The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

animals

One Of The Most Incredible Videos I Have Ever Seen+ a Bonus

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Not quite Moby Dick.
Picture by Fausto Carrera

After the last post I needed something lighter and I came across this video about Blue Whales that is just spectacular. You can watch it from within the post or click on this.

Whales are among my favorite animals and Blue Whales fascinate me.

If you haven’t made it by this week here is a list of what has been posted so far:

And just because I want you to have plenty to read here are some more links:

Aerial view of a blue whale showing both pecto...
Aerial view of a blue whale showing both pectoral fins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Man Eating Squid- Paging Jules Verne

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You can list giant man eating squid alongside the rest of the maneaters as one more creature that I will take on in single combat. There is one caveat, they can fight me on land or meet me in cleveland. I’ll take them on in water in the land of the burning river.

DEADLY sea monsters have woken from the deep to cause carnage among some of the world’s richest fishing grounds.

Millions of killer giant squid are not only devouring vast amounts of fish they have even started attacking humans.

Two Mexican fishermen were recently dragged from their boats and chewed so badly that their bodies could not be identified even by their own families.

No wonder the giant squid are called “diablos rojos” – red devils.

Monster squid are the stuff of legend. But for fishermen and marine biologists along 10,000 miles of coast from Chile to Alaska, the myth has become reality.

And their story is told this week in a Channel Five documentary.

Since 2002, Humboldt giant squid, named after the 18th century German explorer, have been spreading their tentacles to deplete fishing stocks by moving from their traditional tropical hunting grounds off Mexico and laying claim to a vast sweep of the Pacific.

Hunting in 1,000-strong packs the giant squid can out-swim and out-think fish. Scientists believe they coordinate attacks by using pigment cells to communicate.

A single female is believed to be able to lay 30 million eggs, each one capable of becoming a giant killing machine.

Marine biologists wear chain-mail to protect themselves from creatures that can measure 8ft, weigh 100lb and carry an armoury of more than 40,000 fearsome teeth along two “attack” tentacles.

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Australian drunk survives attempt to ride crocodile

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Stories like this are more common than you might think.

The crocodile, called Fatso, bit the 36-year-old man’s leg, tearing chunks of flesh from him as he straddled the reptile.

He received surgery to serious wounds to his leg and is recovering in hospital, police say.

He had been chucked out of a pub in the town of Broome for being too drunk.

The man, Michael Newman, climbed over a fence and tried to sit on the 800kg (1,800lb) saltwater crocodile.

“Fatso has taken offence to this and has spun around and bit this man on the right leg,” Sgt Roger Haynes of Broome police told journalists.

“The crocodile has let him go and he’s been able to scale the fence again and leave the wildlife park.”

Malcolm Douglas, the park’s owner, said that the crocodile was capable of crushing a man to death with a single bite.

“The man who climbed the fence was fortunate because Fatso was a bit more sluggish than normal, due to the cooler nights we have been experiencing in Broome,” said Mr Douglas.

“If it had been warmer and Fatso was more alert, we would have been dealing with a fatality.”

“No person in their right mind would try to sit on a 5m crocodile, Saltwater crocodiles, once they get hold of you, are not renowned for letting you go.”

The man staggered back to the pub bleeding heavily.

Related Links:

Crocodiles Eat People Too
Zoo Tiger Eats Man
Don’t Tease The Crocodile
Eaten By An Alligator
Python Bursts After Trying to Eat Gator

Loss- A Familiar Pain

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Many years ago I worked with a woman who had two dogs. I can’t tell you much about the dogs. I don’t remember names, breeds or much of anything other than she loved them. Loved them so much that when one dog died she had to take time off from work.

I remember being surprised by this. I had grown up with pets who were part of the family. We had dogs, cats, hamsters, mice and birds. Not all at the same time, but they were a constant part of my childhood. I was familiar with loving my pets but not to the extent that this woman did.

I was a 27 year-old newlywed who lived in a modest apartment. She was about four foot nothing in her stockings and couldn’t have weighed more than a 100 pounds. A tiny single mother whose child had gone off to college she had no one but her dogs. Or so I think.

So many years have passed it is hard to remember and it is possible that some of the grains of time have become lodged in my eye and consequently have blurred the details.

What I know for certain, what I can say without hesitation is that I thought of her as being old and was quite surprised at how upset she became when her dog died. I understood that it was hard, but I didn’t quite get how it required time away from work.

But age and life experience have helped to bridge the gap and I understand things a little bit better now than I did then. Because the truth is that I still miss my old friend.

This past weekend we took the new puppy to see the vet. The same vet that the big lug used to see. As I stood there I remembered when he was just a puppy, far bigger than the new guy, but just as curious. I stood there and remembered how he used to prance around the house and how we’d play together.

And then I remembered how it was at the end. The struggle to walk, the incontinence and other indignities of old age. How hard it was to make the decision to let him go and how the light went out in his eyes in the same room that I was standing in.

As screwy as it may sound, I felt a twang of guilt. I felt sad that he was gone and that I wasn’t able to do more for him. He was the best of friends and a trusted confidant who was taken away far too early. And I realize that every time I see a Golden Retriever I look for him.

He’s not coming back. There won’t be another like him. There will be other dogs and the bond between the new one and I is growing daily. I suppose that I just felt like I needed to put it out there that he hasn’t been replaced. His memory lives on with me.

How Do You Steal A 9.5 Foot Python

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Color me confused about this:

“Authorities are looking for a python that was reported stolen from a petting zoo in Fort Myers.
The snake’s owner told Lee County deputies that the 9-and-a-half-foot female was locked in its cage Saturday night, but was gone the next morning.

The snake was part of a petting zoo set up in a tent in a shopping center parking lot. The lock on the snake’s cage was cut, and a blanket covering the cage had been lifted.”