On Saturday afternoon in Bern, a 25-year-old man climbed into the new Bear Park - an extension of the old bear pit - and was attacked by one of the two resident European brown bears, Finn. Police shot Finn in the chest, driving him back into his enclosure. The man was bitten about the head, but is not in danger.
Several commenters on news stories I looked at ask why a tranquilliser dart was not used: I think the answer is that bullets work much faster than tranquillisers. In any case, it seems that Finn was not seriously hurt; he was shot with a fragmentation round, which did not penetrate any organs. The fragments are embedded in his flesh, though, and he is on antibiotics to prevent infection. Others wonder how the intruder managed to get in in the first place: according to some reports, he spent 10 minutes standing on a wall overlooking the park before jumping down, which is why police had time to fetch the rifle. (Incidentally, the Daily Mail report I link to there has a very complete set of photographs of the attack - not pleasant viewing.)
The intruder has been described, with frustrating vagueness, as "mentally handicapped". This is a familiar story. In September, Kenneth Herron, 21, who has a history of mental illness, climbed into the bear "grotto" at San Francisco Zoo; a bear sniffed his foot, but keepers fired a warning round and the bears scarpered. Herron was acquitted earlier this month of trespassing and disturbing a dangerous animal. He said that he had been told to enter the enclosure by the voice of Tyson Beckford in his head: Beckford is a male model and TV presenter, but as far as I am concerned his only claim to fame is that he was Derek Zoolander's second in his walk-off against Hansel.
I mentioned a few other cases back in June: former keeper with mental health problems found partly eaten in tiger enclosure at Naestved Zoo in Denmark; depressed woman bitten by polar bear after jumping into enclosure at Berlin Zoo. Bears predominate, perhaps because people expect them to be like Paddington or Mary Plain, or their beloved childhood teddies.
Fun fact: Finn's companion at Bern is called Björk.
Fun and possibly important fact: it's been reported that grizzlies moving north are now running into polar bears, competing for food and in at least one case interbreeding. The hybrid is known as a "grolar", which is at least better than a "pizzly". Almost every comment on the Times report is scorning the notion that climate change might be a factor.
The polar bear is one of the animals in more danger of extinction we have to protect him and respect his environment.
Posted by: kamagra | April 26, 2010 at 05:54 PM
Yes. Yes, that is true.
Posted by: rob.hanks | April 26, 2010 at 07:06 PM
Well written, love reading stuff regarding the animals and about there natural habitat.
Posted by: Zoo Designing | November 19, 2013 at 05:35 AM