The Evil Side of Nature

[Renegade]

This is just too good. The article only gets better as you read.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19126_5-adorable-animals-that-are-turning-to-dark-side.html

Let's face it, animals are bastards. With all of the ant slavery, ape war and duck rape in the world, it's easy to decide nature is something best left to the wild. But there are those animals that -- thanks to Disney and The Far Side -- we tend to think are more likely to dispense witty one liners than bite our face. But while we've been busy rooting for them, they've been quietly revealing their true colors ...

(app103 posted it on FB)

[wraith808]

That's insane!  I didn't look at the video.  I just couldn't...  

Takes that 'every time you do X a bunny dies' to a different place...  you're doing the world a favor!

[JavaJones]

Woah, now that's just creepy.

- Oshyan

[tomos]

have you all very little contact with animals, or what?! Our family always had cats - that lived in the adjoining garage. Growing up I saw a few pretty gory things over the years, like the tom that killed the kittens, presumably so as he could have another go. Or a female being chased by ten males - although I suspect nothing happened at the end there apart from a.. eh, tom-cat fight. I'm sure people that grew up on farms would have lots of gory storys.

It's an interesting and entertaining read, but on a serious note, I think "nature" gets a bad rap - being demonised and called "evil". 
Really, if they had included humans in there it would have been more balanced & made more sense, been a bit more thought provoking, and could still have been been entertaining (maybe even more so).
I mean, come on -  Oh look, the evil deer eat birds - how could they !!

Of course the disney world view is probably the real problem here.
And

"as suburban homes encroach on deer habitat, deer that are fed by admiring humans -- or that browse on lawns and garden vegetables -- lose their natural fear of people."

(and that's quoted under the 'evil' side of deer...)

[Renegade]

I think it's pretty tongue in cheek. The thing is that a lot of that you'd probably never heard of before, like the mice and the albatross? A real-life Monty Python rabbit? 

[Deozaan]

That's insane!  I didn't look at the video.  I just couldn't... 

You mean the video of the mice and the albatross? It wasn't disturbing at all. It just showed about 4 mice (at a time) crowding around a specific area of the bird, with the bird mostly ignoring them. I was expecting something truly repulsive like the mice crawling in and out of the bird's innards. But the video was really tame. The bird could have been sitting on an egg-shaped cheeseball for all you could tell in the video.

[JavaJones]

That's insane!  I didn't look at the video.  I just couldn't... 

You mean the video of the mice and the albatross? It wasn't disturbing at all. It just showed about 4 mice (at a time) crowding around a specific area of the bird, with the bird mostly ignoring them. I was expecting something truly repulsive like the mice crawling in and out of the bird's innards. But the video was really tame. The bird could have been sitting on an egg-shaped cheeseball for all you could tell in the video.

My thoughts as well. But I'm glad I *didn't* see mice crawling in and out of the innards of a still-living animal at the same time.

- Oshyan

[Deozaan]

But I'm glad I *didn't* see mice crawling in and out of the innards of a still-living animal at the same time.

I saw something like that in person when I was a young child. My older brother had a small pet lizard of some sort and fed it mealworms^w. Well, apparently the lizard ate them whole, without chewing or otherwise killing them. They ate their way out from the inside of the lizard.

[JavaJones]

But I'm glad I *didn't* see mice crawling in and out of the innards of a still-living animal at the same time.

I saw something like that in person when I was a young child. My older brother had a small pet lizard of some sort and fed it mealworms^w. Well, apparently the lizard ate them whole, without chewing or otherwise killing them. They ate their way out from the inside of the lizard.

That is just wrong, dammit. Of course I've heard of such things before, mostly with wasps laying eggs in say a spider and then them eating their way out when they hatch. But somehow when it's not insects/arachnids, it's more creepy...

- Oshyan

[Renegade]

But I'm glad I *didn't* see mice crawling in and out of the innards of a still-living animal at the same time.

I saw something like that in person when I was a young child. My older brother had a small pet lizard of some sort and fed it mealworms^w. Well, apparently the lizard ate them whole, without chewing or otherwise killing them. They ate their way out from the inside of the lizard.

That is just wrong, dammit. Of course I've heard of such things before, mostly with wasps laying eggs in say a spider and then them eating their way out when they hatch. But somehow when it's not insects/arachnids, it's more creepy...

- Oshyan

+100 - very wrong! Ick!

But oddly, from WP:

Mealworms are typically used as a food source for reptile, fish, and avian pets. They are also provided to wild birds in bird feeders, particularly during the nesting season, when birds are raising their young and appreciate a ready food supply. Mealworms are high in protein, which makes them especially useful as a food source. They are also commonly used for fishing bait.

[JennyB]

But I'm glad I *didn't* see mice crawling in and out of the innards of a still-living animal at the same time.

I saw something like that in person when I was a young child. My older brother had a small pet lizard of some sort and fed it mealworms^w. Well, apparently the lizard ate them whole, without chewing or otherwise killing them. They ate their way out from the inside of the lizard.

