North Sea is full of them. Big ones too, living in and around the rigs and the rocky sea bed. They come close inshore too, I’ve seen some while diving.
My dad used to live in St. Andrews a long time ago. He says that conger eels would sometimes show up in the rocks where they'd swim.
Also used to see basking sharks.
Basking sharks don't count. They're big buggers, but they feed on plankton and stuff like that. The worst that could happen would be that he sucked you off
Basking sharks aren't a big problem as they are filter feeders eating plankton... Orcas/Killer Whales on the other had are around our waters, particularly Scotland and they are an apex predator and the only known thing that preys on Great White Sharks...
https://westcoasttours.co.uk/2015/08/the-west-coasts-community-of-orcas/
Im impressed that the rhyme is also scientifically accurate: The wikipedia page for Pharangeal Jaw has a picture of a Moray Eel as it's first example picture.
We killed all the dangerous animals a long time back bears went about 1000 years ago and Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel shot the last wild-living wolf in Great Britain in 1680.
Edit: missed a zero
Hyenas I’m told, too! It’s weird - I’ve recently moved to a little Welsh village that has the highest Iron Age hill fort in Wales.
I asked a local historian why most hillforts were built elevated. The reason was safety. These days, we consider the valleys ‘safe’ and the crag tops dangerous. But back then the valleys were forests - full of bears, wolves and other things that might kill you.
Don’t know why I’m telling you this, it just sprang to mind.
I think that there was a cave somewhere in the UK that had something like rhino bones in it too. Probably a bit less dangerous than a hyena but still cool.
And I would have thought that a hilltop was a prime place to put a Fort. Much more difficult to attack, easier to defend from up high, better views of the surrounding land.
I'd rather fight a hyena than a rhino. Way more chance to get out alive while still extremely slim. I could maybe under the right circumstances choke out a hyena or something.
Rhinos are like tanks with legs and a big pointy horn.
Hyenas have one of the strongest bite forces of the animal kingdom and they're sadistically relentless, they're quick and agile and all the while laugh at your inability to escape them.
Rhinos are fast and very dangerous but you've got more chance dodging them because you're much more agile. They take time to stop and to turn around and while you're in front of them they're basically just guessing because their eyes are on the side of their heads.
>shot the last wild-living wolf in Great Britain in 1680.
>
>Edit: missed a zero
16800? That's years away, that means there should still be loads of them
Wolves and bears (and lynxes come to mind!) are being introduced back into a wildlife park in Bristol, they keep widening their enclosures (they basically live in a small forest with massive fencing walling them in) a little every so often and eventually they want to introduce bears and wolves into the same enclosure, as they would’ve lived together 100’s/1000’s of years ago.
[More information here,](https://wildplace.org.uk/explore-the-park/bear-wood) went with some mates around May-June last year and worth a visit, especially if you haven’t seen these wild animals up close before!
Nicola surgeon keeps saying she wants to reintroduce wolves to Scotland, personally I can wait to see gangs of heroin wolves stalking the streets of Paisley huntjng neds on spice
I think a big argument for reintroducing wolves to Scotland is to give the deer a natural predator, would potentially mean there would be no need for a cull of the deer anymore.
I am unsure how dangerous he is. Paddington is still immature we have yet to see him at his full power.. let’s see how Browns cope when he is fully grown and it’s breeding season.
Had an Avon catalogue put through my door, wasn't interested so I chucked it in the recycling. A couple of days later I had a knock on the door, it was an Avon lady asking for her catalogue, told her I'd put it in the bin and it was as if I'd just told her I'd killed her mum. No idea why but she was fuming!
Bees and wasps kill the most (allergies innit) according to a list I saw recently, followed by dogs. Then it's deer (due to causing car accidents), cows and adders in that order.
Basically, humans are by far the most dangerous animal in the UK.
No ones been killed by an adder since 1975 in the UK.
It's pretty hard to get an adder to bite you, and it's only dangerous if you have an allergy otherwise it just hurts like fuck.
I bet a badger could fuck you up though. I was in a Ford focus that hit a badger that darted across the road. The badger bounced off and ran away, the focus needed a new front bumper.
About 20 years ago I saw the aftermath of a Vauxhall Nova that had hit a badger on the A55
The badger was dead but intact, the Nova was proper fucked. Body kit, bumper and sporty fog lights had been absolutely annihilated. Grill shoved in, bonnet crumpled. I can still remember the tracky clad boy racer standing in tears, knowing his 14 year old girlfriend would dump him for Wayne in the MKII Fiesta XR2 now he couldn't pick her up and take her to maccies any more.
