I, ahem, was referring of course to the latin octopus, of which many can be found in the Venice canals. (runs away)
I hope I am correctly posting the link of a bear attack in Japan;
Nobody mentioned killer rabbits?
Expanding the area a bit; baboon attacks are becoming a problem in Saudi Arabia.
No deaths but the baboons are capable and have extensively mauled people.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2022/02/16/Man-seriously-injured-in-baboon-attack-in-Saudi-Arabia#:~:text=The%20center%20has%20also%20launched,of%20food%2C%20often%20attacking%20humans.
I had no idea there were (wild) baboons anywhere outside of east Africa.
The hamadryas baboon is native to the Arabian peninsula, though their range only just edges into Saudi Arabia. However the town where the attack occurred just happens to be in that edge. Here’s a short study on the issue from last year.
Chacma baboons are a serious pest animal in parts of Cape Town, South Africa.
I’ve personally seen a large male (canines as long as my fingers) raid a friend’s kitchen and casually pull the cupboard doors off their hinges like paper, while searching for food. We waited until it was done because those things can seriously fuck you up.
I had no idea “baboon” referred to a half-dozen different species (thought it referred to a single species, like the word “bonobo”) so I learned a thing today.
Well, this happened in Alaska:
Fatal wild animal attacks in New Zealand are incredibly rare. The only generally wild (and non-native) mammals of sufficient size are wild pigs and deer. Cows, horses, and sheep are a much greater risk. A few red-back spiders (australian immigrants) might cause some pain but no deaths. The extinction of the Giant Moa and the Haast Eagle left NZ devoid of major animal threats. No snakes, either.
Deaths by animals, 2008-2023 (closed cases only)
- Horse, pony, donkey, mule, ass: 13
- Bee, wasp or other insect, invertebrate: 7
- Cow, bull, bovine animals: 6
- Dog: 3
- Sheep, goat: 2
- Lion, puma, panther, cougar, mountain lion, tiger: 2
- Shark:2
- Deer, moose, antelope, zebra, wildebeest: 1
- Elephant: 1
The death by a deer could well have occurred on a Deer Farm, as well - not domesticated, but farmed. Elephants and big cats were in captivity, obviously.
“Cause of death: ass”
What a way to go …
Interesting.
More Australian shark attacks:
A mountain lion attacked two boys and killed one. Then it was hunted and shot dead:
I guess a mountain lion is a puma, right?
Yes. Also a cougar and panther. I honestly think it might be the North American mammal with the largest overlap in common names, in the sense that many millions of people in the states will use all four interchangeably for the same critter. Catamount is far less common IME.
Yes; other species of pumas are extinct, as far as I know.
Depends if you’re a lumper or splitter - the splitters currently rule the systematic biology playground.
The Jaguarundi was considered to be in the genus Puma until less than a decade ago (well, actually it has wandered back and forth). For example you’ll still see it confusingly listed as both here. Good old Britannica is still sticking with Puma, crusty old traditionalists that they are (or more likely they’re just out of date, as encyclopedias tend to be).
The role of population increase can’t be stressed enough. Australia has excellent shark attack statistics [if you were not indigenous]. From 1791 to 2018 there were 237 attacks, so about 1ish per annum. In the past decade we are approaching 3 p.a.
At the start of the run, the European population of Australia was about 10,000 and its now close to 30 million. Up to about 1900 you were only in the water if you were a fisher or shipwrecked, but after that everyone was swimming and surfing. Until recently many near-urban swimming areas were rank and polluted (not that this stopped anyone dodging the Bondi cigars), but with their being cleaned up there is far greater habitat that sharks like being made available, and on a hot Sydney day there might be a quarter of a million people in the water just in the one city.
[Austrian accent] It’s not a puma!