1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (75 page)

“Sea Cucumber,” National Geographic, Animals,
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com
.

559

FACT :
Up to
30 percent
of Britain’s rats carry Weil’s disease, which can be fatal to humans.
They’re the ones toting little boxes and acting suspiciously.

“The UK’s Deadliest Creatures,” AOL Travel,
www.travel.aol.co.uk

560

FACT :
A rat can compress its body to fit through an opening
as small as a half-inch in diameter
, making it almost impossible to rat-proof a building or home.
I once compressed a rat even smaller than that—with a shovel.

“The UK’s Deadliest Creatures,” AOL Travel,
www.travel.aol.co.uk
.

“Norway Rats,” Illinois Department of Public Health: Prevention & Control,
www.idph.state.il.us
.

561

FACT :
Male desert rats can copulate
up to 150
times in an afternoon.
God, I miss college.

Edward G. Long, Chimpanzees Don’t Wear Pants: A Retired Psychiatrist Takes a Second Look at Human Nature (Buy Books On The Web, 2001).

562

FACT :
Ursodiol,
a compound made from bear bile
, is used in Western medicine to dissolve gall stones and treat cirrhosis of the liver.
Getting the bile—that’s the tricky part.

Constanza Villalba, “Ten Lessons Medicine Can Learn from Bears,” Scientific American, January 6, 2009,
www.sciam.com
.

563

FACT :
Of the world’s numerous species of bears,
the most deadly are polar, black, and grizzly bears
.

These species will attack, trample, and maul their prey until it is frightened off or dead, and will attack for a variety of reasons, including hunger.
Or simply to impress their bear friends. “Hey, guys—watch me scare the shit out of this tourist.”

“The 10 Most Dangerous Animals in the World,” AOL Travel,
www.travel.aol.co.uk
.

564

FACT :
The world’s longest snake, the reticulated python,
can reach almost forty feet in length
.
Its cousin, the matriculated python, is several feet shorter, but a lot smarter.

Mark O’Shea, Boas and Pythons of the World (New Holland Publishers, 2007).

565

FACT :
Australia’s Eastern Brown snake is one of the world’s most deadly. Even baby Brown snakes have
enough venom to kill a human
.
What can Brown do to you?

Andrew Claridge and David Lindenmayer, Wildlife on Farms: How to Conserve Native Animals (CSIRO Publishing, 2003).

566

FACT :
The
small but venomous saw-scaled viper causes more deaths
in North Africa and the Middle East than any other snake. When attacked, it can hurl its body at an aggressor and bite quickly.
That’s exactly how I fight. They never expect the biting.

Ted Mertens and Helen Lucas, Deadly & Dangerous Snakes (Magic Bean, 1995).