Animal Attacks

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    Face to Face With an Alligator? Here’s What to Do

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    On May 6, an alligator thrashed and tipped over a couple’s canoe in Central Florida where it attacked a woman and killed her.The death on May 6 of a Florida woman who was attacked by an 11-foot alligator that tipped over her canoe served as a reminder that, while alligator attacks on humans are “extremely rare,” as a state wildlife official said, they do happen, sometimes with fatal results.“This serves as a somber reminder of the powerful wildlife that share our natural spaces,” said Roger Young, the executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.Florida had an average of eight unprovoked alligator bites a year over the 10-year period that ended in 2022, according to the commission. Many of them were serious enough to require medical attention.The commission has been urging people to exercise caution in or near the water during alligator mating season, which runs from early April to June. The risk of an attack is higher, it said, because alligators tend to be more aggressive, active and visible during this time.The agency and other wildlife commissions offered these tips for avoiding or staying safe around the reptiles, which can grow up to 15 feet long.Where are they?Alligators can be found from central Texas eastward to North Carolina, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Florida Wildlife Officers Kill 3 Black Bears After Deadly Attack

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      The state’s wildlife agency will test the bears’ DNA to determine if any of them had attacked and killed an 89-year-old man.Wildlife officers in Florida have killed three black bears in the southwestern part of the state, less than 24 hours after a man was killed by a bear in the same area, officials said on Tuesday.It was not immediately clear whether any of the three bears were involved in the attack on Monday morning, in which Robert Markel, 89, was killed in a wooded, unincorporated part of Collier County.The bears’ remains were being sent to Gainesville, Fla., for DNA testing, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, to determine if there was a connection to what the agency described as an extremely rare attack.The attack on Mr. Markel was the first time a bear had killed a human in Florida’s history, Mike Orlando, the bear management program coordinator for the commission, said during a news conference on Tuesday.The commission is overseeing the investigation into the deadly encounter, which drew a heavy presence of wildlife officers to Jerome, Fla., just north of Everglades City, Fla. Mr. Markel’s dog was also killed the same morning by a bear, though it was not clear whether they were attacked by the same one.Mr. Markel’s daughter called 911 after she saw the attack on his dog and could not find her father, the local television station WPLG reported.Wildlife officers set up traps and cameras in the area where the attacks occurred, officials said during the news conference.Florida is home to more than 4,000 black bears, according to the wildlife commission. It has tracked them from the Panhandle and Ocala National Forest in the state’s midsection, to Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida, which was near where the attack on Monday occurred.Wildlife officials on Tuesday reminded people of what they should do if they encounter a bear, which can come into contact with humans and pets while prowling for food.“Stand your ground,” Mr. Orlando said. “Make yourself look large. Talk to the bear in a calm fashion. Do not run. Do not play dead.”In a worst-case scenario, he said, people should take action.“Even if a bear is touching you,” he said, “you need to fight back.” More

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      Shark Bites Tourist Who Was Trying to Take Photo With It

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      The woman was flown off the island to receive medical care, according to the Turks and Caicos government.A tourist trying to photograph a shark in shallow water at a beach in the Turks and Caicos Islands this month was bitten by it and flown off the island to receive medical care, the local government said.The tourist was treated at a hospital before she left the island, Providenciales, a sandy, 38-square-mile magnet for snorkelers and sun seekers that is ringed by turquoise waters.The shark was about six feet long, according to the Turks and Caicos government, but its species was unclear.The tourist had “attempted to engage with the animal” in an effort to take pictures of it before she was bitten on Feb. 7, the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources in Turks and Caicos said in a statement.Her identity was not immediately released, and officials did not describe the extent of her injuries.The beach was closed but reopened on Feb. 9 after the shark was found to have moved into deeper water, according to the environment department. Turks and Caicos, an archipelago, is a British territory and one of the Caribbean’s fanciest tourist destinations.Shark bites are extremely rare and are typically accidents, experts say. But sharks can cause severe wounds when they mistake humans for prey.Across the world, there were 88 confirmed or potential shark bites logged last year by the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, an organization that tracks shark data.Twenty-four were provoked, meaning that a human had initiated contact with the shark, according to the organization. Four people died from shark bites. One of last year’s recorded bites was in Turks and Caicos; it was not fatal.The file’s director, Gavin Naylor, said on Saturday that it was too soon to say if this month’s bite in Turks and Caicos was provoked or unprovoked.But Chris Stefanou, a New York fisherman and conservationist who tags sharks, said that photographing sharks can carry risks, and that the shark might have confused a phone for a fish.“Sharks, or any predatory animal in the ocean, can confuse that as like a bait fish,” Mr. Stefanou said, referring to small, shiny fish that draw sharks to shore. “The shark didn’t just see a human: ‘Ooh, I’m hungry, I want to go take a bite.’ That did not happen.”The episode was not the only reported shark bite in the Caribbean on Feb. 7. Two Americans were injured in what appeared to be a shark encounter in Bimini Bay in the northern Bahamas, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.Mr. Naylor said two bites in one day in the region was unusual and made him “sit up a little.”But it was not clear whether there was any trend. The number of confirmed unprovoked shark bites dropped to 47 last year, down from 69 the year before, according to the International Shark Attack File. More

