Part 5: Nature's Sick Gorefest Continues!
It's been a long time coming, probably not long enough, but finally, part 5 of Terrors of Nature is here. Amazingly we have managed to find yet more little-known but very dangerous wildlife!
Number 17: The Dynamite Lizard (Lacerta nitroglycerini)
The Dynamite Lizard is an attractive native of certain islands in the Mediterranean lives on a diet of bird droppings and ants. Whilst this may seem like a benign sort of creature leading a peaceful and harmless life, it is this diet that causes it to be so deadly. Sometimes, in the reptiles stomach, the guano and digesting ants mix and create a powerful explosive compound. The lizard obviously senses something, because when this process starts to happen it seeks shelter, normally the darkness of a quiet corner of a building. Inevitably, this is the reason the lizard is so deadly, as having crawled into a building it then explodes causing death and destruction.
Number 18: The Finnish Phone Worm (Nokia eriksonii)
This microscopic but deadly creature is believed to have evolved only recently. For most of it's life it lies dormant in the earpieces of telephones, especially mobile telephones, until it is ready to feed and breed. At this point the worm crawls into the victim's ear and burrows into the head where it feeds on the flesh and lays numerous eggs deep in the brain. These eggs hatch in due course and the tiny worms bore their way back through the brain and head to the ear, causing great pain to the victim, who, suffering severe cerebral haemorrhage, invariably calls for help on a telephone. The victim then dies, while the worms complete their lifecycle and colonise the phone.
Number 19: The Limpopo Kettle Eel (Electrophoridus taeurnus)
An inhabitant of the great Limpopo river, this strange relative of the electric eel has the remarkable power, when angered, of using it's high powered electricity generating organs to heat surround water to boiling point. Whilst this is invariably suicidal for the fish, it is also almost always fatal to anything or anybody nearby as they suffer horrendous scalding.
Number 20: The Bavarian Ankle Pecker (Phasianidi devildwarfia )
There are many unpleasant creatures around the world, but for sheer vindictiveness, the Bavarian Ankle Pecker beats almost all. This small flightless bird, which lives in the Black Forest in Germany, will attack for absolutely no reason, often going out of its way to do so. Rushing to its victim, it will start pecking at the ankles and will call out, encouraging others of it's kind to join in. Luckily, most victims die relatively quickly from shock, the rest slowly dying on the forest floor from blood loss.