View Full Version : Scariest animal in the history of man!
yesdachi
09-12-2005, 21:24
Scariest animal in the history of man!
According to books, movies, folk tales and nursery rhymes the wolf is probably the scariest animal in the history of Europe, North America and Russia. The wolf is obviously not the most deadly but is there an animal that has caused more fear?
There are plenty of scary animals out there but which ones really strike fear when mentioned like the wolf did to Euro travelers lost in the woods back in the day? Or has inspired books, folk tales and nursery rhymes to scare children?
What replaces the wolf as the scariest animal in other areas of the world? China? Africa? South America?
As a general criteria, I would have to say the animal has to cause serious fear. Lots of people are afraid of spiders but you don’t run for your life if you see 6 of them, or even hear someone scream their name. Also, no mythical (dragon) or out of time (t-rex) animals. And finally, many people in the past might have run if they heard “The British are coming! The British are coming!” but I don’t consider them in contention ~;) .
Kagemusha
09-12-2005, 21:31
One animal that scares almost anyone around the globe is the snake.It is a primal reaction for a human to be scared of snakes. :bow:
Marcellus
09-12-2005, 21:35
I'm not sure if people would scream when the name is said, but I think that the Cayman is particularly scary: it just stares at you, still, for hours. But if something goes near it, it snaps. Rather Scary.
Yell 'Shark' around some swimmers and you will find a panic almost immediately ~;) .
Yes, I believe the shark is the most feared animal. There are even some who hate it with a vengeance, like you hate rats.
When I say shark, I say the big bad sharks, not those small cuddly mouse sharks for instance.
Spiders imo. I hate the things. :fainting:
Deep sea fish. There is not a collection of more bizarre, grotesque and frighteningly and efficiently murderous creatures on the planet.
Kralizec
09-13-2005, 00:40
Kinda hard...
How about crows?
Seriously, when walking alone into a forest populated by lots of them...silence, except for the sounds of hundreds of crows in the treetops...birds who like to feast on the eyes and other soft parts of their victims...
The trite answer is man, of course. Even the hungriest pack of wolves has nothing on a gang of marauding armed men. Vastly more lethal, persistent, intelligent, capable and cruel. Imagine being a Jew trapped in the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943 or a civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time in just about any conflict. Give me the wolfpack any time.
I suspect we - or our ancestors - killed out most of the really deadly land animals. (Just like the Europeans pretty much killed off the occaisionally deadly wolf.) The one's leftover are more scared of us than we of them. Sea creatures haven't learnt that they should fear us; that's one reason sharks are so scarey. But I suspect it is only relatively recently when people have started to swim in areas where large sharks frequent that they have been widely feared.
In Asia, I guess the scarey equivalent of the wolf would be the tiger. Like the wolf, they generally leave people alone but could be lethal to the unlucky. Ambushing at night, it's physically overpowering to the unarmed and difficult to hunt.
In Africa, I am not sure what locals fear. Maybe not much - which is why so much of the big wildlife has survived there. The crocodile exacts a fearful death toll but I don't think it is much feared - maybe because it is so bound to the water. The lion and the hyena generally give man a wide bearth.
White hunters used to rate lone buffalo and bull elephants as the most formiddable African land animals to face, although they'll only kill you because you upset them rather than because you might taste good.
The wolf might be hated and feared in Europe but if there was one animal that the a lonely stone age man wouldnt want to encounter it would be a bear.
CBR
Kinda hard...
How about crows?
Seriously, when walking alone into a forest populated by lots of them...silence, except for the sounds of hundreds of crows in the treetops...birds who like to feast on the eyes and other soft parts of their victims...
Ha! I thought you said cows. When I got to the part about "walking through the forest hearing hundreds of cows in the treetops", what an image I had in my head. Then I saw the word "birds" after and reread the title sentence. Oh well. Fun while it lasted.
I'm not budging from my point at all. Ever. One documentary on deep sea fish will change the way you view the sea.
http://www.os42.com/wp-images/linkdumps/deepseafish.jpg
Holy crap.
Red Harvest
09-13-2005, 01:58
Yes, I believe the shark is the most feared animal. There are even some who hate it with a vengeance, like you hate rats.
When I say shark, I say the big bad sharks, not those small cuddly mouse sharks for instance.
