List of Bear attacks

List of fatal bear attacks in North America by decade

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This is a list of known fatal bear attacks that occurred in North America by decade in reverse chronological order. Three species of bear, the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), the American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) and the Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) are identified in the article. The Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), the Kodiak Bear and the Mexican Brown Bear are treated as subspecies of the Brown Bear. There were about 52 recorded deaths due to black bears between 1900 and 2003 and about 50 deaths due to brown bears and about 5 due to polar bears in the same period. The most recent data is the most reliable and complete, but does not necessarily include all of the fatal attacks that have occurred in North America. Prior to recent decades bear attacks were not well documented, particularly those which took place in isolated regions. As a result there were more attacks and fatalities than have been recorded as shown here, particularly in Canada and Alaska.

Shark attack July 2008

INJURED – 9 July 2008 — Emerald Isle, North Carolina, USA – swimmer attacked

Baileigh Foster, 14, was bitten on the right foot by a shark while swimming off Emerald Isle, North Carolina, US. Baileigh told media she was in waist-deep water at around 7.30pm when the shark bit her. It was Wednesday 9 July 2008.

She said she felt a sharp pain, “like being stabbed” on the top and bottom of her right foot.

She said the water was a little rough, and she had been pushed away from the rest of the group by about 10 feet. She and her cousin thought they saw something earlier that day that kind of looked like a lot of fish were swimming in one area but didn’t think it was anything to mention, she said.

“When I turned to go back to shore, it just bit me. There wasn’t any pulling. It was scary,” she said.

“It was just like 10 seconds. The shark just came up and bit me and let go like I was a small fish or something.”

Running out of the water screaming, she said no one thought anything was wrong because she had been screaming like that earlier while playing with cousins. But then her uncle looked at her face and saw her foot and yelled at all the other kids to get out of the water.

She underwent surgery at Carteret General Hospital to repair lacerations, a severed tendon and a fracture in her foot.

Reason why shark attacks

Reasons for attacks

While one should be very cautious with great white sharks, it does not target humans as prey.

There are many theories about why sharks sometimes attack people.^[12] Sharks are apex predators in their enviroment, and thus have little fear of any creature they cross paths with. Like most sophisticated hunters, they are curious when they encounter something unusual in their territories. Lacking any limbs with sensitive digits such as hands or feet, the only way they can explore an object or organism is to bite it. Generally, shark bites are exploratory, and the animal will swim away after one bite (unfortunately, a single bite can greviously injure a human if the animal involved is a powerful predator like a Great White or Tiger shark).

Most sharks would not waste energy attacking a human with the intention of eating them, as our ratio of bone-to-muscle makes us extremely hard to eat for a creature with no leverage (in open water, with nothing to prop a large prey item up against and no grasping limbs that could hold it still, it is quite difficult to remove flesh from bones using only their mouth).

Some species, such as the great white shark, may sometimes mistake humans for seal or other prey animal; this would be typical when a shark attacks a surfer. The shape of a surfer lying on a board closely resembles a seal from beneath the surface (seals have a thick layer of energy-rich fat, which makes them very attractive targets). Another theory is that sharks normally make one swift attack and then retreat to wait for the victim to die or exhaust itself before returning to feed. This protects the shark from injury from a wounded and aggressive target; however, it also allows humans time to get out of the water and survive.

Sharks are equipped with sensory organs that detect the electricity generated by muscle movement; another theory for the low fatality rate of shark bites is that the electrical receptors, which pick up movement, do not pick up the same signals from a human as they do a wounded seal (which creates a disturbance in the water similar to a human swimming), and so they are more cautious^{[citation needed]}.

