Category: Bears

Bosnian Shepherd kills brown bear with his bare hands

On By A.P.In Bears, Blazo Grkovic, Bosnia, shepherdLeave a comment

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A shepherd killed a brown bear with his bare hands when it charged him as he tended his flock. Blazo Grkovic gave the beast a ‘bear hug’ and strangled it as it swiped him with its paws and tried to bite him.

‘I grabbed it round the throat and squeezed and squeezed until it collapsed,’ the Bosnian said.

The 48-year-old, from a mountain region near Foča, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, went on to describe how he fought close up with the animal.

He admitted it was a tough battle and he was lucky to get out alive.

‘It bit me, and I hit it until it died. I have injuries everywhere, especially in my left arm where he bit me twice or three times,’ Mr Grkovic said from his hospital bed.

After dispatching the bear, the shepherd managed to call his brother, who turned up with an ambulance. The brave farmer was treated in hospital for cuts.

Shepherd ‘kills brown bear with his bare hands after squeezing its throat’

Bear eats monkey when forced to ride bike at Shanghai Wild Animal Park

On By A.P.In Bears, China, Kebmodee, monkey, Nature, Shanghai, Shanghai Wild Animal ParkLeave a comment

A monkey was mauled by a bear after a disturbing circus stunt went wrong.

A video has emerged online of two monkeys and a black bear being forced to ride bicycles around a track in front of a large crowd.

After two laps of the track, one of the monkeys crash and the bear then attacks it as it lies stuck under the bicycle.

The video is believed to have been shot at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park, in China, which has hit the headlines in the past for its ‘Wild Animal Olympics’.

In the video, the audience can be heard cheering and laughing as the animals are sent riding around the small arena.

Circus workers holding sticks push the small bikes off but after a few seconds one monkey and the bear crash.

Staff can be seen desperately trying to force the bear off as it grabs the small monkey in its mouth.

At one stage three workers, dressed in brightly coloured costumes, try to wrestle the bear away, while another leads the second monkey away.

Campaign group Animals Asia said it has previously documented cheetahs, lions, tigers, bears, chimpanzees and an elephant being forced to perform in the ‘Wild Animal Olympics’.

It is not clear when the latest video was taken but Shanghai Wild Animal Park said in 2006 that the Olympic event had been scrapped following complaints and ‘out of consideration for the safety of our visitors.’

Stunts in the show had included making bears box one another and ride bicycles, kangaroos boxing humans and monkeys lifting weights.

Visitors to the park can also pay to have their picture taken with the big cats and other animals.

Animals Asia said some of the creatures had also been declawed.

China Tour Online’s website said the park ‘offers animal performances, showing the charm and skill of the animals and their gift in performing.’

Thanks to Kebmodee for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2320745/Bear-forced-ride-bike-sick-circus-stunt-crashes-mauls-monkey-large-crowd.html#ixzz2T1OBSdWz
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Fossils reveal that prehistoric people ate panda bears

On By A.P.In China, panda bear, prehistoric manLeave a comment

 

China’s beloved national symbol — the panda — may have been seen quite differently by ancient humans: as food.

Scientist Wei Guangbiao says prehistoric man ate pandas in an area that is now part of the city of Chongqing in southwest China.

Wei, head of the Institute of Three Gorges Paleoanthropology at a Chongqing museum, says many excavated panda fossils “showed that pandas were once slashed to death by man.”

The Chongqing Morning Post quoted him Friday as saying: “In primitive times, people wouldn’t kill animals that were useless to them” and therefore the pandas must have been used as food.

But he says pandas were much smaller then.

Wei says wild pandas lived in Chongqing’s high mountains 10,000 to 1 million years ago.

The Chinese government invests greatly in studying the native species and trying to ensure its survival. Pandas number about 1,600 in the wild, where they are critically endangered due to poaching and development. More than 300 live in captivity, mostly in China’s breeding programs.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1271592–prehistoric-man-ate-pandas-fossils-show

Bears break into cabin and drink 100 beers

On By A.P.In Bears, Even Nilsen, Finnmark, Norway1 Comment

 

According to The Local, a mother and her three cubs ripped open a wall and forced their way into a cabin in Finnmark, in northeastern Norway, earlier this week – reportedly consuming more than 100 cans of beer along with a supply of marshmallows, honey and chocolate spread.

Cabin owner Even Borthen Nilsen told NRK. “The cabin has the stench of a right old piss up, trash, and bears.”
The bear, and three cubs, are reported to have forced their way into the cabin by ripping a wall off.
“The entire cabin was destroyed,” Nilsen told the local Finnmarken.no daily.
Nilsen told of how his mother and grandmother were the first to discover the carnage left by the beer-thirsty bears, when they arrived at the cabin in Jarfjord in Finnmarken only to find the place turned over.
“The beds and all kitchen appliances, stove, oven and cupboards and shelves were all smashed to pieces,” he said.
And furthermore the bears had finished off all the food and drink in the house – including all the marshmallows, chocolate spread, honey and over 100 cans of beer.
Nilsen explained that excrement on the outside of the cabin left him in no doubt that it was a family of bears which had taken over his cabin for night of feasting and drunken revelry.
“You can see footprints on the windows,” he said.

“The entire cabin was destroyed,” cabin owner Even Nilsen told the local Finnmarken.no daily. “The beds and all kitchen appliances, stove, oven and cupboards and shelves were all smashed to pieces.”

And yes, says Nilsen, the carousing marauders left calling cards: excrement outside the cabin and footprints on the windows.

In other trespassing bear news, Time reports that surveillance video from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Estes Park, Colo., shows a black bear went in and out of the store multiple times late last month to snag such goodies as English toffee, caramel-dipped chocolate-chip cookies and milk chocolate “cookie bears”.

“The bear took the comestibles without breaking a thing in the store, ate the stolen goodies outside, and then returned to the shop for more,” says Time. ” All told, the well-behaved bear made seven trips in roughly 15 minutes,” and the thief “left for good after a passing car scared him away.”

http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2012/08/boozing-bears-drink-100-beers-leave-cabin-in-ruins/822112/1?loc=interstitialskip

Thanks to P.C. for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Bear crashes into middle school graduation in California

On By A.P.In Bears, California, Middle school graduation1 Comment

The last day of classes at a California elementary school and a graduation  ceremony at an adjacent middle school were interrupted by an unexpected guest: a  black bear that wandered onto school property.

Kern County Animal Control officers say the young black bear approached Ramon  Garza Elementary School in Bakersfield on Thursday, forcing students who were  outside to return to their classrooms, and surprising students and parents  attending a graduation ceremony at adjacent Sierra Middle School.

A teacher called authorities as the bear approached the schools, but the  animal kept its distance and nobody was in danger.

Within minutes, officers cornered the animal at an apartment complex, hit it  with a stun gun, and loaded it into a truck. They then released it back into the  wild near the Tejon Ranch, 1 1/2 hours southeast of Bakersfield.

Authorities believe the 150-pound, 3-year-old bear followed the Kern River  into town.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/31/national/a195523D37.DTL#ixzz1yCdoqzCx

Bear in Metuchen

On By A.P.In BearsLeave a comment

 

A black bear that was perched high in a tree in Metuchen most of the day has come down to the ground and is now on the run, according to the homeowner whose backyard served as a temporary home to the bear.

The young black bear was stretched out on tree branch about 75 feet above the ground in a backyard on West Chestnut Avenue until a few minutes ago, causing quite a stir in the quiet residential neighborhood.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/06/black_bear_in_metuchen_out_of.html