Kinkajous: Yes, They’re Cute — But How Difficult Is It to Care Them?

Kinkajous have long lifespans and curious dispositions. Learn all about caring for them in this article.

Kinkajous are small mammals that are native to the rainforest.

They’re intelligent, vocal and curious animals — and they’re among the latest in the growing trend of exotic pets.

Kinkajous grow to be 2–12 pounds, depending on their subspecies, and can live for roughly 20 years. In other words, this is not a short-term pet.

To read more on this story, click here: Kinkajous: Yes, They’re Cute — But How Difficult Is It to Care Them?

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Massive Tarantula Dragging Opossum To Its Doom Is Pure Nightmare Fuel

Australia has its fair share of oversized arachnids, but even down under, we’ve never seen a spider as fearsome as this.

A video taken recently in the Amazon shows a tarantula likely 10 inches in diameter, making a meal out of a young opossum. The auspicious encounter was recorded by biologists working with the University of Michigan, studying rare predator-prey interactions in the lowland rainforests of the Andean foothills, Fox News reports.

“This is an underappreciated source of mortality among vertebrates,” Daniel Rabosky, an evolutionary biologist at U of M who leads a team of researchers to the Amazon rainforest about once or twice a year, said in an online statement. “A surprising amount of death of small vertebrates in the Amazon is likely due to arthropods such as big spiders and centipedes.”

To read more on this story, click here: Massive Tarantula Dragging Opossum To Its Doom Is Pure Nightmare Fuel

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This is the Snake-Infested Island That's So Dangerous it is Forbidden for People to Visit

I have a recurring dream in which I am accosted by a venomous snake. I make no bones about it: snakes terrify me. Perhaps it's their weird, pin-prick black eyes, possibly it's their horribly slithering, eel-like bodies, or maybe it's the knowledge that many breeds of snake could cause me serious damage with just one bite, or several rib-crushing squeezes from their sickening serpentine frames.

Either way, if there are snakes involved, I'm out. Admittedly snakes have, thus far, been conspicuous in my life only by their absence, unless you count my oft-returning nightmare.

The nightmare started, by the way, when I was sleeping in the living room of a friend's house in New York. Every night, the central heating in the building would come on, issuing a loud 'hissing' noise as it did so. My poor, tortured, sleep-ravaged brain regrettably interpreted this sibilance as dozens of insipid, writhing snakes gliding irresistibly towards me, and thus my interminable nighttime affliction was borne out, never to cease, consistent in its horror.

If there is one place I hope never to visit, then, it is the snake-infested island off the coast of Brazil that is so dangerous, it's actually forbidden for humans to visit.

Ilha da Queimada Grande - otherwise known as Snake Island - might look idyllic from above if one did not know of the fork-tongued horrors that lurk in the rainforests beneath.

Located off the coast of the state of Sao Paolo in the Atlantic Ocean, Snake Island is home to an estimated 4,000 snakes, with some reports suggesting that you would encounter one snake every six yards - concentrated almost exclusively in the island's rainforests.

To read more on this story, click here: This is the Snake-Infested Island That's So Dangerous it is Forbidden for People to Visit

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Goliath Encounter: Puppy-Sized Spider Surprises Scientist in Rainforest

Piotr Naskrecki was taking a nighttime walk in a rainforest in Guyana, when he heard rustling as if something were creeping underfoot. When he turned on his flashlight, he expected to see a small mammal, such as a possum or a rat.

"When I turned on the light, I couldn't quite understand what I was seeing," said Naskrecki, an entomologist and photographer at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

To read more on this story, click here: Goliath Encounter: Puppy-Sized Spider Surprises Scientist in Rainforest

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