That is just wrong, dammit. Of course I've heard of such things before, mostly with wasps laying eggs in say a spider and then them eating their way out when they hatch. But somehow when it's not insects/arachnids, it's more creepy...

- Oshyan

That's just your mammalian chauvinism. 

Have you ever read "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"?

[Stoic Joker]

But oddly, from WP:

Mealworms are typically used as a food source for reptile, fish, and avian pets. They are also provided to wild birds in bird feeders, particularly during the nesting season, when birds are raising their young and appreciate a ready food supply. Mealworms are high in protein, which makes them especially useful as a food source. They are also commonly used for fishing bait.

...And that's why chewing is so important.

[wraith808]

Also from WP, for more squick factor:

Human consumption
Mealworms may be easily raised on fresh oats, whole wheat bran or grain, with sliced potato or carrots and little pieces of apple as a water source.
Mealworms have been incorporated into tequila-flavored novelty candies. However, mealworms are not traditionally served in tequila or mezcal drinks, the latter sometimes containing a larval moth (Hypopta agavis).

[JavaJones]

That's just your mammalian chauvinism.  

Of course!

Have you ever read "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"?

Nope.

- Oshyan

[Deozaan]

But oddly, from WP:

Mealworms are typically used as a food source for reptile, fish, and avian pets. They are also provided to wild birds in bird feeders, particularly during the nesting season, when birds are raising their young and appreciate a ready food supply. Mealworms are high in protein, which makes them especially useful as a food source. They are also commonly used for fishing bait.

Exactly. That's why my brother fed mealworms to the lizard. I'm sure that's what the pet shop recommended.

[JavaJones]

Yes, it's quite normal, mealworms are regular food for such animals. I'm extremely surprised to hear that they survived the eating and digestion process. In fact unless their identity (on the way out) as mealworms was verified, I might be more inclined to suspect some other parasitic worm got involved. Either way it's creepy though.

- Oshyan

[Renegade]

Yes, it's quite normal, mealworms are regular food for such animals. I'm extremely surprised to hear that they survived the eating and digestion process. In fact unless their identity (on the way out) as mealworms was verified, I might be more inclined to suspect some other parasitic worm got involved. Either way it's creepy though.

- Oshyan

It's reminiscent of "Aliens", with the little buggers bursting out of people's stomachs. That "inside/outside" distinction is truly a gripping fear in some horror themes.

[J-Mac]

Eeewwwww! Why are you people talking about stinking MEALWORMS when we just watched the same video of FREAKING MICE eating their way into a LIVE FREAKING BIRD!!!  Aaaahggghhhhhh!

That was a really frightening vid! Forget zombies and werewolves.... at least you can usually hear them coming! But those Russian mice sneaking into sleeping people's beds and eating their way into them?!?!  Aaaggghhhh!

Hey - wonder if my daughters will have a problem with me playing this video for my granddaughters? Ya think?? 

Jim

[Deozaan]

Hey - wonder if my daughters will have a problem with me playing this video for my granddaughters? Ya think?? 

That video is so un-scary and not-graphic that you could probably fool your granddaughters (depending on their age) into thinking the mice are just cleaning the bird's feathers or something benign like that.

[JennyB]

That's just your mammalian chauvinism.  

Of course!

Have you ever read "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"?

Nope

That's where I first read about the Ichneumon wasp. If the mother wasp does not find a host the eggs will hatch inside her and, yes, eat their way out.

The book is a classic, filled with arresting images of how Nature in heartless and wonderful, often both at the same time.

[JavaJones]

Very interesting Jenny! I'm familiar with the Ichneumon and its habits, but hadn't heard that little tidbit about them hatching inside the mother! There are certainly a lot of fascinating and bizarre stories of nature's workings. Some of my favorites have to do with the mental alterations parasites can perform on their hosts. Things like making grasshoppers attracted to water so they jump in and drown, allowing the parasites to move on to their next phase of life (aquatic), or making rats unafraid of cat urine so they get eaten and perpetuate the parasite's life cycle. The Cordyceps fungus is another fascinating story beautifully depicted (and no doubt popularized) in the recent Planet Earth series.

- Oshyan

[Deozaan]

This is more disturbing than the video

Supposedly this is an electron microscope image of a maggot.



Anyone know if that image is real?

[f0dder]

Dunno if the image is real, but living stuff viewed in electron microscopes do tend to look absolutely foul.

[Deozaan]

Dunno if the image is real, but living stuff viewed in electron microscopes do tend to look absolutely foul.

As if maggots don't already look foul enough already!

[JavaJones]

Yeah I seem to recall those are colorized or color enhanced electron microscope images. Very cool though. Ah yes, here we go:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/picture-galleries/7924099/Creepy-crawlies-Amazing-Scanning-Electron-Microscope-pictures-of-insects-and-spiders.html
Lots more weirdos there!

And a bonus from the Boston Globe photo blog: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/peering_into_the_micro_world.html

- Oshyan