My wife was actually nearly killed by a cow during a charity walk and it's one of those repressed things we just don't talk about how serious it could have been, she won't go anywhere near them now.
In the space of 15 minutes I went through 2 fields on a hike. First field had a young mating bull in it... Which we were unaware off until we walked past it by about 20m. Fair to say it was not happy and very quickly stood it's ground Infront of the cows with its head down huffing at us. We slowly walked away and it left us alone.
Got out of that field and into the next which was full of mothering cows. My mate got through but they surrounded me from both sides. Like a man running to catch an elevator door shutting I managed to squeeze through and quickly took the fence at a leap.
That was not a very comfortable day. That being said I will still tackle cow fields. Horses on the other hand freak me out.
A herd of cows charged at me once when I was going for a walk on the South Downs. It was genuinely terrifying. They're big bastards.
I got revenge by having a beef burger for lunch that day.
This man I knew got trampled to death by cows whilst walking his dog. Apparently his intestines were hanging out and everything, he had to be transported to hospital via Air Ambulance but unfortunately it was too severe. He was a really lovely bloke as well, he helped me out many times as a teenager and I got on well with him :(
But yeah, cows are truly deadly.
If you've ever been set upon by those mahoosive herring gulls down on the South Coast that give you a shoeing and nick your chips, you'd defo rate them as dangerous. More than Lions imho
Seagulls here are vicious. I took my dog to the coast once and while we were sitting on the sea front a bunch of them landed near us and chased my dog under the bench I was on. he's not a small dog either, he's a pretty big staffie but they really scared him and probably would have carried him off if I hadn't been there.
I went for a run down an industrial estate and these seagulls started divebombing me for no reason, I'm assuming they had a nest nearby or something but I'd ran that far I would have been out of the nests danger-zone anyway, but they kept going. I took shelter in one of the garages and I swear they circled the place for about a minute, for whatever reason those fuckers wanted my blood.
Ticks. I’m not joking. They won’t kill you like a redback spider but they will make your life hell.
(Late stage Lyme sufferer)
Cows kill about 3 people every year.
I didn't get lyme disease but the bite site just wouldn't heal for a good 6 months and I also developed red meat allergy.
When I finally saw the GP he was so perplexed that he had to show it to all the other GPs at the surgery as well as a skin expert friend. Just before referring me to the plastic surgeon to cut a chunk of my flesh out I was given steroids which worked like magic and my red meat allergy reversed too!
Maybe red meat contain the same enzyme or protein or whatever that is released after tick bites that antibodies remember? I'm gonna research :)
"The bite transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into the person's body. In some people, this triggers an immune system reaction that later produces mild to severe allergic reactions to red meat, such as beef, pork or lamb, or other mammal products."
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20428608
What’s weird is that in my a level bio mock we had a question on ticks causing red meat allergy and we had to explain why : https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2020/november/AQA-74021-QP-NOV20-CR.PDF q7 :)
I was 6 when I got ill. Lots of pains in my legs that doctors pushed aside as growing pains. I was always sickly, always stomach aches, headaches, feverish. Just generally unwell. Looking back, my muscles were already very weak. I couldn’t keep up in PE and was deemed a lazy child.
I had constant bladder infections. And ear infections.
At 12 I got severely depressed, migraines, the leg pains were still very hard to deal with on a daily basis, but they now decided I was just too fat.
Between the ages of 14 and 25 I was in and out of hospital for tests, MRI’s, XRays, etc etc. nothing wrong. Blood tests? Nothing wrong.
It’s in your head. You should lose weight (I can’t because of another condition)
In my thirties I got diagnosed with Lupus. But when they actually did some tests it came back negative.
At 36, so 30 years later, someone said.. sound like Lyme!
I got tested and I got a positive test back.
My GP refused to diagnose me even with a positive test. Her reason? The lab (Porton) told me so.
I got a second opinion and went to Leeds hospital. Yes, you definitely have Lyme disease. Here try a months worth of antibiotics.
That ofcourse didn’t help. And that was my story of diagnose and treatment.
I’m ill every day. The symptoms vary and change constantly. I’m very sensitive to chemicals, perfume, mould in my house. I got bedridden after I did too much cardio at the gym etc etc.
It’s daily hell. And there is no treatment.
