Sea lions sure have gotten uppity this year. First they ate so many migrating salmon at dams in western states that Oregon and Washington petitioned the federal government to allow them to kill up to 80 this year. Now sea lions have turned on the elderly.
A couple in their 60's was swimming off Venice Beach, California last week when a sea lion attacked them without provocation. The large ocean rat (Yes, I believe that’s technically correct) bit the woman on her leg. Her husband charged through the water to her aid only to have the seal rip into his hands, feet, and head. Lifeguard Captain Jeff Horn, who inspected the couple before calling emergency workers, said the lacerations looked “similar to what a dog bite would look like.”
Not only did they catch and kill a great white shark off Huntington Beach Pier in Orange County, California last week but they filmed and posted their actions on YouTube. This video, along with unidentified witness testimony, led California Department of Fish and Game officials to the perpetrators.
Jose Rivera can now add big game hunter to his list of official duties as a New York City housing worker. Last week the 48-year-old Rivera killed a three-foot-long rat with a pitchfork – yes, a pitchfork – while filling in a rat hole at Marcy Houses. Rivera told reporters, “I hit it one time and it was still moving. I hit it another time and that's when it died. I'm not scared of rats but I was scared of being bitten."
I’m not scared of rats either, but then I’ve never faced down a monster-sized rodent like this one with a pitchfork. Give me a handgun any day!
Apparently Rivera’s trophy isn’t the only trophy burrowing below this area of New York. Rivera said that two rats about the same size escaped his trusty pitchfork. Head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, Naomi Colon said that the giants have been on the premises for over six years. "The residents have told me that they've seen it running around with other rats. She [Rivera’s rat] lived with them. She ran into the same hole they ran in."
Tatiana Tsyganenkov of the village of Termalniy in the extreme east of Siberia experienced a living nightmare no mother should have to endure. Earlier this week she listened to her daughter being eaten alive by a brown bear and its three cubs via three separate, frantic cell phone calls.
Olga Moskalyova, 19, gave a horrific hour-long running commentary on her own death in three separate calls as the wild animals mauled her.
She screamed: 'Mum, the bear is eating me! Mum, it’s such agony. Mum, help!'
Her mother Tatiana said that at first she thought she was joking. 'But then I heard the real horror and pain in Olga’s voice, and the sounds of a bear growling and chewing,' she added. 'I could have died then and there from shock.' Unknown to Tatiana, the bear had already killed her husband Igor Tsyganenkov - Olga’s stepfather - by overpowering him, breaking his neck and smashing his skull.
In 2000, Rodger Dale DeVries, 73, travelled to Nunavut, Canada for a polar bear hunt. He purchased a tag, hired an outfitter and legally killed a bear. Now he's facing a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a fine of $100,000, because he brought his trophy back across the U.S. border, according to the Globe and Mail.
In 2008 the U.S. government listed polar bears as a threatened species and made it illegal to import pelts or mounts from Canada. Even though DeVries' case predates the 2008 classification, he's being charged because he shot the bear in an area that the U.S. Department of the Interior decided didn't have sustainable levels for hunting.
Just weeks after the striped bass world record was broken (unofficially), another striper record has bitten the dust (officially). In June, Bruce Cunningham, 30, landed this massive 60-pound 8-ounce striper on Missouri's Bull Shoals Lake, according to MDC News. Yesterday, the catch was approved as a state record by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The fish measured 47 inches in length and had a 36-inch girth.
Cunningham was out with his brothers on his first striper trip and was casting a large plastic minnow in about 40 feet of water. Cunningham and his two brothers had already boated several other large fish (40 pounders) before the record-breaker hit.
Fusion Ammo recently released a testosterone-filled video of former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar testing its ammunition on prairie dogs in South Dakota.
"I'm Brock Lesnar, and I'm back!" the 300-pound, Lesnar yells into the camera after shooting several rounds from the hip.
Ryan McCullough maybe the first angler in history to have a fish rat him out from a freezer. This bizarre case started innocently enough on July 25 when McCullough landed, what he thought was a trophy-sized brown trout, on Vermont’s White River. The fish measured 31.5 inches and weighed 9.5 pounds. McCullough was so happy with his catch that he had his picture taken with it before putting it in his freezer.
That picture ended up in The Randolph Herald where it caught the attention of Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife officials who immediately noticed that the fish wasn’t a brown trout but a rare Atlantic salmon.
Not just any salmon mind you but one of only two that F & W officials had planted with a radio transmitter for monitoring salmon in the White River. Officials immediately turned on their receiver and tracked the fish to McCullough’s freezer. McCullough was cited for taking a big game species and now faces a $1,500 fine as well as the suspension of his hunting and fishing license for three years. Ouch!
I thought it was the squirrel that flew, not the moose.
A recent news story about a head on collision between a car and a moose in the Tula region of Russia has led me into the world of Russian moose collision videos. Apparently running into a moose (I don’t think anybody ever runs OVER a moose; they’re too big) on the highway in Russia is about as common as clocking a deer in your truck here in the states.
A large healthy looking cougar is stalking mountain bikers near Alice Lake, British Columbia. The lion came across three groups of mountain bikers last weekend, and while it didn't attack, it was curious.
"The animal was very difficult to scare off, and showed considerable interest in the humans," conservation officer Chris Doyle told Local station CTV.