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      Montana Camper Offered His Killer a Beer Before He Was Murdered, Police Say

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      DNA from a beer can helped lead the authorities to an arrest in the killing of Dustin Kjersem, whose death was originally reported as a possible bear attack, officials said.A Montana camper whose mutilated body was found in a forest last month was brutally killed by a stranger he welcomed to his campsite and offered a beer, the authorities said this week, a gesture they say ultimately led to the killer’s arrest.The stranger, Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, of Basin, Mont., who was working in construction in the Big Sky area of southern Montana, was arrested on Saturday after the authorities linked his DNA to that found on a beer can on the floor of a tent belonging to the victim, Dustin Kjersem, 35, according to court records.Mr. Abbey confessed on Tuesday to killing Mr. Kjersem, 35, and was later charged with deliberate homicide, Dan Springer, the sheriff of Gallatin County said at a news conference on Thursday.Mr. Abbey encountered Mr. Kjersem by chance, the authorities said, noting that they still didn’t know the motive for the killing and that the investigation could continue for months.“This appears to be a heinous crime committed by an individual who had no regard for the life of Dustin Kjersem,” Sheriff Springer said.On Oct. 10, Mr. Kjersem traveled to a forested area near Big Sky to camp, the authorities said. He had planned to pick up his girlfriend the next day, a Friday, so the two could spend the weekend camping.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Camper Was the Victim of a Brutal Homicide, Not a Bear, Sheriff Says

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      Dustin Kjersem, 35, was found dead in his tent with “chop wounds” on Saturday, the authorities said. No arrests have been made.A person who called the police near Bozeman, Mont., last Saturday reported that a man had been found dead in his tent from what appeared to have been a bear attack.But at a news conference on Wednesday, officials with the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said they believed that the camper, Dustin Kjersem, 35, a tradesman from Belgrade, Mont., had not been killed by a bear — but rather was the victim of a brutal homicide.“Someone was out there who killed someone in a very heinous way,” Dan Springer, the sheriff of Gallatin County, said at the news conference. “If you’re out in the woods, I need you to be paying attention.”Mr. Kjersem was last seen on the afternoon of Oct. 10 when he drove into a forested area about 35 miles south of Bozeman near Big Sky for a weekend of camping. He was supposed to pick up a friend on the afternoon of Oct 11.But Mr. Kjersem, who lived about 35 miles north of where he was found dead, did not show up. The friend then went looking for him and found Mr. Kjersem’s body on Oct. 12, Sheriff Springer said.“Autopsy has shown that he sustained ‘multiple chop wounds,’ which led to his death,” Capt. Nathan Kamerman, a detective with the sheriff’s office, said at the news conference. “We’re following up on leads but we have no arrests at this time.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dolphin Attacks Spoil Summer Along a Stretch of Japanese Beaches

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      Nearly 50 beachgoers have been attacked in the past three years. Some marine experts suspect it may be the work of a single “lonely” dolphin.At the beaches along an idyllic coastal stretch of central Japan, lifeguards scan the water, poised to call swimmers back to shore at the hint of a fin. Sharp teeth bare from posters warning beachgoers to be careful because, for the third year running, there is danger in the water.No, it’s not sharks. It’s dolphins. Possibly just a single lonely, sexually frustrated dolphin.In Wakasa Bay, about 200 miles west of Tokyo, dolphin attacks have injured at least 47 people since 2022. Many of them suffered minor bites on their hands, but a few were rushed to hospitals with broken bones or wounds that needed stitches.In 2022, 21 people reported injuries from dolphin attacks along a stretch of beaches near the town of Echizen, according to the police in Fukui Prefecture. Most were reported in what one Japanese media outlet called the “dolphin threat summer.” One man told local media that he was swimming close to the shore when a dolphin bit his arm and tried to force itself on top of him, almost pushing him underwater.The next year, the attacks were concentrated on beaches down the coast near the town of Mihama. In 2023, 10 people were injured, a Fukui police spokesman said. In one case, a man was left with broken ribs.Since July 21 this year, 16 people have been injured in dolphin attacks, mainly off the beaches near Mihama and the nearby Tsuruga city, according to local officials. Two of them had serious hand injuries that needed dozens of stitches.A poster that local authorities have put up at some beaches to warn of dolphin attacks.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Tourist From New Mexico Is Killed by an Elephant in Zambia

