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gringorio
Senior Nomad
Posts: 812
Registered: 4-10-2004
Location: Tucson, Arizona
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Black Jackrabbits, Fish-eating bats, and Rattleless Rattlesnakes
OK,
I'm reading the 1972 edition of Time-Life Books 'Baja California' and in chapter four the author discusses black jackrabbits, fish-eating bats, and
rattle-less rattlesnakes.
From my ecology training I can accept that these creatures can really exist, but with all the travel discussed on this board how come we never hear
about such things?
Have any Nomads seen first hand black jackrabbits, fish-eating bats, and rattle-less rattlesnakes?
What other strange creatures have you seen in Baja?
gringorio
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Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6796
Registered: 9-20-2004
Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
Member Is Offline
Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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yes
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy!
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The legend goes that rattleless rattlers live on Isla La Guardia ........my favorite other worldly critter in Baja are the giant moths the size of a
small bat--they usually flutter around at night.
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Mike Humfreville
Super Nomad
Posts: 1148
Registered: 8-26-2003
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It was more than a legend or rumor as I read it in several books and have seen pictures of them. And I thought it was on a single island but further
south and smaller than Angel de la Guarda. But the rattleless rattlesnake is, I believe, a fact on an island, a single island in the Sea of Cortez.
As for the moths the size of bats I have seen them many times. When Mary Ann and Miguelito and Kevin and I lived north or La Gringa across the summer
of 1985 these large, hand-palm sized silent filers were attracted to our kerosene lanterns after dusk. You could never hear them but they always
startled you because of the width of their wings. They would slip through a door or window and were attracted to the dim lamps burning behind us in
out tiny bamboo "library" and their shadow would be alarming, like a huge wild animal lurking somewhere in the hidden corners where we couldn't see
him, just waiting to disembowel us. We'd shout and jump up to protect the boys, sleeping in their cots, awakening them, only to see the worlds most
gentle creatures silently and delicately flitting around a lit mantle while casting dancing shadows around our bamboo walls.
It was always easy for the boys to go back to sleep and for me to slow the pumping adrenaline. They'd just read a bit and I'd pour a rum and Coke
while Mary Ann read and we'd all settle in with the tugging of the lapping small waves of Las Cuevitas ringing in our ears and soon be fast asleep.
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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tarantulas
Since we're on the subject of creatures that make your flesh crawl I would like to talk about the tarantula.
I had seen about 2 of them up until that early october day in 1983. We were driving through the portion of the desert around Catavina when we first
noticed the first one lumbering across the highway. We pulled over, got down on our bellies, and watched it's slow robotic movements as it crossed the
road. Back in those days, a tarantula could cross the road before another car even appeared on the horizon.
We eventually moved on and started to see them everywhere. They became so familiar that we could spot a dark shape from a distance and recognize it as
a tarantula. Each sighting was of a solitary individual. They were never in a group. Altogether, we must have seen about 25-30 tarantulas over an area
of maybe 100 miles of road.
Since that peculiar day I have seen 3 tarantulas in the last 32 years. One in Milpitas, CA, one in Loreto, and one in Guatemala.
I know they're fairly common, but to us this was a special day. That's what's great about the peninsula - it seems that every day has something
special to offer.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64532
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Santa Catarina Island Rattleless Rattlesnake
From a book that should be in every Baja bound vehicle: Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California by Ron H. McPeak c2000...
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Mexray
Super Nomad
Posts: 1016
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: California Delta
Member Is Offline
Mood: Baja Time
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We lived in Livermore, CA for years, and the Tarantulas would trek around the hills to the south in the Fall, as I remember, looking for other
Chick-Tarantulas to hang out with (wink-wink)...they look mean, with those big fangs, but really don't bother you if you just let em' crawl
around...My father-in-law HATES spiders, and, well you know where I'm going here...we got his heart to pumping real good one day by 'planting' one of
these roving critters on the back on his easy chair at home...for some reason, we haven't been on the best of speaking terms since then...
I was watching a 'Deep Jungle' TV program a few nights ago where they showed videos of Fish-eating Bats...in Indonesia or Madagascar - don't recall
which. Anyway, these were some BIG bats! They had huge claws (Talons?)- like an Eagle's - and would swoop down on the water, and 'troll' with those
claws piercing the surface till they snagged a fish, or ran out of cruising room! It was quite a sight - would really hate to have one of those
critters come cruising along my body as I slept on a cot on the beach!
According to my clock...anytime is \'BAJA TIME\' & as Jimmy Buffett says,
\"It doesn\'t use numbers or moving hands It always just says now...\"
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Mike Humfreville
Super Nomad
Posts: 1148
Registered: 8-26-2003
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As a So Cal boy in the early '60's I was stationed at Camp Pendleton. In the early part of my tour I was closest to San Clemente and spent time
there. I'd go directly to I-5 and north toward home from there for weekends when I could.
