Avoiding Attacks
There are two kinds of attacks:
- Defense - where you surprise or upset the animal, perhaps a mother with cubs. In this case it will show anger, but simply wants you removed as a threat, not to kill you.
- Hunger - where the bear sees you as meat and two legs. It may stalk you and will not display anger symptoms, but it's intent is deadly. So the bear necessities are
- Pack your food in airtight containers, and/or store it at least from your campsite.
- Never feed wild animals this will make them keep coming for more.
- Avoid areas where bears feed such as fruit groves and streams with fish.
- Do not hike alone, and make noise when on the move so the bear is not surprised by you.
- Carry a bear repellent pepper spray with you if you can get it. It always comes handy and effective 75% of the time.
- Never approach a mother bear or her cubs at any cost.
- If the animal has yet to see you and is wandering by or is up on its hind legs sniffing the air but still has not noticed you, stay absolutely still and make no noise whatsoever, or leave the scene very quietly if you think you can without being spotted by the dangerous animal.
If the bear does see you it will probably not bother you anyway in such a case don’t bother the bear either or try to take close up pictures of the bear.
- Never run from a bear. Bears are good runners whether up hill or down hill and running may trigger a chase response from the animal that would otherwise not bother.
When a dangerous bear approaches aggressively:
When a bear approaches slowly experts suggest two differing ploys. Try either or both:
- Talk calmly and firmly, back away, don't make eye contact, don't threaten the bear in any way and it may lose interest. If not:
- Be aggressive, make a noise, wave your hands.
- If the bear does run at you and is up on its hind legs making unpleasant noises including puffing, teeth chomping, and snarling then here are your options:
- It may be a 'bluff' charge, which is not uncommon, in which case the critter will veer off or stop at the last moment if you stay still. Then slowly back away.
- Run to safety,
When you are absolutely sure that you can reach it in time before the creature. These animals can travel at the speed of a top sprinter.
Trees are not a good refuge depending on the height of the tree and the type of the tree. Black bears climb them all day long and so do young brown bears too. Older grizzly bears are excellent tree shakers. Polar bears live in the Arctic Circle where trees are thin on the ice.
Brown and Polar bears spend most of their time in water and they are good swimmers as well. The best choice is to crown and roll up in a ball to protect your vital organs and pretend to be as dead as possible. Dangerous bears who do not want to make a meal out of you may roll around on you for a bit and move on. When a dangerous bear is not showing anger but plain hunger the chances for you are slim.
If you have your bear pepper spray pepper, use it on the bears face which will be painful to the bear. Run for your life as when the pain shrugs or wears of, the bear might attack once more with a deadly force but with caution.
When a bear attacks you, fighting back is probably not the best possible option with a Polar bear or Grizzly bear in your face unless you have some kind of weapon. people who are out in the bear country or bear territory should respect the natural bear habitat. Only then can such dangerous bear attacks can be avoided at the minimum with less contact with them
Snakes Bites
Avoiding dangerous and venomous snake bites:
You should not aggravate a dangerous animal or provoke it into an attack.
Never try to capture or hold a snake without a snake grabber or unless you are an experienced herpetologist. as in most cases its always three people who can be of help One person is the person who got the snake bite by chance or by sheer negligence. The person is to stay with snake victim and the last one who is to seek help for the snake bite.
- When you are entering a snake habitat you should look down and be wise to wear proper protective shoes with a torch while at night can prevent any dangerous snake attack or warn you from any dangerous animals as well.
- You should put on heavy socks and boots to prevent any unforeseen snake bites while walking in the long grass or fallen leaves and undergrowth.
- You should not lift or pick stones or fallen vegetative matter or firewood unless its necessary but cautiously.
- Don’t panic if a snake is within striking distance but stay absolutely still. The king cobra and the rattle snakes are very quick and may strike in defense.
Snake Bite Symptoms:
Severe pain, swelling, discoloration around the bites; later comes fluid build-up, secondary infection, dead tissue, extreme skin and neural sensitivity. This may continue for several days.
If the venom contains neurotoxins the victim may experience nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, slurred speech, and difficulty in breathing.
Snake Bite Treatments:
Snake bite wounds should not be cleaned unless the snake has been firmly identified whether it’s a poisonous snake or any other non venomous snake from its color the shape and the size. Many medical centers around the world have a venom detection kit that need small specimen around the snake bite area to be taken.
Standard and the best snake bite treatment:
Many snake bites do not end up with any venom entering the body in most cases.
- The snake bite victim should not panic but lie down to slow down the spread of venom in the body or bloodstream.
