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Day Of The Animals: Tales Of Man Vs Beast (And Man Suffers)

Baboons on rampage in South African town

Mon Jun 14,11:41 AM ET


CAPE TOWN (AFP) - Residents of a small South African coastal town are threatening to declare all-out war on baboons who have terrorised pre-schoolers, raided homes for food and urinated on clothes after pulling them out of closets.


Diana Head, the chairwoman of the local taxpayers' association in Pringle Bay, an hour's drive east of Cape Town, told AFP Monday that baboons broke into the local nursery school -- located in a church -- three times, using the same method.

"The baboons lifted a window latch and stormed a church hall where the children were," she said. "They grabbed sandwiches and cold drinks out of the children's hands.

"The kids were traumatised afterwards. One teacher was so upset that she resigned."

Head said baboons were breaking into houses about 15 times a month on average.

"They have strong nails which they use to pull sliding doors off the hinges. When they get inside the houses they ransack the cupboard for food and have parties on the beds.

"On a few occasions they have pulled clothes out of the cupboards and urinated on them."

Last week two female baboons in the area had to be put down after they were found with bullet wounds in their stomachs.

Local conservation officials said they believed the shootings were revenge attacks by residents.

Head said the problem escalated late last year when the head male in the baboon troop changed.

"An alpha male who we named Charlie kept the troop under control but then he was replaced by a newcomer known to us as Stoffel," she said.

The taxpayers' association approached the municipality about employing baboon chasers, but were told that this would increase baboon stress levels.

"If nothing is done about this problem, more people are going to start taking the law into their own hands," Head said.

Local official Craig Spencer told the Cape Times newspaper that the town did not have the authority to intervene, adding that the municipality had hired a nature conservation student to manage the baboons and printed pamphlets on how to keep baboons at bay.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=2&u=/afp/safrica_baboons_offbeat
 
Bear's hospital visit turns fatal

A black bear ended up with more than a sore head when it activated automatic doors and wandered into a US hospital.


Startled doctors, nurses and patients saw the 345lb (156kg) animal walking through the emergency ward and into an office full of computers.

Two police officers trapped the bear inside and decided the best option was to shoot it dead rather than try to sedate it and risk an escape.

No-one, apart from the bear, was injured at the Virginia hospital.

Short legs

"I was walking down the hallway and there was a big, black bear coming towards me," security guard Dan Thompson said.

"He turned and went into the office on the right hand side. I'm glad he did."

It seems that when the full-grown bear walked in front of the Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital in Rocky Mount, Virginia, it triggered a sensor that opens the building's doors.

Ambulance driver Lee Nelson, who was the first to notice the bear, said he could not believe his eyes.

"At first I thought (it was) somebody in a bear costume...But when I saw the short legs, I've seen bears in my life and when I saw it running with short legs, I knew this ain't no joke."

The police officers thought about trying to sedate the bear but fearing it might get free they shot it twice and killed it.

Wildlife experts say black bears, which are protected within the boundaries of US national parks, are usually shy animals.

They are not normally aggressive towards people but some have lost their fear of humans, hunting through rubbish bins and even going so far as to beg for food at the roadside.

BEAR FACTS
Black bears not always black, can be brown
Can hear and smell far better than humans
Adult males weigh more than 135 kg (300 lbs)
May hibernate up to seven months where food scarce

BBCi News 18/06/04
 
Kenya elephant buries its victims

An elephant has buried a mother and child after trampling them to death in northern Kenya.


Lokalo Ekitela was on her way to market when the elephant charged her and her two-year-old son, reports Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.

Before disappearing into the bush, the elephant buried the bodies under some leaves and twigs in Laikipia District.

Elephants are known to bury their own dead under foliage and often stay with the body, apparently in mourning.

A cow whose calf has died will often stay with the dead baby for days, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Cemeteries

But it is unusual for elephants to bury humans, experts say.

"When there have been human fatalities, the carcass is left in the open," Raymond Travers of South Africa's Kruger National Park told BBC News Online.

"But according to some sources, elephants do seem to have cemeteries when it comes to their own species, we will find elephant carcasses and bones in one location away from the herd," he said.

There are old hunters tales from Kenya's Samburu people which tells of hunters seeing elephants bury dead or sleeping people under a pile of branches.

"On occasion, the hunters themselves were buried whilst taking a cat-nap," says Kenya's Save the Elephants campaign group.

Humans are most often killed by elephants when they encroach on the animals' territory, says Mr Travers.

Elephants usually act in self-defence rather than with an intent to kill.

As human populations increase elephants are losing their habitat, and the most common form of conflict between humans and elephants is crop-raiding, says Kenya's Human-Elephant Conflict Working Group.

The elephant population in Kenya is currently estimated by Kenya Wildlife Service to be 28,000.

BBCi News 18/06/04
 
Rabbits delay masts' demolition

Rabbits delayed the destruction of eight British Telecom radio masts which have dominated the Warwickshire skyline for nearly 80 years.


They chewed through wires which had been layed to trigger the explosions to bring the structures down.

The 820-ft structures near Rugby provided communication links around the world since 1926, but became obsolete.

Local homes were evacuated ready for the operation, which eventually took place on Saturday night.

'Unfortunate delays'

Emma Tennant, from BT, said: "The first three came down according to plan, very smoothly and in the right direction.

"There were unfortunate delays, but all in all everything went extremely well."

The masts, which are a familiar sight on the M1 and A5, are where the famous BBC time pips originated.

Four masts will remain at the site for the foreseeable future.

Two of them support the aerial which transmits the time signal for the National Physical Laboratory's atomic clock.

The clean-up operation following the demolition is expected to take six weeks.

BBCi News 20/06/04
 
Rabbits Manage Destruction Job on Destruction Job

Rabbits delay masts' demolition

Rabbits delayed the destruction of eight British Telecom radio masts which have dominated the Warwickshire skyline for nearly 80 years.

They chewed through wires which had been laid to trigger the explosions to bring the structures down.

The 820-ft structures near Rugby provided communication links around the world since 1926, but became obsolete.

Local homes were evacuated ready for the operation, which eventually took place on Saturday night.

'Unfortunate delays'

Emma Tennant, from BT, said: "The first three came down according to plan, very smoothly and in the right direction.