After my return from the far east in '64 I was reassigned to the Base Brig in G-2 out of Oceanside. In driving home to La Crescenta on free weekends
I often took the Pendleton road into San Clemente from Oceanside and then the I-5 north toward home.
When I got off duty in Oceanside about sunset and headed north there were many tarantulas. Often, driving south on evenings they were there too, on
the roadway. By the hundreds.
Eventually I noticed that in the mornings they climbed down from the hillsides of Pendleton toward the slow flowing creeks there. In the evenings
they worked back up the hillsides to wherever they lived.
In those days I was driving an MG midget, a tiny convertible where I could drop my hand out the window and touch the ground. I then thought that the
tarantula was deadly and could envision them all jumping into my MG and attacking me. Like they were orchestrated or something.
On my first trip into the central Baja desert in 1968ish, I was hitchhiking with a fellow I met driving a fruit delivery truck. The road was of
course dirt and there was a hurricane that came across the central desert that year and we were stuck with several other vehicles at a remote desert
ranch south of Guerrero Negro on a side route. When the storm struck and the rain started to fill the small places, the land animals came out and
climbed the nearest branch or bush to save themselves.
I was told they were deadly by my suspicious remote desert dweller-friends. I didn't know. But when I went to step on a tarantula I was stopped
physically and told that if I got tarantula "stuff" on my boots and then removed my boots manually, that the flesh would fall from my hands.
Later, so many years later, I learned that the beasts are quite passive.
When I look back at this long past moment I can only wonder what made my newfound friends so afraid. Was there any history to flesh falling from
human hands based on stepping on tarantulas? Was it a myth and if so, just what is a myth made of?
Or was it a mindset that many of us have that supports the need of a being larger than us?
While I'm not a member of a "church" I do believe that there certainly are "beasts" on this Earth that are more powerful than me. It's hard to watch
a powerful event, a sunrise or sunset, or watch the universe in action on a quiet moonless evening in Baja or anywhere and believe in some form of a
more powerful being.
Is this all just a coincidence? Perhaps. But that's hard for me to believe.
I read recently in Newsweek about an evolving concept where the two philosophies of God and science have found (an uncompromising) way to see through
the hype.
That'd be nice.
[Edited on 4-21-2005 by Mike Humfreville]
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gringorio
Senior Nomad
Posts: 812
Registered: 4-10-2004
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Member Is Offline
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spidy
These hairy spiders are cool to look at and take photos of, like this one, but they still give me the creeps. One of our party let the tarantula
crawl over her hand. 
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Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6796
Registered: 9-20-2004
Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
Member Is Offline
Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Since we're on the subject of creatures that make your flesh crawl I would like to talk about the tarantula.
I had seen about 2 of them up until that early october day in 1983. We were driving through the portion of the desert around Catavina when we first
noticed the first one lumbering across the highway. We pulled over, got down on our bellies, and watched it's slow robotic movements as it crossed the
road. Back in those days, a tarantula could cross the road before another car even appeared on the horizon.
We eventually moved on and started to see them everywhere. They became so familiar that we could spot a dark shape from a distance and recognize it as
a tarantula. Each sighting was of a solitary individual. They were never in a group. Altogether, we must have seen about 25-30 tarantulas over an area
of maybe 100 miles of road.
Since that peculiar day I have seen 3 tarantulas in the last 32 years. One in Milpitas, CA, one in Loreto, and one in Guatemala.
I know they're fairly common, but to us this was a special day. That's what's great about the peninsula - it seems that every day has something
special to offer. |
in October every year they have there annual migration.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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Debra
Super Nomad
Posts: 2101
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Port Orchard Wa./Bahia de Los Angeles BC
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In Bahia they call those large moths "wine moths"
Last summer I had one visit me nightly for about a week (when it realized I wouldn't share it stopped coming) Kind of freaked me out the first time
it landed on my shoulder......really sent my 5yrs. old g-daughter into orbit!
And before you say anything about my being stingy with my wine MIKE....I thought about it and decided that I didn't want my kids to see a DEAD drunk
moth (I can hear the "GRANNNNNN MAAAAAA you KILLED IT!" and just see her at "show and tell" Payton: "Look everybody, here's the moth that my
GRANNNNN MAAAAA killed by feeding it wine" UGH! Not a good picture.
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy!
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Another critter that I just recently started seeing in Baja is the Badger--had no idea they were there all these years. Indian mythology has the
Coyote and Badger as good friends: apparently when they're both looking for a meal the Coyote will guard the entrance to a rabbit hole while the
badger starts digging into the rear exit of the rabbit den......its a crapshoot who gets the prize.
