Viva Pepsi

Found this old cooler ....came out of rural Sonora....when did Mexico use a monkey Pepsi logo?

Sweet spot Jerry.........

Do you have many Gila Monsters there? What is the range on the horizon?

JJ

Peloncillio Mountains...lots of gold there..we have them too

Nice little Monster!

Did I ever tell the tale of my Monster bite? Got me of all places on my left arm biceps muscle.

I believe that your area of AZ has more Helodermas than the lower zones that most people usually associate them with. Gila Monsters kinda go with Saguaros, WRONG! The corridor along I-10 from Benson-Wilcox-Bowie has always been loaded with them. Rather than the symbolic giant cactus forest, these lizards actually prefer the rolling grasslands with the occasional Spanish Dagger Yucca and the stunted Mesquite thickets. Way back in my infantile days I stopped for a pee on the Benson turnoff. I walked out to a Yucca and whilst squirting saw movement in the brush at it's base. It was a very PISSED off Gila Monster! After securing him into an old muslin gunny sack I decided to do a little reconnoiter. In a matter of an hour or so I found four of them. I believe they were searching for well hidden Quail nests or chicks. Anyway, I've seen plenty in other areas of AZ but if I ever have the need to secure a few with guaranteed success I always head for the I-10 corridor as described above.

JJ

“ I have never been called to attend a case of Gila monster bite, and I don't want to be. I think a man who is fool enough to get bitten by a Gila monster ought to die. The creature is so sluggish and slow of movement that the victim of its bite is compelled to help largely in order to get bitten. ”
— Dr. Ward, Arizona Graphic, September 23, 1899

"so sluggish and slow of movement".............

That is from the mouth of a man that obviously never has seen one fresh, hot and feisty right off of the summertime desert floor.

FACTS: Gila Monsters can run faster than most people. Gila Monsters can lunge and strike faster than most people can react. Gila Monsters feed on birds, lizards, snakes and rodents, all whom can easily escape from the quickest of humans. Gila Monsters are so determined and defensive that they will not back down from any creature to include cattle and horses. The color pattern of the Gila Monster is a loud and clear warning to the world: "stay away from me or I WILL hurt you". There are hundreds of well documented cases of Gila Monster bites on humans, even going back to the 1800's. Almost all cases of Gila Monster bites on humans can be attributed to Drunks, Fools and Children. I am not aware of any human death from a Gila Monster bite as their intent is to hurt you so bad that you will never mess with one again and relay that to all of your friends and relations. The jaw muscles and related bite force of the Gila Monster is more powerful than any other known reptile. Their venom although deadly to small animals is designed to inflict excruciating pain to larger animals as a reminder to stay clear in the future.

And I'm just getting started!

JJ

Ran over a rattle snake on my ATV when I was a more hateful person..it flipped over the tire and ended up on the back of the ATVs..didn't bite me so I now give them a pass if not to close to my house

Jungle Jim said:

Nice little Monster!

Did I ever tell the tale of my Monster bite? Got me of all places on my left arm biceps muscle.

I believe that your area of AZ has more Helodermas than the lower zones that most people usually associate them with. Gila Monsters kinda go with Saguaros, WRONG! The corridor along I-10 from Benson-Wilcox-Bowie has always been loaded with them. Rather than the symbolic giant cactus forest, these lizards actually prefer the rolling grasslands with the occasional Spanish Dagger Yucca and the stunted Mesquite thickets. Way back in my infantile days I stopped for a pee on the Benson turnoff. I walked out to a Yucca and whilst squirting saw movement in the brush at it's base. It was a very PISSED off Gila Monster! After securing him into an old muslin gunny sack I decided to do a little reconnoiter. In a matter of an hour or so I found four of them. I believe they were searching for well hidden Quail nests or chicks. Anyway, I've seen plenty in other areas of AZ but if I ever have the need to secure a few with guaranteed success I always head for the I-10 corridor as described above.

JJ

I want to hear the bite story!

