Gordon Grice's Blog, page 107

Gordon Grice Talks Animals

Here's me on the radio with host Steve Scher, talking about animal attacks. We talked about sloth bears (pictured), grizzlies, dogs, and many other animals. You'll also hear some harrowing stories from callers.

Blue marlin vs. Fishing Boat

In Hawaiian waters, fishermen had an exhilarating--and terrifying--encounter with a 550 pound

Grizzly Bear Attacks Three at Yellowstone

"She was hunting us, with the intention of killing us and eating us," said survivor Deb Freele after being mauled by a grizzly at Yellowstone last week. The bear broke her arm and left her with bite wounds requiring surgery. It stopped the attack when Freele played dead. A man named Ronald Singer was also injured. His fighting, and his girlfriend's screams, seem to have discouraged the bear.
The bear killed another man.
Officials verified that the bear they trapped was the correct one...

Fox Attacks

In Vermont, a rabid fox attacked a boy and his ax-wielding parents. The Bennington Banner tells more:

Eight-year-old Rimmele Wood was playing in his family's yard when the fox appeared and bit him on the leg on July 11, according to his father, Ned Wood. The fox "latched onto" the boy's leg, he said, and was not letting go.

Ned Wood said he was able to kill the fox with an ax and free his son. "My wife brought me the ax and I dispatched it rather quickly," he said.

Dr. Robert Johnson, the...

Giant Jellyfish Attacks New Hampshire

MSNBC reports that more than 50 swimmers were stung by a lion's mane jellyfish, or perhaps several, at a New Hampshire Beach. With tentacles extending for dozens of yards, these creatures are among the largest in the world--but not the heaviest. This one weighed about 40 pounds, though doubtless a lot of it broke off in the water when handled. No one was seriously hurt in this "attack." The sting of the lion's mane causes hours of pain.

(Thanks to Faye for the news tip.)

Bedbugs Invade Lingerie Store

The Wall Street Journal reports the latest on New York City's continuing bedbug crisis:

Bedbugs continued their conquest of commercial spaces in New York City this week, shutting down a Victoria's Secret on the Upper East Side and the downtown headquarters of an advertising agency.

For a few decades, dioxin and other potent insecticides made bedbugs rare in the US. The toxins turned out to be far more serious health risks than the bugs, so the US government put limits on their use. Now, a few...

Design

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the ni...

The Cost of Snakebite

How dangerous an animal is depends on a lot of factors, including human behavior. This article discusses an aspect of human factor that may soon make snakes far more dangerous: the FDA. When regulations stop the supply of antivenin, people will suffer.

Polar Bears

More images from Minnesota photographer Wayne Allison. Courtesy of D'Arcy Allison-Teasley at www.taltoshorsetribe.blogspot.com/.

An Encounter with a Gorilla

Europeans didn't really know the gorilla as a distinct species until the 19th century. (They often confused it with the chimpanzee and debated whether it was a type of orangutan.) Accounts of it from that time are mostly folklore, emphasizing its habit of murdering people. It wasn't until the 1950s that field observations finally laid that myth to rest.
But as early as 1897, an explorer named Mary Kingsley told of a perfectly harmless encounter with gorillas. In the jungle one day, her guide m...