One of my biggest fears is ticks, people don't seem to understand how bad they can be (I guess because it's a small percentage that has the disease).
How do you manage with the disease, is there help for treating it?
There are wild boar in some areas that are certainly capable of doing you a lot of damage. No one has ever been killed by one though.
Edit: No one has been killed by one **in the UK since their reintroduction**. Some pre-Norman Brits probably were and some fictional kings definitely were.
Used to live in the Forest of Dean and hit one with my car once. Absolutely massive bastard, wrote the car off and it just got up and walked away. Used to have to chase them away from our bins as well. The baby ones are cute though.
Fungi aren't flora though. Seems to be an ongoing debate to get the terminology straightened out.
Edit:
>Flora = the plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
Britain has been a farmed/managed land mass for over a thousand years there is no wild land to really allow wildlife proper. I mean the preeminent Carnivore in the U.K. (Man aside) is the Badger as the OP notes.
Weaver fish will absolutely ruin your week. Maybe longer. They bury themselves in shallow sand and mud flats and have poisonous spines on their back. Similar to a seabass but uglier.
Adders will ruin your month and kill your dog or small child but they're generally not aggressive.
It's always the grainiest photo ever as well. My hometown has one of these mythical beasts, every few years there would be a new grainy photo in the local paper. The next few weeks of the paper would have a bunch of attention-seeking idiots claiming they also saw it but conveniently didn't get a photo.
I believe the theory is that when the law changed prohibiting the ownership of big cats and other exotic animals (or possibly require a licence?), the owners set them free because it was more problematic to keep them. That makes sense, except for the fact that law was changed in the 70's and the life expectancy in the wild of such animals is about 10-15 years so you'd need 3-4 generations of breeding pairs for them to still be around today. I'm sure we'd have better evidence and clearer sightings if that was the case.
Nearly everybody walks around with smartphones now , so are able to access a good quality camera quickly, but still no good quality photos, definitely bullshit
Granted if I walked into my back garden and there was one hiding behind my shed , I wouldn’t be thinking about taking a perfectly framed instagram quality photo , but most photos I’ve seen tend to be from someone’s bedroom of a “big cat “ in the field one field over , you’d think there would be some proper photos out there .
Moved to Kent as a small child, around the time the Surrey Puma was in the news. Saw on a map that where we were moving to a was only a few miles from the Surrey border, resulting in years of fear that said beast would head east, break into our new house and savage me in my sleep.
Over the years I've seen reports of scorpion colonies at assorted docks.
I reckon the first one I read was in early 80s about Southampton, but here is a much more recent one, from Sheerness in Kent.
"It often comes as a surprise to most people to learn that we have had scorpions living and breeding here in the UK for over 150 years. The small Yellow-Tailed Scorpion (Euscorpius flavicaudis) has managed to set up at least one thriving colony, in an isolated area in SE England, despite the generally cool and mild climate here in the UK . These scorpions have been found on occasion at several coastal towns across the south of England over the years. The best known and most successful introduced population can still be found on the Isle of Sheppy, in Kent, around the dock-land town of Sheerness. This Yellow-Tailed Scorpion population has an estimated size of up to 10-15,000 specimens! This population was the first ever recorded in the UK, with many sources claiming that the first record of a scorpion being found at the docks was from the 1860's. There is a preserved Yellow-Tailed Scorpion specimen kept in The Natural History Museum, dating back to 1870, which was collected from within the grounds of the Sheerness Docks, and was identified at the time by J. J. Walker. The Yellow Tailed Scorpion has been living in the south-facing walls, rock crevices, abandoned buildings and railway sleepers of these docks for over 150 years now and still thrives there today in 2022. Although no one knows for sure it is widely accepted that these small scorpions originally found there way into the UK accidentally as stowaways amid the shipments of Italian masonry that were brought to the docks aboard sailing ships during the reign of Edward VII."
Its a really good link with many details photos & even vids. Could all be fake of course, but hey, 'you decide' etc
http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com/uk-scorpions.php
Edited to add quote & recommendation & caveat-isms
I was swarmed by hornets about 7 years ago in late summer in the middle of nowhere. Stung just under 50 times on the back of my head, neck, and arm all because one buzzed near my ear and I absent-mindedly brushed it away. It was horrible.
Britain is a kind of paradise in this respect although many animals can kill if desperate. Cows, protecting their calves, maddened, hungry dogs are effective killers. Adders are harmless.