A few years ago when this guy was bite by one, no one in Game & Fish or any other agency could remember anyone getting bit by one. Maybe Jim should give them a call. Gilas are lethargic creatures that feed primarily on eggs raided from nests and newborn mammals. They may spend more than 95 percent of their lives in underground burrows, emerging only to feed and occasionally to bask in the desert sun. They can store fat in their oversized tails and are able to go months between meals.
video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/160722-arizona-desert-gila-monsters-vin

Same guy a few day's later and this "expert" decides it would be a good idea to get a close up face shot of a another Gila Monster. I'm thinking what he's a expert at is getting bite and stung.

Hey Kenny........

Don't believe ANYTHING from NatGeo, all fake news, all left wing commie krap with an agenda only to deny you access to their personal playgrounds. Their rag isn't suitable for butt-wipe. I have in my library every edition form 1920 to 2013 when I cancelled them after almost puking with the endless articles of adoration for all things raghead and global warming.

JJ

Good for you Jim, I'm sure they miss you.

So Kenny, why are you such a jerk? Who is even interested in your input.

I can't recall any issue on this site that you ever respond to without your ignorant line of BS. The last time you were really of any ones interest was maybe ten years ago when you were flashing your naked skinny white ass fishing on some beach.

JJ

So anyway.........

I've had a fascination with Gila Monsters my entire life. My earliest recollection of them being the year 1950, around the age of three or maybe four, on the plank boardwalk deck on the front of my great grand pappy's general store in Mayer Arizona. There were two old wood display cases up against the front wall below the store windows that were maybe ten feet wide by two feet deep by three feet tall with hinged wood framed chicken wire lids. In one he had a half dozen Gila Monsters and a few rattlers and the other had a dozen ground squirrels, a mix of Flappy Tails (Harris Ground Squirrels) and Juancitos (Round-tailed Ground Squirrels). They were there to attract attention and maybe make a sale of a soda pop or candy. Grampa had a bunch of old timey wooden chairs there as well and there was always a few people sitting and standing around checking out the critters and listening to Grampa's personal knowledge of the local desert and wildlife. Whenever anyone got their face down close to the wire he'd tell his story about how the Monsters will roll over on their backs and hiss and spit out a stream of gassy venom your way. They did in fact, according to him, kill just about every stray cat in town that made the mistake of hopping up on the case and taking a swat at the Monsters. He told me that the reason that they were so deadly was due to the fact that the Monsters don't have butt-holes and therefore had to poop out of their mouths! He never forgot to tell me how he had been horse whipped by Hoop Snakes (Racers) in his earlier prospector days. Those evil things would come racing down some desert trail, lift their heads up, grab their tails and take off towards him at rolling at full speed. Once close enough they would whip him with their tails while still rolling along.

In those days we always used to see Gila Monsters crossing the road between Mesa and Mayer. My uncle Joe would usually pick one up to display in his barber shop in Mesa as an attention getter. By then I was hooked, I just had to have one for myself but mom said NO!

I'm gonna break this up as this site craps out when things get lengthy.

JJ

Fast forward to July 10, 1966 Newport Beach California.........

By now I did have my own Gila Monster, in fact I usually had two or three caged in my bedroom and had captured at least twenty five of them. They were almost worth their weight in dollar bills, as in those days I could get two or three hundred bucks apiece for them through the pet shop underground. I had a sweet 1962 VW panel van or as my dad called it a mobile whore house, that I paid cash for with Monster money. I was getting legit orders for them from the San Diego Zoo, the LA Zoo and other upstanding organizations. In fact on this particular night I was just returning from a hunt out near Sasabe off of the Old Ajo Road with three of them. One really large ten pound female at about 24" long and two smaller 18" males.

So, here's the scenario....

I wasn't drunk, I don't think I was a fool...then, and I wasn't a child. It was sometime after midnight, really dark, I was really tired and as I was unloading my van which was parked on a steeply sloped concrete driveway, I picked up the heavy tan colored muslin sack with the big female in it, turned around and the open door of the van swung to close itself and wacked me square in the back. The impact caused me to jerk forward which in turn caused the sack of Monster to smack directly into the biceps muscle of my left arm. In an instant it felt like my arm was clamped in a vice, I knew what had just happened and was totally stunned. First thing I did was try to pull it off, not a chance, that girl had me and had me good. I must have pulled the skin and meat of my arm out six inches or more with no letup from the Monster. The only pain at this point was from the crushing pinch. So kinda foolishly I thought that if maybe I let her have some slack she might let go. WRONG! As soon as I let her get closer she just took a bigger bite. It was a totally hopeless situation, I didn't want to wake up my old man as I'm sure that he would have killed her, so I decided to go wake up a fried of mine that lived a block or so away.