"There were unfortunate delays, but all in all everything went extremely well."

The masts, which are a familiar sight on the M1 and A5, are where the famous BBC time pips originated.

Four masts will remain at the site for the foreseeable future.

Two of them support the aerial which transmits the time signal for the National Physical Laboratory's atomic clock.

The clean-up operation following the demolition is expected to take six weeks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/3823335.stm
 
Leaping fish injuring boaters

By TOM MEERSMAN
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
June 17, 2004

- Marcy Poplett jumped at the chance to take her personal watercraft for a short run on the Illinois River on a sunny afternoon in October.

It turned out to be a near-death experience.

After driving a few miles, she idled the craft near a bridge and looked at the fall colors.

"Every leaf was just gorgeous," she said. "So I'm sitting there and all of a sudden this big fish flops out of the river literally and hits me right between the eyes," Poplett said. "I'm not kidding. It knocked me completely out."

Poplett was whacked by a silver carp, an import from Asia that moved into the Peoria, Ill., area about five years ago. The carp have a tendency to shoot out of the water when disturbed by passing motorboats. Weighing 10 pounds or more, they pack quite a wallop.

Poplett quickly revived, but found herself floating face down in the river, bleeding profusely. She saw her watercraft floating away in the current, heading toward a towboat that was blasting its horns. She passed out again, but a nearby boater, alerted by the warning blasts, came to her rescue. Poplett suffered a broken nose, concussion, black eye, injured back and a broken foot. She has recovered from her injuries and expects to be back on the river this summer - but never again without a companion.

Other boaters along the Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi rivers have reported dislocated jaws, facial cuts, broken ribs and serious bruises. Hundreds have been startled as the thin-skinned carp shot into their boats and flew to pieces as they hit seats, coolers, fishing equipment and depth finders.

"They shatter when they hit something hard," said Duane Chapman, a fisheries biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Columbia, Mo. "They just get blood everywhere and they're slimy. If you have a pretty boat, it's going to be a mess."

Chapman, who is 6-feet-6, said one carp jumped high enough last fall on the Missouri River to hit him on the cheek while he was standing in a nearly idle boat. He said it was like "being hit by a bowling ball." He wasn't seriously injured.

Vivian Nichols of Hartsburg, Mo., is another fish-in-the-face victim. Last summer, she and her husband took a friend in their boat to see the jumping carp on the Missouri. As she idled the motor, fish started flying on both sides of the boat and it began to seem dangerous. As Nichols took her eyes off the fish to steer the boat away from them, a carp whacked her on the nose and broke it.

"The riverways aren't safe out there," she said. Nichols and her husband, an occasional commercial fisherman, have outfitted their 20-foot jon boat with protective nets to lessen their chances of injury.

Some people are staying off the water. Steve Kelly, owner of American Sport, a Havana, Ill., shop that sells hunting and fishing equipment, said that most of his customers are unhappy about the fish. "A lot of the women won't go on the river anymore," Kelly said.

The silver carp and its non-leaping cousin, the bighead carp, can grow to more than 50 pounds. They have exploded in portions of the Mississippi and its tributaries since they escaped from Southern fish farms in the 1980s.

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=FLYINGFISH-06-17-04&cat=AN
 
Suicide elk attack

Sad story but watch out for the science bit eveyone - those crazy fools think hitting an elk in a car has a similar effect to hitting a horse in a car!!

4 Killed In Father's Day Crash On I-90

POSTED: 9:28 am PDT June 20, 2004

NORTH BEND, Wash. -- The guest of honor at an extended family Father's Day party in the Yakima Valley, his wife, and two relatives died when a car hit an elk on Interstate 90.

A fifth relative was critically injured after Jesus P. Reyna swerved to avoid hitting one elk but hit another about 4:45 a.m. Sunday about seven miles east of North Bend and about 40 miles east of Seattle, Washington State Patrol Lt. Colleen McIntyre said.

She said the impact was about the same as hitting a horse.

"The elk basically took the whole front end of the car and the windshield out and incapacitated the driver," McIntyre said. "It looks like the driver never had the opportunity to brake."

The westbound four-door 1997 Honda Accord tumbled over a 60-foot embankment and landed upside down on a road below the freeway.

Dead in the crash were Reyna, 26; his wife, Josefina Alvarez, described by relatives as in her early 20s; his uncle, Rafael S. Gonzalez, 42, and Gonzalez's son, Enrique Gonzalez-Reyna, 19, all of Mabton.

Leonardo Gonzalez-Reyna, 20, another son of Gonzalez, was thrown from the car and listed in serious condition early Monday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Only Reyna and his wife were wearing seat belts, investigators said.

The elk also was killed, said Greg Tryon, acting chief of Eastside Fire and Rescue.

McIntyre said she did not know of another crash with an animal that had caused so many deaths in the state. There was no evidence of alcohol and other drugs, she added.

Elk are common around North Bend, area residents said.

"I have them come through almost every other night," said Robert Plute, who owns two acres on the east side of town. "I would say there are about 10 in the herd. You walk out at night and almost walk right into them. It's kind of scary."

Relatives said Gonzalez and his sons, farm workers for most of the year, planned to catch a flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Alaska for better paying work in a fish cannery over the summer so they could take a family vacation this fall in Mexico.

Reyna, a carpenter at the Hanford nuclear reservation, offered to drive the three and his wife, a Pizza Hut employee, went along to keep her husband company on the return, said his brother, Jaime Reyna, 23.

The elder Gonzalez left a wife and two other sons, 12 and 2. Jesus and Josefina Reyna left two daughters, 2 and 4.

Jaime Reyna said he learned of the crash Sunday morning as he was about to get some meat for a Father's Day party for his brother on a shady lawn in Mabton, a small town about 40 miles southeast of Yakima in southcentral Washington.

"I'm trying to remain calm for everyone," he said Sunday evening as dozens of relatives milled outside his parents' home, "but this is really difficult."

http://www.kirotv.com/news/3439813/detail.html
 
Kamikaze dive bombing

Fatal wreck follows collision with bird

Tuesday, June 22, 2004
By TOM QUIGLEY
The Express-Times

HOLLAND TWP. -- A motorcyclist was killed in a head-on collision Friday after tangling with a low-flying turkey buzzard, township police said.