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bajalou
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4459
Registered: 3-11-2004
Location: South of the broder
Member Is Offline
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About 8 years ago, we saw a badger about 3 miles off H 5 at K165. This is a very dry area so how they survive is a mystery to me. I don't think they
have the range of coyotes.
No Bad Days
\"Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference\"
\"The trouble with doing nothing is - how do I know when I\'m done?\"
Nomad Baja Interactive map
And in the San Felipe area - check out Valle Chico area |
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Jack Swords
Super Nomad
Posts: 1094
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Nipomo, CA/La Paz, BCS
Member Is Offline
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Tarantulas walking around
Mexray is right...these tarantulas walking around in the fall are males, usually about 12 years old and end-of-life. They are looking for females for
a last fling. Females usually remain in their burrows (and can live 25 years). Males are larger and have "claspers" or hooks on their front legs to
hold the female should she be unwilling. Teaching science for 30 years, I always had several in the classroom for kids to hold to get them to
overcome their fear of spiders. While we saw many half-inch fangs open out, never had anyone bitten. Fearful kids all eventually ended up letting
them walk on their hands. As a mentor science teacher I did the same with Kindergarten up to 6th graders to allay fears of spiders. One caution
however...tarantulas frequently use their back legs to scrape hairs off their abdomen (you see many with bald abdomens) to let a curious mammal sniff
in the hairs. The abdominal hairs have tiny barbs on their basal end and are quite irritating. After handling a tarantula for a while, some
experience itching/irritation on the sensitive underside of their forearms. It is a minor, short term thing. So they are gentle creatures that go
about their lives presenting no danger to anyone as long as you don't sniff their hind end.
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Down south here we have lots of snakes. Millions of harmless coachwhips. I've caught and released some lyre snakes (venomous, rear fangs) and small
night snakes which have venomous toxin in their saliva -- neither snake is much danger to man. We have lots of horned lizards (Horney Toads) which
the Mexicans kill -- rumor has it that the blood (which they exude from their eyes) is poisonous and if one is seen in the vacinity of a nursing
Mexican woman, she will have no breast milk. Factoid -- skunks are attracted to the sound of human breathing. In all of Mexico rabid skunks drawn to
the breath of those sleeping on the ground kill, each year, more people than all snakes.
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capn.sharky
Senior Nomad
Posts: 686
Registered: 9-4-2003
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That would be isla Catalana for the rattleless rattlesnakes. It is outside Isla Carmen just out of Loreto and Puerto Escondido.
If there is no fishing in heaven, I am not going
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vgabndo
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3461
Registered: 12-8-2003
Location: Mt. Shasta, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Checking-off my bucket list.
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First one we'd seen in a decade in San Nicolas
Without a doubt the prettiest spider in Baja, unless your are REALLY into arachnids. As a Real Estate Inspector, crawling under houses for a living,
I wish they were ALL tarantulas!
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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latitude26n
Banned
Posts: 124
Registered: 8-7-2004
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Tarantulas
About 20 years ago we were mid-way between La Paz and Todos Santos around dusk, and noticed that a large stretch of asphalt was moving up ahead of us.
Ever been to an estuary at low tide that's so full of crabs that the
ground seems to swarm and move?
Same effect, but this time it was tarantulas-thousands! A solid mass of them marching from one side of the cardon forest, across the road to the other
side, and visible for about a quarter of a mile up the road. By the time we realized what it was, the crunching had already started and we just
powered thru them chanting "please don't break down,please".
We've never seen anything to this extent again but in certain years, in Sept and Oct. (as Bruce mentioned) right around dusk, we'll have individuals
begin to march from the bottom of our lot and end up collecting on our patio (where they perfectly match the rock pavers, thank you!) because the
retaining wall we built seems to block some instinctive migration route. During this season we keep a plastic cookie tub handy, called "The Relocator"
which we use to gently scoop them up, over the wall and take them out to the desert on the other side of us. It's the least we can do for the carnage
we caused years ago.
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GeoRock
Nomad
Posts: 329
Registered: 3-7-2003
Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Mood: Always have one
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At the previous two booksigning events, I gave a quiz which included a few questions about these unusual creatures.
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DanO
Super Nomad
Posts: 1923
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: Not far from the Pacific
Member Is Offline
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BADGERS?
WE DOAN NEED NO STEENKIN BADGERS!
Sorry. Couldn't resist.
Oh, about this bit from Jack Swords:
"So they are gentle creatures that go about their lives presenting no danger to anyone as long as you don't sniff their hind end."
I guess you could say the same thing about me. Heh.
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