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Apparently your definition of benevolent is a little different than mine.



Cool pics Chris, thanks for posting them. Makes me miss having my snakes.

I didn't put the cover back on properly after those pics were taken and now the female is loose. Considering that those were one of my favorite pairs of snakes ever (good eaters, fun to observe, tame as kittens) and I was hoping to breed them in a couple of years, I'm going to cry like a jailhouse bitch if she doesn't turn up.

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A friend of mine is really into "herping", which is a really unfortunate name for a hobby actually. He has a shitload of venomous snakes, and one time one of the cobras got out... now THAT would be something to cry over.

Does he de-fang them?

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I'm sure he doesn't. If he does, he shouldn't have them in the first place. Defanging is really nothing more than subjecting a snake to a slow, torturous death. Other than old school snake charmers, very few snake keepers of any sort engage in defanging.

They do have a surgery by where the venom glands of dangerous species can be removed, but that surgery is highly controversial and not at all widely accepted among herpetoculturists and other snake keepers. Snakes with the venom glands so removed are called "venomoids" if you want to look it up. I'll leave you with the information that any piece of venom gland left behind is capable of regenerating, over time, into a fully functioning venom gland again. Most also believe it shortens the lifespan of the snake, which is important if you are keeping the snake as a pet.

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Chris, is the coloring of black racers that grey looking color or are they truly black? The only ones I've known of around here got chased off or met bad circumstances before I ever saw them.

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You'll never get to see one up close because of their intense fear of the nest of giant, acid-blooded, two-headed anacondas living inside your uterus.

I asked my hubby if I did have them and he said not yet. He said the only anaconda I've ever had in my uterus was his and it would kill anything that came near it.

smart ass. I told him who said it, too.

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Farewell appetite. T'was nice knowing you.

w-o-r-d!

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Didn't an Egyptian Cobra get out a month ago from a NY zoo? Some smartass made it an open tweeter account and some of the post made news lol.

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Paddy, don't EVER try to top my husband. He's the master of sarcasm. And he broils a mean filet mignon, too.

Souli, the tweets made the news here. Did they ever find the snake?

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I wouldn't even "top" you and you're a girl. He could never afford me anyway.

They're usually black around here, but dark brown and dark gray look black are fairly common, too. A grayish looking snake is usually ready to shed and will be be a shiny, rubbery looking black afterward, but some are always a tad grayish.

You live in Ohio, right? I tend to think of blue racers when I think of Ohio, but I just read that black racers inhabit eastern parts of Ohio and I know the two integrate where their ranges overlap.

They're not always this blue-
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...eracersnake.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/...52c6d6c52_o.jpg

...and sometimes they look about as dark as a black racer, anyway.

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Yeah, I am. I've heard of blue racers, too. I used to find an occasional shed skin near the house, but I haven't seen any traces of snake for a long time. My neighbors do, but they don't like them. I wish they'd realize how beneficial they really are. Heck, maybe I should tell them to call me and I'll try to bring them to my woods since it wouldn't upset their natural habitat.

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We caught a baby black racer by my front door at my old place in FL. They look nothing like the adults other than the big eyes. It was a feisty little one, but for whatever reason it never bit me when I held it.

Think I'm selling the spiders. I can export/import them to Japan, but it requires a good deal of paperwork on both ends and money. There are already enough hoops to jump though to move out there, I think I'm going to lighten the load.

They're shipping you out of the country?

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Yea, will be flying out to Tokyo at the end of July on my way to Yokosuka which is about an hour to the south. Will be stationed out there for about 1.5 years unless I get married to a hot Japanese lady, then maybe I'll stay longer.

I still don't want to sell them, but it's another hassle in an already pain in the ass situation. Probably wind up keeping them until I'm closer to moving, hopefully to get one more molt out of them so I can try and determine their sex. One molted and the exuvia is actually still sitting in the enclosure, but I'd have to tear up it's webbing to get at it. The other one molted but the remains were too mangled to get a good look.

Fish with hands:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ience-pictures/

If God doesn't exist I'll have to invent him, because he's getting some serious fellatio for making these bad boys.

EDIT: Alright, fish aren't invertebrates or reptiles. But guess what? FUCK YOU, THEY HAVE HANDS!

my beardie is now 3 and doing awesome
my corn is 2 and doing really well!
my chill. rose has malted 3 times now in 3 years (give or take)

im thinking of getting some carnivorousness plants next!

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I'm considering getting a venus fly trap, just to see some little fucks die. Too bad it takes them 10 days to digest, I would have to get quite a few to curb the population of flies in my house.

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I used to get those all the time when I was young. I sucked at caring for them though, they always died.

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I wonder if the carrion plant I sent to sixsicsix survived. Mine's still in the same put, but I haven't let it bloom the past couple years just so I don't have to put up with moving it into shade so it doesn't smell like hot vomit. It was pretty cool seeing the flies flock to it and the little larve wiggling in the center.

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Just something me and a few pals of mine started discussing the other day. We were watching a spider taking a prey a couple of days ago - a very small spider against a very large beetle, but it was a persistent spider - and somehow the question of lustful murder arose. Basically, you have for example cats that will hunt and kill as much for the fun as for the eating. Do spiders ever do anything of the sort? That is, attack and kill because the hunting impulse takes over even when they're not actually hungry? I guess the ones that weave nets don't, but what about the stalkers and jumpers and such?