Joseph M. Maglori, 35, of Piscataway, N.J., was driving a yellow Ducati 900 motorcycle south on Route 627 when the fatal crash occurred about 7:15 p.m., police said.

Witnesses told police the buzzard slammed into Maglori's helmet and the motorcyclist then tried to fight off the 10- to 15-pound bird.

The motorcycle veered into the northbound lane and collided head-on with a stopped vehicle just north of Phillips Road, police said.

Joyce Stangle of Sciota, Pa., had stopped her vehicle after seeing the motorcyclist struggling with the buzzard, police said.

Maglori was thrown from the motorcycle into the front windshield and then over the top of the Stangle's vehicle, police report.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Stangle and her husband Herbert, a passenger, were not injured, police said.

Police found a dead turkey buzzard about 175 feet from the crash scene.

Both the motorcycle and the vehicle sustained heavy damage, and debris from the crash was scattered about 10 to 15 feet, police said.

Maglori's motorcycle helmet was still on his head after the crash, but his face shield had come off, police said.

"He was checking out the road for an upcoming multiple sclerosis motorcycle event," said the victim's uncle, John Rea of Jersey City.

Rea said his nephew was a volunteer firefighter in Piscataway and worked as an air conditioning technician.

"He was a hell of a good man," Rae said.

Rea said his nephew had been riding motorcycles for 10 years.

"He was no novice," he said.

Rea said his sister-in-law, Maglori's mother, is having a tough time.

"But she's coming along," he added.

Joyann Maglori lost another son in 1999 and her husband died in 2002.

In addition to township police, township firefighters, members of the Milford-Holland Rescue Squad and the Hunterdon County Fatal Accident Construction Team responded to the scene.

The crash remains under investigation, police said.

http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1087895177127690.xml
 
Emperor said:

Update on the buzzard:


Buzzard dies dive-bombing a van

An angry buzzard which was blamed for more than 20 attacks on cyclists on a country road in Devon has died after dive-bombing a van.

BBCi News 17/06/04

and this:

Buzzard continues cyclist attacks

The death of a buzzard in Devon last week has failed to halt a spate of attacks on cyclists.


A buzzard was killed last Wednesday after it dive-bombed a van on the A3072 at Brandis Corner near Holsworthy.

But over the weekend, three cyclists taking part in an Audax long-distance cycling event were attacked, and one of them even had his hat stolen.

Experts believe the bird is the mate of the buzzard which was killed and is continuing to defend their nest.

More than 20 cyclists reported attacks prior to the death of the first buzzard, with many having holes gouged in their helmets.

Emma Parkin, from the RSPB, said it was unusual for a buzzard to attack humans, which suggested it had once been in captivity.

She described the buzzard just being a "good parent".


BBCi News 22/06/04
 
Go Gorilla go!

Wednesday June 23, 01:55 PM

Gorilla runs amok in Berlin zoo

BERLIN (Reuters) - A male gorilla escaped from his cage in the Berlin zoo and sent terrified visitors running for cover, the zoo says.


Eight-year-old Bokito, who weighs 130 kilos (286 lb) and stands more than two metres (6 ft 6 in) tall, climbed over the top of the glass wall surrounding his outside enclosure and roamed the zoo on Tuesday.


Berlin newspapers showed shaky photos of the gorilla taken by an 18-year-old visitor who recorded how Bokito was grabbed by two burly zookeepers and marched back to his enclosure.


"Suddenly hysterical children and grown-ups came running towards us. They were all running towards the exit. Behind them we saw the huge ape leaping towards us on all fours," the visitor, Husam Shawabkeh, said

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=534526&section=news
 
Re: Suicide elk attack

Emperor said:

Nearly simulataneous attacks on different continents...Are the elk getting organized?! :eek!!!!:



Close Call for Toddler as Elk Crushes Bed

HELSINKI (Reuters) - An elk jumped through a townhouse window and crashed into a toddler's bed, scratching the cheek of a sleeping two-year-old and wreaking havoc in a Finnish family's home at the weekend, police said.

The toddler's mother was shocked to find the beast in her bed and ran to a neighbor for help.

"(We) were sitting in the living room and all of a sudden we heard a terrible clamor and clatter, as if an earthquake had begun," Mari Lahti told Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. "We opened the door and saw an elk in our bed."

The elk then jumped on to her son's bed, crushing it but only scratching the boy's cheek with its hoof. It rampaged through the house and fled through another window.

A spokesman for the Kokkola police in western Finland told Reuters that young elks had been wandering in the residential area, which is close to forests.

"These houses have big windows that start low near the ground... It could be that when they see another elk mirrored on the window, the elks go through," inspector Erkki Kerola said.


06/21/04 09:51

© Copyright Reuters Ltd.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/st...f/story/0002/20040621/0951046988.htm&sc=reodd
 
And so it begins

lopaka said:
Nearly simulataneous attacks on different continents...Are the elk getting organized?! :eek!!!!:

Yes.

Their antlers are actually antenna maintianing a global network of communication for when elkkind rise up and destroy it. It looks like it has started - time to implement Anti-Elk Plan #4c. Good luck to everyone and I hope to see the survivors on the other side of this.

Emps
 
I like dhtis one ;)

Lincoln Park Zoo Apes Get to Take Revenge

Mon Jun 28, 4:39 PM ET


By LISA SCHENCKER, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - The apes at Lincoln Park Zoo are finally getting a chance to take their revenge on people who for years have been pounding their palms against the glass walls of the primates' old home.

At the zoo's new Regenstein Center for African Apes, chimpanzees can touch a panel hidden from public view that will shoot harmless bursts of air at unsuspecting visitors.

"You often hear about chimps spitting or throwing," said Steve Ross, a behaviorist at the zoo. "They do that to get a rise out of the public. This gives them that opportunity but in a safe way."

The feature is one of many in the 55,000-square-foot habitat meant to help people connect with their primate cousins.

Lincoln Park Zoo was already renowned for its primate breeding success, with 45 gorilla births since 1970. With its new facility, opening July 1, it joins a growing number of U.S. zoos striving to make exhibits more exciting for people and more natural for the animals.

