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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by diamondbacklover29 on April 30, 2004
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Yeah Corwin is my fav also. I have not seen this show you talk of, but it sounds pretty dam funny, where can I see it?I mean the one where the jackass gets bit 20 times?!!
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by new2hots on April 30, 2004
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Thats good! I thought I was wierd for thinking that; the I feel about some of the idiots on tv.
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by Phobos on April 30, 2004
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Jeff Corwin & Mark O'Shea are the cream of the crop. They do herps justice: Use the right tools, show respect, talk about the biology & ecology, and are both funny in their own way. I had the opportunity to see Jeff in person at a speaking engagment. I was very impressed with him live onstage with no animals. He does live & breath ecology of animals. Something I found interesting is that he keep no exotic animals at home. He just has a cat.
Best,
Al
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by JRHarrison on May 1, 2004
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Reference bad images on the media while working venomous. I have reviewed many envenomations in the last 7 years of people handling like the guy on TV did. (Stated this way by victims) I have also looked at several fatal bites to children and the parents told me that the child was always watching TV and wanted to have the special powers that at least one of the TV stars claims to have. This upsets me on many levels. Parents need to tell their children that what they see on TV is staged and the shows host needs to use good handling skills so that the people watching understand that it is not just about showing off and egos.
As far as envenomations to TV stars all of the ones talked about here have been bitten at least once or more. One just lies and says he has not.(Same one who claims power over these animals) All I can say about him is remember Grace O. Wiley. (A herp history lesson)
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by Fabian on May 1, 2004
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As JR Harrison said They have all been bitten. And if you get right down to it. They all show bad handling. Like the bare foot bushmen (Rob) He free handles (like the in-land tiapan). Runs up and grabs them buy the tail etc. Jeff Corwin heads most ever snake he gets on his shows. Steve is just crazy ( shows how not to do it) I like them all but, as far as showing kids how to deal with venomous snakes (They don't) I can not find Mark O'sheas shows could anyone tell me what channel and what times he is on ?
Thanks.......Fabian
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by new2hots on May 1, 2004
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I have meet O'shea in person; he does not seem to be to bad of a person off of tv. The main problem I have with him is that he makes it a point of not saying how many times he has been envenomated(hmm........makes you wonder)I did see one show where he picked up a snake on the road thinking it was not venomous and got tagged. I cant remember what kind it was; but there was something about the fangs went outward. If someone knows what kind of snake that was post it or e-mail it to me i would really like to know, for the life of me i can not remember--Please. I am not trying to down talk O'shea because is still is a very good herpotologist.
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by tj on May 1, 2004
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The snake O'Shea was bitten by in that episode was a side stabbing stilleto snake, one of the atractaspids, aka mole vipers.
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by Snakeman1982 on May 1, 2004
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O'Shea's Big Adventures is not on very often any more. I always seem to miss it when it does come on. Sometimes it is on saturday or sunday mornings on animal planet but the schedule is so sparatic that it is impossible to predict. Occasionally the Discovery channel will have his newest episode on but that only lasts about a week.
Luckily, I recorded all but a few when the show was on often. I have seen every episode except a couple and I do not know of one that shows him being drunk in the field. He admits to drinking but that doesn't mean he is always drunk on his shows.
Biologists in general drink as a social gathering but it is usually far from being a full out "tore up from the floor up" event. Usually it is just a few beers around a camp fire or pub setting talking about current systematics or ecological studies. That doesn't make him a drunkard on his show. If you can tell me one scene where he is (for sure)drunk in the field, I'll be happy to re-watch the episode but I think that I would have remembered it.
Also, I believe that Austin Stevens held the world's record for "snake setting" (being in a room full of venomous snakes). He was in there for a very long time with mambas, cobras, etc... He was bitten by an Egyptian cobra. He wrote a book about the whole ordeal but I have yet to get my hands on it. My big problem with him is that he over-exaggerates and those camera affects and fast music during "extreme" scenes are retarded.
Actually my biggest problem with him is his "fake" photography. I know Canon camera equipment and the lens that he has on his Elan II is a 17-35mm f2.8-4.0 wide angle Sigma lens. That lens is made for scenery shots not snake photos. Macro lenses like 50mm, 105mm, and 200mm are made for those photos. His camera lens has a minimum focusing distance of more than 19 inches. Which means that if he is closer than that to the snake, it won't be in focus. So all of those "close-ups" he is always doing are nothing but crap.
Other than that, I like him. But he does need to read up a little on his snakes quite a bit. On his latest Anaconda episode he catches a lancehead and of course he calls it a Fer-de-Lance. They need to get rid of that common name all together because everyone miss uses it. There are 31 species of lanceheads, the only "true" Fer-de-Lance is an island species (Bothrops lancelatus) but common names don't mean a whole lot anyway.
I personally don't care what type of danger these guys put themselves in. My only concern is whenever they over-stress an animal by keeping it too long, holding it wrong, or hurt it from the initial intense captures. Another thing that "may" happen is putting herps in a cooler to make them less likely to strike. I am not saying that they have but I wouldn't put it past them.
I have heard from a lot of people saying that they know Steve Irwin has been bitten but I don't know for sure. I would think he has (because of odds) but will wait for sure before I say so for sure. I would rather him be bit than lie about it. Not that big of a deal but he shouldn't lie about it.
I hate the "staged" events that are pawned off as real. If they are going to fake a part of the show, they should say so. O'Shea's show is "as it happens" so I like it. No second takes or staging events! Also you will notice if you watch the show that he isn't just out catching animals. He is always with another herpetologist and is discussing biological studies being conducted on the animals to the general public. Finally a person that isn't showing the same zoo animals everyone has seen since they were three. It is nice to see an animal you haven't seen a hundred times and have the scientific name memorized. It is field herping at its best and rawest form.
It is however, very easy to criticize these tv show hosts but could any of us make a better show? Have you tried it? I am not good at speaking in front of the camera so I have to take my hats off to all of them because my videos could be a heck of a lot better if another
But all and all. I'll take any of these shows over the animal cops, pet psychic, any of those dog shows, et cetera. et cetera, et cetera...
I recently got a chance to check out some satelite cable and saw Thomas Eimermacher on National Geographic's "Snake Wranglers". His episode was on Storm's Water Cobra and was very good of what I saw. I wish I had that channel.
Robert Jadin
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RE: 7 Deadly Strikes
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by JRHarrison on May 1, 2004
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In general the Snake Wranglers series was well done but still was trying to put entertainment and science together. Also alot of it was staged for camera angles etc. I agree it is hard to do TV and come off well but we still need to weigh science and show biz with a little commonsense. Having been involved with both seasons of Snake Wranglers I will say that the producers were very nice and attempted to make me look less stupid.
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