• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Grizzly Bear VS Silverback Gorrila

JLibourel

Distinguished Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
8,287
Reaction score
501
Oh, mountain lions are definitely reclaiming the Midwest and East, no doubt about it. That's old news.

When you said "cats," I thought maybe you meant really big cats.

Gun writer Greg Rodriguez told me he was on a deer stand down near the Tex-Mex border when what should he see come stalking by but a maned African lion! About a week later, another chap told him he had seen the same animal, so he wasn't hallucinating or imagining things. Given the many thousands of big cats in private hands in the USA, I'm surprised there aren't more escapees of this kind running around. As many of you know, an escaped tiger created quite a stir in the Simi Valley / Thousand Oaks area of California a couple of years ago before it was shot by the cops.

Earlier there were reports of an African lioness loose in the mountains to the north of there. As far as I know, that girl was never captured or shot. I hope she's still out there!

I have known three people--all of them women, interestingly--who have privately owned tigers. This is more than the number of owners of many dog breeds I have known, AKC recognized dog breeds, not rare or exotic breeds like mine, and I have been pretty active in the dog culture in my time.
 

Tokyo Slim

In Time Out
Timed Out
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Messages
18,360
Reaction score
16

JLibourel

Distinguished Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
8,287
Reaction score
501
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim
Shark vs Octopus
Must've been a very small shark. I thought it was going to be like that old cartoon "Bambi Meets Godzilla" in favor of the shark. There are reports of absolutely gigantic octopuses in the Caribbean area. Scary! One of them may have washed ashore in Florida in the 1890s. It was too decomposed to be positively identified as an octopus at the time, but subsequent tissue analysis indicates that it was.* *Correction: I was basing my information on an analysis conducted in 1986. I gather than more recent analyses have concluded that this mass of tissue was actually part of whale--probably a sperm whale.
 

Kent Wang

Affiliate Vendor
Affiliate Vendor
Dubiously Honored
Joined
May 5, 2005
Messages
5,841
Reaction score
1,492
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim
Shark vs Octopus
The octopus is my favorite animal. If I were to have a coat of arms, it would have an octopus. In the same way that the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States grasps arrows in one claw and an olive branch in another, the octopus could grasp eight different objects with its arms. The possibilities for symbolism are much greater.
Originally Posted by JLibourel
I have known three people--all of them women, interestingly--who have privately owned tigers. This is more than the number of owners of many dog breeds I have known, AKC recognized dog breeds, not rare or exotic breeds like mine, and I have been pretty active in the dog culture in my time.
When I was living in the Houston area it seemed like the local news was reporting an escaped tiger every month. I believe the laws there are quite lax about the ownership of exotic animals and/or the owners were particularly irresponsible.
 

Tokyo Slim

In Time Out
Timed Out
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Messages
18,360
Reaction score
16
Originally Posted by JLibourel
Must've been a very small shark. I thought it was going to be like that old cartoon "Bambi Meets Godzilla" in favor of the shark. There are reports of absolutely gigantic octopuses in the Caribbean area. Scary! One of them may have washed ashore in Florida in the 1890s. It was too decomposed to be positively identified as an octopus at the time, but subsequent tissue analysis indicates that it was.* *Correction: I was basing my information on an analysis conducted in 1986. I gather than more recent analyses have concluded that this mass of tissue was actually part of whale--probably a sperm whale.
They are 3 to 4 foot spiny dogfish. Not very big... but still a predator not used to taking any crap from invertebrates. The octopus that they had on display last time I was there is about 8 1/2 feet while all spread out, but its central body was only about 10-15 inches, most of its size is in its arms. (this makes it a small to medium sized member of its species, which can grow up to 25 feet from tip to tip) with a central body larger than an average human. One of the divers at The Seattle Aquarium once told me a story about how a certain octopus adapted to having divers in the tank doing feedings. The octopus realized that the divers were handing out food every day and wanted to get closer to the action. They quickly figured out the easiest way was to slide up the glass or wall behind the diver, float along the surface of the water, find the air hose the diver was using, and then slide down the air hose to ambush the diver. Apparently, the first time this happened, the visitors were watching an octopus come down the air hose toward the oblivious diver. They gestured wildly to the diver, who thought the visitors were waving at him. He smiled and waved back. All of a sudden, the octopus, now on the diver's back, reached around the diver on both sides and started grabbing at the food he was handing out. Obviously, the diver freaked out and shot for the surface. The octopus in question was large enough to tie up the diver and crush him to death for the food if it had wanted to. I've been told that strength wise, the giant octopus could probably kill pretty almost any shark (or other animal) smaller than its total length, it being proportionately stronger, smarter, and more flexible than a shark, not to mention the fact that many sharks will drown pretty quickly when not swimming, and when flipped and held briefly upside down many sharks will go into a state of tonic immobility (and then drown). The Octopus is one of the few animals in the sea capable of ambushing a shark, as they are naturally camouflaged against nearly all of the sharks senses. Octopus have been known to hold their breath, climb on board a boat, open a fish well or crab hold, take what they want, and then jump back in the water to eat. An octopus can fit through any space large enough to pass its beak through.
octopussu7.jpg
 

Kent Wang

Affiliate Vendor
Affiliate Vendor
Dubiously Honored
Joined
May 5, 2005
Messages
5,841
Reaction score
1,492
Cuddly.
 

bachbeet

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 3, 2005
Messages
1,183
Reaction score
0
TS: Puts a whole new meaning to that Beatles' song.
 

