Cold | Beer Steak Bullshit Tag

Iguanas Falling from Trees in Florida (video)

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Iguanas Falling from Trees in Florida (video)

Living in Northern Alberta, I find wussies from areas such as Florida completely ridiculous when they spot a snowflake. Temperatures in Florida dropped a little bit and everyone, including animals are all puff about it. While people mostly yap incoherent shite about it being cold, iguanas are falling from trees. Just like that, dropping off the branches.

Iguanas are not native to Florida. They were brought in from Central and South America and released to the wild by careless pet owners. It was only a question of time before invasive species quit on local conditions. I wouldn’t quite imagine it by freezing motionless till you fall from a tree, but still, nature has its way with invasive species.

The iguanas falling from trees used to be the urban legend but now there are video documents to prove the statement true. According to the experts, even though tree falling iguanas appear dead on impact, they are not. When temperatures drop below 40 Degrees Fahrenheit, iguanas’ body switches off and enters a state of hibernation. The only part of their body that still operates is their heart. The rest is completely shut off. If this stage is reached while iguana is sitting on a branch of a tree where they dwell, the imminent result is a free falling drop. When temperatures grows above 40, their bodies revive.

Video with footage of iguanas falling from trees in Florida is below.

Most People Reading This Article Found It Searching For:

iguanas
animals fall from trees
critters falling out of trees in florida
iguana fallin on people

Posted in Animals | No Comments »

Oymyakon in Siberia, Russia – The Coldest Town on Earth

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Oymyakon in Siberia, Russia - The Coldest Town on Earth

Well, Oymyakon is not really a town. It’s a village. With population just a bit over 500, Oymyakon in Siberia, Russia is otherwise pretty insignificant. The only thing that gives it some significance are the weather and low temperatures Oymyakon occasionally gets. While I don’t doubt Oymyakon is pretty darn close, it does seem that some facts about the weather there get rather twisted.

Take a look at the video below. It’s from some British TV series about the most extreme places on Earth. It’s nicely done, no doubt, but I live in Edmonton, which is hands down the coldest metropolitan city in the world and the cold weather we get here is real. I know what -32 feels like and it’s not quite the way this video presents it as. I somehow doubt it was truly -32 Celsius when the video was filmed.

Having lived in extreme cold most of my life, I often get asked whether various degrees of freezing cold make any difference to the way it is perceived. The cold is the cold is the cold. Well, not it isn’t. If you have lived in cold climates long enough, you will be able to handle most freezing temperatures, but -30 is the threshold. It doesn’t matter how used to this cold you are, -30 will get you. -40 is beyond brutal but we have to deal with that for at least a couple of weeks each winter. Last winter we had temperatures of below -40 for two months.

Things can be manipulated for the camera. Given its position in cold Siberia, Oymyakon is without doubt a cold village, but let’s not make it colder than it is. If any of Oymyakon were to try Edmonton for just one winter, their attitude on cold would change. Anyway, the video from Oymyakon is below. Looks like a nice place.