Gordon Grice's Blog, page 102

Egyptian shark attacks fifth person

That resort in Egypt has suffered yet another shark attack. This time the victim is a 70-year-old German tourist. She died before reaching the hospital after the shark amputated her hand or (according to a different source) her arm.

Egyptian officials had already killed two sharks. They released a video (linked in the post below) and this photo, both of which show a small mako. Though makos do sometimes attack humans, reports claimed the shark involved in the two earlier attacks  was an oceanic whitetip. Those attacks left four Russian tourists hospitalized.


The reports so far do not make clear whether one shark is responsible for all the attacks. Oceanic whitetips sometimes travel in pairs or larger groups.

Oceanic whitetip shark kills German tourist near resort in Egypt: officials

Oceanic Whitetip Shark attacks tourists in Egypt

At a resort in Egypt, three people were mauled by an oceanic whitetip shark in two separate incidents.
Experts cited in the article I've linked below say this is extraordinarily rare, with only nine documented attacks by this species on record. That's a misleading claim, though, because the oceanic whitetip has certainly taken many victims of shipwrecks. It's not possible to document which species killed a particular person in those circumstances, but survivor accounts of disasters like the sinking of the Indianapolis in World War II give strong evidence that this species took dozens, and in a few cases hundreds of people.
The oceanic whitetip doesn't get the press of the great white and the tiger shark, species that routinely come close to shore and occasionally take people. But when people venture into the deep water, this very common and widespread species is likely to be nearby. I venture to guess that it has eaten more people than any other shark species.

Egypt closes beaches over shark attacks | World news | The Guardian

Update:
This report claims there were four victims in the two incidents, all of them critically injured. Apparently at least one, and possibly two, people lost limbs in the second attack.

Black Widow Pictures

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos of harvester ants. The contest is over, and the winner is Mike Dekker. Mike will receive a free copy of The Book of Deadly Animals (that's what they're calling it in the UK) when it's published next year.

Mike also sent me these images of the black widow in his garage. The purple plastic storage container in the background makes the widow look almost green.

Black Widow Bite -- a story from The Red Hourglass

Otter Attack Video

The latest victim of an otter attack in Boca Raton filmed the whole thing. Looks like a provoked attack to me. The young man continues to harrass the animal even after it's retreated a couple of times. The otter bit him on the leg.

When fox attacks fail

In Massachusetts, a fox attempted to attack several people, including a police officer in his cruiser. It tried to climb a ladder to get at a man on a roof. In its most dramatic feat of incompetence, the fox failed to injure a little girl when her dogs roundly thrashed it.
Dogs guard girl when fox attacks

As often mentioned here, rabies is the likely cause when foxes attack--especially when they attack animals far too large to serve as prey.

Otter Attacks Three

Third person is bitten by an aggressive otter in West Boca Raton | raton, boca, west - Top Story - WPEC 12 West Palm Beach

Here's a story about what seems to be a highly territorial otter. This link has some rough video:

http://www.fox11online.com/dpps/news/national/south/angry-otter-attacks-florida-residents-ob10-tvw_3659400

None of the victims has been seriously injured, but rabies is a concern.

Cougar on a Leash

Last time, I showed some of Wayne Allison's photos of cougars. Today's slideshow  is from Allison's encounter with a young pet cougar in a suburb of the Twin Cities.
"It was all muscle," Wayne's daughter D'Arcy told me. She noted that the cougar's build surprised her—its long, flexible spine, its powerful haunches. She and her mother and another woman played with the cougar on the lawn in front of D'Arcy's office building.
The owner told how his pet had once saved him from a mugger. The mugger approached him from behind as he was loading stuff into his vehicle. The man heard a voice demand his wallet. Then he heard footsteps running away. The mugger had caught sight of the man's formidable passenger.
D'Arcy enjoyed meeting the cougar, which stayed on its leash the whole time. But she says she had a very uncomfortable moment when  some children passed by on their bikes. "You're used to seeing a pet cat focus in on a bird like that," she said. "I wasn't used to seeing a big, powerful animal look at children that way."

My favorite post from D'Arcy's blog.

An Urban Cougar

"I have one of those," the delivery man said. He seemed to be pointing to the framed print behind D'Arcy's desk. Since the print showed a cougar, she had her doubts. He assured her that, yes, he actually had a pet cougar. It had the run of his house, and when he came home in the evenings, it bounded up the basement steps to meet him.
The cougar (also called a mountain lion or puma) in the picture had been photographed at a zoo by D'Arcy's dad, the wildlife photographer Wayne Allison. His slideshow above includes the photo from D'Arcy's wall. She knew Wayne would be interested to meet a cougar up close. So when, in the fullness of time, the delivery guy offered to bring his pet by D'Arcy's office, she phoned Wayne and told him to bring his camera. As if he'd ever leave home without it.
Next time, you'll see what happened when Wayne Allison met the cougar. 
Photos courtesy of D'Arcy at Taltos Horse Tribe.

Rhinoceros Attacks

Here's video of a rhino attacking men mounted on an elephant. The elephant usually wins a fight like this, but human interference can change things. The text below the video tells about the filmmaker's earlier skirmish, which also featured the rhino damaging the mount -- in this case, a jeep.
We always hear about the rhino goring other animals, but its bite does a lot of damage too. You can see this one trying to bite in the video.
Filmmaker relives rhino attack terror

Leopard Attack

In West Bengal, a leopard attack that left one person hospitalized has farm workers spooked.
The leopard doesn't get as much attention in the Western press as a lot of lesser predators do, but some think it's the world's premier predator of human beings. It ranges across Africa and Asia, and it's very good at living close to people.
The Himalayan Beacon » DOOARS TERAI: Drum to keep away big cats – Leopard scare in Kalchini