Not divers, we love sharks, the bigger the better. Problem is, sharks don't like us. ~;) Seems that having something swim towards *them* sends the wrong message...so they flee. I still remember my first glimpse of a big hammerhead. ~D
Scariest animal? Fear wise I would say snakes. They catch you by surprise. It isn't that they are a great threat, but more that they tend to be silent and surprise you. There is nothing quite like reaching into a chicken nest to collect the eggs and realizing there is a blacksnake in there, that you can't see, but clearly feel. Or running down a dirt path and realizing a fallen "limb" is actually a snake. Or having one make his way into your house with the laundry.
The one that concerns me when backpacking/hiking/camping is the bear. They are simply too big to contend with, they are attracted to your food, and they can climb if they want to. (Polar bears would be the ultimate...since they have no fear of humans and will stalk a person down.)
Wolves, coyotes, dogs don't concern me (only for my kids who are too small to kill animals like that by hand.) I would be much more concerned about a tiger or lion. I've heard mountain lions in our woods at night back in Missouri--they really spooked the cattle. Much scarier than anything else I've heard in the wild.
discovery1
09-13-2005, 02:11
http://www.howardhall.com/stories/Squid%202PK.jpg
Humbolt squid. Imagine seeing one of these comng at you(they have been known to attack humans, and each other). Actually, I would say the Giant Squid, but none have been in waters we frequent for long.
http://www.howardhall.com/stories/Squid%202PK.jpg
Humbolt squid. Imagine seeing one of these comng at you(they have been known to attack humans, and each other). Actually, I would say the Giant Squid, but none have been in waters we frequent for long.
That counts under my "deep sea fish" category - you're absolutely right.
discovery1
09-13-2005, 02:16
That counts under my "deep sea fish" category - you're absolutely right.
Most deep sea life I don't think is very scary. Sure they look nasty, but they are the size of my fist, head maybe. These things can be as big as I am(>6 feet) and much stronger.
Most deep sea life I don't think is very scary. Sure they look nasty, but they are the size of my fist, head maybe. These things can be as big as I am(>6 feet) and much stronger.
Most go from a foot to 3 feet. I don't think it would matter much, though - encountering any of them would mean you'd be too deep to see. Besides, some of them are more tooth than body.
Byzantine Prince
09-13-2005, 02:24
Homo Sapiens. Never has there been a more terrifying creature!
LeftEyeNine
09-13-2005, 02:27
Noone ever mentioned the owls ?
If we are talking about something primarily "scary", then owls should go for top five.
There was some deep sea fish that has a face of a cat-family animal face, with a tentacle growing from his nose which has an organic illuminator at the end. My god, these deep waters are already full of aliens, no need to look for them in space.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/tv/blueplanet/picpops/images/prog2_2.jpg
The Angler Fish, you mean? You're right, though - they do look like aliens. Man, they're freaky.
LeftEyeNine
09-13-2005, 02:37
If it has an organic illuminator, that's it..
I bet alien invasion type FPS game designers are well aware of deep sea fishes.. Brrr.. What a face.. (Face ?..Well, not sure 'bout that..)
The scariest animal in the history of man is you guessed it - the animals that used to hunt man.
LeftEyeNine
09-13-2005, 03:02
Neongod,
You're right, that's it.. (even "it" can not describe such a thing.. My Lord..)
More of it..
https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/8233/anglerfishfemale466bf.jpg
(Linking others to save bandwith..The one above looks "enough" of it, though..)
https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/9736/anglerfishmontage1kz.jpg
https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/4241/bpscanfemaleanglerwithparasiti.jpg
Strike For The South
09-13-2005, 03:05
insects so tiny so scary :embarassed:
More on the Angler Fish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish
Some anglerfish have a unique mating method. Without light, finding a mate is a problem, especially at a time when both individuals are ready to spawn. When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfishes, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. These individuals were a few inches in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turns out that these "parasites" were the males. When a male anglerfish is hatched, he has extremely well developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. He has no digestive system. His goal in life is to detect the pheromones that the female anglerfishes release. When he finds a female, he bites into her flank which releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body. The two then fuse together, including blood vessels. The male degenerates into nothing more than a pair of gonads that releases sperm when the female releases hormones into the bloodstream that signals she is ready to release her eggs. This is an extreme example of sexual dimorphism. If the male anglerfish doesn't find a female, he dies.
Wow. Even sex is grotesque with the Anglers.
Well that is slightly better then the Black Widow Spider - she gets to dine on her mate afterwards, or is it just kill. Can't remember.
AntiochusIII
09-13-2005, 04:36
Well that is slightly better then the Black Widow Spider - she gets to dine on her mate afterwards, or is it just kill. Can't remember.Dine. But still...
