Gordon Grice's Blog, page 103

BBC News - Widow still critical after Nottinghamshire bull attack

BBC News - Widow still critical after Nottinghamshire bull attack

Bull Kills One, Injures Another

Man killed and wife injured by bull - Telegraph

Raccoon Victim Comes Home

Baby home, recovering from raccoon attack

The Newton Citizen has this follow-up to the case reported last week. It seems criminal charges are in the works, but the police aren't saying yet who these charges will be directed against. Georgia law prohibits keeping wild animals as pets; that would seem to be the issue here.

Russian Bear Attacks

 A Kamchatka brown bear killed by sport hunters.
With a black bear attack in the news here in the US, this might be a good time to look at some recent bear news from elsewhere. In the Komi region of Russia, a lean year caused by a heatwave has brown bears raiding crops, killing livestock, and despoiling graves. One brown bear was killed Monday in the Tyva area of Siberia after trying to attack people.

Brown bears from around the world, including the grizzlies, Kodiaks, and Alaskan browns of North America and the Kamchatka bears of Russia, are now regarded as belonging to the same species. It's interesting to note in one of the articles above that Russian officials advise fighting back if attacked by one of these animals. In North America, the more common advice is to try playing dead. Neither method has a good success rate. The size and weaponry of the animal mean even brief, defensive attacks can be fatal. In the opening frame of the slide show below, you'll see the claws of a brown, which can be five inches long.


Wayne Allison's photos of grizzlies:

Black Bear trouble in Washington State

Neighborhood on edge after bear attack near Gig Harbor | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News | Local & Regional

A woman and her dog battled a bear on the streets of Gig Harbor, which is near Tacoma, Washington. This news report calls it a "vicious attack" by the bear, but the details suggest the bear only harmed the woman when she tried to protect the dog who started it all.
Thanks to Kathy B. for the news tip.

Lion Attacks in Zimbabwe

The BBC is reporting a man killed by lions at a national park in Zimbabwe. The article linked here mentions other wildlife problems in the area, including other lion attacks and a fatal elephant attack. The Metro used the same source for the story; it's interesting how different the causes sound in the two papers.

More about the Georgia Raccoon Attack

This local news video has more details on the attack that left a baby critically injured. It now appears that the raccoons were not pets, but possibly had been habituated to human contact through repeated feeding.

As reported earlier, authorities have ordered rabies tests, but that would seem to be a mere formality; this is clearly a predatory attack. The animals used strategy to reach the child and eventually retreated from an attack. The choice of prey was highly unusual, but everything else about their actions is normal raccoon behavior.

Raccoons attack baby in Newton County | ajc.com

Raccoons attack baby in Newton County | ajc.com

In Georgia, two raccoons have attacked a nine-month-old baby in her home, leaving her in critical condition. Her mother was apparently sleeping in the same room at the time. It's not clear at this point whether the raccoons were pets (like the one pictured here). Rabies tests are underway. 

Outside Reviews Deadly Kingdom

Outside Magazine was kind enough to list Deadly Kingdom among the best new books of the summer. That happened back in the June issue, but I just found out about it the other day, so here I am bragging about it in the fall. "Read it for lines like this: 'Men sped across the face of the water, propelled by unseen sharks,'" advises Outside. Here's the full article.

A Congregation of Vultures

On the drive home the other day, I spotted turkey vultures congregated beside the road. I wanted to know what they were up to, of course, so I found a place to turn around and drove back. As is often my problem, I was on a fast road with little chance for safe stopping. I pulled over carefully, right into their midst, and they yielded place reluctantly. One of them hopped from the ground to the top slat of a metal gate. That had been my landmark, so I'd know where to stop when I drove back, but in fact I had no need for the landmark; the vultures were still there, and they stayed as I crowded my car up to them. It seemed as if they were waiting to see whether I'd just move on. But they yielded, flew off, and I could see them circling above—some of them far above, as I've seen many times, their fingered wings marking their silhouettes; one was much lower, circling behind the trees, close enough to show the raw hamburger color of his head. And there was that one that hopped to the gate, then waited another few seconds before taking to the air.
It was only after they'd moved up and out that I could see what they'd been eating. It was a deer, mostly gone: Rib cage, feet looking clubby and strange where they lay disarticulated and tangled in torn grass; most striking of all, the head, perking up as if to listen like living deer do. But it only looked at me with hollow sockets.
My other turkey vulture encounters:http://deadlykingdom.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-little-town.html
And Steve V.'s encounter with black vultures:http://deadlykingdom.blogspot.com/2009/08/black-vultures_10.html