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      The incident came months after another tourist was killed in Zambia when an elephant charged her group. One wildlife expert said the attacks were most likely “freak accidents.”A tourist from New Mexico was killed in Zambia when an elephant charged her, according to the police commissioner who investigated the incident. She is the second tourist to be fatally attacked by an elephant in the southern African country this year.The woman who was killed, Juliana G. Letourneau, 64, of Albuquerque, had just visited Victoria Falls, a 350-foot waterfall that straddles the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was heading back to her hotel on Wednesday when the group that she was traveling with encountered a herd of elephants on the road.She and others stepped out of their vehicle to observe the animals, said Auxensio Daka, the police commissioner for the southern province of Zambia, in a telephone interview on Saturday.“They stopped to watch the elephants, and unfortunately one of them charged towards them as they were standing there watching,” Mr. Daka said.Mr. Daka said that Ms. Letourneau was taken to a clinic in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park near Livingstone, Zambia, where she was declared dead on arrival. Her injuries included deep wounds on the right shoulder blade and forehead, a fractured left ankle and a slightly depressed chest, according to a police statement.No other injuries were reported from the encounter with the elephant.Ms. Letourneau’s brother said on Saturday that he had no details about the incident, and declined to be interviewed. Other relatives could not be reached.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Veteran Describes Grizzly Bear Attack as ‘Most Violent’ Experience Ever

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      Shayne Patrick Burke, a disabled veteran in the Army Reserve, said the attack was “the most violent” thing he had experienced, including being shot at.Shayne Patrick Burke was on a short hike this month to photograph owls in the backcountry of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming when he spotted a grizzly bear cub about 50 to 70 yards in front of him.Instantly, Mr. Burke knew that the cub’s presence signaled trouble, he wrote on Instagram.Moments later, Mr. Burke, 35, was attacked by the cub’s mother.He turned his back, got on his stomach and locked his hands behind his neck, following advice he had read about grizzly bear attacks, he said.During the attack, on May 19, the bear repeatedly bit Mr. Burke and picked him up and slammed him to the ground, before, he wrote, one of his screams “unfortunately, but fortunately, turned her attention to my head.”It was a terrifying moment, but it ultimately saved his life.The bear bit at Mr. Burke’s neck, but his hands and arms were still interlocked behind it and, crucially, he had grabbed a can of bear spray when he saw the cub.“I never let go of the bear spray can,” he wrote. “As she bit my hands in the back of my neck she simultaneously bit the bear spray can and it exploded in her mouth.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Mountain Lion Attack Leaves Man Dead and Brother Injured in California

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      Since 1890, there have been fewer than 50 verified mountain lion attacks on humans in California, and of those, only six have been fatal, officials said.In a rare attack against humans, a mountain lion killed a man and injured his brother while the men were in a remote area of Northern California on Saturday, the authorities said.The brothers, 18 and 21, were in Georgetown, Calif., when the mountain lion attacked, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.At about 1:13 p.m. on Saturday, the younger brother called 911 to report that the two had been attacked in Georgetown, about 50 miles northeast of Sacramento, and that he had been separated from his brother.The caller told the authorities that he had “suffered traumatic injuries to his face” during the attack, according to the statement.Deputies and paramedics arrived and helped the younger brother. Deputies then began searching and found the mountain lion crouched next to the older brother, officials said.“The mountain lion was between the deputies and the subject on the ground,” the sheriff’s office said.Deputies fired shots to scare off the animal so they could help the older brother. “Unfortunately, the male subject was deceased,” the statement said.The victims’ names were not released. The surviving brother has undergone multiple surgeries for his injuries and was expected to make a full recovery, according to Sgt. Kyle Parker of the Sheriff’s Office, who cited a family spokesman.Sgt. Parker said that, at the time of the attack, the brothers were searching for antlers that had been shed.Wardens and trappers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and a trapper for El Dorado County responded and found the mountain lion, the sheriff’s office said.The mountain lion was euthanized near the scene of the attack, according to the department, which noted that its remains were sent to a forensics laboratory to obtain DNA and assess its general health.Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare, according to the department.Since 1890, there have been fewer than 50 verified mountain lion attacks on humans in California, and of those, only six have been fatal, the department said.The last fatal encounter that a human had with a mountain lion in California was in 2004 in Orange County. In most cases, the victim was alone when the attack occurred, according to the department.The mountain lion is known by more than 40 different common names, including puma, cougar, panther, red tiger, catamount and screamer, according to the state agency.They live in diverse habitats across California, including the temperate redwood forest, foothills and mountains. More