Part 4: the horror continues!
In Terrors of Nature, we have presented some pretty terrible creaures, but almost unbelieveably, in this fourth part, we have managed to dig up some even more fearsome, but largely ignored beasties...
Number 13: The Siberian Sitting Bison (Bison gluteousmaximus)
Travellers in the east of Russia have for long brought back tales of a huge lumbering bison, which killed by the simple expedient of sitting on it's victims. These tales were roundly dismissed by zoologists, until three members of a German expedition searching for proof it didn't exist were killed in just such a way by just such a creature. The bison is the size of a small elephant and when it feels threatened charges it's hapless victim, before knocking them to the ground relatively gently, and then sitting on them, invariably inflicting multiple, fatal, crush injuries.
Number 14: The Giant Danish Earwig (Forficula terribilis)
If this earwig attempted to climb into your ear whilst you were asleep, you would probably wake up pretty quickly - but wish you hadn't. A native of northern Europe, the Giant Earwig is some 8 inches long and an inch wide. It lives generally in dark moist areas and luckily is infrequently encountered as such an encounter is almost always fatal. The Giant Earwig's normal prey is deer, which it bites and injects with a paralysing nerve poison. Having imobilised the victim, it then burrows into the flesh both for it's own sustenance and in order to lay eggs, which then hatch and burrow their way out of the victim's body. Death at the hands of the Giant Earwig is reputed to be slow and very painful.
Number 15: The Javan Fire Goose (Anser napalmi)
The Javan Fire Goose is both feared and respected by the inhabitants of the islands of the East Indies. The relatively small semi-aquatic bird is a significant pest both because of it's diet and it's deadly habits. The goose is to be found in large flocks eating the spices for which the East Indies are famed, causing great financial loss to the subsistence farmers in the area. More worrying still, by some process that is not yet known to scientists, the goose is able to concentrate certain chemicals in it's droppings, which, on contact with air, start burning. Each year many hundreds of people are killed or burnt after being directly hit by this birds flaming guano, not to mention the house and forest fires started by the fiery droppings.
Number 16: The Sabre-clawed Tufty Squirrel (Sciuridi tedbundii)
Whilst most people visiting the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains of North America are rightfully cautious to avoid bears, few are aware of the equally savage Sabre-clawed Tufty Squirrel. Whilst smaller than a bear, this creature makes up what it loses in size by sheer viciousness. Usually attacking with little or no provocation in groups of two or more, the squirrel will make straight away for it's victim's throat, slashing wildly with it's razor sharp claws. Having killed, the squirrels may nibble the victim slightly then leave the scene, seemingly killing for no good reason. Few who have seen a Sabre-clawed Tufty Squirrel have lived to tell the tale.