It goes without saying, that skiing was not on the agenda. Photography (or something like it) was the focus. Maybe there would even be a bear or two this time around.

These animals, as you can tell, are not bears. I think that they are elk. I don’t even pretend to know anything about wildlife, so feel free to correct me if you want. In any event, I’m sure they aren’t mountain goats or long horned sheep. You can click on the thumbnails to see a larger version of the photos.

Definitely not as exciting as a mountain lion or grizzly, but wildlife just the same. They paid no attention to the fact that humans had invaded their territory, as our presence was acknowledged with little more than a passing glance.

more pages (mountain photos)

The other night, I had the Animal Planet channel on, and in the “coming up next” promos was a show on the “fascinating and deadly vampire fish recently discovered in South America”. Now that sounds good. Vampire fish. Not vicious, flesh eating piranha or sharks, but real, honest to god, blood-sucking vampire fish…

Like all programs like this, the introductory segment explains what they are going to do in this episode, and why, and who. The opening line was something like this:

“We are going to take a trip down the Amazon River in search of the Candiru or vampire fish. According to the native people of the area, this fish is capable of swimming up the urine stream of a man relieving himself in the river, and lodge itself inside the penis. The vampire fish stays there until it is gorged with blood and actually explodes. Because of this nasty habit, it has earned the nickname, the “willy fish”

“The fish has tiny, spike shaped barbed fins, which face backwards, so that when the tail of the fish is pulled in an effort to remove it, the fish becomes even more aggressively and permantly attached to the inside of the penis. Many men, because of the intense pain involved, choose to have their penis amputated rather than wait until they can get to a hospital where there is a chance it can be surgically removed.”

I hear the “chance it can be removed” and shiver. Chance?? Chance!!!?? What’s up with that???

In any event, the intro has caught my attention. Not only is it a real, honest to god vampire fish, but it apparently is rather selective on where its’ blood source comes from, as well as the sex of its donor. Throw in amputation of the one part that no man should be without, and this becomes a “don’t miss episode”.

As it turns out, the vampire fish is a victim of bad P.R. (public relations) and poor judgement. The little bastard appears to be confused about the smell of pee and the smell of fish breath. Then again, they may well have a similar odour. The vampire fish “attacks” the willy because he thinks it smells like the water coming out of another fish’s gills. You see, the inside of gills is where they vampire fish prefers to get his meals.

I haven’t peed for two days now. Better to be safe than sorry, as far as I’m concerned.

You can see a video on YouTube about the vampire fish here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSLKZzuLC00