Spotted by JuliaM in National Geographic News:
The death of a British marine biologist in Antarctica last month [July 22] is thought to be the first human fatality caused by a leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx). But scientists fear further seal attacks as the number of people working in the region continues to rise*.
Kirsty Brown was dragged underwater by the seal while snorkeling near Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula. Horrified colleagues from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scrambled a rescue boat and managed to pull Brown from the water. Despite trying to resuscitate her for an hour, the station doctor was unable to save the 28-year-old...
See also Killer whale 'thrashed trainer to death'
* See also "Number of humans killed by Martians set to rise after Earth's Spacefleet invades Mars"
Sunday 6 March 2011
It's not just cows killer whales...
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6 comments:
Is it unusually cruel of me to say "well, what do you expect?"
I see these naive greenie do-gooders thinking every creature other than a human being is a lovely fluffy friendly creature and it really makes me laugh when they come a cropper at the hands (or more likely teeth and claws) of real nature.
Only the tiniest speck of common sense is required to avoid these deaths. But the morons don't have any, and they don't have any for political reasons rather than by reason of mental incapacity. They have chosen to believe their idealism overrides common sense and that it will override the natural behaviour of wild animals.
They will get no sympathy from me.
On reading the linked article from ABC I noted a list of other articles under the one about the killer whale; the headline is "Swan atacks Abbott's carbon tax 'lie'".
I think I'd first tend to assume there's a fundamental difference between a "naive greenie do-gooder" and a marine biologist, though I grant you there may be a Venn-type overlap. To snorkel in a place where no-one's been bothered by anything much for 30 years isn't, per se, a high-risk activity.
So when half a ton of teeth and attitude appears and for reasons unknown and the first time on record, attacks a human, the most reasonable response is that aberrant behaviour occurs all over the place.
The reality is this is a bit of a non-story, or at best one which is a few lines on page 8 (which is probably where it would have been had it been a fat middle-aged man who got bagged....).
Leopard seals evidently have a long way to go before they're as dangerous to humans as cows :-) .
TFB, is that a person called "Swan" or an environmentally aware lake-dwelling bird?
FT, it is rather a splendid non-story though.
You're certainly diversifying, Mark.
How did you get to know about the invasion then? It was above top secret!
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