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eekamouse
Senior Member
United Kingdom
187 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Dec 2007 : 17:10:02
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I was out working my wee dog the other day just picking up shot pheasants, and I thought how funny it is that pheasants die with their eyes closed. But a woodcock dies eyes open. Now why do rats always die with their eyes open,
in fact I'll make a list.......
Open eyes
Rat
Fox
Woodcock
Human
Stoat
Weasel
Rabbit
Cat
Mouse
Closed eyes
Finches, Budgies
Pheasants
Dog
Partridge
Why is that? Anyone know or dare to guess? Any others for the list?I'm curious. Should I raise the matter at the works Xmas do? Mind you as a sole trader in a one horse town I'm only talking to mesself anyhow.
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3bigbass
Junior Member
United Kingdom
50 Posts |
Posted - 12 Dec 2007 : 17:52:17
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We should get together and book a table for two, my works do is a lonely affair as well!
Ken Chadwick
www.harrierpestprevention.co.uk |
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The Spotlight Kid
Senior Member
452 Posts |
Posted - 12 Dec 2007 : 18:11:07
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| Just as I was beginning to think my Christmas do was going to be a Christmas don't. Table for three in the corner maybe? |
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Fenn Man
Senior Member
Ireland
371 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 02:21:13
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That's a hell of a good question, Dave! I wouldn't even know what search terms to feed Google to start looking for an answer either.
Anyway, just to add for ye: Goats; Open. Deer; Open. Reptiles; Shut.
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Dusty
Hyperactive Member
Australia
634 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 08:07:21
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Fenny, if you were laying on the ground (as in snake) and you spotted someone with a rake poised over their head to give you a death nudge, I reckon you might shut your eyes too lol
JAFA
Don't feed them, get Rid of them - visit us on www.ridpest.com.au
or blog us on http://blog.ridpest.com.au |
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Bob Staines
Senior Member
Botswana
203 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 08:35:43
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is it also related to the reason death occurred?
i mean, human- eyes open/closed hmmmm?
you say, pheasants- closed, woodcock-open, i take it this is after being shot. would time it takes to die have any bearing? |
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The Spotlight Kid
Senior Member
452 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 09:20:48
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Also some animals can't blink or close their eyes eg. Rabbit
If humans die in their sleep I assume they die with eyes closed.
Interesting that fox and dog in seperate categories as are different birds, I tend to agree with Bob that the particular situation just before death would be the main influence. |
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Fenn Man
Senior Member
Ireland
371 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 16:18:40
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Spots, Bob and Dave; Continuing from ye points there; I once read a book, a true account of a couple of serial killers. Very thorough descriptions as it was all gleaned directly from the court room transcripts.
Without labouring it all: Someone was despatched with a whack to the back of the head by a spade. They went down like a sack and their eyes remained open. The killer himself postulated that this was because death was so swift and brain centred that the brain never had time to tell the body it was dead and to shut the eyes.
As the pair featured had killed a Lot of people, by various methods, one assumes they must have become accustomed to seeing people shut their own eyes on death? Otherwise I wonder why the one had asked the other about this 'new' phenominon of the victim dying with open eyes? In direct contradiction, I know, to the customary practice of needing to close the eyes of the deceased. Damned if I know.
But, leading on from that; I also remember once seeing a Dog which had been hit by a motor. Stone dead and eyes wide open. Head strike? One of my own Dogs died not long ago, perfectly peacefully in his own bed, of old age. And, yeppers. His eyes were shut.
Dave; What have you started now?!  |
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eekamouse
Senior Member
United Kingdom
187 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 18:05:50
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| Well now I'm even more curious, because most game etc. that I shoot (snipe, woodcock, bunnies, foxes etc etc) all die with their eyes open - as in your spade whacker Fenny... BUT if they died of old age would their eyes be shut? the only anomaly I can think of is that poisoned rats die eyes open and thats not an instant death,... I recon you're on to something here though matey. |
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The Spotlight Kid
Senior Member
452 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 18:26:41
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| How many in the open list can close their eyes when they are alive? |
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eekamouse
Senior Member
United Kingdom
187 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2007 : 18:35:13
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I think they all can Spot, or they have a nictating membrane, a sort of eyelid that closes from the bottom up, you know as in a toad. I'm off foxing now and it reminds me, often when you've dropped one at say 150 yds at night, black dark and it's in a field but you're not 100% sure where, put the lamp on it and its eyes are shining back at you big as dinner plates, and yup its deid!
All fish die eyes open, as a nipper I used to go and prod their eyes on the wet slab at the fishmongers to see how squidgy and fresh they were, I knew then I wanted to get into pest control or autopsy.
Hey have you seen that German bloke on TV late at night carving dead people up! He looks like that bloke off Indiana Jones (the Nazi)Great accent too yah. Now him I could definitley go for a pint with! |
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Fenn Man
Senior Member
Ireland
371 Posts |
Posted - 17 Dec 2007 : 16:48:03
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Dave; Just shot a Dog, mate. .22 Hornet through the engine. Forty yards. Eyes open.
(Before anyone gets concerned, by the way; It was my own Dog and had become an outright liability. I take Extreme Responsibility for my Dogs in this, 'Stock County. I'm a Pest Controller. She'd become an abject Pest to my neighbours and stood to bring a shotgun toting neighbour to my gate. I sorted it)
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eekamouse
Senior Member
United Kingdom
187 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2007 : 18:59:01
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Blimey Fenn
Proves the old point you make about shock eh.
Sorry it came to that but well done for taking task so well. Might upset some folks but there should be more willing to take full responsibility eh?
Have you seen that German bloke on TV carving folks up with his specs and trilby on Fenn?
Sing along with me now .... What the world needs now (dum did dum) is characters sweet characters etc etc. sing to fade
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The Spotlight Kid
Senior Member
452 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2007 : 19:26:14
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| Checked a couple of moles today. What B****y eyes ! |
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eekamouse
Senior Member
United Kingdom
187 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2007 : 19:49:26
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| Nice one Spotty! |
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nigel
Hyperactive Member
535 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2007 : 19:55:26
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| Its those two little black things, one either side of their snout. Normally open. |
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Fenn Man
Senior Member
Ireland
371 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2007 : 20:12:37
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quote:
Originally posted by eekamouse
Have you seen that German bloke on TV carving folks up with his specs and trilby on Fenn?
I don't posess a telly, mate 
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The Spotlight Kid
Senior Member
452 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2007 : 20:16:34
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| The fleas on one of them were bigger than the eyes. Don't often see fleas on moles but I think this one had only just been caught so they had not abandoned ship yet. They were not too keen to jump but I suppose mole fleas don't need to jumb much considering the clearance between mole and tunnel. A bit like the London underground. |
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The Spotlight Kid
Senior Member
452 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2007 : 22:32:35
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| Going to the pub tomorrow with a vet friend of mine. Remind me to ask him the riddle of the dead eyes wide shut and I'll report back. |
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The Spotlight Kid
Senior Member
452 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2007 : 08:17:14
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The vet reckons all animals die with eyes open but couldn't explain why. Eyelids don't seem to have a "normal" state that they return to on death (like a spring finding it's natural position). We also decided that if the animal dies in it's sleep then the eyes will remain shut, and some birds close their eyes on death.
He also dispelled that urban myth often seen on film where someone shuts the eyes of a corpse. Aparently they would open again irrespective of rigor mortis.
We then got slightly off subject and discussed the virtues of eating brains and other offal and soon found we were the only ones left in the pub. New Year's resolution ......... I must choose my friends more carefully. |
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re dead things
