Stories of Interest

[Last Moon]

In my research I look for certain news items, particularly those dealing with animal attacks, especially unusual ones. Here is an example:

A Manitoba woman credits a childhood lesson for saving her life when she was attacked and bitten by a wolf at the side of a highway.

Dawn Hepp was driving along Highway 6 near Grand Rapids on March 8 when she pulled over to help another driver.

When she walked over to the car, a wolf lunged at her.

“His face and his jaws were around my neck … so it was his fur I can feel on my face," she said.

"I could just hear my dad saying, 'stay calm Dawn, stay calm Dawn.' So what I did was I just stayed calm, I didn't yell, I didn't scream.

"He dug a little deeper with that tooth and by the larynx, whether he couldn't get a good enough grip or what, he let go."

At that moment, Hepp jumped into her car and pulled up next to the people in the other vehicle she had stopped to help.

"I rolled down my window and said, 'You guys are OK? I've gotta go. I've gotta get to the nearest hospital,'" she said.

"I just said, 'I gotta get going', and they said, 'Yeah, we were worried about you.'"

Remaining calm, Hepp drove herself to the hospital in Ashern and was treated for puncture wounds and rabies.

Grand Rapids is located about 415 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

[Gotham Witch]

There must be dozens, if not more similar stories related to animal attacks a year. How many do you think are mundane, and how many not?

[Last Moon]

Well there are a few indicators.

First, did the attack happen in a populated area? Natural predators tend to move away from concentrations of human beings.

Second, did the attack not fit the normal hunting behavior of the animal believed responsible? While therienthrope behavior is influenced by their bestial connections, there are other factors at work that may cause them to act in non-animalistic ways.

Third, is the area a hotbed for missing persons cases? Therianthropes strike far more often than many realize and usually don't leave the victim around to be found.

Fourth, is the victim partially eaten? Very few therianthropes actually sustain themselves physically with human flesh. Instead they seem to enjoy the actual act of hunting and killing. When a therianthrope does consume human flesh they usually limit themselves to a few symbolic acts, such as eating the heart or brain, and leaving the rest of the body unconsumed. A natural predator is much more likely to at least partially consume the victim.

Fifth, were there trophies taken? This can include bodyparts or possessions of the victim. Hunting and killing is seen as a way to get status in therianthrope society. Many tribes of therianthropes do not consider a male to be an adult until they have made their first kill. In some tribes, this kill must explicitly be a sentient being.

[Ron Caliburn]

Pretty close to my list to sorting out what is and isn't an animal attack.

[Last Moon]

I am glad for that validation. Have your efforts proven successful?

[Ron Caliburn]

I've been pretty good at finding the unnatural, yes.

[Hannah]

Dad,

the vice versa is also true. Probably the best proof that I'm your daughter.

Hannah

[Ron Caliburn]

I'd have preferred it if you'd not taken after me in that regard, or quite a few other things.

[Gotham Witch]

Like your bullheadedness?

[Nemesis]

Papa and Hannah are not bullheaded!

A bull knows when to give up.

[Grace]

Believe me. My daughter knows what she's talking about when it comes to being bull headed.

[Hannah]

Darcy,

I can't think of anyone with the last name Grant who isn't isn't impossibly stubborn, can you Mrs. Grant?

Hannah

[Ron Caliburn]

I have to regretfully agree with both our daughters Darcy.

[Grace]

I knew I should have kept my name!

[Kolya]

You read Aishat Maksudova's story?

[Hannah]

Is this it?

Hannah

[Kolya]

Yep that's the one.

[Last Moon]

Another example.

India tiger kills 10th person in 6 weeks
Female cat believed to have strayed from India's oldest national park

A tiger prowling near villages in northern India killed its 10th person in six weeks, a day after eluding a trap set by hunters with a live calf as bait.

The female tiger is believed to have strayed from Jim Corbett National Park, India's oldest national park, which was established in 1936 to provide endangered Bengal tigers with safe territory.

The big cat's latest victim was a 50-year-old man who was collecting firewood Sunday night in the forest outside Kalgarh village in Uttarakhand state, according to Saket Badola, deputy director of the national park.

The animal ate parts of the man's leg and abdomen before being scared away by villagers waving shovels and metal rods.

Hunters had almost nabbed the tiger a day earlier with a bovine calf.

"On Saturday night the tigress almost fell in trap and was close to the calf," Badola said. "But she did not attack the bait and left silently."

Reports that a killer tiger was on the loose began circulating Dec. 29, when a 65-year-old man was mauled in Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh state, across the border from Uttarakhand. Since then, thousands of terrified villagers have been told to watch out for the animal and to avoid the forests.

Tiger prowls 130 km

The tiger has been on the prowl across an area spanning some 130 kilometres.

"The animal has started attacking humans because it is not getting its natural prey," said Rupek De, chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh. "The tigress must be tired because it is not getting adequate rest."

He said the hunters hired to kill the animal were having trouble tracking it in dense forests. The team also was understaffed; only three of the six hunters hired for the job showed up for work, De said.

De said he asked wildlife officials in Uttarakhand for help, saying there seems to be lack of co-ordination.

On Sunday, angry villagers seized a national forestry office, demanding protection and compensation for the families of the dead.

"We can understand the predicament of the villagers," Badola said. "The villagers do not have toilets in their homes. They go out in the open or forest areas to answer nature's call. In this scenario it is difficult to give protection to each and every villager. We have advised them to move in groups."

India's wild tigers are considered endangered because of rampant poaching and shrinking habitat as India undergoes breakneck development to accommodate the staggering growth of its 1.2 billion people.

India today has more than half of the 3,200 tigers estimated to be left in the wild. Despite dozens of tiger reserves across the country, however, the numbers have sunk from an estimated 5,000-7,000 in the 1990s, when the big cats' habitat was twice as large.

[Nemesis]

One wonders if the worlds population of were tigers is equal to, less than or greater than the worlds population of actual tigers.

[Hannah]

This one sounds like a hungry tiger rather than some kind of were-creature to me.

Hannah Knight

[Nemesis]

But what if all that human meat it's eating makes it a were-tiger? Someone should check this out.