The abomination of the male forever trapped and degenerates on his female mate's body!!!
I fear thee, deep sea creatures.
Zalmoxis
09-13-2005, 06:34
Neongod,
You're right, that's it.. (even "it" can not describe such a thing.. My Lord..)
More of it..
https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/8233/anglerfishfemale466bf.jpg
(Linking others to save bandwith..The one above looks "enough" of it, though..)
https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/9736/anglerfishmontage1kz.jpg
https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/4241/bpscanfemaleanglerwithparasiti.jpg
If only those things were twenty meters long and ate ships.
Shaka_Khan
09-13-2005, 06:46
The grizzly is the scariest in my opinion.
http://www.jonhairsculpture.com/images/monumental_editions/fullsize_grizzly_bear_01.jpg
The scariest in man's history were the ones from the Ice Age:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Giant_Haasts_eagle_attacking_New_Zealand_moa.jpg/750px-Giant_Haasts_eagle_attacking_New_Zealand_moa.jpg
Haast's Eagle (Harpagornis)
(compare the eagle's size with the moa bird)
http://big_game.at.infoseek.co.jp/bigcat/smilodon.jpg
Smilodon (compare the fossil size with the human)
Productivity
09-13-2005, 07:10
Not divers, we love sharks, the bigger the better. Problem is, sharks don't like us. ~;) Seems that having something swim towards *them* sends the wrong message...so they flee. I still remember my first glimpse of a big hammerhead. ~D
Yes I can agree with that - I've actually had a hammerhead glide right past me on the surface once. I like sharks though, I just recognise that they are part of the risk of diving.
The ones that freak me out are big rays. Now I like rays - I really do. But when a 3m across ray sneaks up on you and then glides ~1m over the top of you it's worrying. I really would like them a lot more if they were polite enough to not sneak up on me.
Aside from that, junior yacht clubs are pretty scary. See that blue and white flag? That's a diving flag. It means there is an exclusion zone around the boat with it on it. DO NOT COME NEAR IT. Seeing the keel of a yacht come within a metre of you is worrying to say the least.
i've heard that hippos kill more people in africa by far than any other animal. they're supposed to be extremely territorial and will chase someone for miles and miles. since they also like to be under water, a sailboat or raft or swimmer will suddenly be attacked from below. the first pharoah of egypt was supposedly killed by just such an attack, and the totem of the evil god Set in egyptian mythology was the hippo.
yesdachi
09-13-2005, 16:07
Great posts everyone! :bow:
Here’s a recap of some of the contenders for the top spot IMO: crocks/caiman, hippos, bears, tigers, ice age eagles and tigers, freaky fish from the deep and sharks.
I think the freaky deep sea fish are the scariest in appearance but the chances of ever seeing one is about nil so they are not too scary to me but sharks are pretty common and yelling shark will definitely get some attention, they have also been made popular by movies and books (although not until recently as Simon Appleton points out). The shark is way up on my list.
Crocks and hippos are so darn big and if you are in the water its not like you can just run away if they come close, plus with crocks especially they hide until your almost stepping on them.
Bears in the north and tigers in the south are both common villains in many stories and have been known to attack humans. The tigers stalking skill makes me think I wouldn’t stand a chance wandering thru the jungle and the fact the bear could be anywhere I would be (similar interests, water/food) while out hiking is not a pleasant thought.
And owls, and cows… er I mean crows are a creepy sight and have been used many times to set a scary mood in books, movies and stories of all kinds (Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds freaked me out).
Insects, snakes and spiders are scary and can even be deadly but unless “swarming” they don’t have what it takes IMO. Great mood setters though.
Hummm… I wonder if the “plague” could be considered an animal?
Watchman
09-13-2005, 16:37
Historically, people have tended to reserve their more virulent fear and loathing (often coloured with reverence and worship) to the resident large carnivore that's dangerous to them and/or their means of livelihood. Anything poisonous, or something that offends their worldview (look up sometime what the Old Testament Israelites considered "loathsome in the eyes of God"; anthropologists have a field day with similar issues, and a theory I've seen claims that particular list is 100% "aberrant" animals - the sort that don't fit into clear main categorizations, like bats; penguins, pangolins and the like would no doubt have been included had the Prophets known of them) tends to come a close second.
Europeans, and many others, feared the wolf, not so much because it was itself very directly dangerous to them (although it could happen, particularly on harsh winters when the packs were starving), but because it was dangerous to their livestock and hence could threaten their subsistence. The werewolf myths are partly connected to this (and to a sort of hallucinogenic mold that often takes root in insufficiently dry grain...); conversely the Pacific peoples feared the sharks, and had their equivalent legends about were-sharks...
