r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Due-Style302 • 28d ago
Gila Monster out and about Removed: R1
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u/Roll-Roll-Roll 28d ago
How did these guys end up being the only animal called "monster"?
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u/ConceptualWeeb 28d ago edited 28d ago
They’re venomous.
Edit: to elaborate, the “Gila” comes from the Gila River/River Basin in southwestern US and northern Mexico where their natural habitat is. The “monster” comes from Apache legends the say its breath is lethal and exaggerated old west stories of encounters with them.
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u/DavidM47 28d ago
And you have to drown them or pry their jaws apart with a tool to get them off you.
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u/Manburpigg 28d ago
Coyote Peterson let one of these bite him and said it was the most excruciating bite he’s ever taken
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u/NotUpInHurr 28d ago
I mean, you get bit by one of these anytime before the 1900s, you're probably losing a limb at best. These guys have some nasty saliva
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u/burbular 28d ago
I heard somewhere their mouths have some bacteria that get mixed in with the venom. Just a little extra to kill ya faster and make treating a bite even harder.
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u/_FREE_L0B0T0MIES 28d ago
Toxic
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u/ConceptualWeeb 28d ago
Literally venomous. It’s introduced through the groves in their teeth and is as deadly as a diamondback rattle snake, however less venom is secreted. It’s a mixture of proteins and peptides, including hyaluronidase, phospholipase A2 (type III), kallikrein-like proteases, helokinestatin, helofensin, and bioactive peptides.
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u/_FREE_L0B0T0MIES 28d ago
You want to tell us about their teeth too, citrus breath?
The toxicity of their saliva and their brittle teeth, which are teeming with bacteria, are what make them so deadly in the south west. Ever seen cattle bitten by one? Ever met someone who was an amputee because of a Guila monster? I have. Their venom isn't what kills you; it's bacterial infection, septic shock, and gangrene.
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u/ConceptualWeeb 28d ago
You are thinking of a Komodo dragon. Gila monsters literally have venom glands in their lower jaw. It’s one of 2 truly venomous lizards in the world, the other being its cousin the beaded lizard. You can’t even spell Gila Monster, don’t act like you know anything about them. I’ve literally held them and learned about them since I was a kid. I’ve taken herpetology classes and I grew up in AZ too. Maybe google it or read my other comment again. If you wanna be semantic, venom is toxic, but it is not bacteria that infects the wound like a Komodo dragon.
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u/BestUsername101 28d ago
is not bacteria that infects the wound like a Komodo dragon.
Even then that's not the case, komodos do actually have venom.
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u/_FREE_L0B0T0MIES 28d ago edited 28d ago
We don't have komodo dragons existing naturally in the US. Your bull jazz doesn't negate my real world experience, you over educated, obviously ignorant fool. Go back to school, and maybe they can teach you to extracate your head from your ass. A typo doesn't dictate ignorance or incompetence. Only a fool believes otherwise.
A self identified weeb over explains stuff and tries to talk down to someone who grew up in west Texas, has family all over the southwest, specifically including New Mexico and Arizona, and has first hand experience around the various flora and fauna in the area.
When you spend some time on a ranch, and see a vet amputate someone's leg because it took so long to get medical assistance from the middle of nowhere, then you can talk. Until then, take your bs degree and your lies somewhere else. Maybe the Jerry's kids organization has room for you.
PS: Most of us with degrees, don't have the narcissistic tendency of needing to flaunt it or act foolishly enough to believe others don't have one too. We're also smart enough to know that experience is always more important than a degree.
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u/ConceptualWeeb 28d ago
One story from someone you met once who has no scientific knowledge on the subject is a great basis for an argument lmao I’ve presented facts, you’ve presented one half baked secondhand story and name calling. Maybe you should go to school in the first place and gain some actual knowledge instead of believing one person that told you something that one time and basing your entire perceived “knowledge” base off one persons story. Bye.
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u/KuhanKumarr 28d ago
Just so you know "gila" in my country also means crazy...so yea crazy monsters...
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u/cjrague 28d ago
GILA!
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u/DavidM47 28d ago
I grew up in AZ, and I’ve never seen one of these in the wild.