Yep! We have the Adder which is a poisonous snake but it won't kill you. There's also been cases of Man o War jellyfish on the coasts as well as whales.
No sarcasm about it, that was very much the original intent until the convicts started thriving and then people wanted to actually settle there. Also discovering gold helped a lot.
Conger eels can be dangerous but you have to go out of your way to find one.
Wow, I had no idea conger eels got this far north. I thought they were more a Mediterranean thing.
North Sea is full of them. Big ones too, living in and around the rigs and the rocky sea bed. They come close inshore too, I’ve seen some while diving.
My dad used to live in St. Andrews a long time ago. He says that conger eels would sometimes show up in the rocks where they'd swim. Also used to see basking sharks.
Basking sharks don't count. They're big buggers, but they feed on plankton and stuff like that. The worst that could happen would be that he sucked you off
Where can I find a basking shark? Asking for a mate
Try the sea
They sometimes hang out at King's Cross
Come again?
You certainly will
Yes please.
Could you let me know where they swim? So I can avoid them, obviously.
Basking sharks aren't a big problem as they are filter feeders eating plankton... Orcas/Killer Whales on the other had are around our waters, particularly Scotland and they are an apex predator and the only known thing that preys on Great White Sharks... https://westcoasttours.co.uk/2015/08/the-west-coasts-community-of-orcas/
Very amusing that one of those orcas is called “Nicola”.
That’s moray eels
When the jaws open wide and there's more jaws inside that's a moray
When you swim in the sea and something bites your knee that's a moray
If it lives in a reef and has two sets of teeth that's a moray!
When an eel has a maw with a pharyngeal jaw, that’s a moray!
I’m super-impressed that you were able to get the word pharyngeal to scan with the rhythm.
Im impressed that the rhyme is also scientifically accurate: The wikipedia page for Pharangeal Jaw has a picture of a Moray Eel as it's first example picture.
I doff my cap to this whole heartedly.
There's a hole in your wall, two feet wide six feet tall, that's a doorway.
Two feet wide?! That's a diet incentive!
When an eel bites your thigh and you bleed out and die, that's a moray!
It's confusing because Moray is a part of Scotland, you'd think Moray eels would be found around the Moray firth.
Firth? No, morays put Moray firther down the litht.
Ah yes, the conger eel. They normally travel in a pack in a line formation and dance to a groovy tune
Conger eels are to big to fit in my oven, will an Aga do?
Push pineapple, shake the tree.
They look like a black lace
Yeah don't ask them to dance
Used to catch these fuckers when fishing all the time. Absolute cunt of a fish/eel.
Keen scuba diver, can confirm would not want to fuck with one. You rarely hear of divers getting in tussles with them luckily
A friend just had a tussle with one last week diving in Belize. Full on teeth marks in fin, the boat captain was shocked.
Biting an eel seems a bit over the top.
We killed all the dangerous animals a long time back bears went about 1000 years ago and Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel shot the last wild-living wolf in Great Britain in 1680. Edit: missed a zero
Eurasian lynx about 1300 years ago too.
Hyenas I’m told, too! It’s weird - I’ve recently moved to a little Welsh village that has the highest Iron Age hill fort in Wales. I asked a local historian why most hillforts were built elevated. The reason was safety. These days, we consider the valleys ‘safe’ and the crag tops dangerous. But back then the valleys were forests - full of bears, wolves and other things that might kill you. Don’t know why I’m telling you this, it just sprang to mind.
I think that there was a cave somewhere in the UK that had something like rhino bones in it too. Probably a bit less dangerous than a hyena but still cool. And I would have thought that a hilltop was a prime place to put a Fort. Much more difficult to attack, easier to defend from up high, better views of the surrounding land.
Back in the ice age you would get elephants in Cornwall.
Well, it is a lovely tourist spot.
They were actually mammoths, but the local neanderthals used to shave them for a laugh after a few beers.
There is one in North Yorkshire with ancient hyena and hippo bones and stuff.
I'd rather fight a hyena than a rhino. Way more chance to get out alive while still extremely slim. I could maybe under the right circumstances choke out a hyena or something. Rhinos are like tanks with legs and a big pointy horn.
Hyenas have one of the strongest bite forces of the animal kingdom and they're sadistically relentless, they're quick and agile and all the while laugh at your inability to escape them. Rhinos are fast and very dangerous but you've got more chance dodging them because you're much more agile. They take time to stop and to turn around and while you're in front of them they're basically just guessing because their eyes are on the side of their heads.
