why to NOT go to australia | 2015-11-04
australia is home to many miraculous flora and fauna, including:
cassowary
about the size of a grown man; much like an ostrich; if mildly perturbed, will sprint (really quickly) at you and start kicking you with it’s super-strong legs and either break your bones or cut you open with its dagger-like middle toe
stonefish
look like coral/stone; sit in coral/stone in shallow water near beaches; dorsal spines (on their backs) contain neurotoxin that causes, at least, extreme pain for hours afterward and/or, depending on where the sting happens, fairly immediate death
blue-ringed octopus
about 6-inches long; beautiful blue rings; mouth so tiny you likely won’t realize you’ve been bitten; up to several hours after the bite, muscles start to become paralyzed, quickly shutting down all movement in the body, including the diaphragm causing the victim to suffocate; only counter-measure it to put the person on life-support for around 24hrs, waiting for the venom to wear off
box jellyfish
beautiful jellies with many long blue tentacles covered in microscopic darts; the darts are full of venom which, depending on how severe the sting, can cause complete paralysis within 5mins; also, it’s highly likely that people helping out the stung person will also get stung because the tiny darts remain active in the affected area for hours and will gladly grab on to something else if touched
cone snail
fabulously intricate designs on shell; a few inches long; tiny cone-tongue-tooth covered in little teeth filled with a variety of neurotoxins; shoot out their tongue like a harpoon with enough force to go through skin, gloves, wetsuits, bones
irukandji
1cm square jellyfish; unlike all other jellies, fires darts from its bell (instead of its tentacles) which cause ‘irukandji syndrome’ (yes, it has its own syndrome); the syndrome induces muscle cramps, pain in back and kidneys, burning skin on hands and face, headaches, nausea, restlessness, sweating, vomiting, increased heart rate and blood pressure, and (get this) psychological phenomena such as the feeling of impending doom — it makes you feel like you’re going to die!
pfeffer’s flamboyant cuttlefish
all cuttlefish are benign, except for this one; it’s fabulously coloured and not very big but it contains, you guessed it, a neurotoxic running through its veins that makes its skin, all of the thing, totally deadly poisonous.
this list could carry on for a very long time with more and more crazy deadly things from australia.
in short, if it’s pretty and lives in australia, it’s probably going to kill you…
tune in next week for more wonderful trivia (i promise it won’t be about poison, toxins, or animals)