Zoo officials hope the exhibit's realistic environments will give visitors new respect for apes and allow scientists to observe the apes acting as they would in the wild.

Its predecessor, the Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House, was dark and cavernous, but the million Regenstein Center, the most expensive facility ever built at the 35-acre zoo, is spacious, airy and green. A downed tree forms a bridge that apes can use to cross a waterfall, and mulch-covered floors imitate a natural forest and are gentler on apes' joints.

The zoo's 24 apes can climb trees and see the John Hancock Center to the right and Lake Michigan to the left.

The primates also can control fans hidden in boulders, helping them moderate the effects of Chicago's muggy summers and icy winters, and touch panels in fake tree trunks that will catapult snacks toward them through grates in the walls.

Many zoos are striving to make their ape exhibits more natural and interactive to serve an increasingly sophisticated public, said Diana DeVaughn, spokeswoman for the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, which won a top American Zoo and Aquarium Association award last year for its gorilla exhibit.

The Los Angeles Zoo, for instance, made its ape exhibit interactive by letting the animals pull ropes to ring bells near visitors or spray water at people, said Jennie McNary, curator of mammals at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

"The chimps were smart enough to figure out they could startle people with it," she said.

Ross said he's not yet sure how people or apes will react to the air blasters at Lincoln Park.

Zoo officials hope the habitats will help visitors feel physically and emotionally closer to the apes, zoo president Kevin Bell said. Connecting with the animals could inspire people to care more about helping apes in zoos and in the wild, he said.

Only 375 gorillas now live in U.S. zoos, and anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 live in the wild, zoo vice president Steven Thompson said. Experts suspect that the wild gorilla population has declined 30 to 50 percent in the past 15 years because of hunting and damage to their natural habitats.

"They're so close to humans," Bell said. "Yet there's very few of these animals left in the wild."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=8&u=/ap/20040628/ap_on_re_us/lincoln_park_apes
 
Rats ravage bayside cars

By Liam Houlihan
June 28, 2004


MELBOURNE'S problem packs of bayside rats have acquired a dangerous new appetite for car cables.

Not content emptying seaside cafes of customers and sending families running from beaches, rats in the City of Kingston are now snacking under car bonnets and turning residents' vehicles into death traps.

Braeside woman Megan Michelis was horrified to discover rats had gnawed large holes in the wires, accelerator cables, and battery casing in her car.

She lives in fear that rat-related damage will lead her to have an accident while driving her daughters around.

"My kids are in the car every day. I'm supposed to check under the bonnet daily to make sure it's safe to drive. But I don't know what I'm looking for," she said.

Her husband's car, a new ,000 Prado, has also been chewed into disrepair by hungry vermin.

She is angry that Kingston council refuses to play pied piper to her family's rat problem.

"I pay rates and they're not willing to bait. It comes across that the rats have more rights than us," she said.

"I told a lady at the council that there was a plague and she said, 'It's not a plague, there's just a large number of rats'."

The City of Kingston council recognises a rise in suburban rat sightings within its borders, but does not regard Ms Michelis's Waterways home near Braeside as a problem area.

Ms Michelis said the council told her if bait was laid without an environmental report being concluded, innocent possums could die.

But the Waterways resident denies there are any possums near her home.

"There's only tiny trees here because it's a new estate. We've never seen a possum," she said.

"We've had rabbits, foxes and rats, but no possums. And anyway, they're willing to kill people in cars, but not kill a possum?"

Ms Michelis said she and her husband first saw a rat scuttling up a pipe in their housing estate four months ago.

Since then, they have seen rats across the road from their house and regularly hear them running across their roof.

They regard the rat problem in Waterways as caused by the large numbers of rats on the foreshore finding their way into the estates.

But the council is adamant its procedures are necessary and baiting on demand is not the answer.

"When you're baiting things you kill things," council spokesman Mike Petit said.

"Somebody's got to assess what the impact is going to be on the area. You have to balance cables in someone's car with the needs of the environment."

Mr Petit said the result of the council's investigation of Ms Michelis's complaint may be council giving her the number for a pest controller.

The rise in rats in bayside suburbs is believed to result from low rainfall. In wetter years, numbers of sewer rats would drown in seasonal downpours.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9973039^13762,00.html
 
"Somebody's got to assess what the impact is going to be on the area. You have to balance cables in someone's car with the needs of the environment."

Oh dear. When (not if) someone has an accident because of damage to his or her car, those words are going to come back in a baaaaaaad way...
 
Seagulls moving inland and attacking people

SEAGULLS are attacking people in towns across Britain in a frightening echo of Alfred Hitchcock's horror movie The Birds.

The aggressive gulls can measure five feet across and swoop down at 40mph from high buildings to claw their victims on the head, often dumping their droppings at the same time.

Nowhere is safe as the scavenging birds move inland to towns and cities searching for food that has become scarce on the coast with the decline of our fishing industry.

Experts warned yesterday that Britain's gull population will explode from 130,000 to 800,000 breeding pairs in the next 10 years.

Dive bombing of people will become a regular sight in places far from the sea such as Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester. The pests are already nesting in central London.

Gulls are at their most aggressive during the breeding season, which starts in May in warmer inland areas.

They will attack people if they fear their nests or young are under threat.
 
Or are you just pleased to see me?

Python Surprises Man Driving Rental Car

Mon Jun 28, 5:59 PM ET


MADISON, Wis. - This is one passenger no one wants in their rental car. A man found a slithery surprise Sunday when a ball python stuck its head out from between his legs while he was driving a rental car Sunday.


"He was completely in shock," said Officer Laura Walker, who responded to the scene. "I mean he said he was lucky he didn't crash the car."

When Walker and animal control officer Tim Frank arrived at about 4:30 p.m., the 2 1/2-foot constrictor snake was coiled around the seat's base, Walker said.

With some effort, Frank removed the black and gold snake and took it to the Dane County Humane Society, which will put it up for adoption after seven days if no one claims it, Frank said.

The man had rented the car the night before and had driven it to Milwaukee and back and around Madison Sunday, Walker said.

The snake was slightly dehydrated and was probably there for at least a week, Frank said.

The snake was tame and likely hand-reared, Frank said, adding that ball snakes are very common pets.