Statistcs of Shark attacks

Statistics

In 2000, there were 79 shark attacks reported worldwide, 11 of them fatal. In 2005 and 2006 this number dropped to 61 and 62 respectively, while the number of fatalities dropped to only four per year. Of these attacks, the majority occurred in the United States (53 in 2000, 40 in 2005 and 38 in 2006).^[1] For the same period, the Global Shark Attack File records 69 unprovoked attacks of which five were fatal.^[2]

The Florida Museum of Natural History points out that these numbers should be compared with the much higher deaths from other, less feared causes; for example, several hundred people die annually from lightning strikes.^[3] It should also be noted that the relatively low number of shark attacks on humans is dwarfed by the number of sharks fished by humans, amounting to almost 40 million per year.^[4]

The New York Times reported in July 2008 that there had been only one fatal attack in the previous year.^[5]

Species involved in incidents

Contrary to popular belief, only a few sharks are dangerous to humans. Out of more than 360 shark species, only four have been involved in a significant number of fatal unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, tiger, oceanic whitetip shark^[6] and bull shark.^[7] These sharks, being large, powerful predators, may sometimes attack and kill people; however, they have all been filmed in open water by unprotected divers.^[8][9]

Modern day statistics show the oceanic whitetip shark as being seldom involved in unprovoked attacks. However, there have been a number of such attacks in the past, particularly during World War I and World War II. A possible explanation is that the oceanic whitetip lives in the open sea and rarely shows up near coasts, where most incidents occur nowadays. During the world wars many ship and aircraft disasters happened in the open ocean, and due to its abundance the oceanic whitetip is often the first species on site when such a disaster happens.

Infamous examples of oceanic whitetip attacks include the sinking of the Nova Scotia, a steamship carrying 1000 that was sunk near South Africa by a German submarine in World War II. Only 192 people survived, with many deaths attributed to the oceanic whitetip shark.^[10] Another example was the torpedoing of the USS Indianapolis on 30 July 1945, giving a minimal figure of 60–80 killed by oceanic whitetips.^[11] Some survivors stated that tiger sharks were involved too.

Watson and the Shark by J.S. Copley, based on an attack on a swimmer in Havana in 1749

In addition to the four species responsible for a significant number of fatal attacks on humans, a number of other species have attacked humans without being provoked, and have on extremely rare occasions been responsible for a human death. This group includes the shortfin mako, hammerhead, Galapagos, gray reef, blacktip reef, lemon, silky, and blue sharks.^[7] These sharks are also large, powerful predators which can be provoked simply by being in the water at the wrong time and place, but they are normally considered less dangerous to divers and swimmers than the previous group. A few other shark species do attack people every year, producing wounds that can potentially kill, but this occurs either specifically because they have been provoked, or through mistaken identity due to water conditions or the like.

[edit] Reasons for attacks

While one should be very cautious with great white sharks, it does not target humans as prey.

There are many theories about why sharks sometimes attack people.^[12] Sharks are apex predators in their enviroment, and thus have little fear of any creature they cross paths with. Like most sophisticated hunters, they are curious when they encounter something unusual in their territories. Lacking any limbs with sensitive digits such as hands or feet, the only way they can explore an object or organism is to bite it. Generally, shark bites are exploratory, and the animal will swim away after one bite (unfortunately, a single bite can greviously injure a human if the animal involved is a powerful predator like a Great White or Tiger shark).

Most sharks would not waste energy attacking a human with the intention of eating them, as our ratio of bone-to-muscle makes us extremely hard to eat for a creature with no leverage (in open water, with nothing to prop a large prey item up against and no grasping limbs that could hold it still, it is quite difficult to remove flesh from bones using only their mouth).

Some species, such as the great white shark, may sometimes mistake humans for seal or other prey animal; this would be typical when a shark attacks a surfer. The shape of a surfer lying on a board closely resembles a seal from beneath the surface (seals have a thick layer of energy-rich fat, which makes them very attractive targets). Another theory is that sharks normally make one swift attack and then retreat to wait for the victim to die or exhaust itself before returning to feed. This protects the shark from injury from a wounded and aggressive target; however, it also allows humans time to get out of the water and survive.

