Predator Attacks Escalate as Americans Encroach on Wildlife Habitat

It has been a year of jaws and claws: Sharks biting surfers, alligators dragging away toddlers, bears mauling campers, and cougars attacking skiers and bicyclists. Actually, 2001 is not much different from last year despite several high-profile incidents, but the trend over the past decade is strikingly clear: Close encounters of the predator kind are on a definite upswing and so are injuries and deaths.

Grizzly bears, like this one in Yellowstone National Park, have been responsible for 18 deaths in the last decade.

The 1990s was the worst decade ever for shark, bear, alligator, and cougar attacks in North America. Deaths and injuries to people from all four of these large predators are still extremely rare but not as rare as they once were.

While there are several factors behind the phenomenon, wildlife experts say the overriding reason for the increase is that there are simply a lot more people than there used to be and they are encroaching on wildlife habitat everywhere.

From urban sprawl along Colorado's Front Range to luxury retreats near Yellowstone National Park to surfing along Florida's shores, people are increasingly living, working and playing in close proximity to predators.

Another factor is that some predators are increasing their numbers once again, recovering from earlier decades in which they were widely persecuted.

"Considering the large populations of humans and predators co-existing in the same areas, it is not surprising that large predators injure some people," said Michael Conover, director of the Jack Berryman Institute at Utah State University, which researches people-wildlife conflicts.

"What is really amazing is that so few people are attacked," Conover writes in a forthcoming wildlife biology textbook. "Why don't hungry cougars and bears commonly prey upon humans, especially children? People are much easier to catch and kill than deer or elk and are more abundant."

Sharks have been the focus of the greatest attention this year, with highly publicized attacks in Florida and the Bahamas. There were 536 shark attacks worldwide in the 1990s, continuing an upward trend exhibited throughout the 20th century, according to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.

"There are simply more humans in the water," said George Burgess, director of the shark attack file. "We can count on this trend to continue in this century unless shark populations decline even greater than they already have or people stop going in the water or we solve the world population problem."

Florida is the shark bite capital of the world with 220 unprovoked attacks between 1990 and 2000, but only two fatalities. It's also the home of more alligators, and the site of more alligator attacks, than anywhere else.

Alligators attacked 78 people in the United States during the 1980s and 110 people between 1990 and 1995. By comparison, there are only five recorded alligator attacks between 1830 and 1969.

Hunting and commercial harvesting once threatened to wipe out alligators, but the ancient reptiles began to recover after interstate shipment of illegal alligator hides was banned. Gators have now moved from remote swamps into suburban and urban lakes and canals where they come into contact with people daily.

"You literally have people's back doors facing alligator habitat," said Harry Dutton, alligator management leader for the Florida Fish and Conservation Commission. "You have to expect that occasionally alligators are going to wander into people's yards."

There have been two alligator-related deaths this year in Florida: a 2-year-old girl who wandered away from her backyard in Winter Haven, and a 70-year-old man whose body was found floating in a Venice pond with an 8-foot (2.5-meter) gator circling nearby.

Cougars—also known as mountain lions, pumas, catamounts and panthers—once roamed most of North America, but are now reduced to 13 Western states, Florida, and southwestern Canada. The Florida panther, a subspecies of cougar, is one of the most endangered animals in the world.

Half of the 20th century's 14 known deaths from cougar attacks in North America occurred in the 1990s. Colorado's only two fatal cougar attacks both occurred in the 1990s. Of the ten known nonfatal cougar attacks in Washington State, eight have occurred since 1990.

Last year, three cougar attacks were reported, including one against a four-year-old girl who was seriously injured near her parent's campsite at Bartlett Lake in Arizona.

In January, a cougar near Banff in Alberta, Canada, killed a 30-year-old skier—the first cougar killing in the province. A month later, a 52-year-old bicyclist was attacked on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and might have been killed had a passing tugboat crewman not stopped his truck and pried the cougar off the bicyclist's neck.

"It's an important thing to keep in mind that this is a very small risk," said cougar expert Paul Beier, a wildlife ecology professor at Northern Arizona University. "You are much safer taking a walk in the woods than walking down the street in any neighborhood in any city in the United States."

There were 128 deaths from grizzly and black bears in North America during the 20th century, with 56 deaths—nearly half—occurring in the last two decades, according to Stephen Herrero, an environmental science professor at the University of Calgary.

By comparison, there were six fatal bear attacks in all of the 1940s and only one in the 1930s, said Herrero, an expert on bear attacks.

"There is a definite upward trend in bear-inflicted injuries,'' Herrero said. "It really began taking off in the 1980s.''

Grizzly bears are fewer in number than black bears, but more dangerous. Grizzlies killed eighteen people during the last decade compared to two people killed by black bears.

I have been saying this for some time know. The reason we didn't have a lots of attacks before is if they the predator was seen around a farm ,ranch or homestead they were shot. Before 1900 we just didn't have the news. If some miner or trapper disapeared no one heard about it. Now that we have more predators and less people shooting at them they are seeing us just as food.

Exactly right. We have been at the top of the food chain for a long time. It is only the last few generations of predators that don't see us as the greatest danger to be avoided. The two elements that are responsible for this are:

1. The Disneyification of animals

2. The disarming of people and turning them into passive prey. A lot of this is the urbanization process.

Riverrunner is correct 100%. Shame on National Geographic for missing the story. Animals understand that we humans won't hurt them, therefore they fear us not, that is the reason for the upswing in the attacks. Alligators used to be hunted by people, so they stayed away from people. People used to shoot bears or wolves very quickly in any confrontation. Today you do that and the law comes after you. The animals no longer fear us so they attack.

If you don't believe me, then ask yourself why it is in some parts of SoCal that coyotes can come right into people's back yards even while the people are there sometimes. All coyotes who live in suburbia know that they have nothing to fear of people. One coyote in socal years ago came into a back yard while people were there, stole the baby out of the basinette and then went over the fence again with baby in mouth. Father ran after coyote yelling and coyote dropped baby, it was only fear that made the coyote drop the baby, the coyote knows it can easily outrun any person. Without that fear factor we are not in charge. Without occasionally killing these wild animals there is no fear factor.

I once read a quotation from a Northern Arizona University professor. He said that it was worthwhile to have a few people killed regularly if we could increase the wolf population. It is a very bad thing that our federal government releases wolves, cougars and grizzly bears into locations where the people population is such that an increase in deaths of people due to confrontations is guaranteed. I believe that in California 2 people were actually killed by cougars released by the federal gov.

Don't blame the dems for these animal releases, the republicans support them too.

And don't forget that that the liberal Sierra Club is neutral about immigration, one of the sources of these extra people.

BTW, my family did so much target practice on our last vacation that we did not have any bear incidents, something that has been becoming increasingly comon on our anual vacation to the pacific northwest.

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