Sgt. John Radovan said the driver had no idea how or when the snake got into the car.

"Before he left he told the officer that he was going to expect a free car rental," Radovan said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20040628/ap_on_fe_st/rental_python
 
Leopards kill 10 in Bombay
Associated Press






Mumbai, India — Leopards have mauled 10 people to death in and around a national park at the edge of Mumbai this month. Forest officials have reacted by releasing pigs and rabbits hoping to distract the large cats.

Six of this month's deaths occurred outside the park as leopards roamed further in search of food.

Before dawn Monday, a leopard dragged an 18-year-old man from a doorless, tin-roofed hut wedged on a hill bordering the park. Relatives said his cries for help roused them, but they were too late to save him.

In another incident, a 52-year-old man was killed Monday by a leopard while sleeping near a Muslim shrine just inside the park.

To counter the threat to local residents, traps are being set up outside the park. A low voltage electric fence will be built to prevent the estimated 30 leopards from leaving Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Park officials have also decided to release 500 wild boar and 40 deer as leopard prey over the next few weeks.

This month's deaths bring the year's toll to 14, and five other people were mauled. Some 15 deadly leopard attacks were reported last year, and 11 in 2002.

Conservationists say nearly 11,000 squatters illegally occupy the park and about one million people inhabit nearby suburbs.

“Leopards are not creating the problem, man is,” chief forest conservator Prem Yaduvendu said. “The forest is meant for wild animals and not for people.”

Environmentalist Sunjoy Monga called the attacks accidental. He said the leopards were actually targeting poultry and goats grazing on the park's boundaries.

“From the marks at the attack sites it is quite clear the leopards are two- to three-year-old animals moving in peripheral areas of the park where stray dogs are an abundant source of food supply,” Mr. Monga said.

This month, three leopards have been caught outside the park and caged by forest officials. They will released in other forests in the state of Maharashtra.

The forest, spread over 100 square kilometres, was made a national park in the 1970s. As Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, expanded, apartment buildings appeared along the park's edge and squatters moved into the park.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040629.wmeow0629/BNStory/International/
 
Rats on the rise

Tale of Tokyo rats causes dismay

Thu 1 July, 2004 08:42

TOKYO (Reuters) - The number of rats in Tokyo is surging, but it's their choice of abode that is most worrying to city officials: the long-tailed rodents appear to prefer homes occupied by the elderly.

The problem has prompted the city to launch a probe into how rodents affect elderly people.

"Rats are rampant, particularly in the homes of elderly people living alone," one Tokyo metropolitan government official said on Thursday.

"We have to do something about this because most of the elderly people can't cope with it by themselves."

Tokyo officials said they had received 17,388 complaints -- many from the elderly -- about rats in the 12 months to March 2004, a jump from 10,000 five years ago.

The officials said rats tended to find their niche in homes where elderly people live because food is often left out.

A survey in 2002 showed that about 14 percent of all households in the nation's capital were comprised of elderly residents and more than half of those lived alone.

"Rats have made a nest in my 'futon' bedding," the Yomiuri newspaper quoted one distressed senior citizen as saying.

"They just crawl in and out at will."

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticl...=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5561901&section=news
 
More on the Bombay leopards:

Leopards caught in fearful Bombay

The authorities in India's business capital Bombay (Mumbai) have captured three leopards after a recent upsurge in attacks on humans.

The big cats have killed 12 people this month alone - and three times that number since the start of 2003.

Residents have been gripped by fear following the attacks, which have taken place in and around a wildlife park.

Officials blame illegal settlements in the sanctuary and a lack of food for the leopards.

Most of the attacks have occurred in the city's Powai area, where the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is situated.

The sprawling urban lung covers 100 square kilometres and is a haven for wildlife - including an estimated 30 leopards.

'Not man-eaters'

Forest officials and environmentalists say nearly 200,000 illegal settlers inside the park are encroaching on the leopards' habitat. Another million residents live around the sanctuary.

Residents are up in arms about what they call official apathy, but a senior forest department official, Ashok Khot, told the BBC that people in the area needed to take greater care.

The BBC's Zubair Ahmed in Bombay says it is increasingly difficult to contain the city's burgeoning population.

Experts say the leopards are not man-eaters, but are attacking humans in the dark, mistaking them for prey.

Officials plan to release 500 pigs in the forest so that the big cats do not have to leave the sanctuary in search of food.

There are also plans to increase the height of the park fence to prevent the leopards from straying.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3849131.stm

Published: 2004/06/29 10:40:19 GMT

© BBC MMIV

Wild leopards on human killing spree

Officials say lack of prey is bringing big cats into Bombay

Updated: 4:32 p.m. ET July 01, 2004

BOMBAY, India - As rampant population growth blurs the divide between city and countryside, it appears man is not even safe from nature’s predators in the middle of the world’s fifth-largest metropolis.

Leopards have killed 14 people this year, and 10 last month alone, in Bombay -- a city unique in that it almost entirely surrounds a verdant forest.

On Sunday night an 18-year-old was dragged from the hut where he slept and a 50-year-old priest was mauled near a temple on the outskirts of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a 103 sq km (40 sq mile) forest in the northern part of India’s financial capital.

“This is a conservation disaster. We have to study why the animal is coming out. It never came out before,” said J.C. Daniel, 73, former director of the Bombay Natural History Society, who has tracked forest fauna for 40 years.

Only last year, a four-year-old boy was killed when a leopard scaled the wall of a housing complex and dragged him away while he was playing in the garden.

The leopard problem goes to the heart of a debate about population growth and expansion in a metropolis that the United Nations says is home to more than 16 million people.

Environmentalists blame a shortage of prey in the forest, which forces an estimated 35 leopards living in an area 30 times the size of New York’s Central Park to hunt in the city.

Bombay’s national park is within just a few miles of several factories and the epicentre of its huge Bollywood movie industry.

And in a solution that could be out of a film script, officials plan to start releasing around 500 pigs and dozens of rabbits in the forest this week in the hopes that will satisfy the hunger of the big cats.

For more than two years, leopards have hunted dogs, cats and even poultry raised by tribal groups living on the park’s edge. But it is the attacks on humans that grab the city’s attention.

