Gordon Grice's Blog, page 69

Leopard Attacks Four, Kills One

Leopard Attacks People In House In India | Pictures, Photos: 


"A man has had part of his scalp ripped off by a wild leopard, which became panicked and attacked four people when it walked into a bustling residential area in India.


The fully-grown leopard set upon the group when it walked into a house in a busy neighbourhood of Guwahati, a large city in north east India.


Dramatic photos show the leopard lashing out at a man, identified by Indian media as a cook named Hari, whose scalp is severely cut as he tries to fend off the animal."


According to a later report, one victim (not the one pictured here) has died of his injuries. The Indian Forestry Department blames this urban invasion on illegal deforestation, which it believes forced the animal from its jungle habitat. The leopard will be released into a remote jungle are. 

Tons of Herring Found on Norwegian Beach

Norwegian beach carpeted with 20 tons of herring - San Jose Mercury News:

"OSLO, Norway -- Tens of thousands of dead herring carpeted a stretch of coast in northern Norway -- and then disappeared again.

The fish appeared on New Year's Eve, and it was speculated that predators might have driven a huge school ashore or the fish could have been washed onto the beach by a powerful storm that hit Norway on Christmas Day.

Herring is traditionally eaten for good luck on New Year's Eve in some cultures, including by many Scandinavians."

Killer Leopard Trapped

Killer leopard: Big cat caught while chasing dog – The Express Tribune:

"After it killed two children and cattle worth Rs2 million in the forest area of Baren Gali, wildlife authorities placed traps in the areas where the animal used to hunt frequently, but could not succeed despite several attempts. However on Saturday evening, the leopard appeared from the bushes and was trapped while chasing a dog, officials said. The cat was later sedated and shifted to the divisional wildlife officer's office, from where it will be sent to a zoo."


Thanks to Hodari Nundu for the news tip. 

Mother Orangutan

Photography by Dee Puett

Mandrill Attack

Assignment Houston One/Creative Commons

Critic Steven Pleithman mentions a news item that may have helped inspire Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue," in which an orangutan invades a Parisian house through a window. In the news article, the invader is not an orangutan, but a mandrill, then known as a "rib-faced baboon."

"New Mode of Thieving"

Mrs. S. retired to her bedroom, and before her husband haddesisted from his supper enjoyments, some of the family was alarmed by a screamfrom her bedroom, and one of the inmates (a female) proceeding thither, wasattacked on entering the door, by a monkey (or a Ribbed-face Baboon) whichthrew her down, and placing his feet upon her breast, held her pinned firmly tothe ground. The screams of Mrs Smith brought up her husband, who, seeing thecondition of the prostrate female, assailed the monkey, and compelled him toquit his hold on the female, and thereby drew all his vengeance upon himself.The brute took up his position on the wash-basin stand; and every attempt todislodge him brought to the ground some fragile articles of furniture. . .till, on Mr Smith attempting to go into another room for his pistols, themonkey leapt on his back with the speed of lightning, made various attempts toreach his throat, broke his watch guard asunder in rage, and, dropping to theground, bit his leg, and again fled to the basin-stand. . . . But where did didthis Baboon come from? The animal had been danced through this town two orthree days by itinerant showmen; and had either escaped from them or been letloose for the sake of his plundering. . . . It appears he had dropped from theeaves of the house to the windowsill of Mrs. Smith's chamber, and got into theroom through the window, which as left partly open. The owner recovered theanimal from the housetops next morning, and escaped to Ludlow.

--from the Ipswich ShrewsburyChronicle (August 22, 1834)

Despite the cynicism of the Ipswich writer, it seems highly unlikely a mandrill would be trained for thievery. For one thing, they aren't particularly good at going unnoticed. This account reads a lot like modern reports of macaques and other monkeys raiding urban kitchens in Asia. 


Related Post: The Fever Called Living

Poe's Orangutans: The Illustrations

As promised Monday: Three illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue." Like most people of the Victorian era, these artists didn't know what an orangutan looked like. All three illustrations are reproduced in Stephen Peithman's The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe.
Aubrey Beardsley

Cougar Video, Plus an Attack in Michigan

Interrupting this week's series on Edgar Allan Poe's orangutans for a couple of items about mountain lions. First, there's this interesting video. A mountain lion takes a long look at whoever's holding the camera. (Thanks to Greyson for the tip.) 





In a different story, a woman in Michigan may have been attacked by a mountain lion. 

Could it be a cougar? Animal attack has Allendale neighborhood on watch | MLive.com:

"Connie VenRoy, 44, stepped outside her door near the corner of 92nd Avenue and Lake Michigan Drive in the early morning hours of Dec. 16 to smoke a cigarette. Suddenly she heard thrashing ("like 10 men") in the tarp that covers a vehicle stored to the left of the door. It frightened her so much she instinctively dropped her cigarette, turned, and reached for the doorknob to get back inside.

Out of the darkness something came across the hood of the vehicle and hurled itself through the air, slamming against her right leg as she faced the door. VenRoy said she could see the animal's flat face, and teeth in an open mouth, a long body and tail. The open mouth hit her leg, but the animal did not bite, she said. It dropped to the ground. She screamed and kicked at it. It turned back to run around the vehicle, then disappeared.

VenRoy's father, Art VenRoy, who lives in the upper level of the house, came out with his shotgun to see if there was any sign of the animal, but could see nothing. "


Local police seem skeptical of this report. 

Orangutans and Edgar Allan Poe

"This," I said, "is the mark of no human hand."

"Read now," replied Dupin, "this passage from Cuvier." It was a minute anatomical and generally descriptive account of the large fulvous Ourang-Outang of the East Indian Islands. The gigantic stature, the prodigious strength and activity, the wild ferocity, and the imitative propensities of these Mammalia are sufficiently well known to all. I understood the full horrors of the murder at once.

That's the solution to Edgar Allan Poe's famous mystery "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." At the time of its first publication, Western science had no clear conception of the chimpanzee or the gorilla and was only beginning to understand the habits of the orangutan. Poe was accurate to the zoology of the time, though later information has made us understand that, for example, the orang is hardly "gigantic."
Besides the great biologist Cuvier, Poe probably drew on an 1830 account by Dr. Clark Abel. Aboard a ship bound from Java to England, Abel had occasion to observe a captive orangutan. The ape had free run of the ship. It played with the sailors, racing them into the rigging. (It won.) It slept at the masthead, wrapped in an extra sail or someone's stolen shirt. It preferred fruit, but would take meat raw or cooked, bread, and eggs, and it would drink coffee, tea, and wine. Once it stole the captain's bottle of brandy. When teased too mercilessly, the orang would seize a sailor and bite him. As far as I know, this young orang didn't hurt anyone badly. But Europeans in Asia had already discovered that wild orangs, when angered, could cripple a man with bone-deep bites.
Abel's orangutan survived only fifteen months in England, apparently a victim of the climate. 
*
Orangutan photos by Wayne Alison:


Next: Illustrations of Poe's Orangutan

Crocodile Swipes Lawn Mower

From an Australian reptile park:

Killer Whales vs. Sharks in New Zealand

Interesting orca behavior in the video linked here--and a dog gets involved. 


Orca attacks shark in surf zone as beachgoers watch in awe:

"The video clip shows what appears to be a male orca, or killer whale, fiercely harassing a shark near the small breakers, and a large shark beaching itself, perhaps in an attempt to escape the orca, only to be harassed by a barking dog. "