fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3158 ]

[ SECRET POST #3158 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3158 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Raedus]

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[American Odyssey]

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Notes:

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Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I feel like this was someone getting us all back for dropbears.

No one has ever believed drop bears. I refuse to think someone could be that gullible.

Have you met people?
People are definitely that gullible.

The bigger problem is when people don't believe you about the crazy wildlife. Like, yeah, we have a giant bird with an axe-like growth on its head that may try to kill you. Sounds legit, right?

I used to volunteer to lead bushwalks on one of our mountains for visitors, and I swear to satan, the amount of people who did things we told them not to do just to see what would happen is crazy.
Like. No. Touching the stinging nettle just a little bit to see what happens is not a good idea. Why would you think that would be a good idea?

Well, okay, city people are stupid about nature. I'll grant you that.

Where I'm from it's virtually impossible to be completely a city person though, so I just can't imagine anyone irl being that naïve about those things.

It's not just a city thing. My best friend grew up walking distance from my house, and didn't know there were echidnas in the wild here until we were 15 and she almost trod on one in my garden.

That was also the day she tried to "just double check" that I was joking about there being snakes around my house too. >_> "Totally joking. Just wear shoes and don't walk through piles of leaves."

Because we live between the beach and the mountains, it's an entirely different world less than a kilometre away. Different plants, birds, mammals.

I'd say a lot of people are in the same boat. There's so much to see here that you think you've seen everything, and then you find yourself in this weird alien landscape. I remember my first trip to the daintree just blew my tiny little mind.

And wild koalas can be pretty vicious. Wombats too. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT CHASE PLOVERS. OR EMUS. OR ROOS. OR WOMBATS. OR ANYTHING.

I made a cheesecake and we were eating in on the beach at night near Chatswood when one of these guys crawled right into my lap to get at it.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200709/r186121_693404.jpg

Goddamn it you adorable son of a bitch you shouldn't have my cheesecake but how could I resist?

Don't worry Herpy. I always fed the possums around my place. The mumma used to let me pat her babies because she knew me.

You can't resist them!

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2011/03/04/1226015/663572-possum.jpg

Fffffffffffff so cute I just cant

God damn it stupid adorable possums. Now I want to go back and visit again.

Every damn time I hear people say everything wants to kill you in Australia, I'm like "clearly it's hyperbole. we have... well I'm sure we have something that doesn't want to kill you. I just can't think of anything right now."

D:

The butterflies are quite nice. Though some are carnivorous...

Also poisonous!

Wanderer or Monarch butterflies are. I think a few other Australian species might be too.

Not to mention the caterpillar stage where some of them have stinging hairs.

Re: Myths you used to believe

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-28 10:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Myths you used to believe

belladonna_took - 2015-08-28 11:09 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Myths you used to believe

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-28 11:20 (UTC) - Expand

Everything in Australia wants to kill you only if you upset and threaten it! ;)

This is true. Sometimes it's accidental though. You don't see something and you walk too close to it and then it attacks you before you're even aware it was there. I don't trust anything that camouflages.

Re: Myths you used to believe

mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com - 2015-08-29 00:30 (UTC) - Expand

Wombats kill a lot of dogs apparently. Dogs go down their holes and get cornered. Had a housemate whose dog got killed that way when visiting a rural property and ignored warnings.

I've seen my dog get chased by plovers a few times. Funniest thing ever (ok mildly concerning) to see her turn tail after giving them aggro and run from the kekekekekekek! shrieking assault.

Ooh. I've never heard of them killing dogs, but we were always told to keep the dogs out of the holes anyway, because sometimes snakes move in when they're unoccupied.

Haha. My horses were afraid of them! One of them used to charge at the plovers and then when they came for her she'd freak out. They decided to nest in the middle of our training area once, and we put witches hats in a circle around them and established our territory. We negotiated them down to about a 10 metre radius. It was a slow, terrifying process.

Re: Myths you used to believe

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-28 11:39 (UTC) - Expand

Oh yeah and I've been woken up in the middle of the night by a huge wombat barrelling into my tent :/ Wombat shaped hole in the side. Also possums a couple of time.

I've had possums climb on the tent, and geckos inside it when we were in QLD.
I can't say I've ever been victim to a wombat tent-crasher. That is pretty funny.

Re: Myths you used to believe

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-28 11:41 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Myths you used to believe

belladonna_took - 2015-08-28 12:13 (UTC) - Expand

Well, I guess when the apocalypse finally comes along humanity will be well and truly fucked if we all have to suddenly rely on our survivalist training and knowledge of the natural world, then.

The whole thing is just baffling to me though. I could rattle off a half dozen edible plants in my area for any given time of year, list major hazards and (probably)clean water sources, and let you know exactly what kind of species you were likely to encounter in a given zone by the time I was six years old. The first thing I did on getting to Australia was go check out the naturalist sections of the museum in Sydney (especially the preserved specimen collection omg so incredible) to find out what to look for when I went hiking/walking in the bush.

Maybe I just don't want to believe that I live in a world where people care that little about the natural world. That is a truly pitiable world to me.

It is! My family thought I was a creepy kid for spending so much time looking at stuffed things. Their insect collection is crazy though.

I think a lot of kids miss out because most parents won't let their kids go wandering off unsupervised around here. For good reason, but still. If you won't take them out to see stuff, at least let them join scouts or something.

That wasn't the Gympie stinger they tried to touch was it? D:

I fell into some of that and I wanted to die. Pain didn't fully go away for about six months.

No, thank god. I wouldn't even get close enough to touch one if I knew there were any around here. I would be hiking in a hazmat suit. Haha.

We just have the kind with the "christmas tree" leaves. That is bad enough to bring a manly tear to the eye.

Jesus. You are a brave soul. I've read about what that stuff can do.

Don't know the "christmas tree" one, will have to look that up and avoid when next in (I assume southern Qld?). Haven't run into that thankfully. Gympie stinger range is down to NSW apparently but is endangered there OH NO.

Yeah, I was pretty stupid, I was scrambling down a jungley incline on the Atherton Tablelands, and fell onto the stinger, after trying so hard to avoid the bloody thing. Lucky I was mostly clothed, it was on my forearms/hands. My lymph glands immediately swelled up and met the agony in my forearms. I desperately tried pissing on the stings as first aid as that is apparently an Aboriginal remedy?? but I can report it did NOT work. Anyway, it was pretty horrible for a while!

Urban legend says WWII soldiers in northern Qld recommended it to visiting US soldiers as excellent toilet paper, as payback for taking all the hot local lassies. Urban legend does not provide citations of any consequences.

It's from the Urtica genus.

https://dgedye.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/urtica-dioica-leaf.jpg

This is very similar to what we have. The "christmas tree" thing is what we were taught as kids. If the leaves have that sort of edge, don't touch them. Ever.

Ouch!!
It's in NSW!? D: Luckily I am from the South Coast and have suddenly given up the idea of ever travelling north again.
Our "home remedy" is breaking off the stems and rubbing the juice on the area. Who the hell knows if it works. I don't want to touch that thing more. I've also tried wax strips when I had a larger patch, which was supposed to pull out the little stinging hairs. The pain was the same afterwards, so I don't think it helped. Ice numbs it enough to make it more tolerable, and you can try washing it, but you just have to wait it out really.

Wow. That is not a funny prank at all.

Ah they're all nettles? Explains it. Owwww.....

I've been stung by the common weedy nettle a few times when gardening (pain wasn't bad enough to warrant wax strips). Then I read they were really good as a blood tonic and started ripping them up to boil and eat instead.

Yeah the tropics man, everything is twice as deadly.