Staying on-topic ... I was thinking that with Swine Flu being of some concern, sleeping outdoors might be a good move anyway ... in the UK we have 840+ people actually in hospital and nearly 70 of those are in intensive care .. and we have at least 30 dead .. I thought it just another flu but it would appear to be more .....
so, sleeping outside ..... I got to thinking of wolves (ok if you urinate around your perimeter) and find that there are approx 1000-1,500 true wild wolves in Iberia alone ...
plus a few dozen rather large brown bears ...
http://www.iberianature.com/material/spainbearnews.htm
and then there are countless wild boar (regardless of hunters killing 60-100,000 anually)
http://www.iberianature.com/material/wild_boar_spain.html
musn't forget wildcats of course....
Then there are a total of 13 snakes present in Spain of
which five are venomous. These are:
1. Seoane’s viper (Vipera seoanei - víbora de Seoane)
2. Asp viper (Vipera aspis - víbora áspid)
3. Snub-nosed or Lataste’s viper (Viborade lataste - vibora hocicuda)
4. False smooth snake (Macroprotodon cucullatus - culebra de cogulla)
5. Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus - culebra bastarda or de Montpellier)
The Montpellier commonly reaches 2 metres in length :shock:
then there are 1700 species of spider but only three are truly harmful - the Black Widow (oh yes) and the Tarantula .. being two of them ...
then there are scorpions, of course, very common - and they do like to climb into boots - so always shake them upside down before putting them on - and always check inside sleeping bags before getting in ...
Mosquitos, fleas and bed bugs of course, and now the Tiger mosquito has arrived in Spain but only on the Med coast so far ... and do be prepared for the black flies ...
and then, a really wriggly beast ... something hideously common called a Megarian Banded Centipede (Scolopendra cingulata – escolopendra). It's black and yellow, grows up to 9cm long and will give you a very nasty sting.
http://www.iberianature.com/material/bitesandstings.html
and don't forget to never pick up or touch any hairy caterpillar - some exude a poison your skin will really not like ...
oh - and there are bitey poisonous (mildly) ants ... bees, wasps, locusts, Hornets .... errmm ...
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