Let’s get weird, shall we?
I’m sure you’ve heard about people being bitten by dogs and cats, but what about totally random, uncommon animals that we don’t hear about as often?
What happened? And how bad did it hurt?
AskReddit users shared their stories…let’s take a look.
1. Wow!
“I’ve been bit by several uncommon animals, including:
Macaw – this one hurt the most on impact and left a chunk of flesh missing, plus a giant bird with flapping wings and an attacking mouth is pretty discombobulating.
African Grey Parrot – similar to the macaw, but it was a once off. There were about 5 African greys living together in an enclosure. 1 of them was friendly and would come to a particular corner for head scratches. A mean one would pretend to be the nice one and lure people in for the scratches and then just bite their hands. He got me once.
Wild dog pup – about 3 weeks old, happened during feeding, though it was clear the pup was not after food. Even at that age, it left a full-jawed, perfectly circular, even teeth print on my arm for 2 weeks.
A 1 year old lion. In a jealous fit over a male, she attacked me. No deep wounds but lots of tears and scratches.
Unknown spider – turned into a welt and wound the size of a tennis ball and had to get a 3 inch hole cut out of the back of my leg to fight the infection.”
2. Ouch!
“Giraffe.
When I was a toddler, my maternal grandmother had one of her “moments of inspiration” while we were at the zoo. She perched me on top of the outside fence to the giraffe enclosure (knowing full well that I was scared of heights) and backed up a good distance, while yelling at me to stop crying and feed the giraffe MY pryaniki while she took pictures so she could show all her old lady frenemies how much of a good grandma she is, and how nobody appreciates her enough.
The giraffe came to investigate what all the crying and shouting was about, stole my whole bag of pryaniki, licked me, and started chewing a chunk of my hair, which is pretty mild behaviour for a giraffe all things considered. Being a toddler, I went from blind terror to full-blown hysteria at the thought of being eaten by a fucking giraffe, and fell backwards off the fence.
The giraffe got to keep the chunk of hair and my pryaniki. I got scrapes, bruises, and a bloody bit of scalp where the hair never grew back in properly.
My maternal grandmother got to throw a pity party about how her ungrateful daughter’s ungrateful daughter was ungrateful enough to ruin the expensive roll of film she bought in Czechoslovakia for her expensive camera that she also bought in Czechoslovakia. Her indignation about the incident would outlive both Czechoslovakia and (presumably) the giraffe.”
3. Hedgehog.
“I was bitten by a hedgehog that my dog dug out of hibernation during winter one year. I was following the instructions of a wildlife expert that i called when i found the hedgehog and giving it an oil bath to help with it’s dry skin and it was sniffing my hand and suddenly jumped at me and dug its tiny needle teeth into my palm.
The bite itself hurt a fair bit but what was worse that it didn’t want to let go. Had to go in to the hospital later to get some shots to make sure i didn’t catch anything, but that hedgehog was an angel and i ended up realising it after the winter. Hope the little buddy is doing good.
As a fun comparison, it hurt a hell of a lot less then when i got bitten by a guinea pig.”
4. Part of the job.
“I was a zookeeper and got bit on the hand by a ring-tailed lemur. He sliced the tip of my finger open almost to the bone. It didn’t hurt at first but when I was told to flush it with running water, it kept flapping open and the pain was excruciating. Throbbing horrible pain. It was bleeding so much I asked if I should keep flushing or stop the bleeding and they agreed stopping the bleeding was more important.
A colleague drove me to an urgent care center and had to fill out my forms for me because I couldn’t write. After I was taken into a room, a nurse placed my hand in an iodine bath, where it started to feel better. About 15-20 minutes later they took the bowl and said the doctor would be in soon.
Now that it was exposed to air again, the pain came back with a vengeance. Never before have I been in so much pain that endorphins kicked in and I became a comedian. They doctor still hadn’t arrived after 20 minutes of torment and I started making jokes that they had forgotten about me because they were googling was a lemur was.
Turns out I was right (seriously, wtf, lol) and when they finally arrived they told me that the person who had taken my paperwork didn’t know what a lemur was so they said I’d been bit by a lemon. They also asked if the lemur had been rabid (because rabid feral lemurs are totally a thing where I live? Lmao).
In the end I got three stitches (which I probably shouldn’t have gotten considering it was an animal bite) and it took six months for the feeling to return to my fingertip.”
5. Only happened once.
“Praying mantis, I bread those and it was feeding time. It mistook my finger for a mealworm somehow. She caught it, and I thought she would let go after realising the mistake. No, no she did not.
She started biting my finger. Thinking she would notice it tastes nothing like a mealworm she would let go. No, no she did not. So I let her bite until it started hurting and forcefully pulled back my hand (she was unharmed, just shocked from surprise) and saw a little hole in my finger about the size of a pin head.
