Boundaries between humans and wild animals often have rough edges where they intrude on each other’s spaces. Sometimes the intrusions cause nothing more than mild discomfort but in other circumstances the consequences can be tragic. These fuzzy borders exist in many parts of the world.
In North America we occasionally hear about coyotes prowling in the suburbs of certain towns. Los Angeles, one the largest cities in the United States is famed for its celebrities, but LA officials had to euthanise its own celebrity mountain lion a couple of years ago. Known as P-22, the late mountain lion has its own Instagram page where it claimed to be LA’s loneliest bachelor but that it liked to hang out under the Hollywood sign.
On the Wikipedia P-22 page – yes it has its own page (and I don’t) with links to 100 references – you can find six books and three films all about the big cat of Griffith Park.
In Europe, a series of bear attacks have caused authorities to reconsider their rewilding policies. The Trentino Giornale published in Trento, Italy, reported in February that since 2014 there had been eight bear attacks on people in the area. One of those attacks last year was particularly tragic when a brown bear (Ursus arctos) killed a 26-year-old man jogging near the town.
The attacks have ramped up calls for bear culling in the area, but several pro-bear and wolf groups have been fighting against such moves.
Romania has an estimated population of 8,000 brown bears and is battling to put an end to attacks in that country. The Bucharest government has been considering plans to allow the bears to be shot as there were 154 attacks on humans, resulting in 158 injuries and 14 deaths between 2016 and 2021 according to the Romanian environment ministry.
However, as a member of the European Union since 2007, Romania cannot unilaterally decide how it is going to manage its bear population. The EU’s Environment Council expressly prohibits the killing of wild bears except under exceptional circumstances such as when a bear has killed or severely injured a human.
At the end of March, delegations from Romania, Slovakia and Finland presented a proposal to the EU Environment Council, asking for the protection status of some brown bear populations to be downgraded. It is likely that the veto power of countries with more robust conservation agendas — or those that don’t have bear populations — will block any such moves.
People and African wildlife
On the African continent, wild animals kill or injure hundreds if not thousands of people every year. In Kenya, hyenas entering villages and even urban centres has become such a serious problem that the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has launched a campaign advising people what to do if they meet a hyena in their path.
Authorities have advised people to "stand your ground" and "try not to show your fear, keep yourself calm by talking to it (the hyena)". The campaign provoked widespread derision as many asked what language people should use to talk to the animals.
A businessman in Kenya's Rift Valley city of Nakuru was shocked when he arrived at his stall one morning to find a "strange animal" in his small shop. He did not know what it was at first, but thought it might be a leopard.
Some locals identified the unwanted visitor as a hyena and soon dozens of residents gathered around the stall to gawk at the animal hiding under the counter.
The stall owner, who sells khat (a leafy stimulant), soft drinks, sweets and groundnuts says he closed his stall at about eight pm the previous evening and then returned to his place of business at seven am the next morning.
No one knows exactly how the predator found its way into a market stall in a populated area, but the hyena probably wandered in from the nearby Lake Nakuru National Park during the night. The KWS arrived soon and captured the animal before anyone was injured.
Earlier this year, Kenya's Tourism Minister Alfred Mutua said the rising number of hyenas in the park was probably responsible for the growing number of attacks on the nearby human population.
According to the BBC, Animal health authorities have confirmed that three rabies infected hyenas attacked and mauled people in different locations.
KWS said this would explain the unusual aggressive behaviour towards people.
Unpredictably leopard
A Cape Town couple sleeping in a rooftop tent on their bakkie (light truck) had a terrifying experience when an emaciated leopard attacked them in Botswana.
Retired pilot Gavin Allderman and his partner Jill Sheard had spent the day in the wide open spaces on the Botswana side of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at the beginning of March. In the evening they were relaxing and listening to barking geckos, jackals and other night sounds around them
In a Facebook post, Allderman noted that he had spotted a big cat earlier, but because it looked so thin from a distance, he initially thought it was a cheetah on the moonless night.
They set up motion sensors around the vehicle and climbed into their tent. When the leopard triggered the sensors they realised that it was circling their vehicle. This was unusual behaviour but they felt secure in their rooftop tent and fell asleep after a while.
The leopard climbed the ladder and attacked the tent. Allderman describes the horror, “Screaming and shouting was no deterrent as he scrambled up and launched himself onto the gauze of the tent, his claws gripping the thin fabric with his head inches from my face.
“I started punching at it furiously in the face with all my strength, punching again and again. I realized we were now bare fisted fighting for our lives”.
To read the full gripping account on Facebook, click here.
Allderman and Sheard were lucky to have survived the unusual, but nonetheless terrifying encounter. The leopard was certainly not in good health and was probably starving. Allderman speculated that it might even have died after the incident.
In India, humans often encounter leopards not only in smaller villages but also in Mumbai, one of the biggest cities in the country. The Sanjay Ghandi Reserve which adjoins the city is said to have as many as 35 leopards. They often enter deep within urban areas and hunt dogs. Occasionally a human, usually a younger person, will fall victim to one of the big cats but it is surprising how well the local populations appear to coexist with leopards.
Addendum:
As I was putting the finishing touches to this edition of Real Safari, I received a media release from SANParks advising that they had to euthanise Roy, one of the male lions in the Mountain Zebra Park (MZP). At seventeen-years-old, he has had a good innings but it is always sad to lose such a magnificent animal.
This is personally significant because my wife (Ilza) and I are planning on going to the MZP this coming weekend and we were hoping to see the only two males lions in the park, Roy and Nomad.
Both males had been translocated from Addo Elephant Park several years ago and as we visit that park regularly, we felt a special attachment to the pair.
SANParks wrote:
The lion was darted towards the end of February for closer evaluation. Taking into account the lion’s advanced age (i.e. 17 years old which is advanced in relation to the lifespan of lions in the wild which is eight to 16 years), poor body condition and clinically observed poor health (reluctance to move and poor tooth health), indicating that he is no longer able to fend for himself, the SANParks Veterinarian and Park Management made the decision to chemically euthanise the male lion as he was unlikely to recover.
Park management says it plans to introduce an additional two males lions to the MZP in the near future.
Steven, I cannot express to you in appropriate terms how much I enjoy your writings! I feel like I know these animals from your writings!
I will never make it to Africa to see first hand these remarkable animals, so I really appreciate what you write!