English assassin
09-13-2005, 16:47
Kimodo dragons are pretty horrible. Big and ugly enough to start with, and one bite, and then they just wait following you around until all the foul bacteria in their mouths finish you off with blood poisoning. I suppose they only live in a few places though so its not a widespread fear.
Surely the most widespread fear would be snakes.
i've heard that hippos kill more people in africa by far than any other animal. they're supposed to be extremely territorial and will chase someone for miles and miles. since they also like to be under water, a sailboat or raft or swimmer will suddenly be attacked from below. the first pharoah of egypt was supposedly killed by just such an attack, and the totem of the evil god Set in egyptian mythology was the hippo.
I thought Set's animal counterpart was unknown for whatever reason.
Watchman
09-13-2005, 16:59
The few images of him I've seen tended to look somewhat like Anubis, ie. a rather uncertain canine. But then again, wasn't he supposed to be the god of the deserts ? Even given the way religious symbolism tends to get appointed, a hippo (a manifestly riverine animal) would be really far-fetched.
Conqueror
09-13-2005, 17:50
I think scorpions are among the scariest animals, although I don't have to worry about them where I live. They are very nasty looking with their claws and stingers, and some of the species have pretty potent venom.
http://www.vision.caltech.edu/feifeili/101_ObjectCategories/scorpion/image_0073.jpg
http://www.closerlookphoto.com/Galleries/misc-fauna/images/scorpion-7848.jpg
Riedquat
09-13-2005, 18:23
In the "insecta" class the "tse-tse" fly.
In the "arachnida" class all the genres and subgenres.
About mammals nobody mention the "desmodus rotundus" known like the vampire. :hide:
The scariest one I think is the Comodo dragon. :eeeek:
I'm not so afraid of the squashable creatures :smash: . A pissed-off giant
bear or a large bull shark are a different matter- they would guess I was
a Giant squid, because of the large 'ink' pile I left behind.
Oh yeah...camel spiders. My second choice vote goes to camel spiders.
http://www.foxies.nl/images/camel_spider_web.jpg
These are American soldiers in the Middle East, confused and bewildered by the creatures. I've heard second-hand that they prefer the shade, so they walk around all day in your shadow. They can also keep speed with a sprinting human, so they stay in your shadow even after you decide to get the crap out of there.
They prey on sleeping mammals by biting them and injecting a paralytic venom that numbs the area of the bite. They then eat the warm flesh as the creature sleeps - it never wakes up from any pain. I heard of a case where a man woke up one morning with a camel spider on his face. His cheek had been eaten away.
where a man woke up one morning with a camel spider on his face. His cheek had been eaten away.
Now this is scary :hide:
Watchman
09-13-2005, 20:59
Bah. Evening stories to put your kids to sleep with compared to the sheer ickiness of honest-to-Dog parasites, particularly the tropical kinds. Now that's some singularly nasty stuff, all the more so as the blighters (or rather their side effects; few parasites actually want to kill their food source, but...) kill fairly appalling numbers of people every year. Plus they tend to be both insidious and godawfully ugly.
Anyway, I know that camel spider thing from way back. Point one: in the photo there's two of the things. Point two: they're being held very close to the lens.
That aside, I'd also be a little disturbed by comparatively large carnivorous arachnids that insisted upon employing me as a sunshade, especially if they were willing to follow me around. And particularly if I'd seen the little scuttlers munch on some hapless rodent...
I thought Set's animal counterpart was unknown for whatever reason.
third paragraph from the bottom lists the creature avatars of Set. i would guess that hippos were part of his portfolio due to the darkness of the river bottom and thier destructive potential.
http://www.touregypt.net/SET.HTM
Red Harvest
09-14-2005, 03:08
Yes I can agree with that - I've actually had a hammerhead glide right past me on the surface once. I like sharks though, I just recognise that they are part of the risk of diving.
Barracuda are far more dangerous, because they are so blazingly stupid (and quick.) They will catch a glint off the shiny alloy on your regulator and shoot in after you at high speed. Wave your finger around them and they will try to take it off. I keep a closer eye on them than on sharks.
Watch out for some of the surgeon fish varieties as well. I've know people nipped on the face by them, and one tried to bite me once--I sensed something was wrong when he was staring intently at my face from 12" away, so I shielded my face so with my hand and it bit the exhaust valve port on my second stage. Those fish have tiny mouths so it is just painful if they take a chunk out, rather than dangerous.