RJman

Posse Member
Dubiously Honored
Spamminator Moderator
Joined
Dec 10, 2004
Messages
19,159
Reaction score
2,086
Originally Posted by Kent Wang
The octopus is my favorite animal.
I thought you were a cat person.
 

globetrotter

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
20,341
Reaction score
422
Originally Posted by fareau
That is priceless!!

I remember hearing that old country fairs and carnivals would occasionally host an event that involved volunteers from the audience climbing into the ring to wrestle a bear for a few rounds. YouTube is slowly turning into a repository for all things Americana, so I plugged in bear wreastling (probably should have spelled it "rasslin") and found this:



Admittedly the bear in the video is a wisp of what we are talking about, but it was entertaining to watch some young fellow all liquored up and full of beans trying to pin the beast and impress the ladies.



In Bulgaria they used to have "dancing bears" on the street - they weren't grizzlies, but they were sure big enough, at least 6 feet tall standing, maybe 400 pounds plus. gypsies would have them on a leash, with a pierced cheek to control them. they would dance, and, for a few cents, you could get a hug from one, or "wrestle" one.
 

fareau

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Messages
304
Reaction score
6
Originally Posted by globetrotter
In Bulgaria they used to have "dancing bears" on the street - they weren't grizzlies, but they were sure big enough, at least 6 feet tall standing, maybe 400 pounds plus. gypsies would have them on a leash, with a pierced cheek to control them. they would dance, and, for a few cents, you could get a hug from one, or "wrestle" one.

Sorry, I am hijacking this thread with every post....this will be the last inane offering; it's seems strangely apropos:

 

JLibourel

Distinguished Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
8,287
Reaction score
501
Originally Posted by globetrotter
In Bulgaria they used to have "dancing bears" on the street - they weren't grizzlies....

Actually, they were, more or less. The grizzly in its various races is now seen as merely a subspecies of ursus arctos, the Eurasian brown bear. However, the European brown bear is generally a much milder and more inoffensive animal that the North American grizzly, more like our black bear in this regard. It has often been suggested that this is because over the course of the milennia, the bolder, more aggressive and rapacious bears were killed off by humans, leaving the more timid, retiring ones to pass on their genes.

Interestingly, I just heard of some instances of bears killing humans in Romania, which has an abnormally high brown bear population because they were protected and "stockpiled" by the Communist dictator Ceaucescu (sp?), who liked to slaughter them in a most unsportsmanlike manner.

Some people have suggested using the milder European brown bear to restock former grizzly habitat in the American West where the grizzly would be unwelcome because of his ferocity.
 

globetrotter

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
20,341
Reaction score
422
Originally Posted by JLibourel
Actually, they were, more or less. The grizzly in its various races is now seen as merely a subspecies of ursus arctos, the Eurasian brown bear. However, the European brown bear is generally a much milder and more inoffensive animal that the North American grizzly, more like our black bear in this regard. It has often been suggested that this is because over the course of the milennia, the bolder, more aggressive and rapacious bears were killed off by humans, leaving the more timid, retiring ones to pass on their genes.

Interestingly, I just heard of some instances of bears killing humans in Romania, which has an abnormally high brown bear population because they were protected and "stockpiled" by the Communist dictator Ceaucescu (sp?), who liked to slaughter them in a most unsportsmanlike manner.

Some people have suggested using the milder European brown bear to restock former grizzly habitat in the American West where the grizzly would be unwelcome because of his ferocity.


I stand corrected.

I heard a story, told to me by a Bulgarian who swore it was true - a lot of politicians come to bulgaria to hunt bear (I know that price charles has). at one point, a serious politician was there, and the foregn office wanted to garantee that he got a bear. the order was passed down, and the police confiscated a dancing bear off the streets and took it to the area that the hunt took place. everyone was waiting for the bear to appear, and it came out riding a bicyle, which it had found outside of a farmhouse. didn't save its life, though.
 

DNW

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
9,976
Reaction score
6
Originally Posted by globetrotter
... and it came out riding a bicyle, which it had found outside of a farmhouse. didn't save its life, though.

crackup[1].gif
 

rnoldh

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
16,976
Reaction score
3,135
Originally Posted by JLibourel

Gun writer Greg Rodriguez told me he was on a deer stand down near the Tex-Mex border when what should he see come stalking by but a maned African lion! .


I'm in Houston and many of my friends hunt in the valley.

Jan, Do you think that Rodriguez could have shot that lion and got away with it? I'm not advocating that, but the lion was presumably an escaped animal, and might have been dangerous.
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.3%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 61 39.1%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 10.9%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.3%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 17.9%

Forum statistics

Threads
505,204
Messages
10,579,260
Members
223,891
Latest member
dfkoknee
Top