Sharks are equipped with sensory organs that detect the electricity generated by muscle movement; another theory for the low fatality rate of shark bites is that the electrical receptors, which pick up movement, do not pick up the same signals from a human as they do a wounded seal (which creates a disturbance in the water similar to a human swimming), and so they are more cautious

Dolphin’s protection

There are many stories that tell of dolphins protecting humans from shark attacks, with multiple eye-witness accounts from survivors dating from antiquity to present day (typically, dolphins form a ring around humans who are injured or endangered). This phenomenon was declared “plausible” by the team of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters, where it was shown that a shark will attack no creature when a dolphin is around. However, in spite of years of scientific study, there has been no conclusive explanation given for this behavior. In some cases, sharks have been seen attacking, or trying to attack dolphins.

Shark attacks the movie “Jaws”

Shark is an attack on a human by a shark. Every year, a number of people are attacked by sharks, although most survive. Despite the relative rarity of shark attacks, the fear of sharks is a common phenomenon, having been fueled by the occasional instances of attacks, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, and by sensationalized fiction and film, such as the Jaws series. Many shark experts feel that the danger presented by sharks has been exaggerated, and even the creator of the Jaws phenomenon, the late Peter Benchley, attempted to dispel the myth of sharks being man-eating monsters in the recent years before his death.

Avenge a Shark Attack First

How To Avenge a Shark AttackFirst, find your shark.

Posted Friday, Dec. 17, 2004, at 5:22 PM ET A bad shark is hard to find

Australian wildlife officials are hunting for a great white shark that killed an 18-year-old surfer near Adelaide on Thursday. How common is the practice of killing sharks believed responsible for fatal attacks?

Not very, in large part because it’s incredibly difficult to find the guilty party. Sharks can swim over 40 miles a day and often bolt from the scene of an attack soon after the incident. “The high mobility of individual sharks … indicates that fishing for a ‘culprit’ after an attack is unlikely to be effective,” concluded members of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology’s Shark Research Group in a 1999 paper. Heeding that advice, wildlife officials around the world rarely send fishermen on search-and-destroy missions after a fatal strike.

There also seems to be little scientific basis for hunting down a particular shark. Despite what you might have seen in Jaws, there is no such thing as a “rogue shark” that develops a taste for human flesh. In fact, a shark that attacks a human is unlikely to do so again—we are by no means their preferred prey.

Alligator Kills and Dismembers Jogger

A 28-year-old jogger was killed and dismembered by an alligator in Florida.

“The alligator attacked her and basically amputated her arms, bit her on the leg and back and pulled her into the water,” he told reporters. “She died extremely fast. By the time she was pulled into the water, she was already dead.” No eyewitnesses have come forward, although one woman said she thought she saw Ms Jimenez dangling her feet in the water.

Thankfully aligator attacks on humans in Florida are rare with only 18 people being killed since records began in 1948.

Women attacked by an alligator

A woman snorkeling in a Marion County spring and a homeless woman trespassing in a Tampa Bay-area backyard were found dead Sunday in alligator attacks, bringing to three the number of fatal strikes in less than a week. The third occurred in Sunrise last week.
The bloody week in Florida’s waterways marks a stark departure for a state that had seen just 17 confirmed deadly encounters with alligators in 58 years.

The homeless woman found dead and dismembered Sunday morning had been killed as many as three days earlier, officials said. A homeowner found the body near Oldsmar in Pinellas County.
The woman apparently was alone, her purse and some drugs found nearby, and she had suffered alligator bites. Officials say the attack was a factor in her death but won’t know an official cause for as long as four weeks.

A Tennessee woman killed Sunday afternoon was swimming with friends in Juniper Run in Ocala National Forest. Two of the friends tried to pry her body from the jaws of the alligator, gouging its eyes in a frantic effort to free her.
That incident came just five days after a Davie woman out for a jog went missing near a canal in nearby Sunrise. Her dismembered body was found the next day, and the alligator that attacked her was captured and killed Saturday, parts of the jogger’s body still in its digestive tract.
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said there have been an increasing number of alligator attacks for several reasons, including warmer weather and humans encroaching on alligator territory.
“The bottom line is, yes, the trend is increasing,” said commission spokeswoman Joy Hill.