Break time..................

JJ

So........

Here I am hoofing down the streets of N-Port Beach sometime after midnight with a ten pound two foot long poisonous lizard clamped to my arm inside a five foot long sack. I get to my buddies house and start banging on his bedroom window, he gets up, opens the window and gets told the tale. We go into the garage and get a big screwdriver to pry her mouth open, no luck, we get two screw drivers, no luck, we get pliers, no luck. By then I notice that there is a wet spot of yellow juice maybe ten inches in diameter on the sack around her head. By now I'm literally poopin and pissin in my pants. With anything we try she just closes her eyes and bites down even harder which I later realized she was actually squeezing more venom into the bite. So then I get a real brainstorm, since I had let her have some slack from the first bite she had opened her mouth a little in order to take the second bite so if I give her some slack my buddy is gonna drive the screwdriver between her jaws when she does it again.

Voila! It worked, I hear the sound of teeth crunching down on steel and I yank that bad bi*ch off as fast and hard as I can. We bag her back up and I see that big wet spot of venom and try to convince myself that all of it musta all been soaked up in the fabric. WRONG! With the Monster off of my arm I could see that the mouth full she had, going on almost an hour now was pinched flat with two chunks of skin ripped out and it was filling back up with blood. As I watched that happening I was struck by the worst pain I have ever felt in my life even to this day. A thousand times worse than a bone brake or a bullet wound. It was like someone was injecting acid into my blood. I fell to the floor writhing in pain and screaming to my bud to get me to the hospital.

We hauled ass to Hoag Hospital in Costa Mesa, got into the ER and told the nurse at the desk what was going on. I waited thirty minutes or so, nearly passing out with the pain surges that were now into my armpit. I finally totally lost it and screamed at her as to what was the holdup as there was no one else even there. I screamed and asked her if she even knew what a Gila Monster was! She comes back with "isn't that one of those horny toad things from Arizona?" My god here I am screaming at her with piss and poop dripping down my legs when a real Doctor finally comes in. Right about then I pass out.

Break time..........

JJ

About 30 hours later..........

I wake up, in a totally drug induced stupor, can't see anything but a cloudy blue haze. There are a bunch of people there, mostly older men, some are dressed like doctors and all are wanting to know how in the hell I got into this situation. The Monster was still bagged and boxed up in my buds garage so they didn't really have any hard facts to deal with other than what I had told them. They were aware that the words Gila Monster had come from my mouth before passing out. There were two scientists from the San Diego Zoo and a couple more from UC Riverside, all would eventually become good friends in later years. Of course my family was there and had been in a total freak out mode for quite a few hours. I told them my tale and they told me that there was no known anti venom for Monster bites and that I would just have to hunker down get injected with pain killers and just deal with it. The wound was open to the air and I could see two gaping holes in my arm maybe an inch long and a half inch deep mostly caused by me ripping the Monster off. The Monster venom had eaten into the wounds and held up new tissue growth for almost a year. I had recurring bouts of searing pain mostly in my arm pit area for more than a year. To this day I still have two three quarter inch long scars of that bad bi*ch Gila Monster's fangs on my arm.

So anyways Kenny, my "famous" bite was well documented, photographed and published in medical journals as one of the worst ever recorded. And to my knowledge today I know of no one ever dying from a Monster bite as the lizard wants you to live and tell the story to your kind. Since then I DO NOT keep Gila Monsters as pets, maybe a Mexican Beaded Lizard or two though........that is another story!