The ones that freak me out are big rays. Now I like rays - I really do. But when a 3m across ray sneaks up on you and then glides ~1m over the top of you it's worrying. I really would like them a lot more if they were polite enough to not sneak up on me.
I love the big manta rays. I'm not afraid of them, only concern I have is that I'll injure them if they run into me while feeding. In Hawaii we used our dive lights to feed those beauties by attracting plankton. The problem was the manta kept diving lower and lower and started bumping into us. I was concerned about scratching them and giving them an infection.
I did find an electric ray in the sand by our anchor chain once. That was on a night dive, so I gave it a wide berth. That one could have been a problem considering how much traffic there was at that location.
Aside from that, junior yacht clubs are pretty scary. See that blue and white flag? That's a diving flag. It means there is an exclusion zone around the boat with it on it. DO NOT COME NEAR IT. Seeing the keel of a yacht come within a metre of you is worrying to say the least.
There's your problem...the flag is supposed to be red and white! Does Australia use a different color? Or is this an international yachting thing?
Interesting. Thank you for the link.
Productivity
09-14-2005, 05:38
Oh yeah...camel spiders. My second choice vote goes to camel spiders.
These are American soldiers in the Middle East, confused and bewildered by the creatures. I've heard second-hand that they prefer the shade, so they walk around all day in your shadow. They can also keep speed with a sprinting human, so they stay in your shadow even after you decide to get the crap out of there.
They prey on sleeping mammals by biting them and injecting a paralytic venom that numbs the area of the bite. They then eat the warm flesh as the creature sleeps - it never wakes up from any pain. I heard of a case where a man woke up one morning with a camel spider on his face. His cheek had been eaten away.
They are scary until you realise that their abilities are actually urban legends.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp
Productivity
09-14-2005, 05:52
There's your problem...the flag is supposed to be red and white! Does Australia use a different color? Or is this an international yachting thing?
It's allways been Blue and White here - link. (http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/signal-meaning.html) That's what I learnt it as, and I've never seen anything other than blue and white here.
I do like the rays, it's just they give a bit of a fright when they come up behind you and just glide over you. When I know they are there, they are great.
Cuttlefish are also worrying - pretty freaky looking things, with the tentacles going out the front and pulsing with light. We've had a few deaths attributed to them here - people panicing when attacked by them and losing their air - personally I don't understand it - the cuttlefish can't do much to you. At worst you get out of the water, cuttlefish and all - then we'll see who wins that contest.
Barracuda are a worry - on the other hand, I've seen more sharks than barracuda.
Fair enough. They were my second choice, after all, but this fits perfectly into the thread along with wolves, bears and other folk-lore dangers.
Red Harvest
09-14-2005, 08:05
It's allways been Blue and White here - link. (http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/signal-meaning.html) That's what I learnt it as, and I've never seen anything other than blue and white here.
You might want to look at the "diver down" flag, I'm not really a flag & boat guy so this has been educational. I'm not sure if it would be kosher to fly both flags or not. The diver down flag is the one I've seen everywhere I've travelled, but I wasn't really looking at the boat pennants, they might be using the blue and white. I'm used to having the diver down flag out where we are diving, sometimes on a buoy, etc. Haven't been down under though. The red and white diver down is an international symbol like the other pennant. It's key advantage is that it means dive operations only, no alternate meanings.
Cuttlefish are also worrying - pretty freaky looking things, with the tentacles going out the front and pulsing with light. We've had a few deaths attributed to them here - people panicing when attacked by them and losing their air - personally I don't understand it - the cuttlefish can't do much to you. At worst you get out of the water, cuttlefish and all - then we'll see who wins that contest.
Hard to imagine someone freaking out over a cuttlefish, let alone dying! ~:eek: Sort of like octopus. Reminds me of a lady divemaster handling an octopus and getting it a bit perturbed. After it flashed red, then inked, she tried to put it down, but by then it was looking for cover. (There were some small sharks in the general area but not nearby at the time.) So the octopus tried to get in her BC jacket with her. She had a heck of a time pulling it free.
With the cuttlefish, seems like if you lose your air you just do a free ascent. Heck I swim around a lot without my regulator in my mouth. You can go a looooonnnng way on compressed air. Plus it makes it easier to control my bubbles when I'm trying to get close to something that spooks easily, or when I'm inverted.
Now I've heard about those blue ring octopus. They are incredibly deadly if you are foolish enough to handle them or try stuffing them in a pocket, etc.
Papewaio
09-14-2005, 08:37
Women...