- You should let the snake bitten area bleed freely for less than a minute.
- You should wrap a light clean piece of cloth or bandage above and below the wound and while doing so make sure that you get two fingers under the bandage otherwise that will be very tight].
- All jewellery or tight fitting clothing have to be removed.
- You should immobilize/splint the bitten limb and keep it at heart level or gravity-neutral. It the snake bite area is very high, it can cause venom to move to the heart and if its too low it might cause severe swelling.
- Drinking alcohol to calm your nerves is of no use. You just need to stay awake than pass out.
- Taking medication can bring complications while eating and filling your stomach might bring havoc to your present situation due to the venom reaction with your body.
Take the snake bite victim the nearest medical center within 3 hours and tell snake involved in the attack so as to get the best snake antidote.
Cold pack: You should quickly tie a light bandage below and above the snake bite area and place a cold pack such as frozen peas over the wound so as to reduce the swelling, pain, and slow the travel of venom and permanent tissue damage from frostbite.
Cutting and sucking the snake bitten area.
It should be done if the hospital or help is 3 hours away and the snake was venomous. Cutting and sucking the snake bitten area is ok but not normally recommended because:
It’s dangerous to perform in such a panicky weird situation
The cut may do more damage than the original punctures if secondary infection starts.
The increased blood flow from the cut may increase the flow of venom too.
The best way to treat snake bite wounds
Wrap a light bandage above and below the wound quickly.
clean the snake bitten area with antiseptic and repeat every few minutes.
Cut with a short sharp blade around the bite site and start to suck the snake venom which feels tasteless and is harmless in the mouth for a maximum of 15 minutes
Follow the last 3 steps of #1.
Venom: the venom is a specialized form of saliva and its primary purpose is to immobilise or kill the prey - sometimes also to begin digesting the meal before consumption.
The secondary purpose is as a defence. Different species will vary in their level of aggression when provoked.
Toxicity: the level of toxicity of any particular venom is in all practicality irrelevant as the amount injected makes the difference. This will depend on the size of venom sacks, the amount they contain if the animal has bitten something else recently, and the amount the creature decides or manages to inject.
The location of the bite will also influence the speed of the effect, depending on the proximity of the bite to main veins and arteries through which the venom travels to vital organs.
Travel safety stats:
The countries where most people die from snake bites are India and Sri Lanka with around 20,000 fatalities annually in India alone and some parts of Africa and south America.
In the USA the state with most snake bites is Arizona.
Australia hosts nine of the world's top ten deadly snakes.
Some venom can kill a strong male, elephants even tigers in a couple of hours.
The world's most deadly snakes are:
in USA, The Coral Snake, Mexican Moccasins, The water snake, the copperhead snake, the cottonmouth snake, and the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.
In Australia: Inland Taipan which is the world's most toxic snake but fortunately rare to see or to find, the Australian Brown snake which is Australia’s biggest snake killer, The Taipan snake, the Tiger snake, Black and the Sea snake.
South East Asia: The Malayan Krait, Blue Malayan Coral Snake, Equatorial Spitting Cobra, Banded Krait.
India: The Indian Cobra and the Russel's Viper.
Africa: The Black Mamba, The Boomslang snake, Egyptian Cobra, Puff Adder and Saw Scaled Viper, Eastern Green Mamba. Central and South America the Fer-de-Lance
Dangerous Scorpion attacks
Scorpions are some of the smallest animals which can kill with slpit seconds and without warning while some scorpions are as harmless while some like the blue scorpion is as useful to the extent of being used as a treatment for cancer. Scorpions like to move in the night to hunt or feed. These dangerous insects are also hunted by lizards, mice snakes even small cats in the wild. The largest South African Scorpion is about over 8 inches long.
Most scorpion bites are not recorded or reported due to the nature of the bite, proximity and communication which is hard to come by. With about 1,200 scorpion species in the world only 20 scorpion species are considered to be very dangerous and life threatening man. Many scorpion death results in babies and the elderly who might be weak or sick or result from hypersensitivity due to the venom through anaphylactic shock and hence the death as a result of the dangerous scorpion bites. Scorpions inject their venom through a barbed stinger on the end of the beast's tail. All scorpions are unable to sting what they are standing on if they are on a flat surface.
How to Avoid Scorpion dangerous stings:
Scorpions and Clothing You should shake them well before putting them on.
Scorpions and Beddings You should check where you sleep if you are in an area where scorpions are found in plenty and around their natural habitat.
Scorpions and Water: Many scorpions like water mainly in cold dark places and its good to be on the watch out for scorpions on these dangerous locations.
