malaysia’s rainforests will be extinct.


2 The Sinharaja Rainforest
Sri Lanka is considered as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world. Their rainforest is the last viable one of its kind and the UNESCO considered them as one of the Worlds Natural Heritage Site. 18% of its natural rainforests had been destroyed. The civil war occurred that time have also caused deforestation.


3 The Madagascar’s Rainforests
Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world. It has rainforests that houses approximately 80% of plans and animals which are hard to find in other parts of the world. The same story applies on it. The forest was threatened by people due to small scale agricultural purposes, mining, both legal and illegal loggings and charcoal production. Due to this activity, the forest was damaged and 90% of its original size was destroyed. Efforts of the Madagascar government have initiated the conservancy mechanism of their rainforest.


4 The Colombia Rainforests
Columbia is known as the 4th largest country in South America. It is home for rich tropical rainforests that considered as one of the highest biodiversity hotspots in the world. However, based on the current reports from United Nations the legal and illegal activity in the country such as mining, logging, development of energy, clearing of tress for small and large scale agricultural projects like oil palm plantations and cocaine farming are the major caused of human encroachment of the forest. The government of Columbia is now moving to preserve the forest.


5 The Papua New Guinea Rainforest
The highland part of this country is covered with tropical rainforests. Approximately 70% of the entire area of PNG is being sheltered. There are more than 950 various species of birds and mammals are found in the rainforest. There are at least 20,000 different species of plants are existing there as well. Due to commercial logging and clearing of the area for the purpose of agricultural and plantation concerns, the rainforest had suffered from human threat too. The local government of the country is encouraging developed countries to conserve their own rainforest in order for them to minimize the industrialized emission from deforestation.


6 The Kelp Forests
The kelp forest in Australia had large sources of sea weeds. Some of these weeds grow for about 80 meters in total length. However, based on the recent reports, the total original land area of Kelp Forests had been declining and only 5% of its original size remains. This rainforests is very essential habitat for marine creatures. The main products from Kelp are being manufactured to thicken the foods like ice cream and jelly. Natural disaster such as El Nino is one of the major causes why the Kelp Forest had been heavily destructed. The increase in the sea water temperatures and decrease of dissolved levels of nutrients is the ultimate outcome of this scenario.


7 The Sumatra’s Rainforest
The region of Sumatra is the largest region in Indonesia. Considering its large area, it is ranked as the 6th largest island in the world. This rainforest has various plant and animal life which are considered unique and hard to find in other parts of the world. However, it had suffered from human encroachment because the Indonesian citizens have exploited the trees from legal and illegal logging as well as with the expansions of oil palm plantations


8 The Valdivian Rainforest
The rainforest is situated at the southern part of Chile in South America. Based on a certain non-profit organization, conservation international have ranked this rainforests to be included in top 25 world’s biodiversity hotspots. Around 90% of the plant life and approximately 70% of animal life in this rainforests are considered rare and hard to find in other parts of the world. The economic uprising of Chile comes from their main product which is wood pulp manufacturing and forestry that are found in this rainforest. However, this rainforest was threatened from human encroachment due to the establishments of highways. However, in exchange of damaged properties in this rainforest the local government of Chile had replaced it with pine trees and eucalyptus trees farms


9 The Mau Forest
This rainforest is considered as the largest indigenous forest that is situated in the Rift Valley. It covers the entire 675,000 acres and tagged as the largest water catchment in Kenya. Three countries including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (all are part of East Africa) is the location of Lake Victoria in which the river flowing from Mau Forest provides it with clean water. Since this forest has fertile soil, most of the people in Kenya attempted to deforest the forest to acquire more land due to its agricultural and economic purposes in the country. The local government of Kenya had already moved towards protecting the forest from people who are trying to threaten it. People living in the forest were evicted as well.


10 The Congo Basin Forest
This forest serves as the second largest rainforest in the world. It covers a total of six countries including Cameroon, Central Africa, Democratic Republic and Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. This rainforest stands for 70% of the entire continent vegetation and in consists of approximately 600 various species of trees and about 10,000 different types of animals. This rainforest was endangered from deforestation in the continent as its trees are being cut down to be used for commercial and industrial establishments. It was cleared for farming purposes too. After the civil war in the region, people living in it have been forced to encroach and live inside the rainforest.


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Monday, 23 July 2012

1 The Horned Melon
Native , in actual fact, to the Kalahari Desert, in Africa, the African Cucumber, known  by some as the  Horned Melon, is a fruit that looks exactly as the name implies that it might .  Grown  around the world in this modern age,  and often seen in New Zealand ,Australia, Chile and California, USA. The attractive, dark  green pulp, when the melon is split open, both smells and tastes, not just cucumber, as you might expect, but also of Passion Fruit, Limes and Bananas. Southern US citizen refer to it as ‘Blowfish Fruit’, often using it for decorating food , and mixing as smoothies and sundaes, when looking to create something refreshing. 