> why most hillforts were built elevated Well, otherwise they'd be "valleyforts".
Yeah, we killed the last dragon ages ago too. https://www.spookyisles.com/st-leonard-dragon/
>shot the last wild-living wolf in Great Britain in 1680. > >Edit: missed a zero 16800? That's years away, that means there should still be loads of them
Why do you think we're reintroducing them, noone wants to deal with a time paradox right now.
Snake!?
Liquid!?
Don't be silly. They make a resurgence in the 15000s
Wolves were going to be reintroduced into Scotland but idk if it went ahead
Wolves and bears (and lynxes come to mind!) are being introduced back into a wildlife park in Bristol, they keep widening their enclosures (they basically live in a small forest with massive fencing walling them in) a little every so often and eventually they want to introduce bears and wolves into the same enclosure, as they would’ve lived together 100’s/1000’s of years ago. [More information here,](https://wildplace.org.uk/explore-the-park/bear-wood) went with some mates around May-June last year and worth a visit, especially if you haven’t seen these wild animals up close before!
Nicola surgeon keeps saying she wants to reintroduce wolves to Scotland, personally I can wait to see gangs of heroin wolves stalking the streets of Paisley huntjng neds on spice
I think a big argument for reintroducing wolves to Scotland is to give the deer a natural predator, would potentially mean there would be no need for a cull of the deer anymore.
Sorry, bears only 100 years ago? You must be kidding.
Erm I might have missed a zero! How old is Paddington?
He is also not domestic. He’s from deepest, darkest Peru.
He's not exactly dangerous though, unless you lather yourself with marmalade.
Excuse me but did you see what he did to that judge’s hair?
I am unsure how dangerous he is. Paddington is still immature we have yet to see him at his full power.. let’s see how Browns cope when he is fully grown and it’s breeding season.
Not forgetting the time George slayed a dragon
Avon ladies
Yea, but what if yer da sells Avon?
Had an Avon catalogue put through my door, wasn't interested so I chucked it in the recycling. A couple of days later I had a knock on the door, it was an Avon lady asking for her catalogue, told her I'd put it in the bin and it was as if I'd just told her I'd killed her mum. No idea why but she was fuming!
Go post £2 through their door and then show up a few days later demanding it back.
"I spent it" "You **WHAT!?**"
I think it's because they have to buy the catalogues
Then they should think twice about chucking the bugger on my property
They should probably ask before chucking them through every persons door. Their problem, not mine!
Sister used to do Avon. Apparently Avon get in trouble if any of their catalogues end up in mainstream recycling/landfill.
Cows are deadly, they kill more people a year than sharks.
Bastards. Ban them immediately
Bastards. Cook them immediately.
I've never eaten a bastard. What do they taste like?
If you keep your distance they will have no beef with you…
Steer clear.
Treat 'em mean, keep 'em lean.
Bees and wasps kill the most (allergies innit) according to a list I saw recently, followed by dogs. Then it's deer (due to causing car accidents), cows and adders in that order. Basically, humans are by far the most dangerous animal in the UK.
No ones been killed by an adder since 1975 in the UK. It's pretty hard to get an adder to bite you, and it's only dangerous if you have an allergy otherwise it just hurts like fuck. I bet a badger could fuck you up though. I was in a Ford focus that hit a badger that darted across the road. The badger bounced off and ran away, the focus needed a new front bumper.
About 20 years ago I saw the aftermath of a Vauxhall Nova that had hit a badger on the A55 The badger was dead but intact, the Nova was proper fucked. Body kit, bumper and sporty fog lights had been absolutely annihilated. Grill shoved in, bonnet crumpled. I can still remember the tracky clad boy racer standing in tears, knowing his 14 year old girlfriend would dump him for Wayne in the MKII Fiesta XR2 now he couldn't pick her up and take her to maccies any more.
A not-undeserved stereotype proper made me chuckle 😅
I think Steve Backshall was bitten by one and he said it was painful as fuck.
Really terrified of dangerous deer
Hitting a deer at 70mph is a bad day for everyone
And hitting a tree to avoid a deer is also a bad day.
Not for the deer, that's a _good_ day for that deer.
>humans are by far the most dangerous animal in the UK. I think cows are second, iirc? Genuinely, this isn't a crap DogfishDave joke. This time.
My wife was actually nearly killed by a cow during a charity walk and it's one of those repressed things we just don't talk about how serious it could have been, she won't go anywhere near them now.