Scorpions and Footwear: Scorpions like to hide in dark places and your shoes can be a very nice and cozy place for a scorpion and a very painful bite from dangerous scorpion.
Scorpion stings Symptoms:
Minor scorpion attack, the local effect: swelling and Intense pain at the sting site, numbness, and tingling with light muscle spasms. The pain usually goes away within one hour and all symptoms subside within 24 hours.
Moderate scorpion attack, the whole body effect: Intense pain including the groin area and armpits. There is swelling and numbness of the face and throat with breathing difficulties, agitation and high temperature.
Severe scorpion attack, the body and central nervous system effect: nausea, vomiting, fever, convulsions and frothing at the mouth,
Death as a result of a scorpion bite are rare and are always as a result of heart or respiratory failure several hours after somebody got the scorpion bite.
Scorpion Bite Treatment:
You should clean affected site with soap and clean water and put on an ice-pack if available to reduce the swelling. Being calm and relaxed is the best medicine as any sudden movements will make the scorpion venom react faster in your body.
Level the place where you have been bitten by the scorpion to the heart level.
Bees, Wasps and other flying creatures.
Most stinging insects are relatively safe to be near, even in large numbers, so long as they are not aggravated. A pain killer or an antihistamine pill should help alleviate the pain before medical help is sought. In 1989 32 people in the southern US died from fire ant stings while wasps, yellow jackets and bees and rack up up to 100 deaths a year in the USA. However, dozens of people a year die from insect stings, mostly due to anaphylactic shock, some as a direct result of the toxins.
Prevention of Bee and Wasp Stings:
you have to be very careful when using a noisy garden tool while out in the wilderness.
You should scout for bee hives, nests or dangerous insect activity in the area. Using a noisy tool within 50 yards of a hive or 150 yards of a wild bee colony is a good recipe for a dangerous bee attack.
You will enrage bees or wasps if you swat them. Only do so if you are dead sure to kill the bee or wasp because when you strike or kill a bee you will invite danger as all other bees will come for revenge. Food and drinks outdoors should be covered.
Other insect might cling to your towel trying to cool off on your damp beach towel
You can trap the wasps by putting something sweet in a jar such as jam, honey or beer a couple of inches of water in, cover it and punch a wasp-size hole in the cover. The bee or wasp will crawl in, buzz around, fall in the water and drown.
Safety tips for dangerous Killer Bees: Africanized bees have 27% less venom than regular European honeybees - and thus are less dangerous individually, but these can be very grumpy, sensitive and seem to have a 'one out, all out' defence policy!
Dangerous Killer Bees:
These killer bees look just like regular honey bees, and are honey bees and reproduce five times faster than ordinary honey bees. The killer bees colonies can number up to 60,000 bees. As far as statistics are concerned, over 1,000 people so far have been killed by killer bees.
Killer bees tend to swarm and aggressively defend their nests when approached or disturbed from a distance of 100 yards. The biggest cause for killer bees attacks are noise and vibrations from power mowers and cutters. Killer bees will chase invaders as far as a quarter mile and will go on attacking for about 10 hours.
While in flight, killer bees look like a small cloud and would sound like a power tool and may cluster anywhere on their path even car bumpers.
If the bees become irritated, they often warn off intruders by bumping heads with them, not stinging. If that happens to you, don't swat them, just turn around and leave! The chances of being killed by a bee these days in the USA are less than being killed by lightning.
In the event of a massed bee stinger attack:
Always try to stay calm and cover your head with your shirt and run steadily to safety in a straight line.
enter anything that is sealed such as a tent or a carwhich does not to allow insect to get in.
Do not:
Screaming irritates bees and wasps and makes them increase the severity of the attack.
Running towards other people will also make them get attacked.
hiding under water is not a good idea as these bees will still be swarming above the water and go attack you when you surface for air and if they are killer bees, they will attack for 10 hours.
Ripping your clothes off makes more attacks from rest of the bees.
Treatment of bee and wasp stings:
Always get away from a nest or hive with all speed as all bee stings include an alarm pheromone which incites their mates to attack.
scrape off or pull out stings as soon as possible. method and speed is of the essence as a honey bee sting has a pump attached that continues to introduce venom for 1 minute after stinging. A wasp doesn't leave its stinger.
You should apply an ice pack to minimize swelling and pain.
Always adjust you limb to heart level to reduce swelling.
Its advisable to swallow some an antihistamine medication to reduce itching and swelling.
Taking an anti-inflammatory pain killer is preferred.
