What Happened to Animal Planet?

I hate to say this, but the Animal Planet channel is really beginning to suck lately! It used to have an ample variety of shows I used to love to watch at night. Some I remember is "I'm Alive" and "The Haunted" and there was another about survival that I haven't seen in so long I cannot even remember the name. But they all had animal-related survival stories. I even miss Animal Cops. That doesn't even come on anymore! Nowadays all I ever see on Animal Planet is Pit Boss, River Monsters, and Whale Wars. Except on Wednesday night, when they show Monsters Inside Me, and Untamed and Uncut but even that is in between the other shows I mentioned. And they don't just run those shows once, they run them every hour, one right after another. You would think they would use some of those hours to run something with a little more variety! I like Untamed and Uncut, but I usually switch it off if they show something with any kind of panthers on it. Panthers bore me to death! Even watching a few minutes of them bores me. I just can't stand them! They don't even scare me. I would have a certain amount of respect for them, but they don't scare me. I have an amount of respect for all wild animals, simply because they are wild and don't know how to behave around people. But I don't feel fear around any panthers. I feel more like disgusted. That's why I don't like watching them. And every damn camera person always focuses the camera on the panthers' butt! I remember one time I saw a video on YouTube, and it was about a lion. In the opening frame, I swear the lion's butt was right in the cameraman's face, and he posted it. I saw that and it was like "EWWWW!! I don't want to see some lion's ass-hole!!!" One stupid-ass jerk thought that I was acting like a perv just because that was all I could see, saying "Maybe you'd like to look at a sheep's ass you perv!" As if I wanted to see that frame!! LOL! I said to him if he had any idea how I could not have seen that as it was the only frame mostly visible throughout the whole movie! To let me know. I tuned into that video hoping to see a lion destroyed. Yeah, I know it's sadistic! But it's OK to be sadistic about lions and other panthers. Afterall, people like watching them destroy other animals and people. So, I like watching videos of panthers being defeated. It's like lying to a burglar, saying you don't have a gun when you really do. It's acceptable only under certain conditions.

There are 3 animals panthers should never mess with: rhinos, warthogs and crocodiles. Rhinos always win against any kind of panther. Even tigers have been killed by rhinos. More often than rhinos have been killed by tigers. I've seen lions succeed against warthogs, but less often than warthogs have killed lions and leopards. I've never seen a leopard succeed in a battle between it and a warthog! Crocodiles, I've seen some panthers beat them, but usually only if the crocodile is smaller, or of equal size. I've never known any panther to come up against a 18-20 foot long crocodile and win. Won't happen! Maybe a whole pack of lions might one day, but it hasn't happened so far. There is a video of a tiger defeating a 14-foot crocodile (a measurement that I believe to be totally exaggerated), the croc put up a good battle, but it lost. Someone pointed that video out to me, and I saw it, and I noticed the size of the crocodile, and the size of the tiger. I commented "If that is a 14-foot crocodile then that is a 14-foot tiger!" because to me, they both looked the same size. The only place though where you might have a chance to see a 14-foot long tiger is a place too cold for crocodiles!! Only Siberian tigers even come close to that big! So I think the size of that crocodile was somewhat exaggerated. Could have been a good 10-footer. One thing I noticed over the years, wildlife cinemetographers always want to make panthers out to be bigger and better than they really are. I once saw on YouTube, someone said they have a friend who is a professional wildlife cinematographer, and that person has a video of a cougar being killed by wolves. But he won't sell it or show it on YouTube because he "loves" cougars and doesn't want anyone to see them destroyed. That got me thinking, how many other videos could there be out there that have been cut-off from public view that shows panthers of one kind or another being destroyed by other animals? Could be LOTS!! Panthers are unfortunately WAY overrated and probably the most embellished animals on the planet.

Yes, I admit, panthers are powerful animals. They have to be. They don't have the benefit of numbers to bring down large prey. So like say one tiger has the strength of maybe 5 wolves. Tigers are the largest of the panthers. There have been reports though of tigers being killed by the Asian wild dogs, also known as dholes. A lot of people will say this is an amplified report. Some have even said that it's based on nothing more than legend. Even the most reliable book I have, Walker's Mammals of the World, says that there have been reports of tigers being killed by dholes, but that none of the claims have ever been reliably observed (by western scientists) and reported. However, legends are not there because someone pulled them out of the sky! They had to come from somewhere. Most legends are based on fact, not fiction. Whether they are old claims or not is irrelevant. The fact that the claims exist at all is impressive!! I'd love to see a pack of dholes treeing, or even killing, a tiger! However, western scientists have seen evidence that tigers have eaten dholes. Probably young, bachelor, or simply lone, individuals. I'm sure a tiger would not confront a whole pack of barking dholes. Some people say because dholes only hunt in packs that what they do is not at all impressive. Yet people are fascinated, calling lions the "king of beasts" (which I still think is a laugh!), and lions hunt in packs too. And males do none of the hunting in a pack. It's usually only the females who hunt. The only time a male hunts is when he is in a bachelor group, then he has no choice. The thing is with a pack of dholes, they become one. When they hunt, they are no longer just individuals, they become one big, powerful animal. A single dhole may not be able to bring down a tiger--dholes, BTW, are smaller, but more powerful than wolves. Maybe not even 2 or 3 dholes. But imagine a pack of 10, 15, even 20 dholes, and the tiger has one hell of a problem on it's paws!!! They all become one, like a swarm of bees or ants. Look at groups of army ants! A whole swarm could kill and tear apart a 400-pound anaconda! But a single individual cannot. That's because in a swarm, they all become one, big, formiddible opponent.

I'll tell you all, for real entertainment, watch TruTV! They have some of the best reality shows I've ever seen! I love Operation Repo! Good show! Lyndah seems to be losing weight! Matt is like a pit bull! Even he calls himself that. I was watching Hardcore Pawn last night, Les wanted to buy his family guns. They went into a gun shop. Apparently Les tried to ask for a deal on some holsters, and that clerk at the gun store just went ballistic!!!! That was no joke! No acting! I could tell by the camera angle. And in my research for last night's show, apparently some Detroit residents have been into that gun store before, and said that dude really is a ticking time bomb! Why he's working in a gun store I will never know! People with as quick a temper as he seemed to have should never be allowed near a gun!! But at the same time, Les has no business treating a retail shop like his pawn shop! I've pawned some things in the past. One of the things I HATE when it comes to pawning (which is why I don't do it very often) is the clerk will look at your item, in good condition, and it is what you say it is, they tell you, "I think I can give you $50 for this." Then they turn around and 5 minutes later tell you "I'm sorry, I can only give you $10 for this." I'm like "GEEZ!!! You said $50 before dude!! If I'd have known you were going to change your mind like that I wouldn't have waited!" Oh and my all-time favorite: You take your item in and say you'd like to sell that item. The first damn thing the pawn shop clerk asks you is "How much do you want for this?" I'm thinking "Dude, you should know better than me what it's worth! You've been in this business longer than I have!" I hate when they ask you that, and you give them a price and then they say "I don't think it's worth that." I'm like, "Then why the Hell did you ask me?!"

You can tell, I don't do much pawning! LOL! I think I've only done it maybe 5 times in my whole life. Then only when I am VERY desperate!! Worthless items, I'd rather get my fill of, then perhaps donate them to this thrift store in town that does so much good for so many people. Good items I like to keep. If I have an item that is good, but I don't need anymore, I'd rather wait until I have a big enough collection and have a yard sale. Yard sales are not like pawn shops. The customer fanagles with the price and so can I, and both of us go away happy.