Posted on 08/19/2024 1:14:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Following a spate of predator attacks on hikers and park rangers in the US, Ally Hirschlag investigates why animals attack humans in the wild.
Keri Bergere was on a Saturday afternoon bike ride with her friends on the heavily-forested Tokul Creek trail near Fall City, Washington, when two cougars ran out in front of them. One went off into the woods, but the other turned around and, within seconds, had pulled the 60-year-old woman off her bike. "We didn't have a chance to face off with them to scare them away or anything," her friend, Annie Bilotta, told the local news station.
The young cougar clamped down on Bergere's face and would not let go for 15 minutes. Her friends tried everything: they hit it repeatedly with sticks, brought a 25-pound (11.4kg) boulder down on its head and stabbed it with a small knife, all while Bergere kept poking it in the eyes and mouth. When the cougar finally released for a moment and Bergere could get away, her friends pushed a bike on top of it, holding it down until help arrived. Bergere survived but sustained significant, permanent nerve damage to her face.
In Haines Junction, Yukon, Vanessa Chaput was out for a run with her dog when she saw three grizzly bears. As a Kaska woman who grew up encountering apex predators, Chaput knew to give them a wide berth, she told APTN News. But when her dog got off-leash, one of the bears charged her and clamped its jaws onto her head. Luckily, she'd been wearing a claw clip that broke in the bear’s mouth, startling it enough to release her. Her dog's barking then distracted the bear long enough for her to run to the highway and call for help. She was left with puncture wounds
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
“Education” is a word that covers a lot of very different things, from vital, life-saving medical skills to frivolous courses to absolutely counterproductive courses that fill people with a sense of grievance and entitlement, without giving them either the skills to earn a living or a realistic understanding of the world required for a citizen in a free society.
The lack of realism among many highly educated people has been demonstrated in many ways.
When I saw signs in Yellowstone National Park warning visitors not to get too close to a buffalo, I realized that this was a warning that no illiterate farmer of a bygone century would have needed. No one would have had to tell him not to mess with a huge animal that literally weighs a ton, and can charge at you at 30 miles an hour.
Tom Sowell
You really are they/them aren’t you?
I can think of many reasons. A threat to their young, seen as competition, invasion of their space, hunger and/or disease. You could just as easily ask, “Why do humans attack and kill other animals or worse, themselves?” Not all animals are the same, nor humans. Some good, some not so much.
You just beat me to it.
Climate change. What can't it do?
Fact is, environmentalists taste good. Apparently no one in the media has noticed this, but the critters have. Eau de Starbucks will getcha kilt.
I'd attack big city democrats hiking in my turf too... if I were a wild animal of course!. Don't want to F up the wilderness like they have urban America.
Climate change. They learned in the public animal schools that man has caused climate change and it pissed them off! The wolf, however, said in an interview on PBS that if it were Joy Behar taking goodies to grandma the story would have to be rewritten! Said there ain’t no animal gonna bite into that!!!!
“All women, jogging or biking in the wilderness.”
Or in our “diverse”, “vibrant” delightful big cities for that matter.
Humans are easy prey, especially for young and hungry predators.
One doesn’t need a PhD to figure this out.
Spirit animals for Free Republic? Grey Goose, Buffaloe Trace, the Bacardi bat, the Jagermeister stag and Wild Turkey.
The black bear population has exploded in CT over the last 15 years. They show up everywhere. They wander into the center of town or a neighborhood like they belong there. Their fear of humans doesn’t exist. There’s been talk of adding black bear tags with deer tags during the hunting season but they haven’t done it yet. Once the bears are hunted again they will have a healthy fear of humans. Too many people don’t understand how dangerous black bears can be. I hope they never find out.
Why would they not? Especially cats, cats are TOP predators, the kings of the jungle, and yeah there’s a jungle near you.
Ha!
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