Daniel noted Californians face a similar problem with cougars, though recorded attacks are few and tend to occur near sparsely populated suburbs and not in crowded urban spaces.

Just last week, a tribal man’s body was found mutilated outside the hut where he slept, while a 55-year-old lawyer was mauled during a morning walk in the deep jungle.

The forest’s 100-odd ancient Buddhist caves and stone carvings are a big tourist attraction and its scenic hills are popular with trekkers, even though large parts remain off-limits.

“Villagers move in with buffaloes, chicken, fowl and their pets. Naturally they become easy prey,” said Ashok Khot, senior forest secretary for the western state of Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital.

“The problem lies with people, they are stepping into the land that belongs to animals,” Khot said, blaming encroachments by both rich and poor in posh high-rises and slums near the park.

It is illegal to kill leopards, an endangered species in Africa and Asia often hunted for their spotted fur.

So wildlife experts wearing armour and helmets keep a close watch on the forest edge, while rangers have set up nearly two dozen cages at strategic places to trap and relocate the animals.

One member of a team of rangers was badly injured, though not killed, by a leopard on Monday. Later that evening, rangers trapped three leopards believed to have killed people. Officials say they suspect there could be many more on the prowl.

“We cannot say the problem is over yet. We will continue with our combing operations,” said S.W. Upasane, an officer at the forest’s control room.

People living near the forest are no less nervous. At dusk they burst fire-crackers to scare animals in bushes. They have also set up bright lights and only leave their homes in groups.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5343790
 
I'm guessing they were PO'd at not being able to make it to

Posted on Sun, Jul. 04, 2004

Two moose crash July 4th parade in Utah

Associated Press

BRIGHTON, Utah - Everybody, and apparently every thing, loves a parade. Two young bull moose, each more than 6-feet tall and weighing hundreds of pounds, crashed Brighton's Fourth of July celebration.

The moose trotted up to Saturday's festivities, but backed off when they saw the crowd. Then they bolted through to get to the other side of town, coming within a few feet of some spectators. A few kids screamed but no one was hurt. "I told my family, that's something you don't see at the downtown parades," said Jeff Worthington.

"They stopped the parade and everybody just sat and watched," said Amber Bailey, a volunteer cleaning up after breakfast. "They could kill somebody. It was amazing that they would have the guts to walk out in front of everybody."


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/weird_news/9080423.htm?1c
 
Shouty news

They are getting more cunning and elaborate:

BIZARRE ACCIDENT IN SOUTHEAST COLORADO SPRINGS

Deer May Be Responsible For Late Night Auto Fatal.
by By Nina Sparano

7/4/2004


A BIZARRE CHAIN OF EVENTS, KILLS ONE DRIVER ON THE MLK BYPASS LATE SATURDAY NIGHT.

JUST AFTER 10:30, A DRIVER HEADED WESTBOUND ON THE MARTIAN LUTHER KING BYPASS STRUCK A DEER.

THE DRIVER AND A COLORADO SPRINGS POLICE CRUISER PULLED OVER TO INVESTIGATE THE ACCIDENT. THAT'S WHEN THE REAR OF THE POLICE CRUISER WAS STRUCK BY A THIRD WESTBOUND VEHICLE.

THE DRIVER OF THE THIRD VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AND WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD A SHORT TIME LATER.

THE NAME OF THE VICTIM IS NOT RELEASED. NO ONE ELSE WAS INJURED.

http://www.krdotv.com/DisplayStory.asp?id=7936
 
anome? anome?? Are you there?

Though somehow I expect our friend is bright enough to "keep [his] distance from agressive kangaroos" in any event, drought or not. -lopaka


Warning over killer kangaroos

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 Posted: 4:49 AM EDT (0849 GMT)

Kangaroos could pose a threat to people and dogs, an ecologist warns.


CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australians living in the nation's drought-ravaged capital have been warned to keep their distance from aggressive kangaroos after the iconic marsupials attacked one woman and killed a pet dog.

Eastern Grey kangaroos, which can grow 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) tall and weigh 70 kg (154 lb), have started moving out of the parched bush into inner Canberra suburbs during the day to look for grass and water, increasing their contact with people.

A senior wildlife ecologist with Environment ACT, Murray Evans, said on Wednesday the kangaroos could pose a threat to people and dogs, with one woman savaged by a large kangaroo as she was walking her small, pet dog in a paddock last week.

"Her dog went near the kangaroo and she followed and before she knew it the kangaroo lashed out, scratching her down the side of her body," Evans told Reuters.

Another woman told how a kangaroo drowned one of the four dogs she was walking with a friend, attacking it in a pond and holding it under the water with its hind legs while it hit out at one of the other dogs with its front legs.

"My friend started shouting: 'There's a kangaroo in the pond. It's got Summer'. It was surreal, like your worst nightmare," Christine Canham told the Canberra Times newspaper.

"She was screaming and screaming. The kangaroo just stared back at us. I will never forget that."

Evans said it was not unusual for kangaroos to flee into water if they felt under threat and, as a last defence, they would try to drown their predator with their powerful hind legs.

He said most of the behavioral change in the usually placid animals was due to the scarcity of feed after a run of dry years in Canberra, the inland bush capital, as Australia battles its worst drought in a century.

Kangaroos usually shelter by day and emerge at dusk to feed during the night but the reduction in available grass meant they were now traveling by day in search of food, dramatically increasing the number of encounters with people -- and dogs.

"Kangaroos and dogs just do not mix. Kangaroos see dogs as a threat and get spooked by them," Evans said.

"The main message people should remember is that kangaroos may look cuddly and furry but they are wild animals and people should keep their distance and keep dogs on leads around them."

Copyright 2004 Reuters


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/07/07/australia.kangaroo.reut/index.html
 
Police finally get their goat after lengthy search

The Associated Press
July 08, 2004


Authorities got their goat, but it took a few days.

Police and animal control workers spent part of four days trying to capture a 100-pound goat that was terrorizing the northwest Alabama city of 36,000 people, located on the Tennessee River.

The goathunt finally ended early Wednesday, thanks to a tranquilizer gun.

"We have the great beast," said Todd Nix, director of Florence animal control.

