ooooppsss... I see that I didn't phrase my comment about the English visitor too well... He wasn't bitten by a snake... he was shot and killed by some young kids who were out joy-riding around downtown Ottawa....
But I would almost have to say that being bitten by a poisonous snake would be more likely up here...even though we barely have any... I've heard that there are water moccasins down around southern Ontario, and we do have rattlers out in the Badlands of Alberta...
Yet still, the chances of being shot at or bitten by a snake are fairly remote here... but it could happen...
Actually, the thing that I think we're hearing about most often these days is bear attacks... even black bears, which are generally pretty keep-to-themselves... Last year, we had what could best be described as a drought around here, and the bears were coming down to the city to try to get apples out of people's yards... I don't think any of them did anything too serious, but I suppose they could have.
But returning to the travel theme, it's funny how, when people are travelling, they sometimes park their commonsense somewhere else.... like... they don't bother reading "WARNING" signs...
When we were in Vermont about 3 years ago, there were plenty of signs posted around the hiking trails warning people to watch out for raccoons because of the raccoon rabies which was beginning to be quite prevalent down there. But when we mentioned this to other people that we met, nobody had bothered to read the signs and didn't know about it...
Same goes for Arizona... Mr. Croc and I do a lot of hiking and so we pay attention to the local flora and fauna and try to learn about and watch out for things that sting, bite, cause rashes when we are off the beaten track. We went to one park entrance where there was an excellent display of preserved specimens of things like rattlesnakes and Golden Scorpions and various venomous spiders, but we quickly noted that we were the only people stopping to check the WARNING sign and acquaint ourselves with the more dangerous regional denizens... which I found a little odd... |
