Monstrous
The Animal Within => Monstrous Animals => Topic started by: lycanthrope_Rose on June 15, 2007, 01:23:57 AM
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRfOMkbpiP4
Can you believe it?
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hey i've seen the site and . . . well . . . i don't know if i can believe it
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Nope Sorry
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It is said this was on the local news. I'd also like to point out that this family doesn't seem to have access to advanced special effects and other things from Hollywood. So I really doubt that this was faked.
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Two words. photo shop.
that or the pig was really close and the kid was far the pic looked to horizontal to tell.
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Let's lay this thread to rest shall we?
http://snopes.com/photos/animals/hogzilla.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Hogzilla
Scroll down towards the bottom, and you'll see the part of the article dealing with this particular beast.
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Gomen..... i was talking about a differet pig. I posted without actually reading. silly me.
Here's the link. I found this the other day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=run92JXX8wQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=run92JXX8wQ)
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That one is actually covered in the same article I posted, per my instructions to scroll down to find it.
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I find it amusing that so many people have trouble believing this. Have any of you ever seen some of the larger breeds of farm pigs? Some of them can get freakin' humongous. A wild hog is only a feral human-bred pig, and sometimes (though rarely) partially interbred with wild boar. Nothing more. If domesticated farm pigs can get that big, why couldn't a feral pig descended from those animals get that big?
At the county fair earlier this year there was a pig that weighed 50 pounds more than I do. I'm a pretty big fella, so imagine how huge that hog must have been.
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I was under the impression that animals in captivity often reached larger sizes than their wild cousins due to the steadier supply of food that they enjoy. Moroever, wouldn't a hog of that outstanding size have quickly attracted the attention of ravenous coyotes or wolves? However, I may be wrong on both.
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Actually, a lot of them get bigger in captivity because they are bred specifically to be larger. A larger animal has more muscle, and more muscle meat equals more money.
As far as the huge hogs getting killed, well...Do you have any clue how fierce pigs are? Domesticated pigs can and do kill each other in dominance fights, and wild pigs are worse. There's no way a hog that size could be easily killed by coyotes or feral dogs, and the area Hogzilla was found has no indigenous wolves.
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As much as I hate to say it, Kreepy is right. Pigs can & do kill humans. An average farm(meat) pig can weigh well over 500 pounds. They also have tusks which in farm pigs are either removed or trimmed. They are also the 3rd smartest animal on the planet, fiercely protective, & fiercely territorial. A domestic pig that escapes will be irreversibly feral within a week.
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But wouldn't an animal that has hitherto been completely dependent on humans to feed it, find itself facing the very real possibility of starvation in the wild? I apologise if my ignorance on the matter is showing, but the commonly accepted wisdom holds that dometicated animals released into the wild usually succumb quickly to death due to their inability to cope with the numerous crises that nature throws at them.
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Pigs will do anything for food, and abundance of food is the only thing that keeps them domesticated. As soon as they're hungry, they'll revert back to the savage behavior of their fierce ancestors.
You live in Austrialia don't you, blow_fly? Ever encounter a wild razorback? They're descended from domesticated pigs the European settlers brought over. Those things are said to be fierce enough to chase off a few hungry dingos.
As far as other animals go, I know for a fact that dogs, cats, cows, goats, sheep, and horses that are said to be "domesticated" thrive in the wild, sometimes to the point of being invasive species and threatening the populations of native species. If I may ask, where did you get your information stating domesticated animals struggle in the wild?
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My info comes from government phamplets and messages distributed by animal welfare activists that advise people against dumping their exotic pets in the wild once they have gotten tired of them, due in part to the alleged inability of these previously captive animals to cope in the wilderness on their own. Hardly the most reliable sources in existence when I come to think of it now.
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You're right, that information is extremely unreliable.
In a lot of ways, previously captive animals, whether exotic animals or average domesticated animals, thrive in the wild.
1. They're in an environment that did not evolve to accomodate them, thus leading to an almost immediate test of survival. Either they become fiercely survivalistic, or they die almost immediately.
2. Domesticated animals are instilled with an insatiably gluttonous appetite by humans. The only way to accomodate this is aggressive feeding habits, leading to extinction of native lifeforms.
3. Us humans are the only animals on Earth that have by-and-large lost our instincts. Though they may not be able to actually accomplish the task, all animals still know how to stay alive in the wild.
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All very good points, except in some rare cases, most of them DO die off immediately. If this was so successful, then people would have made a huge success in reintroducing endangered species back into the wild, but sadly, most die off immediately.
But wouldn't an animal that has hitherto been completely dependent on humans to feed it, find itself facing the very real possibility of starvation in the wild? I apologise if my ignorance on the matter is showing, but the commonly accepted wisdom holds that domesticated animals released into the wild usually succumb quickly to death due to their inability to cope with the numerous crises that nature throws at them.
As for pigs, they are omnivorous, they eat ANYTHING. They even eat their own piglets if they get hungry enough. So they have no problem surviving off of acorns, shrooms, other animal dung, rotten carcasses, & so forth. Plus, they are even less domesticated than house cats, & they run around feral all the time. A normal pig will grow bushy hair, tusks, a HUGE layer of muscle & fat over their shoulders for foraging & burrowing all in less than a month of fending on it's own.
Plus, the mother's milk is so rich, that the babies have a HUGE success rate of survival. In zoos, they even use pigs as wet nurses for endangered animals.
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All very good points, except in some rare cases, most of them DO die off immediately. If this was so successful, then people would have made a huge success in reintroducing endangered species back into the wild, but sadly, most die off immediately.
