what I have learned today.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The connection between syphilis and sheep. It's not what you might think... Syphilis was the name given to a shepherd in a poem by Girolamo Fracastoro in 1530. In the poem, Syphilis the shepherd is struck by disease by Apollo as punishment for insulting him.

[Legs]

That dogs shouldn't be given apple cores.  Seems the pips contain a small amount of cyanide.
Well ours has been consuming at least two a week for her eleven years on this planet, so it can't be that bad.
Best we stop giving them to her now that we know.

<first world grumble >  now we have to get up and go to the compost bin instead of just chucking it at the dog.

I wouldn't worry. The same goes for plums, peaches, apricots etc. Our parrot likes to crack open the stones and chew the bits inside: he's been doing it for over 30 years and the cantankerous bugger is still with us.

Slivovitz is made from damsons with the stones still in.

I nearly always eat the cores.  I'll sometimes eat my children's apple cores, and sometimes chuck them into the paddock for the geese.

[Ashaman42]

Do geese eat children?

[Kim]

Do geese eat children?

One had a go at eating my brother when he was small.  Didn't get further than a good chomp on an unguarded finger, which resulted in enough crying that I wished it would come back and finish the job.

[T42]

Do geese eat children?

A goose attacked my trousers once when I was walking round the Serpentine.

Hope this helps.

[Tomsk]

Do geese eat children?

A goose attacked my trousers once when I was walking round the Serpentine.

Hope this helps.

A former neighbour of mine, a retired GP, once told me he was called into a worried colleague's room to give an opinion on the small horseshoe-shaped welts he'd found on a child. This was at the time of the Orkney satanic abuse panic in the late '80s/early '90s. Attacked by a goose of course ...

[Legs]

I was savagely bitten on the finger by a turkey at Finkley Down Farm in the mid 80s...

My geese are generally very docile, except when they're sitting on nests.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I was bitten on the finger by a swan, not a goose but close, in the Botanical Gardens in Lublin, Poland, while having wedding photos taken. Possibly an omen or something.

[Tim Hall]

I reckon a goose could have a swan in a square go.  All that stuff about breaking arms is just bluster.

[ElyDave]

Out running in a wooded area of a park in Sweden, I came round a tree to find I'd disturbed a goose, which managed to flap hard enough to get to and stay at my face-level long enough give me the highest heart rate of the run.  I developed a better goose-awareness in that park on subsequent visits

My trousers survived.

[T42]

Glad of that.

I was chased by a rooster when I was 8.

[Mr Larrington]

I reckon a goose could have a swan in a square go.  All that stuff about breaking arms is just bluster.

Careful now!
</HMHB>

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Birds aren’t a significant threat until they are the size of a cassowary at least. I don’t see why people freak out about birds smaller than that.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/how-dangerous-are-cassowaries-really/

[PeteB99]

If you want a dangerous farm animal look no further than a pig. They can be very big, very fast and aggressive.

The thing I've learned today is that France's longest land border is with Brazil.

[hatler]

If you want a dangerous farm animal look no further than a pig. They can be very big, very fast and aggressive.

The thing I've learned today is that France's longest land border is with Brazil.

Great bit of trivia that !!

[rafletcher]

I wouldn't worry. The same goes for plums, peaches, apricots etc. Our parrot likes to crack open the stones and chew the bits inside: he's been doing it for over 30 years and the cantankerous bugger is still with us.

Slivovitz is made from damsons with the stones still in.

And my mothers made "crunchy" apricot jam but splitting the stones then chopping the kernel and putting it in the jam. Lovely!

[Mr Larrington]

Birds aren’t a significant threat until they are the size of a cassowary at least. I don’t see why people freak out about birds smaller than that.

My chum Sir Hugh of Hugh once had a disturbing encounter with a demonic pigeon in Portsmouth and eventually decided to go the long way round rather than further risk its wrath.

[Tim Hall]

If you want a dangerous farm animal look no further than a pig. They can be very big, very fast and aggressive.

Presumably this is why there's so much focus on the possibility of pigs being able to fly. 

[Kim]

If you want a dangerous farm animal look no further than a pig. They can be very big, very fast and aggressive.

Case in point:  https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1505679234639048706

How long until the BEARS start carrying AR-15s?

[Kim]

Birds aren’t a significant threat until they are the size of a cassowary at least. I don’t see why people freak out about birds smaller than that.

Traumatic childhood encounters? (See above.)

It's relative size that matters.  I present this typical example of a stand-off with a Gt Yarmouth Shitehawk (wheelie-bin for scale):



I'd classify that as 'no big deal, just keep an eye on your chips'.  But then a family with a toddler appeared, and it started pestering them.  Toddler, quite reasonably, was having none of being strapped to a chair while a flappy dinosaur half its size with at least one sharp end hopped around just out of arm's reach.  I thought the parents' approach of laughing at the distressed child was a bit unfair, but I suppose that's what my parents did in similar circumstances, and it hasn't done me any harm...


And that's just a shitehawk, which is ultimately only interested in theft.  Geese have terrible attitude and will attack just because they're moody bastards.  And swans are basically geese with white privilege and the ability to break your arm.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Somewhere in these pages there is mentioned someone who lost an eye when attacked by a wol.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Birds that fly have weak bones. That is what counts.

I had a territorial Aussie magpie draw blood next to my eye. The little bastard's beak was bouncing off my glasses. Shortly afterwards, I took my friend on the back of my tandem to his badminton match…

https://road.cc/content/news/has-aussie-cyclist-found-way-stop-magpie-attacks-286503

[Kim]

Personally, my main concern when it comes to birdlife is being shat on.  Also, campylobacter.

As far as actual danger from animals in the UK goes, badly controlled dogs seems the most likely.  Or getting wowbadgered while riding my bike.  I treat cattle with the respect they deserve, and there's not much else that can do real damage.

[Polar Bear]

I had a distressing and prolonged encounter on Papay some years back.  A bonksie took exception to our walk around a headland and came in for repeated low level strafing.  Being taller than mllePB my noggin was it's target. 

Thankfully unscathed but it was the longest 15 minutes of my life.  I suspect that my heart rate reached the highest level it had ever reached and is, more terror events notwithstanding, ever likely to reach.

[Flite]

Quite common at this time of year to be chased along Fell Roads by angry red grouse wanting to attack rear lights, reflectors, red socks...  Seeing off rival males - not too bright red grouse.