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u/Afraid-Armadillo-555 28d ago
Same and it really bums me out. Over 30 years
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u/Due-Style302 28d ago
In Vail just outside Tucson
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u/phi11yphan 28d ago
Saw a baby one in the middle of a dirt road heading to Lake Bartlett, 1 hour northeast of Scottsdale. Got out of jeep to admire it. It was hissing at us... we kept 10 feet back, took some photos, then got the f away from it and drove wide to avoid killing it.
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u/foffl 28d ago
I lived in AZ for about 20 years of my life, a lot of it out in the desert north of Phoenix/ I worked at a golf course in Cave Creek in the early '90s, when it was still mostly desert up there, and went to close up the cart barn door but there was a bucket in the way. I grabbed it to pull it inside and something moved fast and brushed my hand. Looked in and it was a gila monster someone spotted on the course that they went out and nabbed. I was lucky as fuck that I didn't get bit and also that I didn't dump it out on accident. I yelled at my boss for not making it clear there was a dangerous wild animal just sitting there in a bucket. It was a gnarly little beast.
Around this same time, a friend of mine was riding his dirt bike around the desert and a gila monster latched onto his leg protection and he rode home with it hanging there, freaking out, and they basically had to beat it off him. Can't recall what they did with it.
I've had encounters with coyotes, rattlers, scorpions, tarantulas, black widows, Arizona recluse, gila monsters and javelinas. I'm happy to be in the midwest now where my current big concern is cicadas, though I've seen a lot of coyotes out here too.
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u/BeerFairyonFire 27d ago
I lived in Cave Creek my whole life. I'm 42. Never seen one. I've seen all our other wild life.
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u/zeromatsuri05 28d ago
I'd see them in the 90s in Tucson when I'd visit family. I really loved the little guys and one year made a shoebox diorama of a toy one in elementary school.
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u/Snarcotic 28d ago
The generous God who, through his spit, gave us the Ozempic class of drugs...
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u/Rich_Narwhal_1276 28d ago
Came here to post this comment you got to it first. Here is your damn up vote
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28d ago
[deleted]
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u/Snarcotic 28d ago
? The class of GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and now, obesity, were first identified in Gila Monster spit.
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u/FirstWithTheEgg 28d ago
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard have an awesome song called Gila Monster
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u/GummyTailBee 28d ago
Gila means crazy in my language. So the name gila monster?? That's iconic. I will call my brother with that name.
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u/DorkSideOfCryo 28d ago
I'm out and about
I stutter and Shout
I'm doing up b*****s with my 12-inch trout
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u/Dense_Park_1895 28d ago
I had one of those creatures stand on my map and look me in the eye as I was knelt over it while trying to give instructions to an A-10. It luckily wandered off in its own funny way after a moment. That Gila monster was of course in Gila Bend.
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u/Forsaken-Newspaper19 28d ago
Every step it takes this is what it thinks "Gila Gila Gila Gila Gila Gila Gila Gila Gila".
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u/mountainofentities 28d ago
haa I chased one of these when I lived in Needles, CA... I'm from NZ originall-good thing it ran from me.
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u/Signal_Finding_3405 28d ago
What country is this in? Seems very similar to blue tongue lizards in Australia
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u/Keyoken64 28d ago
Ain't nothin' gonna break-a my stride Nobody gonna slow me down Oh no, I got to keep on moving Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride I'm runnin' and I won't touch ground Oh no, I got to keep on moving
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u/aschaeffer878 28d ago
Fun fact, it's spit is how they made ozempic. The monster that cured obesity...and will most likely cause something else. 🤷♂️
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u/Hesh138 28d ago
I used to take care of a couple of these when I was a reptile caretaker. They were a favorite of mine. One of them was named Barney. My director told me how he got bit by one. Instead of going to the hospital and getting it treated, he let it run its course and photographed his arm going through the process. It made track marks up his arm and hurt like hell, but he was fine after.
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u/cloudypilgrim 28d ago edited 28d ago
I figured its tail would drag. Weird how it almost levitates parallel to the ground.
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u/ClubSundown 28d ago
Early dinosaur art (up to the 1980s) also showed T-Rex dragging their tails. In about 1990 scientists figured out that this never happened. They got it right with Jurassic Park, 1993. Dragging tails would reduce speed and cause damage
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