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Animals know stupid when they see it

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LoKyBuckeye

LoKyBuckeye

I give up. This board is too hard to understand.
I know I posted the story about the idiot robber that was mauled by the Tiger but some of these other ones are hilarious.

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Animals know stupid when they see it

Jan 3, 12:38 PM (ET)
By Ed Stoddard

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African mugger fleeing the scene of his crime hides in a tiger enclosure.

On the country's coast, a woman attempts to be a good Samaritan by pushing a young seal into the sea, believing the poor thing is stranded.

Both people paid heavily for their stupidity, underscoring one of nature's truisms: humans do dumb things around wild animals.

"I blame it on Walt Disney, where animals are given human qualities. People don't understand that a wild animal is not something that is nice to pat. It can seriously harm you," said James Cameron, a South African professional hunter.

The cartoon image of wildlife may have prompted a 49-year-old South African woman in October to try to help a seal which she believed was stranded, allowing her 1-year-old grandchild to stroke the creature in the process.

The seal responded by biting off the woman's nose.

Cape Fur Seals are common on South African shores and many have become accustomed to humans.

They are a popular tourist attraction and can be viewed playing in the sea by Cape Town's waterfront -- which may also give a false impression of placid friendliness.

"Cute" seal pups have also been used as potent symbols by groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, further enhancing the animal's "cuddly status."

But they can in fact be dangerous and sometimes attack people who venture too close -- as South Africa's noseless do-gooder discovered to her horror.

TIGER TROUBLE

Then there was the South African robber who made the mistake last month of taking refuge in an enclosure which turned out to be home to a pair of unimpressed tigers.

He had fled into a nearby zoo after security guards heard the screams of a couple he had just mugged in Bloemfontein, about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

Not surprisingly, he was mauled to death by the big cats.

The mugger was not the first South African criminal to err in hiding among zoo animals.

Max, a 200 kg (440 lb) gorilla, won fame in 1997 after being wounded by a terrified gunman who jumped a moat into his space in Johannesburg's zoo while fleeing police.

Max pinned the fugitive against the wall of his enclosure and guarded him even after being shot until police arrived, making him an instant folk hero in crime-ridden South Africa.

Other people don't realize that you shouldn't get between a mother and her offspring -- especially when dealing with the world's largest land mammal.

In April of this year, an elephant gored a tourist to death in a Ugandan national park after the man, carrying an 8-year-old boy in his arms, approached the animal's calf.

"I think many people are just far removed from nature. People who live in cities often see nature as something that is tame and manageable," said Sue Lieberman, director of the global species program for conservation group WWF International.

"And wrongly so. We don't need to tame nature, we need to keep the wild out there," she told Reuters.

SHOW-OFFS

Then there are the show-offs.

Lions mauled a South African teen-ager in March who came too close to their enclosure while trying to impress his girlfriend.

The sixteen-year-old, his girlfriend and his mother were having lunch with the lion keeper when he ignored advice and went off with his girlfriend to see the lions in the breeding section of the park just north of Johannesburg.

The boy went into an area off-limits to the public and touched a lion through the mesh fence.

The lion quickly sank its teeth into his arm and dragged him under the fence before the curator came, drove the four adult lions in the enclosure away and rescued the teen-ager.

"It just shows a total disregard and disrespect for wild animals," said Cameron.

The boy was luckier than a couple from Taiwan in 1993, who got out of their car to photograph lions up close at a South African game park -- and who were quickly savaged to death by the beasts.
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This week's Darwin Award aspirant:

A German tourist was fined R1500 (US$250) for leaving his car in the Kruger National Park and walking down to a pan where hippos were watering. Hippos look slow and lumbering but can quickly reach 35 km/hour speeds and are among the most aggressive wildlife on this planet.

The tourist was enraged at being fined for ignoring park signs that require vistors to stay in their car and told police that he would not pay the fine. They said that was fine but then he would have to stay in jail until the local magistrate returned from vacation, which is in a few weeks. The tourist now plans to write the Minister of Tourism.
 
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My mom visited East Africa in the early 70's and noticed a bunch of natives running aound w/ only one foot. When she asked the guide what happened to them, he replied that hippos' had bitten off their feet when they went into the water, and that hippos were probably the most dangerous animal around.
 
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stxbuck said:
My mom visited East Africa in the early 70's and noticed a bunch of natives running aound w/ only one foot. When she asked the guide what happened to them, he replied that hippos' had bitten off their feet when they went into the water, and that hippos were probably the most dangerous animal around.
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if i'm not too lazy later, i'll try and dig up the actual link. however, i do believe that hippos are responsible for more deaths in africa than crocs.
 
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My favorite is the story about the Taiwanese tourists, who I remember as having been Japanese, anyway... The incident happened at the Krugersdorp Lion Park on the West side of Johannesburg. We had taken a visiting American professor to the park a few hours earlier that same day but didn't see this happen.

Apparently, the tourists got out of their car and sat with the lions to have their picture taken. Locals were screaming at them to get back in their car and pointing to the signs saying that the lions were dangerous and to keep car windows closed. the Asian tourists, who did not understand English, smiled and waved back. It was nearly ten minutes before one of the tourists leaned back against a lion for a real close up photo and two of the three people were attacked and killed. My memory is that the third person made it back to the car.

The foreign embassy filed a grievance with the South African government because the signs in the park were only in English and other local languages but nothing ever came of it.

At least 100 people are killed every year by wildlife as they try to enter South Africa illegally via the Kruger National Park. It is simply amazing how many people get gored by water buffaloes, killed by leopards and other cats or trampled by elephants when they fail to obey the rules and get out of their cars and advance on herds at watering holes etc.

By the way, a great website if you like wildlife: www.africam.com. You can do live walks on safaris, watch live watering holes day and night and etc.

Edit: Africam seems to be down right now. You also could try www.djuma.com, their owners apparently.
 
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Wasn't there some guy in the US who had his face bitten off by a chimp last year?

edit: found the story - nasty.


California chimp attack leaves man in critical condition

Last Updated Fri, 04 Mar 2005 14:04:36 EST CBC News

CALIENTE, CALIF. - Two chimpanzees broke free from their cage at a California animal sanctuary Thursday, chewing off most of a 62-year-old man's face and biting his wife. The couple, St. James and LaDonna Davis, had been visiting their former pet chimp Moe at the Animal Haven Ranch. Moe had been removed from their Los Angeles home in 1999 for aggressive behaviour.
The couple, who had brought a birthday cake to Moe, were standing outside his cage when two other chimps in an adjoining cage, Buddy and Ollie, attacked.
Sanctuary officials say they don't know how Buddy and Ollie escaped from their cage.
Hospital officials say St. James Davis is in critical condition with massive injuries to his face, arm and leg. His testicles and a foot were severed and he will require extensive surgery to re-attach his nose.
His wife, LaDonna, was bitten on the hand while trying to save her husband.
The son-in-law of the sanctuary owner shot and killed Buddy and Ollie.
Two other female chimps in the cage with them also escaped, but were captured five hours later and returned to the enclosure.


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