Part of the problem with this, a problem that very few people have the wisdom to see, is that animals go extinct for a reason.
See, extinction is a totally natural process. Things live, and then they die. Totally natural.
Now, when an environment changes to the point where a species living in it has a harder time surviving and becomes extinct, that means that particular environment is no longer suitable for them. Trying to release an endangered animal into an environment that no longer works for them is still going to have the same effect of killing them off.
Whereas, with animals like pigs, cattle, and horses, who are so different from their roots that they no longer have a "natural" habitat, there's little problem surviving, simply because they can upset the balance of that habitat in a way that favors them.
The proof is all around us - Cattle living wild in Scotland, wild mustang horses in the American great plains, and wild hogs in the deep south, even dingos in Australia. All of these animals were once domesticated and acted as invasive species, carving out a niche for themselves. All of them thrive now.
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Success of a species upon release back to the wild depends on many many factors. Length of domestication, intelligence, how it was handled in capitivity, Knowledge of how to find it's own food, abundance of food, proper environment as well as numerous others. The reason pigs do so well upon release is that they are incredibly smart, falling only after humans & dolphins in that area, they can survive in any environment so long as they can find food & since they can & will eat anything that is hardly ever a problem. The trouble with dumping exotic species has nothing to do with whether that species would be able to survive but the damage that they can do to an existing ecosystem. For example, if you dump a burmese python in the woods of nebraska it won't be an invasive species because it will not survive the winter. However, if you dump that same snake in the Everglades it will be an invasive species because it will thrive will breed will grow & will pose a threat to humans & the resident predator populations.
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wild mustang horses in the American great plains,
Random bit of info here, but horses ARE a native species to America. They simply died off in the ice age due to human hunting.
So all that happened was that they were REintroduced by European settlers. :-D
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FUN RANDOM FACT!! Camels were also introduced to Arizona by the military. When the animals were no longer needed they were simply released into the Arizona desert. Which is why it is illegal to hunt camels in Arizona. Okay, random rant over.
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Their are camels in Arizona? :?
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Thats a new one on me too
The few times I been there I never seen any :-o
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I WANT ONE AS A PET NOW. I'd train it to spit on sight at certain people. :-D
Uh oh :focus:
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FUN RANDOM FACT!! Camels were also introduced to Arizona by the military. When the animals were no longer needed they were simply released into the Arizona desert. Which is why it is illegal to hunt camels in Arizona. Okay, random rant over.
You just don't learn, do you? Any time someone makes a claim on this forum, I do everything I can to debunk their claim.
So, here ya go:
http://www.snopes.com/legal/arizona.asp
Myth BUSTED!
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:focus:
It seems that every thread I am posting in needs this reminder. -_-
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You are correct, I should have gotten back on topic. I apologize for not noticing your warning from before.
As far as giant hogs, or giant animals in general go...Why do so many people have a hard time believing that, the same way a human can be 9 freakin' feet tall, there are cougars that can get humongous, pigs than get to be the size of cows, and bears that can get to be the size of a small car?
I mean...A mutation is a mutation, regardless of what species it's in.
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I think that it's not because it CAN'T happen, but because they all would die of in the wild. Human giants happen because of something going wrong with the pituitary gland, usually a tumor. Without modern day science, they would eventually die before they even reach their 20s.
Now, animals versions of 20s happen MUCH faster than ours, so they could only live for a few years before dyeing. & add all the dangers of living "free" & you can see why they would die. Plus, even if they DO, bears & pigs are he only ones who even have a shred of a chance of getting enough food to survive. imply cuz they can eat ANYTHING.
Ligers, for instance are the cat's version of giants. They are so huge, & need so much food, that they could never catch enough game to survive, they only survive in captivity cuz of all the free food handed to them by their keepers.
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You have a very good point, actually.
There was a "giant" tiger (as if they weren't big enough :laugh:) in India, actually, that managed to survive as long as it did simply because it didn't have anything else to compete with in the area it lived. Just lots and lots of deer and wild pigs.
So, yeah, it makes sense that people would be skeptical of a giant animal, but so many people act like it's some bizarre, otherwordly impossibility.
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Of course they do, people now a days are so obsessed with crap like MTV, that they never even see the real world. Only reason why people like us on this forum managed to make them think "monsters" aren't real.
Now, back in the medieval ages & such, people did actively believe in giant animals & dragons & monsters, cuz they NEW that such possibilities could exist. They just couldn't explain it with modern day science, that's all.
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just one quick thing, Ligers can't survive in the wild because they don't exist in the wild. They are a totally human creation along with Tigons.
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Thank you for pointing that out, Countess. I forgot to mention that one before.
Although...In theory, it could have been possible for them to exist at some point in time, as lions once lived in India alongside tigers. However, it would take very strange and unlikely circumstances for a lion and tiger to mate in the wild, and they're more likely to try and kill each other.
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I have also read that ligers never stop growing. I do not really know if this is true or not.
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No that isn't true. They just grow to double the size of the parents.
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Not exactly double but the average male lion is about 450 pounds the average male tiger is about 500 Liger & Tigons are generally around 600-800 pounds when full grown.
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Good call, I didn't know the exact numbers. But I know they grew bigger then the parents.
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I thought Ligers were sterile and couldnt reproduce. Kind of like Mules.
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This is true, almost all genetically created hybrids are sterile. The chromosomes are not an exact enough match so the animals are sterile as a way of preventing such a hybrid from happening in the wild.