2 The Yangmei fruit
Mainland China is where the Yangmei, or Chinese strawberry tree, is to be found,  covered, at the correct season of the year, with a bright harvest, wonderful, strawberry flavored fruits, both sweet and succulent.  The main use for this type of tree is for ornamental purposes, in parks and gardens , but the red flesh has quite distinctive sweet and sour  flavors, though half of the entire fruit is taken up by the huge seed. 


3 The ‘Dreadful’ Durian  fruit
Often harshly judged, the Durian, also an Asian commodity, is reputed  to smell really awful, undoubtedly putting some people off, from eating it, yet the Durian is still known as ‘The King of Fruits’. because the truly delicious flesh is very versatile,  and features in many of the dishes, for which south-east Asia is famous around the world.  There are over thirty types of Durian plant, only 33% of which are actually edible, and found on market stalls.


4 The star shaped Carambola fruit
The Carambola, also widely known as the ‘Starfruit’, after for the shape into which it grows, is found mainly in south eastern Asia, though it could be, according to those who know, be grown easily in any other tropical location.  A five pointed star shape,when sliced, this sweet and popular fruit is rich in vitamin C and anti-oxidants, while being low in acid, sugar and sodium, yet quite delicious to eat. 


5 The Chinese KumQuat ‘Orange’ fruit
Indisputably of Chinese origin, the Kumquat is a relatively small edible fruit, that does look something like an  orange , and coming from a tree that is distantly related to the Citrus family, could indeed be a cousin to it. Normally eaten raw, as are the fruits of citrus trees that are more familiar to us, Kumquats are also used in jellies, marmalades, and in the making of alcoholic liquors. Taiwanese people add the fruit to  tea, believing that Kumquats, boiled in water, can help sooth sore throats, among other soothing properties. 


6  The ubiquitous Lychee Fruit
Lychees are not only native to southern China,  though often apparently considered an exclusively Chinese fruit, but also India and Taiwan. Parent trees are evergreen, the fruits concealed behind a tough red covering,  though when exposed, they contain white flesh, textured somewhat like the more familiar  flesh of the grape-vine. Sweet ,and very much a treat for consumers, Lychee fruits  have high vitaman C contents,  and are, slowly but surely, starting to be seen on supermarket shelves across the globe, as more people get to like the taste. 


7 The  juicy Jackfruit
Southwestern India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Sri Lanka,  are all places where one comes acrossthe Jackfruit, and it is also commonly found  in Australia, holding the distinction of being thought, by some in the fruit-selling business, to be the largest tree-borne fruit on earth .  Seeds are surrounded by a juicy, pulpy flesh, within the fruits, which apparently mildly of pineapple, the pulp employed in producing sweet chips, and  commonly used in cooking, by the local communities. 


8 The Precious Pitaya fruit
Pitaya , much more commonly called Dragon Fruit, is made up, from a range of delicious products from several kinds of cactus plants, found in different. Asian countries. The country of origin can determine what these fruits are named, ’Strawberry Pear’ or ‘Pearl Fruit’ being examoles., With prominent black seeds, the edible flesh closely resembles Kiwi fruit  and eaten raw, has a refreshing,  if slightly sour taste, highly prized by people exercising as part of keep-fit regimes. 


9 The Rambunctious Rambutan fruit
The Rambutan fruit, native to Malaysia, is akin to the Chinese Lychee,  in that it is covered with a spiky, leathery red skin, a garden fruit tree, very popular with local people, and among the best known of Southeast Asian fruits.  Chock full of sweet and juicy flesh, widely used for making jams, Rambutan is also  readily available in tins. Very popular, the translucent white or pink flesh not only looks good, but tastes sweet, every fruit holding a seed , apparently mildly toxic if eaten uncooked, but soft and crunchy after roasting 


10 The Magnificent Mangosteen fruit
Native to the Sunda Islands, and the Moluccas, is the oddly shaped fruit known as the Mangosteen.  Trees of this variety produce  fruits purple on the outside, with creamy textures, having very unique flavours, best described as being l a cross between citrus fruit and peach. It is thought that these fruits, high in anti-oxidant properties, help lower the risk of contracting certain human diseases, including cancer, though this has yet to be proved, through proper scientific research.