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Animals almost never indulge in this sort of behavior for a variety of reasons. In addition to being a massive waste of time and energy, hunting frivolously puts unnecessarily puts their lives in danger at the hands of their prey and also to any potential predators. When you're hungry, you HAVE to take the risk that your prey might injure or even kill you before you can eat it. When you're hungry, you're forced to go out in the open where your predators can see and get you. When you're not hungry, none of these things are necessary.

The vast majority of animals that do indulge in overkill behavior (again, very few) are generally driven to caching behavior. Sometimes they do this even when caching food isn't particularly feasible (warm weather, wet weather, no good place to hide/bury food, etc.), but instincts are instincts.

I don't believe spiders cache their prey, so I would assume they don't indulge in overkilling behavior. Additionally, much that spiders prey on is potentially dangerous to the spider, so there is more biological incentive not to.

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I don't think that cats are playing with prey, but are practicing their skills or doing it to provide prey for whoever is part of their pack, human or otherwise.

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Regardless, when I watch a cat - as I've quite often had the opportunity to - jump on a mouse, throw it around for a bit, then lay down for a spell while holding it down with a paw on its tail and not doing anything until it manages to break loose, whereby the merry little dance goes on with the mouse flying around like a favorite rubber ball, I'm somewhat tempted to use aforementioned words for it. Even if the biological imperative for it is to hone hunting technique, I very much doubt that the cat has a much more sophisticated thoughts about it than "Prey - attack - wahey!"

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I remember reading somewhere that Killer Whales seemingly "play" (read: torture)with their food before they finally eat it, going so far as to keep it alive while it tosses it into the air and gnaws on it.

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Still, might that not be the same thing as some seals do with prey penguins? That is, they toss 'em about, basically to turn them inside out in order to make a more easily available snack.

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Yeah, probably. Kind of like the last girl I was with.

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This is actually true. Scientists have some ideas, but nothing concrete yet.

Also, see bottlenose dolphins and their playful torture/slaughter of harbor porpoises. In this case, the porpoises don't even represent a prey item. Scientists are completely baffled by this, especially because this behavior only occurs among two populations of the bottlenose dolphins; one of the coast of Scotland and the other near Virginia. Other areas where bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises overlap are typically peaceful.

My populations biology professor a couple years back brought up this topic in class, as he studies bottlenose dolphins. The best explanation I've heard is the one that I offered in class that day- elimination of a rival competing for the same food source. Unfortunately, there are two glaring problems with that explanation. First, while there is a significant degree of overlap between the diets of the two cetaceans, it's not a 100% overlap and there's no food shortage in the areas these attacks occur. Second, in almost all parallels one can find (African lions and spotted hyenas, for example), chasing your rival out of your territory is sufficient. These dolphins don't chase the porpoises out of their territory; they pursue them to the death.

Interesting stuff.

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Haha! It does sound like it'd make sense. Maybe, since dolphins are considered to be more intelligent, they're aware that chasing them away could only be a temporary solution. Or maybe they're just assholes. I've heard they can be quite mean, case in point.

Ever wondered what neurons sound like as they chatter away? http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/toda...000/7679354.stm

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Sounds like my brain cell, Larry, awaking up in the morning.

The news reported about how strangely some of the zoo animals were acting prior to the quake. Anyone got a clue how sea life like dolphins and porpoises act when there's a quake coming?

Cats are just silly creatures. They're classic blondes trying to hide their silliness with occasional aloofness.

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Were you guys reading this when you started the conversation about porpoises or is cracked reading metaltabs? http://www.cracked.com/article_1937...a_ibsrc=fanpage

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Yes. We went into the future and read that article then came back to talk about it. COME ON!

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You know what I really like about that list? It's how it's our own mammal cousins that slams down on biological mincing machines like great whites and caimans - and the only thing that finally puts a dent in this furry supremacy is a direct descendant of the friggin dinosaurs.

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Kind of late, but I've never seen spiders display any kind of "pleasure from the hunt/kill" kind of behavior. They make as short work of their prey as possible to get something to eat.

Hey, anyone know what kind of spider this is? The discussion has been on-going for some time here.

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...888892991_n.jpg

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I'm not a spider guy, but it looks like some kind of wolf spider to me.

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Looks like a Sparassidae.

Hey graf..you could probably appreciate this..in the past few weeks, my brother and his wife have killed(sorry..they have small children lol) a redback spider and a huntsman spider in their backyard. They live in Adelaide, AUS.

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Redback I can see but hunstman not so sure. I've been out of the spider game for the most part since I joined the Navy other than picking up a couple random ones here and there. Having trouble remembering if there were any dangerous ones.

Having said all that, I'm off to shore duty here in a few months, which would be a decent time to get a spider since I'll be home every night for roughly the next two or so years. Moving to California this summer.

Shore duty=wonderful. Where will you be stationed in Cali?

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Yea, I'm looking forward to it. I'll be in Monterey.

Sounds cool. I never got up that way. I stayed around LA and San Diego. My hubby got to travel up the coast a bit on sea duty though.

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Never been there myself. We lived in Oceanside near Camp Pendleton about 25ish years ago. Was in SD last year; I had to escort someone to the hospital there. Once I dropped him off, I had a few days until my flight back so I got to hang out with a couple friends that moved there.

That's cool. Bob was born at the Navy hospital in SD, right next to the zoo.

And I got bit by something, which I'm assuming was a spider, when I moved something under my mom's kitchen table and it left 2 holes in my hand about half an inch apart and they itched like Hades! Little snot. I hope I sat on it.

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