All tag results for 'south america'

If you ever happen to be wandering through a South American jungle and come face to face with an anaconda, don't worry if it bites you…

They're not poisonous!

Although they can grow to be large enough to swallow a human whole in one bite.

Check out the above video to learn how to escape an anaconda bite if you happen to only be bitten by one of the small 14-foot-long ones.

Tags: anaconda, bite, giant, nat geo, national geographic, scary, snake, south america

Congrats!

Three of the 29 lions rescued by the former Price Is Right host, Bob Barker, won the show case of a lifetime!

Bolivia became the first country in South America to outlaw the use of animals in circuses last year, and the 87-year-old TV icon paid for the seized animals to be airlifted to Denver, where they have spent months getting checked out by veterinarians and having their teeth fixed at the Wild Animal Sanctuary.

Today, three of the rehabilitated lions will be released into a savannah-like habitat on the plains of eastern Colorado, with water and underground dens.

No word yet if the big cats have been spayed or neutered.

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: cat, circus, colorado, lion, price is right, rescue, rescued, sanctuary, south america, veterinarian

It's on!

In 1946 someone thought it would be super-duper cute to put some Canadian beavers in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego National Park.

So Argentine officials put 25 of the happy little beavers in the park, and and for the past 60 years the tourists who flock to the southern tip of South America rejoice when they see the beavers busily building dams and gnawing through trees.

Lovely, except for one thing: the Argentine beaver population has now grown from 50 to 200,000.

It's virtual army that is chomping, cutting and flooding forests across this frosty, remote archipelago known as Tierra del Fuego, or Land of Fire. And the beavers are moving north, having swum across the turbulent, freezing waters of the Strait of Magellan.

Today, the rodents cause millions of dollars in damage, often to roads flooded by beaver dams.

Recently the government has been in talks about hiring professional sharpshooters to search and destroy every last one of them, perhaps even from helicopters.

This comes as a sad surprise to those of us that thought you could never have too much beaver.

[Image via AP Images.]

Tags: beavers, canadian, freezing, population, sad, south america, tourists

It's finally here!

Ok, so we just found out this about this holiday this morning. But why not celebrate?

International Migratory Bird Day officially takes place on the second Saturday in May in the U.S. and Canada and in October in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

Apparently each year, hundreds of thousands of people observe IMBD. They will gather in town squares, community centers, schools, parks, and refuges across the Western Hemisphere to learn more about wild birds, take action to conserve birds and their habitats, and simply have fun.

Click HERE to learn more about International Migratory Bird Day and find parks and festivals celebrating near you!

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: community, holiday, international, mexico, morning, parks, south america

LOL!!!

So CUTE - this South American seal seems to fall in love with a tourist.

They peck, they cuddle, it's all very romantic.

His moves are better than a most humans. Check out this video and maybe you'll learn a thing or two!

Tags: cute, love, romantic, seal, so cute, south america, tourist, video

After re-examining a bear skeleton, found in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, in 1935 paleontologists have discovered the largest bear to ever walk the earth to date!

The prehistoric South American giant short-faced bear, standing 11 feet tall, existed 2 million years ago and weighed up to 3,500 pounds.

Holy shiz! That's ginormous!

The team behind the discovery calculated the animals size after measuring its almost elephant-size humerus, or upper arm bone.

Compared to other carnivores in its time period, "there's nothing else that even comes close" and was the largest and most powerful meat-eater on land at the time.

Up until this discovery, the previous heavyweight champ was a North American giant short-faced bear—a related extinct species—that weighed up to 2,500 pounds.

As far as modern bears go, the largest on record was a 2,200-pound polar bear shot in Alaska in the 19th century.

Imagine running into that bad boy?

We'll pass!

[Image via AP Images.]

Tags: animals, bone, elephant, extinct, record, scientists, south america, species