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Top Tenz

Top 10 Delicious Tropical Fruits

Unknown  |  at  12:35

1 The Horned Melon
Native , in actual fact, to the Kalahari Desert, in Africa, the African Cucumber, known  by some as the  Horned Melon, is a fruit that looks exactly as the name implies that it might .  Grown  around the world in this modern age,  and often seen in New Zealand ,Australia, Chile and California, USA. The attractive, dark  green pulp, when the melon is split open, both smells and tastes, not just cucumber, as you might expect, but also of Passion Fruit, Limes and Bananas. Southern US citizen refer to it as ‘Blowfish Fruit’, often using it for decorating food , and mixing as smoothies and sundaes, when looking to create something refreshing. 


2 The Yangmei fruit
Mainland China is where the Yangmei, or Chinese strawberry tree, is to be found,  covered, at the correct season of the year, with a bright harvest, wonderful, strawberry flavored fruits, both sweet and succulent.  The main use for this type of tree is for ornamental purposes, in parks and gardens , but the red flesh has quite distinctive sweet and sour  flavors, though half of the entire fruit is taken up by the huge seed. 


3 The ‘Dreadful’ Durian  fruit
Often harshly judged, the Durian, also an Asian commodity, is reputed  to smell really awful, undoubtedly putting some people off, from eating it, yet the Durian is still known as ‘The King of Fruits’. because the truly delicious flesh is very versatile,  and features in many of the dishes, for which south-east Asia is famous around the world.  There are over thirty types of Durian plant, only 33% of which are actually edible, and found on market stalls.


4 The star shaped Carambola fruit
The Carambola, also widely known as the ‘Starfruit’, after for the shape into which it grows, is found mainly in south eastern Asia, though it could be, according to those who know, be grown easily in any other tropical location.  A five pointed star shape,when sliced, this sweet and popular fruit is rich in vitamin C and anti-oxidants, while being low in acid, sugar and sodium, yet quite delicious to eat. 


5 The Chinese KumQuat ‘Orange’ fruit
Indisputably of Chinese origin, the Kumquat is a relatively small edible fruit, that does look something like an  orange , and coming from a tree that is distantly related to the Citrus family, could indeed be a cousin to it. Normally eaten raw, as are the fruits of citrus trees that are more familiar to us, Kumquats are also used in jellies, marmalades, and in the making of alcoholic liquors. Taiwanese people add the fruit to  tea, believing that Kumquats, boiled in water, can help sooth sore throats, among other soothing properties. 


6  The ubiquitous Lychee Fruit
Lychees are not only native to southern China,  though often apparently considered an exclusively Chinese fruit, but also India and Taiwan. Parent trees are evergreen, the fruits concealed behind a tough red covering,  though when exposed, they contain white flesh, textured somewhat like the more familiar  flesh of the grape-vine. Sweet ,and very much a treat for consumers, Lychee fruits  have high vitaman C contents,  and are, slowly but surely, starting to be seen on supermarket shelves across the globe, as more people get to like the taste. 


7 The  juicy Jackfruit
Southwestern India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Sri Lanka,  are all places where one comes acrossthe Jackfruit, and it is also commonly found  in Australia, holding the distinction of being thought, by some in the fruit-selling business, to be the largest tree-borne fruit on earth .  Seeds are surrounded by a juicy, pulpy flesh, within the fruits, which apparently mildly of pineapple, the pulp employed in producing sweet chips, and  commonly used in cooking, by the local communities. 


8 The Precious Pitaya fruit
Pitaya , much more commonly called Dragon Fruit, is made up, from a range of delicious products from several kinds of cactus plants, found in different. Asian countries. The country of origin can determine what these fruits are named, ’Strawberry Pear’ or ‘Pearl Fruit’ being examoles., With prominent black seeds, the edible flesh closely resembles Kiwi fruit  and eaten raw, has a refreshing,  if slightly sour taste, highly prized by people exercising as part of keep-fit regimes. 


9 The Rambunctious Rambutan fruit
The Rambutan fruit, native to Malaysia, is akin to the Chinese Lychee,  in that it is covered with a spiky, leathery red skin, a garden fruit tree, very popular with local people, and among the best known of Southeast Asian fruits.  Chock full of sweet and juicy flesh, widely used for making jams, Rambutan is also  readily available in tins. Very popular, the translucent white or pink flesh not only looks good, but tastes sweet, every fruit holding a seed , apparently mildly toxic if eaten uncooked, but soft and crunchy after roasting 


10 The Magnificent Mangosteen fruit
Native to the Sunda Islands, and the Moluccas, is the oddly shaped fruit known as the Mangosteen.  Trees of this variety produce  fruits purple on the outside, with creamy textures, having very unique flavours, best described as being l a cross between citrus fruit and peach. It is thought that these fruits, high in anti-oxidant properties, help lower the risk of contracting certain human diseases, including cancer, though this has yet to be proved, through proper scientific research.




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