About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, the body of Judy Cooper, of Dunedin, was found — her right arm sheared off, officials said — in a canal in East Lake Woodlands, just north of Tampa Bay.
Cooper, 43, suffered “upper body trauma” from alligator bites, including severe wounds to both shoulders, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said.
Cooper’s sister, Dannette Goodrich, 55, said the family had not heard from Cooper for about three months, since she slipped in her drug treatment and started abusing crack cocaine again.
Sheriff’s investigators said Cooper had been in the water for about three days. The Medical Examiner’s Office found no obvious trauma that would have been a result of a homicide but did find alligator bites.
The medical examiner said the alligator “did play some part in the victim’s death.” The official cause of death will not be available for several weeks while blood tests are conducted.
Gary Goodrich, Cooper’s brother-in-law, said officials told them her purse was found near the water.
“They don’t know how she died. They know there was drugs involved. They found drugs at the scene,” Goodrich said. “I guess she had rolled in the water. The alligator got her and took . . . [one of] her arms and part of her back.”
Kelly Ferderber, 45, first saw the body Friday but thought it was garbage floating in the canal behind her home in East Lake Woodlands.
Sunday morning, her daughter, Ashley, 18, and son, Evan, 16, went to check out the floating mass. They used a boat pole to pull it closer. Then they saw a brown ponytail, a white ear, blue jeans with the pockets sticking out and a dark sneaker.
“I found out it was real, and I freaked out,” Ashley Ferderber said.
Fish and Wildlife spokesman Gary Morse said a trap containing a dead chicken has been set in the canal, but they might not catch the gator responsible for the attack because it might have moved on to a different area.
Dannette Goodrich said Cooper had two children, an 11-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son.
Cooper’s daughter was hoping she would hear from her mother Sunday, Dannette Goodrich said. “I thought, it’s a mistake; it has to be a mistake,” she said. “My poor 11-year-old niece. This is Mother’s Day.”
While the discovery of Cooper’s body shocked officials who had just been investigating last week’s death of Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, in Broward County, they were even more stunned by another attack Sunday afternoon that killed the Tennessee woman swimming in a spring in Ocala National Forest.

Annmarie Campbell, 23, died before friends could pry her from the jaws of an alligator in a spring-fed stream that feeds Lake George, near their rented cabin seven miles south of Salt Springs in Marion County. Campbell, of Paris, Tenn., and three friends had rented a cabin on Juniper Run, a waterway that feeds Lake George.
The four were snorkeling in about 3 feet of water when Campbell and friend Jackie Barrett of Silver Springs were separated from Barrett’s husband, Mark, and friend James Edward of Satellite Beach.
Jackie Barrett couldn’t find Campbell in the water so she went back to the cabin. She then yelled to the two men to look for Campbell.
When the men found her in the water in the alligator’s jaws, they gouged its eyes and pounded on its snout with their hands, said wildlife commission spokeswoman Kat Kelley.
One of the people in the party ran about a mile from the cabin to State Road 19 where they could get cell-phone reception and called 911, Kelley said.
“I understand they were gouging at eyes and trying to pry open the jaws,” Kelley said. “These people are pretty much in shock. The guys had cuts or scrapes on their hands.”
The men were told they should get checked at a hospital because of the potential for infection but had not done so as of late Sunday, officials said. They stayed at the cabin Sunday night and were not available for comment.
Angela Stefancik, 31, of Bunnell was at nearby Juniper Wayside Park on Sunday with friend Dawn Beavers, 30, of Palm Coast and four children. They swim and cook outdoors at the park every weekend — a place they always felt safe because they could swim without fear of drowning or snakes.
“I don’t think we’re going to be coming here any more real soon,” Stefancik said. “And it used to be you didn’t worry about alligators.”
Added Beavers: “But not anymore.