And Kenny, as per the totally staged videos you posted above, the Monster that "Coyote" Peterson used is without a doubt a docile captive of many years. One of the best places to hunt for Monsters is Wood Rat heaps where they hunt for, kill and swallow whole adult Wood Rats with ease. I've seen several Monsters in the wild swallowing them as well as big Kangaroo Rats, Desert Scaly Lizards and even small Cotton Tail Rabbits. I've kept and fed many Monsters full grown pet shop rats and hamsters. They don't un-hinge their jaws like snakes do, they CRUSH the prey into a long weiner like tube. Just imagine an animal that size only feeding on eggs or baby rats, feeding times must be far and few between if that's the case. And BTW not too long ago a Monster more than six feet long lived in the Los Angeles basin, it's bones are the most common of all reptiles in the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, literally millions of them imbedded in the asphault there.

JJ

Jungle Jim said:

So Kenny, why are you such a jerk? Who is even interested in your input.

I can't recall any issue on this site that you ever respond to without your ignorant line of BS. The last time you were really of any ones interest was maybe ten years ago when you were flashing your naked skinny white ass fishing on some beach.

Here's the deal hot rod. Early on after you showed up I posted a picture and made a comment about one of my old stomping grounds in S Cali in the 60's, Crescent Bay. I mentioned doing some diving with a Hawaiian sling around shit rock and the area in general. In response you spewed out nothing but a bunch of bullshit about how you did this and that and other nonsense about Crescent Bay that I knew for a fact was crap. In knew what you were saying was nothing but a bunch of over the top bullshit and when I called you out on it you had no response; for good reason. So every story you tell and no matter how entertaining, especially when I know the area, I know there's a lot of over the top just plain old bullshit mixed in, because Jim, that's just what you do. Hey, I just don't like bigoted blowhards and far as my white ass is concerned you can just..... I think my first Gila Monster encounter was in a Arroyo up by Bartlett in 58 and we just messed with it enough to get it to open it's mouth and then it just turned and went down into crevice. Never hunted them, but I did do a lot of rock hounding, bird and rabbit hunting or just hiking around with a canteen and a 22 or 4/10 in those day's. Every time I encountered one it was the same. Very docile and when approached they found a hiding place, and in no particular hurry. Not much. I did see a beaded Lizard on the East side of the Verde down by Beasley flat's. Have you even known them to be that far north? I was surprised.
So where's all that documentation fat ass? "So anyways Kenny, my "famous" bite was well documented, photographed and published in medical journals as one of the worst ever recorded."

Well, Kenny. After all these years, you haven't lost a step. Wish I could say that.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn.......................

Crescent Bay AKA: Fag Beach CA.

Sorry I don't recall spewing any BS about the place. If so you can sure hold on to a grudge. Might think about moving on?

Your "Beaded Lizard" was most likely a release by a pet owner. I've collected many of them, mostly in the area around Navajoa down in southern Sonora.

JJ AKA: Fat Assed Blowhard

Hey, if he hadn't been spending his time looking at my " naked skinny white ass", instead of the whole picture, he just might have realized it was taken down Santo Tomas way at the spit.
Notice that though he had a lot to choose from, he focused in on my ass. LOL Now if he say's he didn't actually see the picture he was told about it, what doe's that say about both of them?

Hey Kenny............

Your butt shot was way before my time on this forum, I was made aware of your skinny naked white ass from yer old bud Tecate Runner when he was discussing the Maricones, Quekos and Culeros that were infecting this site and subsequently being permanently banned. BTW how is he doing these days?

Yer Bud, Blow Hard

.

Jungle Jim said:

Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn.......................

Crescent Bay AKA: Fag Beach CA.

Sorry I don't recall spewing any BS about the place. If so you can sure hold on to a grudge. Might think about moving on?

Your "Beaded Lizard" was most likely a release by a pet owner. I've collected many of them, mostly in the area around Navajoa down in southern Sonora.

JJ AKA: Fat Assed Blowhard

Of course you don't remember it because it was a bunch of made up shit, but it was a good "story".

Well thanks for the positive comment, Bud....................

It's known as "embelishment", I learned to do it when teaching sand monkeys how to maintain Hueys.

I am very interested in that post, can you still pull it up? Gotta admit this alzheimer thing is catching up to me fast.

JJ

Building houses in the foothills of the various .mountains that surround Tucson for 20 or so years I destroyed a lot of native habitat and "rescued" twenty Gila monsters or so that were just minding their own business till me and my stinking machines came into their lives.They have bad breath but sure are easier to move than snakes.

