Close encounter with a bizarre venomous beast

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Close encounter with a bizarre venomous beast
by Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News, Sierra de Bahoruco, Dominican Republic

Conservationists are in the Dominican Republic to save one of the world's strangest and most ancient mammals - the Hispaniolan solenodon.

After days of searching, the team finally tracks down one of the bizarre beasts.

A shout from the forest sounds, bursting through the night chorus of frog tinks and cricket chirrups. "They've got one, they've got one," someone yells.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10149148.stm

[Altoid_Cyclist]

1. I think that it's sort of cute.

I thought that this was going to be about a TP'er or some other venomous human creature when I saw the OP line.

The way that we're going, I'm afraid that there will be a lot of critters and plants disappearing thanks to our callous disregard for the environment.

Sooner or later, it will be our turn.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. even before the Gulf Oil Spill we were living through...

The biggest extinction event in the Earths' history.

This little critter is said to be nearing extinction in an earlier news story.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

11. I have a habit of always linking to one of Bruce Cockburn's songs.

However, this one really seems appropriate when discussing species extinction or the destruction of the environment for monetary reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8CibAuvZM4

If A Tree Falls by Bruce Cockburn

Rain forest
Mist and mystery
Teeming green
Green brain facing labotomy
Climate control centre for the world
Ancient cord of coexistence
Hacked by parasitic greedhead scam -
From Sarawak to Amazonas
Costa Rica to mangy B.C. hills -
Cortege rhythm of falling timber.

What kind of currency grows in these new deserts,
These brand new flood plains?

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

Cut and move on
Cut and move on
Take out trees
Take out wildlife at a rate of species every single day
Take out people who've lived with this for 100,000 years -
Inject a billion burgers worth of beef -
Grain eaters - methane dispensers.

Through thinning ozone,
Waves fall on wrinkled earth -
Gravity, light, ancient refuse of stars,
Speak of a drowning -
But this, this is something other.
Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world
Where wild things have to go
To disappear
Forever

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

[stuntcat]

3. It's beautiful!

TY for the link.

:loveya: Hispaniolan solenodon :loveya:

[Scuba]

4. Venomous mammals? I didn't know such a thing existed.

Anyone aware of any others?

[The Straight Story]

5. Palin & Cheney. If they bite you, you get sick real quick. Just looking at them is bad enough

;)

[Scuba]

8. Good one !

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. the duck-billed platypus

[Scuba]

9. I didn't know that. Thanks.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. The platypus can, quite literally, deal a fate worse than death.

Its venom causes a incredibly intense pain that lasts for MONTHS and that absolutely NO anaesthesic known to man can even attenuate. I'm not making this up.

And then they make a cartoon in which the protagonists live in a suburban house and have a pet platypus. Brilliant.

[NuttyFluffers]

7. I for one welcome our solenodon overlords!

:evilgrin:

[Hubert Flottz]

10. Oh Gawd, not another Ann Coulter thread!

Was my first thought.