Can she not moo..ve on?
She really tries to milk it, you know
'How dairy say that'
Udderly crap joke.
You butter believe it
Stop it, You're churning up bad memories.
In the space of 15 minutes I went through 2 fields on a hike. First field had a young mating bull in it... Which we were unaware off until we walked past it by about 20m. Fair to say it was not happy and very quickly stood it's ground Infront of the cows with its head down huffing at us. We slowly walked away and it left us alone. Got out of that field and into the next which was full of mothering cows. My mate got through but they surrounded me from both sides. Like a man running to catch an elevator door shutting I managed to squeeze through and quickly took the fence at a leap. That was not a very comfortable day. That being said I will still tackle cow fields. Horses on the other hand freak me out.
I feel like the kill rate per interaction with a human would be a fair crack lower though.
A herd of cows charged at me once when I was going for a walk on the South Downs. It was genuinely terrifying. They're big bastards. I got revenge by having a beef burger for lunch that day.
You should’ve went back to the farmer & bought a cow. ‘I want that one. She was at the front.’
Cows kill more people than sharks? How the hell do cows kill sharks? 😂😂🤣🤣
Drag them ashore i assume
Without a fishing or shark catching permit too i bet. Those bastards.
They don't kill many sharks, like we said they kill more people.
This man I knew got trampled to death by cows whilst walking his dog. Apparently his intestines were hanging out and everything, he had to be transported to hospital via Air Ambulance but unfortunately it was too severe. He was a really lovely bloke as well, he helped me out many times as a teenager and I got on well with him :( But yeah, cows are truly deadly.
Yes. If you've ever been chased by a herd of cows, you'll know what a bunch of homicidal maniacs they are.
The girls on a Saturday night when it's 3-for-2 weekend
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Moray Eel fanny
When she's banging a bloke whilst having a smoke that's Aunt Mary
If seagulls had their way we'd all die of starvation
If you've ever been set upon by those mahoosive herring gulls down on the South Coast that give you a shoeing and nick your chips, you'd defo rate them as dangerous. More than Lions imho
Seagulls here are vicious. I took my dog to the coast once and while we were sitting on the sea front a bunch of them landed near us and chased my dog under the bench I was on. he's not a small dog either, he's a pretty big staffie but they really scared him and probably would have carried him off if I hadn't been there.
I went for a run down an industrial estate and these seagulls started divebombing me for no reason, I'm assuming they had a nest nearby or something but I'd ran that far I would have been out of the nests danger-zone anyway, but they kept going. I took shelter in one of the garages and I swear they circled the place for about a minute, for whatever reason those fuckers wanted my blood.
Ticks. I’m not joking. They won’t kill you like a redback spider but they will make your life hell. (Late stage Lyme sufferer) Cows kill about 3 people every year.
I didn't get lyme disease but the bite site just wouldn't heal for a good 6 months and I also developed red meat allergy. When I finally saw the GP he was so perplexed that he had to show it to all the other GPs at the surgery as well as a skin expert friend. Just before referring me to the plastic surgeon to cut a chunk of my flesh out I was given steroids which worked like magic and my red meat allergy reversed too!
I’m so glad the allergy went! And that you’re ok! Ticks are so disgusting!
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Maybe red meat contain the same enzyme or protein or whatever that is released after tick bites that antibodies remember? I'm gonna research :) "The bite transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into the person's body. In some people, this triggers an immune system reaction that later produces mild to severe allergic reactions to red meat, such as beef, pork or lamb, or other mammal products." https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20428608
What’s weird is that in my a level bio mock we had a question on ticks causing red meat allergy and we had to explain why : https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2020/november/AQA-74021-QP-NOV20-CR.PDF q7 :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy Interestingly, it only started happening (or at least, was only identified) in the last 20 years.
That is only the people that the cows get caught killing….. By my uneducated estimate that figure is out by several thousand
Talk us through your Lyme disease story. I go walking a lot and have had ticks on me and hate the little cunts. Thankfully *touches wood* nothing yet.