Nix suspects the goat was one of four that escaped from a sale barn a few months ago. Two were captured, but the others remained on the loose.

The goat may have been living on an island in the river, Nix said, but was spooked by fireworks on July Fourth. Since that day, the animal had been nothing but trouble.

"The goat has been from downtown up to Shoe Carnival. He's been to Kmart," Nix said. "He's eaten most of the flowers in the Tri-Cities Memorial Garden. He's been to the Waffle House."

Four police officers chased the goat around town Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights before catching up with him Wednesday morning. Animal control supervisor Vinny Grosso said the goat was finally trapped in the back yard of a home, where Grosso shot him with a tranquilizer gun.

"We were chasing him through all the side roads," he said.

The goat did charge at several police officers and hit one, but no injuries were reported.

Authorities spent a considerable amount of time and money looking for the goat, but Nix said loose livestock can present a danger to motorists. "A goat this size, 75 to 100 pounds, could cause a serious car wreck. No one got injured, but it did take a lot of time with our police officers," he said.

Nix said the goat will be taken somewhere where his skills can be put to use. "He will spend his days doing lawn care," he said.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040708/APN/407080839
 
Itsy-bitsy spider catches a snake
Sat 10 July, 2004 03:58

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese house spider sitting on its web waiting for lunch got the biggest helping of its life

-- it caught a snake.

The 30-cm (12-in) snake crawled into a farmer's house in Qingyuan county in eastern Zhejiang province, apparently oblivious of the spider patiently spinning its web in the corner, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

"Unfortunately, it got desperately trapped in the tough, sticky web of the spider," the agency said.

"The spider pulled the web higher and suspended the snake above the ground. It then managed to get to the neck of the snake, using its beak to pierce the snake and inject its poison."

The David and Goliath battle took 80 minutes, drawing farmers from all around to watch, Xinhua said.

"The snake died soon and the hunter spider began to suck its blood."

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5634230&section=news
 
Surfer bitten in half
By Richard Shears, Daily Mail, in Sydney
12 July 2004

A surfer was bitten in half after losing a desperate fight for his life with two Great White sharks.


Brad Smith, 29, was surfing off the Western Australian coast when a huge shark 'as wide as a car' lunged out of the water and snapped his board in half.

Mr Smith's friends could only watch in horror as he fell into the sea and another of the enormous creatures moved in on him. Experts said it was almost as if they had ambushed him.

The surfer lashed out with his fists to try to keep the sharks at bay as they came at him repeatedly. But after just 45 seconds he disappeared beneath the surface - and the water turned red.

When his body floated back up, his friends risked their own lives to go out and drag it back to shore.

Yesterday they were too upset to describe his injuries, but another surfer at Left Handers Beach near the resort of Gracetown said he had been warned: 'Don't go in there, someone's been bitten in half by a shark.'

Another surfer Cameron Rowe, 17, said: 'There was nothing we could do to help him. At first I saw one shark and thought it was one of the usual ones you see swimming-around, reef sharks, which don't cause you any trouble.

'But these things were massive. When the first one came up a bit I could see its fin and it was almost a yard high.

'When it came out of the water with Brad still fighting it, I could see its body was about the width of a car and its open jaws were as wide as a man's arm.

'What happened then just ended up in a terrible feeding frenzy. It was awful.'

One of Mr Smith's friends, Mitch Campbell, said: 'It was the worst thing I have seen. There was so much confusion out there it was impossible to tell which shark was attacking, but they kept coming at him time and time again.

'You could see Brad trying to whack at them to keep them away.

'We were shouting out, "Swim for your life, mate! Swim for your life!" But he obviously didn't have a chance. They were massive.

'He put up such a brave fight. He was punching away and there was water and blood everywhere.'

Police have collected Mr Smith's surfboard, snapped in half by the razor-sharp teeth of one of the sharks. Throughout yesterday-marksmen in a flotilla of boats, aided by police in a helicopter, searched for the killers, to no avail.

The failure to locate the maneaters has sent fear along the West Australian coast.

'If we find them, we have the authority to kill them,' said fisheries officer Tony Cappelluti. Great Whites are a protected species - unless one kills a human.

'If they've tasted human blood, then they'll remain a problem until we've tracked them down,' he added.

Shark expert Sasha Thompson, from the Aquarium of Western Australia, said witness reports suggested the sharks were Great Whites, the most feared of all marine creatures and the species featured in the film Jaws.

'Judging by the size, the area they were swimming in and the power of the jaws, I'd say they were Great Whites,' she said.

She said it was impossible to know what triggered the attack, but added: 'It is whale migration season and that might have something to do with it.'

Great Whites are known to spend time on Western Australia's southern coast in winter before moving north to hunt whales returning to southern waters.

Another marine expert, Mike Roennfeldt, said he was surprised at the nature of the ambush-style attack.

'Generally sharks are solo hunters,' he said. 'It's unusual - unheard of, in fact - for one Great White to knock a guy off his surfboard and then for another to attack, which seems to have happened here.'

It was the second fatal attack in West Australian waters in less than four years.

In November 2000, 49-year-old swimmer Ken Crew died from massive bleeding after one of his legs was bitten off in shallow water just north of Perth's popular Cottesloe Beach.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/11899496?version=1
 
Tarzan's tiger

Police kill tiger as it lunged at officer

Owner said big cat was not dangerous

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 Posted: 0151 GMT (0951 HKT)



LOXAHATCHEE, Florida (CNN) -- A 600-pound tiger owned by an actor who once portrayed Tarzan was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon, a wildlife official said.

The tiger was spotted by two wildlife officers who were searching for it, and the officers prepared to shoot the animal with a tranquilizer dart, said Florida Wildlife Officer Jorge Pino.

But the animal lunged toward one of the officers, and "the officer felt threatened enough where he needed to use lethal force," Pino said.

Former Tarzan actor Steve Sipek, however, disputed that version of events. He said the tiger, named Bobo, was sleeping and posed no threat.

"They came upon him immediately and shot him five times. Bobo never left the place he was laying," Sipek told CNN, his shirt covered in the animal's blood from embracing the dead tiger.

Earlier in the day, Sipek had predicted officers would kill his tiger because of "the way they were behaving."