The redness and the swelling and may be worse the next day which is a normal allergic reaction. If however the swelling is still painful with a persistent fever there may be chances secondary infection and you should consult your physician.
Taking any antibiotics will not help.
Severe bee stings and wasp reactions:
At any circumstances that the person might have been stung multiple times mostly for young children and the weak and the elderly you should be aware of 1% that is super-sensitive to stings, watch for signs of systemic allergies. These may include:
Swelling of the tongue or throat, difficulty in breathing, headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, cramps, drowsiness and unconsciousness.
Severely allergic people should carry an epinephrine kit and use it, followed by an ice pack and hospital
Blue-Ringed Octopus
These dangerous octopuses are only found along the dangerous waters of Australia. When the Blue-Ringed Octopus mature they are the size of a normal hand, 10-20cm in diameter with tentacles extended and a yellow or brown colour and occasionally with some brown bands. When the blue ringed octopus appears on its body, it is always late to warn people as will always strike only for its effects to be felt later. The Blue-Ringed Octopus is mainly found near shoreline or banks of the ocean or in rocky pools looking and hunting for crabs.
If someone picks the Blue-Ringed Octopus or walks on it, it will bite with a little beak in the mid-underside of its body.
The Blue-Ringed Octopus bite may not be noticed immediately, but pain followed by severe breathing difficulties, nausea and paralysis will show the dangerous effects although not so many deaths have been reported as a result of the Blue-Ringed Octopus. with many inquisitive fingers and eyes while out there on the seashore, the Blue-Ringed Octopus also releases venom into the water surrounding it and caution should be taken to avoid any accidents while out there.
Avoidance of Blue-Ringed Octopus dangerous attacks
You should not date touch, poke, play with or stand on any blobby animals near or on beach whether they are Jellyfish crabs or Blue Rings. All animals have the right to be left alone whether dead or alive.
Symptoms:
Within ten minutes of the bite, vision problems, numbness, muscular weakness, severe breathing difficulties, nausea with some vomiting, extreme pain is experienced, nausea and sometimes floppy paralysis.
Treatment:
- Make sure the victim who is bitten does not panic.
- Wrap a light bandage above and below the bite quickly
- Try to Immobilize or splint the bitten area and keep it at heart at all cost as this might save a life. Too high causes venom to travel to the heart, too low causes more swelling.
- No self medication should be administered, nothing should be taken by mouth and the victim should be take to hospital without fail.
- Mouth to mouth resuscitation might be administered if need be.
For the moment, its hard to know if there is any known antivenom to the Blue-Ringed or the Blue Ring Octopus
Stonefish
Like any other dangerous animal, the stonefish is the kind of fish which has no borders. From the snow caped continent in Alaska to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and the Australian continent, the stone fish is well know for its deadly attacks when someone steps on it. The stone fish has had a lot of fatalities in many of the warm waters regions and beaches where people flock to swim or just hang out. With its deadly attack maneuvers, the stonefish which hides itself on the seashore or in shallow waters leaves its poisonous spines protruding up and when someone steps on it, he gets the pain of a life time if he is barefoot and had stetted on this deadly stonefish
Avoidance:
How to avoid a stonefish injury is just simple mare knowledge of the animal habitat you are in. Stepping on the seashore with bare feet is just inviting danger to yourself. While walking along such coastal areas special attention has to be identified as to the reasons where someone is venturing into. Taking good precautions is the key to prevent any unwanted accidents and injuries which could be caused the stonefish. Wearing proper footwear such as sandal or shoes will just do the trick. Pocking of hand into the hand or sitting on the sand without looking is just one way of aggravating and causing unwanted poisonous stings entering your body with no good reasons. You just have to respect these animal natural habitats.
Stonefish Sting Symptoms:
Pain is what you get when you become a victim of a stonefish sting. This is usually accompanied by swelling of the foot or the body part which has come into contact with the sting. Some people experience some weakness on their muscle weakness, paralysis and dying skin may go on for some time while the swelling may disappear later.
Treatment for stinging fish:
dipping the affected place in hot water should solve one of the problem. With the pain increasing, a pain killer should be taken to alleviate the pain while if the main persist, you should consult your doctor. In most cases, prevention of other diseases is also important. A tetanus injection could be taken while an X-rays may be taken to rule out any Stonefish spine fragments which could be embedded in the victim’s body
Animal attacks take place everywhere. I am lucky I dont get to see many of the attacks but you be careful when you are in picnic or camping to be safe always. I fear snakes because you don't seen them attack until the snake poison is already taking effect. Gosh!
Stay same out there