Sporting toxic saliva and shark-like razor sharp teeth, the Komodo dragon is one fierce predator. But they rarely attack humans. Which is why the recent fatal Komodo dragon attack on a fruit picker is big news. It’s also why we’ve decided to cover a few other attacks by rare animals. Or rare attacks involving animals. Or just weird encounters with animals.
Perhaps striking a blow for vanity animals everywhere, Baby Luv, Paris Hilton’s illegal pet kinkajou, bit the heiress and “star,” resulting in a trip to the emergency room for Paris and expulsion from the Hilton way of life for Baby Luv. A kinkajou is a rainforest mammal that is related to raccoons and looks a bit like the illicit love child of a ferret and a monkey. While they rarely attack humans, Baby Luv evidently made an exception for Paris. It wasn’t the first time Baby Luv showed Paris no love: A year before, Baby scratched Paris’s face whilst the two were out shopping together.
Weird things happen in Scotland, it’s true. According to a recently released report on the wildlife of the Outer Hebrides, the island chain off the west coast of Scotland, a lamb was seen head-butting a golden eagle. How exactly a lamb could head-butt an eagle is unclear, but evidently
No word on what happened next or if both made it out of the scrap unscathed.
When one thinks of aggressive animals, deer, which tend to be frightened by loud noises, do not typically come to mind. But don’t be fooled – these timid, docile creatures can be vicious, especially when armed with spike-like antlers and sharp hooves. In November of last year, an Annapolis, Maryland man suffered puncture wounds to his groin, chest and leg after an enraged buck attacked him outside his home. He survived and lived to tell a really weird story – but in November 2006, a 43-year-old man was killed by a buck he had raised as a pet in Ellenburg, NY.
Ligers, according to Napoleon Dynamite, may be bred for their skills in magic, but they’re still fearsome predators. A 32-year-old animal handler died after he was attacked by Rocky, a 1000-pound lion-tiger hybrid, at an animal sanctuary in Oklahoma on Oct. 30, 2008; the handler had allegedly entered the animal’s cage while it was feeding, breaking the a cardinal rule of caring for and interacting with large predators.
It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but for the patrons of the Chaparral Bar in Cottonwood, Arizona, it was surreal – and painful. According to police, the bobcat wandered into the bar on Main Street at around 11 p.m. on March 23, acting aggressively. As the patrons jumped up on barstools and tabletops to escape the big cat, it attacked two men and a woman. Police cornered the cat in the parking lot outside and shot it. In parts of the American Southwest, bobcats have become suburban and rural pests, adapting their behavior to humans with surprising success. Attacks on humans are relatively rare – bobcats aren’t terribly large creatures and prefer to hunt rabbits, rodents, squirrels and fish. Because of its brazen attack, the bobcat’s body was being tested for rabies, police told local news outlets.
I saw the story about the Bobcat on the news but was not aware of the other “attacks.” Hilarious. I like posts like this.
posted by Liz on 3-31-2009 at 11:43 am
Imagine being tipsy in the bar when the bobcat walked in. Probably an amazing experience.
posted by Shelly on 3-31-2009 at 12:57 pm
sounds like the bobcat had a rough day at work, just wanted to relax with a couple of beers and no one would give him a barstool, bad music was being played on the jukebox and the bartender was out of peanuts. i’d be frustrated too.
;)
posted by the creature on 3-31-2009 at 2:00 pm
I can’t think of a better analogy of the world today: A two and a half pound timid rainforest creature sends Paris Hilton to the hospital-Yeah!
posted by mister canis on 3-31-2009 at 2:22 pm
I’m just excited that Baby Luv seems to detest Paris as much as I do. Yay!
posted by Orange on 3-31-2009 at 3:00 pm
“In a show of solidarity with its fellow Easter creatures”
That is freaking cracking me up!!!
posted by Julie on 3-31-2009 at 3:33 pm
The lamb v. eagle link is borked.
posted by Antinous on 3-31-2009 at 7:01 pm
in pittsboro, nc there’s a cat preservation center that takes in wild cats, mostly tigers, that people try to have as pets and then abandon when they realize how expensive or aggressive the animals are. when i visited in the summer of ’07, they had a kinkajou. those things have the softest hands, it’s almost creepy.
posted by georgia on 4-1-2009 at 10:40 am
I live in Mesa, AZ and saw the local news report on the bobcat incident. What this report did not mention is that after the patrons jumped on bar stools and pool tables, some started trying to get close to the rabid bobcat to take pictures with their cell phones. Almost a Darwin Award, I swear.
posted by Zelda on 4-2-2009 at 9:27 pm
mayb the kinkajou was baby love at the cat reservation
posted by alejandra on 4-3-2009 at 1:50 am