Productivity
09-14-2005, 09:53
Hard to imagine someone freaking out over a cuttlefish, let alone dying! ~:eek: Sort of like octopus. Reminds me of a lady divemaster handling an octopus and getting it a bit perturbed. After it flashed red, then inked, she tried to put it down, but by then it was looking for cover. (There were some small sharks in the general area but not nearby at the time.) So the octopus tried to get in her BC jacket with her. She had a heck of a time pulling it free.
With the cuttlefish, seems like if you lose your air you just do a free ascent. Heck I swim around a lot without my regulator in my mouth. You can go a looooonnnng way on compressed air. Plus it makes it easier to control my bubbles when I'm trying to get close to something that spooks easily, or when I'm inverted.
Now I've heard about those blue ring octopus. They are incredibly deadly if you are foolish enough to handle them or try stuffing them in a pocket, etc.
I agree - it's sheer stupiity to die of a cuttlefish. Yes they are freaky looking, yes they are aggresive, but they will not kill you. But people panic - and panicing underwater is not a smart thing to do. Cuttlefish don't kill people - stupidity kills people with assistance from the cuttelfish.
Actually, you're octopus reminds me of an ammusing situation. I was poking around in a reef, when I see this cray scuttle straight out - not usual behaviour at all. Anyway I see a octopus advancing after it, ok so this makes more sense. Anyway, five seconds later a cuttlefish comes in at high speed and goes for the same cray. Poor crayfish - not safe in the cave, not safe out of the cave.
Re. the flag, I imagine you can run both - but really, a yacht club should have people who know what it means in it, especially when the blue and white is pretty much standard here - they were about a metre away from having a manslaughter case on their hands.
Kimodo dragons are pretty horrible.
Yeah, I was going to mention them for the reasons you gave but then I saw a documentary which had a clip of them wandering around a village scavenging rather like goats. The villagers - including children - seemed pretty unconcerned by them - shooing them off if they came to close to food. I guess they just don't bother people much.
From personal experience, I must say that a lion is a pretty awesome sight close up. They didn't get the reputation of being kind of the beasts for nothing. I was in a safari van and a massive lion just strolled within a foot or so of my vantage point. Massive, swaggering and stuffed full of testosterone. Fortunately, he was totally unconcerned by us tourists (it was the Masaai Mara - more tourists than wildebeest and there's a million or so wildebeest). The lions you see in zoos just don't prepare you for the bulk and attitude of some in the wild.
NeonGod,
Your Camel Spider post just reinforces my opinion that Spiders! are the scariest. ~:eek: :fainting:
one of the creatures here, that i will not mention, because i don't want to see any images of them, elicit a complete primal response from me. brings out fear, disgust, loathing, hatred. its always been that way. and it gets worse, when i try not to think of it. i will not think of 'x', i will not think of 'x'. so of course i think of it. its the only real phobia i have even though i know, logically my chances of me running into one is close to nil.
Productivity
09-14-2005, 13:58
Is it an ocelot?
Watchman
09-14-2005, 14:45
Spiders are nice. They eat bugs. Bugs, on the average, are very much not on our side (given that for starters a fair few of them feed on us, or our food). That makes spiders our friends by default.
'Course, they'll still bite us in the ass if we sit on them by accident.
yesdachi
09-14-2005, 15:20
Spiders are nice. They eat bugs. Bugs, on the average, are very much not on our side (given that for starters a fair few of them feed on us, or our food). That makes spiders our friends by default.
'Course, they'll still bite us in the ass if we sit on them by accident.
In some animal planet show the other day they mentioned that w/o spiders we would be completely over run by bugs in 6 months. I’m not sure what there definition of “over run” is but it makes you appreciate their work. I still don’t like them in my house though.
I still don't like them fullstop. Aarrggh!
Watchman
09-14-2005, 15:39
I rather like watching the things wander around, personally. They're kinda cute, and have the sort of solemn grace many such little creepy-crawlies proceed with...
Plus some of them weave some very beautiful webs.
LeftEyeNine
09-14-2005, 16:05
So here comes the question..
Why do the bugs look as if they do not belong to this planet ?
Watchman
09-14-2005, 16:23
Because your horizons are too narrow and mammalocentric ? ~D Come on now - human intestines don't look like they're from this planet.