Never happened before or after, just this one time.”
6. Beware!
“Giant Hawaiian centipede. Got me with its jaws on my big toe which was not covered. It hurt for two days. Like getting pinched in a vice or something.
I’ve also been stung by a small Portuguese man of war in hawaii. Wrapped around my torso and shoulder. I threw it off and ran up the beach with my shoulder like cold stinging fire and passed out.”
7. Runs in the family.
“My dad was bit by a llama when I was 6.
He still had the scar on his arm, wrapped all around the part that faces away from the chest. It’s about as wide as a Pringles can, for reference.
I’ve been bit by a parrots beak, they’re like wire cutters, very nasty. Lots of dog, cat, and chicken bites. I think my mom was bit by a horse.”
8. A polecat?!?!
“I got bitten trying to catch a Polecat that got into my friend’s house! It hurt quite a bit and bled a small amount. I called the non emergency line and they suggested I go to A&E just in case.
While I was there, a man had a full on heart attack in the waiting room and I was just sitting there with my little finger booboo.
Polecat was safely captured and released!”
9. These things scare me.
“I was bit by a mole, I heard its squeals because my cat was attacking it, so to save it I grabbed it (I was 12yo, not that smart), and if you’ve ever seen moles you will now there is no way of knowing where the head is, it is literally a black hairy potato with hobbit feet.
Long story short I was holding it by the head, and it bit me. You’ll be surprised (or not) to hear that they have VERY sharp teeth, It was holding on to my finger with all the strength in the world and I couldn’t get if off until I shook my hand very fast and sent it flying to Mars.
After that I disinfected the wound with a whole bottle of 75% alcohol and never heard from it again.”
10. In the depths.
“Jellyfish in the sea near Cartagena, Colombia (I know they sting, rather than bite). I was just paddling in clear water when i jumped out of the water in pain, felt like a million red-hot needles on my upper thigh.
By the time i got out of the water i had 3 finger size red lumps on my thigh. It was then that I received the WORST. ADVICE. EVER.
Some goat-faced old man told me take some sand and rub it in to the wound as it would help clean it. So I did.
I then spent the next 4 days semi-conscious with the worst fever I have ever had. My friends called an ambulance after 3 days and I have some blurry memories of getting an intravenous drip and some injections in the butt. I finally woke up having lost about 5kg in weight.
The reason the goat-faced old man was so wrong was because by rubbing the wound with sand I was actually pushing in more jellyfish venom barbs into the wound.
The paramedics weren’t sure why my body reacted that way to the high dose of venom, they said different people react differently to venoms.
What you should do is get a a disposable razor and glide it slowly over the wound and it will remove a lot of the barbs that haven’t punctured the skin.
Im told the peeing thing does help reduce the pain a little but to be honest the pain wasn’t that bad, it was the semi-conscious fever that was the worst and I don’t think people peeing on me in my hotel bed would have helped.”
11. Some good ones.
“Iguana: didn’t really hurt but left a crazy bruise
Common snapping turtle: I thought i’d lost my hand at first, extremely painful
Watersnake: so much blood…
Got clawed the fuck up rescuing a red tail hawk from some fishing line once that was the worst it was like I was in a knife fight.”
12. Those things are nasty.
“When I was in high school this kid got bitten by a brown recluse spider. He was gone for a few days and when he came back he had to walk around with an IV thing pumping medicine into his blood.
This was on Vancouver Island Canada.”
13. Rambo the monkey.
“I was 9 years old and was visiting my mom’s family in Mombasa.
For some reason they had a monkey named Rambo. In Mombasa we sleep in mosquito nets. One morning I wake up and the monkey is inside the mosquito net, he looks at me, I look at him and and I don’t move.
He suddenly lunges at me and bites in the armpit of all places and then the little bastard ran away.”
14. Watch out!
“I got bit by a stingray.
I was swimming in the ocean, and I stepped on it by accident (I didn’t see it). It didn’t have time to turn around and sting me, so it bit me.
It felt like something had a slightly wet towel around my foot while stabbing me.”
15. A bad night.
“Raccoon.
Grabbed my calf under my picnic table and gave a chomp. I thought it was a cat at first, til my friend let me know it was a huge raccoon. It chased me into my house. Friend had to scare it off with a broom.
Bite wasn’t very deep. I had pants on and the animal control guy said it was an “investigative” bite, not an attack.
The rabies shots I had to have after were the worst pain I’ve ever been thru, and I’ve done myself some damage over the years. The follow up shots gave me flu-like symptoms for a week after each.
One of the worst nights of my life.”
How about you?
Have you ever been bitten by something unusual?
If so, please share your story with us in the comments!