Asked why officers took lethal force, he told CNN, "They want glory. They want to be able to say, 'We killed the tiger. We are the winners. We did our job. We saved the people from this vicious tiger.' "

Brett Norton, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, said the tiger was shot with an M4 rifle. The animal's body has since been taken to a secure location for an autopsy.

Wildlife officers said Bobo bit and seriously injured a woman who was working at Sipek's home two years ago.

"Bobo was not dangerous, never was," insisted Sipek.

"The woman that he hurt -- [it] was not because he intentionally hurt her. She was on the ground and looked like something unusual. All he did was grab her. It does not take very much for the fangs to penetrate human skin."

Sipek's property also houses several other big cats, and is surrounded in part by 12-foot high concrete walls.

It was not immediately clear how the tiger got out. Sipek told CNN he believes somebody opened one of three doors, allowing Bobo to escape. He added that he has had numerous problems with people trying to harm his animals in the past.

Residents near the compound in Loxahatchee, about 65 miles north of Miami, had been warned to bring their pets and other domestic animals inside houses or barns, and to stay inside themselves until Bobo was caught.

Willie Puz, a spokesman for Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the former actor has valid and current permits to keep such animals, but added that his agency will be investigating the tiger's escape.

Sipek played Tarzan in 1960s B movies.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/South/07/13/escaped.tiger/
 
Woman Shares Ride in Truck With Bat

Tue Jul 13, 6:12 PM ET


FOUKE, Ark. - Amanda Jones had a little trouble coming to grips with whatever was flying around in the cab of her truck. The creature, which flew in through her half-open window as she drove in darkness, was flapping around her head and neck. She swatted at it to try to make it go away.

"I thought it was a big moth. I never expected it to be a bat," Jones said.

It was about 1 a.m. Sunday that Jones learned the joys of suddenly sharing a ride with a bat. With one of her swipes, she knocked the animal down. When she turned on the interior light, she saw the still-living bat on the floorboard.

The bat had a wingspan of about 5 inches, she said. Jones finished the drive to her home in Fouke in far southwestern Arkansas.

"I went in the house. I didn't want to see it anymore. My husband went back out to the truck and it was hanging upside down from the truck seat. It wouldn't get out of the truck. He finally caught it in a Mason jar."

Bats can carry rabies and are responsible for many human cases of the illness. Since Jones isn't sure whether the animal bit or scratched her, she took the animal in for testing to the Miller County Health Unit where it was sent off to the state lab.

Results are pending on whether the bat was rabid.

"At the time it happened, I was freaking out," Jones said. "It flopped all the way down the side of my body."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...e=10&u=/ap/20040713/ap_on_fe_st/bat_encounter
 
Posted on: Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Jellyfish invasion hits bathers hard

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The monthly jellyfish invasion is over, but not before hundreds of beachgoers suffered stings from a very large influx of the marine creatures, according to city lifeguards.


Signs remained posted yesterday at Waikiki Beach warning swimmers about the presence of box jellyfish. There was a smaller influx yesterday in Waikiki after 318 people were stung Sunday.

Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser

In Waikiki, 318 people were stung by box jellyfish Sunday along with 21 people at Hanauma Bay, two at Ala Moana Beach and 22 on the Leeward Coast, said Rob Miller, with the city's Ocean Safety Division. None of the victims required hospitalization, he said.

"We got severely smacked (Sunday)," Miller said.

The influx of box jellyfish occurs nine or 10 days after a full moon and usually lasts for three days.

"The primary watch period is from eight to 12 days after a full moon," Miller said. "The ninth and 10th are almost guaranteed."

Landy Blair, who does statistical studies for the Ocean Safety Division, said the arrival of jellyfish is tied to their spawning cycle.

Sunday's influx, while large, was not the worst Blair has seen.

Blair said in a control area on Waikiki Beach in front of the Pacific Beach Hotel, typically about 250 jellyfish will be found on average during an influx, but in the same area Sunday a total of 743 were found on the beach and in the water.

By midday yesterday, only 43 were found, signifying this influx is almost over, he said.

By today the water should be 99 percent free of jellyfish, Blair said.

Lifeguards advise swimmers to stay out of the water when jellyfish are present, but an alternative is to coat yourself in a sunscreen that also works as a jellyfish sting preventative.

Safe Sea, available in Hawai'i for about two years, promises protection by inhibiting the mechanism of the stinging cells from the stings of jellyfish, fire coral and other types of stinging marine life.

Linda Moran, vice president of Blue Water Sports Supply, the Hawai'i distributor of Safe Sea, said the product retails for .95 and has been slowly growing in popularity locally.

"It's like a mosquito repellent for the water," Moran said. "When I take the kids hiking, I buy mosquito spray. This is just for the water. You are not immune, but if you are stung, it is not so bad."

John Enomoto, manager of Go Banana, said the product has proved popular with kayakers, who often encounter the stinging creatures in the open ocean.

"We pick (jellyfish) up with our paddles and the wind blows them across your body," Enomoto said. "I'm used to grabbing and yanking them out."

--------------------
Stinging things

• When box jellyfish are around, it's best to stay out of the water. For other stings, Craig Thomas and Susan Scott's "All Stings Considered" advises you to see a doctor if it's severe, if there is an allergic reaction, or if an infection, swelling or other complications arise.

• For Portuguese man-of-war stings, pick off visible tentacles with a gloved hand or stick, then rinse with salt or fresh water to remove tentacles. Apply ice for pain. Use hydrocortisone ointment and/or diphenhydramine for persistent itching.

• If you do find yourself on the business end of a box jellyfish sting, immediately douse the area with copious amounts of white vinegar to keep undischarged nematocytes from "firing" to prevent further stings. Don't rub the area and don't use hot water, which can cause the nematocytes to fire more. Use ice to relieve pain. (Popular local remedies like alcohol, meat tenderizer and urine do not work and may in fact be harmful.)

• Safe Sea, a combination sunscreen and jellyfish sting preventative, is available at McCully Bicycle, Twogood Kayaks, Naish Hawaii, Go Banana, the Running Room, Longs Drugs in Kahala, Kaimuki and Kailua, Kalapawai Market and other outdoor and recreation stores.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jul/13/ln/ln17a.html
 
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