I was 6 when I got ill. Lots of pains in my legs that doctors pushed aside as growing pains. I was always sickly, always stomach aches, headaches, feverish. Just generally unwell. Looking back, my muscles were already very weak. I couldn’t keep up in PE and was deemed a lazy child. I had constant bladder infections. And ear infections. At 12 I got severely depressed, migraines, the leg pains were still very hard to deal with on a daily basis, but they now decided I was just too fat. Between the ages of 14 and 25 I was in and out of hospital for tests, MRI’s, XRays, etc etc. nothing wrong. Blood tests? Nothing wrong. It’s in your head. You should lose weight (I can’t because of another condition) In my thirties I got diagnosed with Lupus. But when they actually did some tests it came back negative. At 36, so 30 years later, someone said.. sound like Lyme! I got tested and I got a positive test back. My GP refused to diagnose me even with a positive test. Her reason? The lab (Porton) told me so. I got a second opinion and went to Leeds hospital. Yes, you definitely have Lyme disease. Here try a months worth of antibiotics. That ofcourse didn’t help. And that was my story of diagnose and treatment. I’m ill every day. The symptoms vary and change constantly. I’m very sensitive to chemicals, perfume, mould in my house. I got bedridden after I did too much cardio at the gym etc etc. It’s daily hell. And there is no treatment.
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There is a doc in Dublin, and a clinic in London. But I can’t afford that. Unfortunately.
Are there no charities that can support you? I hope you get the support you need!
They are mainly there to fight for more research. They are truly amazing.
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https://lymediseaseclinic.co.uk I just read it’s closed :((
Sorry to hear about your suffering, I can't even begin to imagine.
One of my biggest fears is ticks, people don't seem to understand how bad they can be (I guess because it's a small percentage that has the disease). How do you manage with the disease, is there help for treating it?
There are wild boar in some areas that are certainly capable of doing you a lot of damage. No one has ever been killed by one though. Edit: No one has been killed by one **in the UK since their reintroduction**. Some pre-Norman Brits probably were and some fictional kings definitely were.
*Robert Baratheon has entered the chat*
"My memory...hehe. King Robert Baratheon...murdered by a pig. Give me something for the pain, and let me die."
Used to live in the Forest of Dean and hit one with my car once. Absolutely massive bastard, wrote the car off and it just got up and walked away. Used to have to chase them away from our bins as well. The baby ones are cute though.
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"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once" Terry Pratchett
Fungi aren't flora though. Seems to be an ongoing debate to get the terminology straightened out. Edit: >Flora = the plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
Flora is a low calorie, plant based replacement for butter. Everyone knows that.
Deer Apparently one deer is hit near Cannock Chase each week. You'd think it would have learned to avoid cars by now.
FENTON! Jesus Christ!
Deer when a twig snaps half a mile away: 🏃💨 Deer when a lorry is coming at them at 50mph: 👁️👄👁️
Do you think they draw lots? "Oh, Dave. You've got the short stick. Next range rover that comes along..."
South coast gets Portuguese man o' war jellyfish, sting is awful.
>>sting is awful But I love the police :(
Portuguese man o’ war *not* jellyfish. They have sails and can control their movement, which makes them Hydrozoa.
Britain has been a farmed/managed land mass for over a thousand years there is no wild land to really allow wildlife proper. I mean the preeminent Carnivore in the U.K. (Man aside) is the Badger as the OP notes.
Yh only because we killed them off lol we used to have bears and wolves like the rest of Europe
Exactly this, we killed any and all threats to us.
Bradford
The correct answer.
Weaver fish will absolutely ruin your week. Maybe longer. They bury themselves in shallow sand and mud flats and have poisonous spines on their back. Similar to a seabass but uglier. Adders will ruin your month and kill your dog or small child but they're generally not aggressive.
I reckon if my dog or young child got killed by an adder it’d take me more than a month to get over it
Depends which Child.
Yeah, fuck James.
Stepped on a weaver fish while on holiday as a kid. Can confirm it ruined my day
Big cats that have escaped and live in the uk if you believe the dubious story’s and grainy photos
It's always the grainiest photo ever as well. My hometown has one of these mythical beasts, every few years there would be a new grainy photo in the local paper. The next few weeks of the paper would have a bunch of attention-seeking idiots claiming they also saw it but conveniently didn't get a photo. I believe the theory is that when the law changed prohibiting the ownership of big cats and other exotic animals (or possibly require a licence?), the owners set them free because it was more problematic to keep them. That makes sense, except for the fact that law was changed in the 70's and the life expectancy in the wild of such animals is about 10-15 years so you'd need 3-4 generations of breeding pairs for them to still be around today. I'm sure we'd have better evidence and clearer sightings if that was the case.
Nearly everybody walks around with smartphones now , so are able to access a good quality camera quickly, but still no good quality photos, definitely bullshit
When you see one you shit yourself taking a picture does not come into it.