LeftEyeNine
09-14-2005, 16:31
Maybe it's only you who has a narrow horizon and does not sound like from this planet ? (Let's put a smiley here, so that I can say anything I want without ever getting noticed..Hmm that looks OK.) ~D
I'd prefer a reply : " Well, do not take it that way. The mammals are the dominant visible organisms and so that you may be thinking the other species look different "
Gregoshi
09-14-2005, 16:56
Even in a discussion about scary animals...:end:
:wall:
LeftEyeNine
09-14-2005, 17:17
Sorry Greg, I did not intend to start an argument. It's all about watching your words..
I think the deep sea fish look more alien than insects do. Granted, that Lexx spaceship and its smaller ancillary ships were based off of insects..
I don't think intestines look that alien at all.
The Stranger
09-14-2005, 18:34
Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AntiochusIII
09-14-2005, 22:51
Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!No. You're not scary. Sorry, but I'll run away from any direct contact with deep sea fish, a shark, a big, big cat of all kinds, a crocodile, a hippopotamus, and more before I even notice you.
BTW I'm wondering if all dragons in fantasy and reality, including famous ones like Glaurung, all have in their mouth filth such that would poison your blood with bacteria like the Kimodo dragons?
Well, the dragons that breathe fire wouldn't be host to such bacteria..
AntiochusIII
09-15-2005, 00:10
Well, the dragons that breathe fire wouldn't be host to such bacteria..May be they have some archaebacteria in there. Which is, of course, not in the least comforting to the bitten, if they're alive after being bit by a dragon...
Well, being heated to 118 Celsius or so for a few minutes kills most things. After a prolonged battle, I don't think much disease would be left in that mouth. I wonder what a dragon's teeth would be made of, though...
LeftEyeNine
09-15-2005, 01:02
May their spit or something full of fatal bacteria was illustrated and imagined as a fatal burst of fire. You know fire has somehow had symbolic connection with disease that caused fever..
Come to think of it... I really dislike the Praying Mantis, it just gives me the shudders, and at the same time it is so fascinating and interesting.
I can't imagine anything more scary than a 2 meter tall Praying Mantis.
It has that quite humanoid behaviour and looks (two manipulating arms, walking upright, head on a neck with good stereoscopic sight), and yet it is so different... SCARY!!!!!! If I found one in my home, one of the big ones I would never come close to it, I would fear it catching a finger or something.
Butthe worst has to be the way it feeds. Eating the pray alive, not like most other insects, just plain eating them. Nasty... At least it has good tablemanners.
what is that insect that drops its larvae into a host and the larva eats the host from the inside out as it incubates?
that thing is freaky and i assume the genesis for the alien in Alien the movie.
Ha! I thought you said cows.
I thought that too. And I can sort of see it -- cows in the treetops, well, they wouldn't even have to be there, would they? Cows have their own menace ...
http://www.dennisflood.com/2003/animals/leeds-athens-cows-103.jpg
what is that insect that drops its larvae into a host and the larva eats the host from the inside out as it incubates?
that thing is freaky and i assume the genesis for the alien in Alien the movie.
http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=2189&CAT=movies&NSFW=2&rtn=search-2189&Keywords=maggot
http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=2238&CAT=movies&NSFW=2&rtn=search-2238&Keywords=neck
Oh yeah. How could I forget?
Mind you, there's some language going on in the background of these clips.
Azi Tohak
09-15-2005, 06:59
"I hate spiders. I hate spiders. I hate spiders."
Come on now, I'm sure everyone knows the words!
Anyway, I think the Wolf is a good guess, but I think it varies according to the culture. When I was little I was terrified of Aliens (I'll refrain from an immigration joke). But now... just spiders.
Azi
RabidGibbon
09-15-2005, 17:07
Originally posted by Lemurmania
Cows have their own menace
You better believe it. I remember a couple of cases of cow's killing people in the UK not so long ago, but the only linkage I could find was of foreign cows killing people.
Clicking Time (http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/2005/06/killer-cows.html)
master of the puppets
09-15-2005, 17:11
funny as it may sound a giant chicken would be lethal, they move like raptors and run astonishingly fast. you give them teeeth and some guts and they could do damage. my family used to have this one rooster that aytttacked my sister and brother, honestly attack charge them leap into the air and try to claw there eyes out but ui got him good oh yes i got him.
Red Harvest
09-15-2005, 18:24
funny as it may sound a giant chicken would be lethal, they move like raptors and run astonishingly fast. you give them teeeth and some guts and they could do damage. my family used to have this one rooster that aytttacked my sister and brother, honestly attack charge them leap into the air and try to claw there eyes out but ui got him good oh yes i got him.
