Lions maul Aussie diplomat

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070429/wl_asia_afp/australiazimbabwediplomatanimallion_070429070749 ^

[felisberto]

SYDNEY (AFP) - A young Australian diplomat was mauled by lions at a wildlife park in Zimbabwe but survived because her boyfriend scared the animals away, a report said Sunday.

Gemma Huggins, 27, was visiting the Lion and Cheetah park outside Harare when a lion grabbed her by the head and shook her, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The diplomat, who had arrived in Zimbabwe on her first foreign posting a month earlier, was lucky to survive after the lion's teeth came within millimetres of her jugular vein, it said.

The paper said she was attacked by more than one animal.

Huggins was treated for severe injuries to her head, neck, torso and legs and had several skin grafts at the Unitas Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, it added.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that a diplomat from the High Commission (embassy) in Harare had been hospitalised after an unspecified incident at a wildlife park.

[SoCal Pubbie]

"The largest cat like predator at that time were sabre tooth tigers."

NOT TRUE! The American lion, or Panthera leo atrox, was a contemporary of the more famous cat but was much bigger than the Sabre Tooth, which was a smaller, more muscular feline. The American lion was about 25% larger than the modern African lion, but probably looked pretty much the same. It was comparable in size to modern day ligers. That's one big cat!



American Lion

[dennisw]

I blame it on melamine in the food...

So Freepers are now stealing pet food from the elderly, the pet food they intend to eat?

[omronnie]

By the throat apparently...
Lion is too tame and out of practice because he missed the jugular and allowed her boyfriend to ward him (her?) off

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

NO !!

More than likely it was just professional courtesy !!

[kabar]

Not in lion country.

[null and void]

You mean you haven’t been? Didn’t you get the memo???

[sweetiepiezer]

PRayers for her.

[Biggirl]

A REALLY bad kitty ping!

[Slings and Arrows]

All kitties know they are lions.

[Jaded]

Prayers up for her complete recovery.

[Biggirl]

True, when it comes to cats, be they little or big, they are all lions and tigers at heart.

[Biggirl]

Prayers for her.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I have yet to be at a game park where they just let you wander around outside your vehicle.

If there are carnivores lurking they usually make you take a guide along and his main job is to keep your dumb butt inside where it will not get chomped.

But I have never been to this park.

[Upbeat]

Perhaps she could wander outside her vehicle because she had diplomatic immunity. Unfortunately she didn’t have opportunity to present her credentials to the lion.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Apparently Zimbabwe allows you to go and "pet the lions".

They have lost what was left of their minds.

[To Hell With Poverty]

All kitties know they are lions.

Dang it, man, why do you post these things? I have stuff that needs to get done!! ;)

[Slings and Arrows]

I’m a one-man productivity drain.

[Ditter]

>>>”the lion grabbed her by the head and shook her”>>>

Which is only one of the many bad things that can happen to you in Zimbabwe.

[Doc-Joe]

She is relatively cute. Perhaps it was not an attack, but merely a lion trying to “hit it.”

[Dr. Scarpetta]

bump

[MarkL]

To paraphrase Chris Rock, "That lion didn't go crazy and attack that person! That lion 'went LION!'"

Why is it that people don't seem to realize that there's a reason that they're called "wild animals." They're glorious to look at FROM A SAFE DISTANCE!!!! People need to remember one very important thing... While we look at these beautiful predators as miracles of nature, they look at us as prey. Not that long ago, a high school student from Kansas decided that for her yearbook photo, she wanted to be photographed with a tiger at a "wildlife park," and something happened causing the the 300 pound tiger to startle and attack the girl. In an instant, the cat had her by the neck, and she was dead.

Mark Mark