The annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain has claimed 18 victims in the first two days including a California man. Marcus Wolf, 22, suffered a 5-inch gash in his right buttock when a bull gored him.
"I am not hurt that bad," Wolf said after surgery. "I was running and I got caught up with the people. I fell down and the bull climbed up over me. I felt the horn instantly. It was my first and final run, but I will definitely come back to Pamplona," he said. "I love it."
The bulls run at 8 a.m. daily and are the highlight of a centuries-old festival that became world famous with Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises." Professional matadors fight and kill the bulls each afternoon at the festival. Fourteen runners have died in the running of the bulls since 1924.
It’s the greatest animal warrior death-match since Alien vs. Predator. Paul van Bruggen snapped some amazing pictures of an 8-foot salt-water crocodile dining on a shark on the banks of the Daly River in the Northern Territory, Australia.
“We went past one section of the river and we heard some splashing,” Bruggen said. “We looked across and saw a shark’s tail coming up out of the water and then a crocodile’s head came up and grabbed it.”
The crocodile appeared to know exactly what it was doing, dragging the shark on to unfamiliar dry land before finishing off its prey.
News.com.au
Sadly, "Sharky" the dolphin died during a show at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. The 30-year-old female dolphin was performing an aerial stunt about 50 feet from spectators when it collided mid-air with a second dolphin, who was also injured but is expected to survive.
SeaWorld managers describe the incident as a "freak accident" and plan to review training procedures. This was the first fatal dolphin collision at SeaWorld.
An Australian hospital is closing temporarily because of serious infestation of poisonous spiders. The Baralaba Multi Purpose Health Service has removed all patients so officials can fumigate the building to get rid of Redback spiders that overrun the building.
Redback spiders, common throughout most of Australia, have a painful bite and toxic venom, although anti-venom is available. Warm weather had caused more Redback spider eggs to hatch than usual.
"We believe the best way to deal with them, and the safest option for staff and patients, is to have the whole building fumigated so both the spiders and their eggs are killed," said Ellen Palmer, Director of Nursing.
From the Internet…
At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.
The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the “apex predator,” can still fall victim to implemented “teamwork strategy,” made possible due to the tight knit social structure and “survival of the pack” mentality bred into the canines.
See the remarkable photograph below courtesy of Nature Magazine. Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator, preventing it from breathing, while another dog has a hold on the tail to keep it from thrashing. The third dog attacks the soft underbelly of the gator.
Warning: Not for the squeamish!
(more…)
Rocky the Grizzly Bear, who recently appeared in a Will Ferrell movie, killed his trainer with a bite to the neck Tuesday.
Three experienced handlers were working with Rocky when the bear bit 39-year-old Stephan Miller on the neck. The other handlers used pepper spray to subdue the bear, and there were no other injuries.
Rocky is a 5-year-old male grizzly, 7-1/2 feet tall, and weighs 700 pounds. Rocky appeared in the movie "Semi-Pro" in which Will Ferrell’s character wrestles the bear to promote his basketball team. In a February interview, Randy Miller, brother of the deceased trainer, called Rocky "the best working bear in the business," but also noted, "If one of these animals gets a hold of your throat, you’re finished." Sad, but true.
More at FoxNews
A woman is suing PetSmart after her husband died from a liver transplant infected with a rodent virus. The lawsuit alleges her husband and two other organ recipients died after receiving transplants from a woman who had contracted the virus from a hamster she bought at a PetSmart store in Rhode Island.
A PetSmart spokesman would not comment on the lawsuit but said the virus is rare. "It’s not a common disease in pets. It’s not something that’s tested routinely by us or others."
The virus is found in mice, hamsters and other rodents and usually causes only flu-like symptoms in humans, but can be fatal in people with compromised immune systems.
More at FoxNews
The U.S. government plans to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak. Skeptical members of Congress are demanding to see internal documents they believe highlight the risks and consequences of the decision.
An epidemic of the "foot-and-mouth" disease, which only affects animals, could devastate the livestock industry. A computer-simulated outbreak of the disease ended with food shortages and fictional riots in the streets after the simulation’s National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets.
The foot-and-mouth virus can be carried on a worker’s breath or clothes, or vehicles leaving a lab, and is so contagious it has been confined to remote Plum Island, N.Y., for more than a half-century. The lab is currently 100 miles northeast of New York City and far from commercial livestock, accessible only by ferry or helicopter. Researchers there who work with the live virus are not permitted to own animals at home and must wait at least a week before attending events where animals might perform, such as a circus. The government plans to move the virus lab to Manhattan, Kansas, in the heart of the nation’s breadbasket and in close proximity to over a half million livestock.
More on FoxNews
A British wildlife student died after being bitten by a deadly black mamba snake. Nathan Layton, 27, was attacked by the snake as he walked in long grass with a group of teachers and fellow students during a trip to South Africa. His girlfriend, Laura Woolley, was with him and watched in horror as Layton fell into a coma, from which he never recovered.
The black mamba is the world’s second largest venomous snake, capable of reaching 14 feet in length. It’s also one of the deadliest, carrying up to 20 drops of venom in its fangs, but requiring only two drops of venom to kill an adult human.
Sky News
A shark attacked and killed a 16-year-old boy Tuesday while he and a friend were bodyboarding off Australia’s east coast. Peter Edmonds was about 50 yards from shore when the shark attacked. Edmonds suffered two large bites, one to his leg and one to his chest. He died from extreme blood loss while lifeguards and paramedics frantically tried to save him.
It was the first fatal shark attack in Australia in two years. In spite of all the media attention, shark attacks are extremely rare. You are three times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be bitten by a shark, and thousands of times more likely to be killed while driving to the beach. There are an average of 32 shark attacks per year in U.S. waters, with only 11 fatalities between 1990 and 2004.
Shark FAQs
Relative Risk of Shark Attacks to Humans
In spite of all our differences, the one thing that binds all living creatures is that we each have an expiration date. This finality to our existence is what makes life special, something to be cherished and protected. But occasionally things can go terribly wrong…