Yes, anyone who has been around chickens as a small child has probably seen this. The main problem is that little kids are afraid of them. If they would charge the bird it would run. The birds don't have much mass, and they have weak bones. They are not going to get into a real tangle with a dense boned more massive mammal. Still, I always had to run to the rescue of my little brother, since he always ran. ~:rolleyes: If you chase the rooster long enough it will ball up and go into a coma like state... ~;)
Dogs were a concern when distance running down country dirt roads, they were very aggressive. I picked up rocks and gravel along the way. (I'm a crack shot with a rock while running--I've killed rabbits and bullfrogs this way.) Yelp...yelp...yelp. If they got too close I would charge them. After running a route a few times I noticed the dogs would run up and bark, but stay discreetly out of my accurate range.
LeftEyeNine
09-15-2005, 18:59
Well my friend had a rooster which was a lot taller than an infant. He said that the guy (?!!) was really furious, he could easily attack at humans. Well, you should have seen that.
The Stranger
09-15-2005, 19:22
i'm the scariest wanna bet
Reverend Joe
09-15-2005, 20:05
The Chupacabra. Probably not real, but if it is... ~:eek:
Do a little reading on the Chupacabra- it'll scare the **** out of you.
yesdachi
09-15-2005, 21:36
I think we have pretty much hit all the major scary animals. Thanks everyone. :bow:
As long as we keep it in the mood of the monastery I would not be opposed to switching gears and listing a few of the scariest whatever’s we can think of.
I would happily start and list the Witch, particularly popular as a villain in stories, folk tales and steak burnings. Although they don’t scare me too much (I have always been good with the ugly wart covered ladies ~;) ) they sure seem to have made an impact in history.
This guy, Tamim Ansary, describes and rates 9 monsters. A fun read.
http://encarta.msn.com/column_ninescarymonsters_tamimhome/9_Monsters_Rated_Which_is_Scariest.html
a bug that slowly eats the tongue of a fish and becomes a tongue imposter for the fish. just ran into this today. i have no idea of its veracity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4200000/newsid_4209000/4209004.stm
http://www.bogleech.com/bio-para.html
Byzantine Prince
09-16-2005, 00:47
I'de like to see a giant chicken or a praying mantis cause a nuclear holocaust. ;laugh4:
Seriously Man has always been his own worse fear, even within himself.
Reverend Joe
09-16-2005, 02:30
a bug that slowly eats the tongue of a fish and becomes a tongue imposter for the fish. just ran into this today. i have no idea of its veracity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4200000/newsid_4209000/4209004.stm
http://www.bogleech.com/bio-para.html
That parasite stuff wasn't so much scary as disturbing. So apparently there may be a hollow chamber beneath my skin, with 3-inch larvae in it. Though I suppose I would feel that.
Yawning Angel
09-16-2005, 10:13
There's your problem...the flag is supposed to be red and white! Does Australia use a different color? Or is this an international yachting thing?
Sorry for the slight OT, as far as I know Americans (and possibly others) use the 'diver down' flag (a little background (http://www.fatboyscuba.com/diveflaghistory.html)) while the British use the International Code Flag 'A' for diving (code flags (http://www.yachtracing.com/technicaljournals/Code%20Flags/codeflagsships1.html)).
Back on topic, when diving I find the highly venemous Stonefish that do excellent impressions of rocks that would be good to put your hands on quite worrying :help:
I'de like to see a giant chicken or a praying mantis cause a nuclear holocaust. ;laugh4:
Seriously Man has always been his own worse fear, even within himself.
Sure but do you get a horrifying dread in your gut whenever you see a human? Not me.
Humans are only scary in specific cases, cases that are often not normal.
The animals we hae mentioned are scary as they are always. That is a pretty big difference. Just because we have the capacity to destroy everything doesn't make us scary to ourselves.
Btw, I wonder now why people haven't mentioned Leeches. A lot of people are quite scared of them and it has been kept alive by movies and old tales, now that we seldomly see them in the wild (well if you are European that is).
Alexanderofmacedon
09-16-2005, 22:43
Maybe elephants? In combat it would probably be, but other than that not really. Lions?
VAE VICTUS
09-17-2005, 00:41
simple...US.MAN IS THE SCARIEST ANIMAL.in my book anyway. except we dont eat our young...we hit them with rocks.
ScionTheWorm
09-18-2005, 14:31
no doubt snakes....
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/eastern%20ribbon%20snake2.jpg
edit: no actually I think deep seafish is scarier, but snakes are pretty scary too.
vBulletin® v3.7.1, Copyright ©2000-2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.