Jungle Jim said:

Well thanks for the positive comment, Bud....................

It's known as "embelishment", I learned to do it when teaching sand monkeys how to maintain Hueys.

I am very interested in that post, can you still pull it up? Gotta admit this alzheimer thing is catching up to me fast.

JJ

You seem to have memories of it being "Crescent Bay AKA: Fag Beach CA." so I'll just leave you to embellish on your fixation as I'd hate for you to forget those sweet times you must have had there.

Boys boys, boys, you are going to be banned!

Yo Jerry..............

I'm a heading down yer way tomorrow for a long weekend, you gonna be there? Last summer I was at Cap'n K's place shootin da sheet and noticed that there were a lot of small Boojum Trees in the neighborhood yards. I asked him if they came from Baja or the Sierra Seris. He said they were from a hill that he pointed to just off to the southeast of his place. You ever been there? I want to check it out on Saturday afternoon when we head back from El Desemboque. We will hit the beach at your place then Jeep down the the fish camp, get a few kilos of fresh panga caught Gulf Blues then head back to PP and maybe climb the hill and get some pix of the Boojum's, and maybe grab a few baby Gila Monsters for the barbie on Saturday night. Any input?

JJ

Jungle Jim said:

Yo Jerry..............

I'm a heading down yer way tomorrow for a long weekend, you gonna be there? Last summer I was at Cap'n K's place shootin da sheet and noticed that there were a lot of small Boojum Trees in the neighborhood yards. I asked him if they came from Baja or the Sierra Seris. He said they were from a hill that he pointed to just off to the southeast of his place. You ever been there? I want to check it out on Saturday afternoon when we head back from El Desemboque. We will hit the beach at your place then Jeep down the the fish camp, get a few kilos of fresh panga caught Gulf Blues then head back to PP and maybe climb the hill and get some pix of the Boojum's, and maybe grab a few baby Gila Monsters for the barbie on Saturday night. Any input?

JJ

Sounds fun... interesting..the ones I have seen are at cielo point south of libertad....were they in the big brown house yard second from the end? Good luck!

Yep, that is the yard that I saw them in and if they are in fact from that nearby hill, it extends their known range north around one hundred miles from the south of Libertad population. Lotsa Monsters east of Libertad. When they paved the road over to the main highway that strip was a herpetologist's dream come true. Back in 02 I did a couple of nighttime runs on it and the reptile life was just incredible. I saw seven Gila Monsters on it in two runs, all were small, largest maybe a foot long, some of the little ones were only six inches or so. I had never seen them that small before. I kept a larger one, a road kill, skinned it and made a hat band from it. Sadly that brown Beaver Stetson blew out of my Jeep without me knowing it somewhere out on I-8.

JJ

Jungle Jim said:

Yep, that is the yard that I saw them in and if they are in fact from that nearby hill, it extends their known range north around one hundred miles from the south of Libertad population. Lotsa Monsters east of Libertad. When they paved the road over to the main highway that strip was a herpetologist's dream come true. Back in 02 I did a couple of nighttime runs on it and the reptile life was just incredible. I saw seven Gila Monsters on it in two runs, all were small, largest maybe a foot long, some of the little ones were only six inches or so. I had never seen them that small before. I kept a larger one, a road kill, skinned it and made a hat band from it. Sadly that brown Beaver Stetson blew out of my Jeep without me knowing it somewhere out on I-8.

JJ

I know Val ( the home owner)buys plants from the nursery in Caborva on the east end of town...they have some interesting stuff but not cheap...can't picture the hill....you mean Germans point 3 miles south?

Yo Jerry............

That hill or small sierra that Kapt'n Scotty pointed out to me is to the south east, close to the road from El Desemboque to the main Hwy. It's out there maybe a mile or so from the pavement. I can't find it's name as of yet. That area is where the giant Cardon cacti start to mingle in with the Saguaros and Senita pipe organ cactus forest. Did finally see some Gila's in PP yesterday, at Sam's Club, in one kg. bolsas, about thirty of them, Cafe molida marka "Gila" with a nice Gila Monster on the sack.

JJ