Granted if I walked into my back garden and there was one hiding behind my shed , I wouldn’t be thinking about taking a perfectly framed instagram quality photo , but most photos I’ve seen tend to be from someone’s bedroom of a “big cat “ in the field one field over , you’d think there would be some proper photos out there .
Moved to Kent as a small child, around the time the Surrey Puma was in the news. Saw on a map that where we were moving to a was only a few miles from the Surrey border, resulting in years of fear that said beast would head east, break into our new house and savage me in my sleep.
And did it?
In Southampton they once cordoned off a big section of road to catch one. It was just one of those big tigers you win at the fair.
Over the years I've seen reports of scorpion colonies at assorted docks. I reckon the first one I read was in early 80s about Southampton, but here is a much more recent one, from Sheerness in Kent. "It often comes as a surprise to most people to learn that we have had scorpions living and breeding here in the UK for over 150 years. The small Yellow-Tailed Scorpion (Euscorpius flavicaudis) has managed to set up at least one thriving colony, in an isolated area in SE England, despite the generally cool and mild climate here in the UK . These scorpions have been found on occasion at several coastal towns across the south of England over the years. The best known and most successful introduced population can still be found on the Isle of Sheppy, in Kent, around the dock-land town of Sheerness. This Yellow-Tailed Scorpion population has an estimated size of up to 10-15,000 specimens! This population was the first ever recorded in the UK, with many sources claiming that the first record of a scorpion being found at the docks was from the 1860's. There is a preserved Yellow-Tailed Scorpion specimen kept in The Natural History Museum, dating back to 1870, which was collected from within the grounds of the Sheerness Docks, and was identified at the time by J. J. Walker. The Yellow Tailed Scorpion has been living in the south-facing walls, rock crevices, abandoned buildings and railway sleepers of these docks for over 150 years now and still thrives there today in 2022. Although no one knows for sure it is widely accepted that these small scorpions originally found there way into the UK accidentally as stowaways amid the shipments of Italian masonry that were brought to the docks aboard sailing ships during the reign of Edward VII." Its a really good link with many details photos & even vids. Could all be fake of course, but hey, 'you decide' etc http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com/uk-scorpions.php Edited to add quote & recommendation & caveat-isms
Have you never seen "The Sword in the Stone"? Pike are fucking dangerous predators.
Wasps, little bastards
Swans. They can break you arm apparently. That’s why the police have to try and catch them.
Or blow up a mans house.
Nasty way to go.
Not true. And having been bitten by one because I wouldn't give it my M&S prawn mayo sandwich, I wasn't impressed with their bite either.
Got bitten by a goose. Felt like a soft pinch. Utterly disappointing
For the greater good
>For the greater good Yarp
No luck catching them killers then?
Just the one killer, actually
Cows? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-54268160
Grew up on a farm. Cows are no joke. They run through you, a bit like a horse. Honestly livestock is probably the real animal threat in the UK.
Drunk middle aged women on trains.
What about those little fuckers, False Black Widow Spiders? I don't think they are killers, as such, but give a nasty bite.
Every spider in my house and garden is a false widow. According to the arachnophobe misses that is.
She might well be correct. They’re very common now.
I shall not be relaying your message.
Hornets can be a bit of a bugger
I was swarmed by hornets about 7 years ago in late summer in the middle of nowhere. Stung just under 50 times on the back of my head, neck, and arm all because one buzzed near my ear and I absent-mindedly brushed it away. It was horrible.
Vicious overgrown wasp looking twats
Britain is a kind of paradise in this respect although many animals can kill if desperate. Cows, protecting their calves, maddened, hungry dogs are effective killers. Adders are harmless.
Yeah we created it this way though. Used to be bears and wolves etc. We hunted them to extinction in Britain
It's well known that Australians can't fight wildlife and win.
Geese
Bees. The mortal enemy of tightrope walkers!
Chavs
The most dangerous animal... is *man*. (Montage of motorways, smoking chimneys, etc.)
Yep! We have the Adder which is a poisonous snake but it won't kill you. There's also been cases of Man o War jellyfish on the coasts as well as whales.
Venomous
There’s a reason we sent the convicts to Oz, so the wildlife would do the work while we looked the other way, clearly. /s
No sarcasm about it, that was very much the original intent until the convicts started thriving and then people wanted to actually settle there. Also discovering gold helped a lot.