Category Archives: nature

no no no no no no no no

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the many ingenious (and not so ingenious) ways that people smuggle exotic animals onto airplanes, through Customs, etc. Couple that with my lifelong obsession with the snake situation in Guam, and I’m already twitchy about what might creep into my luggage when I travel.

So as you can imagine, this story made me feel like I was going to shed my skin: “Stowaway [tag]Rattlesnake[/tag] Bites Arlington Man.” Yes, it would appear that the snake actually got into his bag in South Carolina and then the man drove home, but that’s not the point.

Giant snakes!

As climate change warms the nation, giant Burmese pythons could colonize one-third of the USA, from San Francisco across the Southwest, Texas and the South and up north along the Virginia coast, according to U.S. Geological Survey maps released Wednesday.

The pythons can be 20 feet long and 250 pounds. They are highly adaptable to new environments.

A past NaNoWriMo novel I’ve been editing and doing further research for is about the trade in exotic reptiles, so this isn’t exactly news to me. It was the alarming Disaster Movie of the Week tone of the article that made it a must-post.

And make no mistake, I find it highly alarming.

Devil Toad!

I was going to write something thoughtful about satire and race and social class, but then I saw this headline: ” ‘Devil Toad’ Dined on Dinos” and every other thought in my brain filed out and lined up on the curb.

A frog the size of a bowling ball, with heavy armor and teeth, lived among dinosaurs millions of years ago — intimidating enough that scientists who unearthed its fossils dubbed the beast [tag]Beelzebufo[/tag], or Devil Toad.

[read the rest of the story about the prehistoric 10 pound toad!]

It’s the [tag]Devil Toad[/tag], people! [tag]The SciFi Channel[/tag] is probably already in production on a Saturday craptacular about this. (We can only hope).

Oh my god, who doesn’t love saying Devil Toad? Beelzebufo. It’s fantastic!

Devil Toad.