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Buckshot Bear

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  1. ‘CARPET FITTER WINS 40 GRAND’ - 1988 We are the Mighty. In 1988, a wealthy Australian decided to celebrate Australia’s bicentennial by holding a 2,000-mile plus camel race through the Australian Outback. Endurance racers from around the world trained for more than a year to finish the charity race and win a $40,000 prize. It might be the most stereotypically Australian story ever told. The world’s longest animal endurance race won by carpet fitter Gordon O’Connell, and the race wasn’t even close. O’Connell was having a beer at a pub when he learned he’d won. The Great Australian Camel Race was a six-leg journey that began at Uluru, also known as Ayres Rock, one of the most sacred sites of Australia’s Aboriginal people and end at Queensland’s Gold Coast. Competitors were timed on how long it took to complete each leg over the course of three months. The 69 entrants brought with them teams made up of extra camels, support staff, and follow cars, just like any other high-endurance race. Teams came from elements of the Australian Army, the Australian Special Air Service Regiment, and even a handful of Americans. All brought their teams and special gear to survive the grueling race. Then there was Gordon O’Connell. O’Connell was more than a carpet fitter. He was a man who knew how to train Australia’s farm animal population and often worked in local farms training horses. He even trained his own Camel, named Carla, for the effort. He and Carla were so fast, in fact, that racers thought he was injured or lost, when in reality he’d already have finished that leg of the journey. They would be flying planes searching for his remains, but in reality, he was at the finish line. He finished more than a full day ahead of his nearest competitors, the Australian special forces. “I was stopping off at the pub and I still won the fourth leg. I had won the first three legs and was taking it easy as I was already 32 hours ahead of the SASR,” O’Connell said. “I had no idea whatsoever that I’d won it and I didn’t try. And that’s the truth.” O’Connell had a small team following him, but nothing like what the other competitors had. His win wasn’t totally without hardship, despite his trip to the pub at the end of the race. He was hospitalized with kidney failure from a bacterial infection during the second leg of the race. O’Connell was a product of his environment. He knew how to survive in the harsh environment. Most importantly, he knew animals and he trained his own just for the race. By the time he retired, he was raising camels of his own. Camel races are still a thing, but it’s not quite as intense as it used to be.
  2. Australia Does Not Care | Gabriel Iglesias
  3. “THE DEEP SEA LIZARD FISH” The stuff of nightmares: Terrifying hermaphrodite fish with the face of a LIZARD and hundreds of spiky teeth is found off the coast of Australia Called the deepsea lizardfish, the animal is a superpredator of the ocean floor, snapping up squid and other fish with is fierce jaws. The creature was hauled up by scientists trawling large nets off the coast of Tasmania. It is a fierce predator with the face of the lizard, the body of an eel and hundreds of sharp teeth. It got its name from its close resemblance to lizards, but is classified as a fish. Lizard fish are 'superpredators' of the ocean floor and have jaws lined with rows of hundreds of spiky teeth. Its teeth are hinged, making it harder for fish and squid to escape once in the animal's clutches. The animal - whose scientific name is Bathysaurus ferox - is also a hermaphrodite, meaning it has both male and female reproductive organs. Scientists believe the lizard fish has evolved to have reproductive tissue to maximize its chances of reproduction in the deep sea, where animals typically live further apart. The creature is largely made up of a mouth and hinged teeth, so once it has you in its jaws there is no escape. 'The more you struggle, the further into its mouth you go. 'Being the dominant predator of the depths isn't easy though; at depths of 1,000 to 2,500 metres [3,280ft to 8,200ft] there is very little food, so lizard fish are few and far between to maximize scarce resources.'
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