5/18/2006: Safari park bears attack and eat monkey (warning, graphic)

[Undertoad]

IotD readers are animal lovers as is your IotD author. Every Friday we feature happy animal pictures. It's been a tradition for years.

Sadly, today is not Friday.

Why do we have pets? Why do we visit zoos? Why do we go to drive-through safari parks? Why do we spend so much time on IotD looking at animal shots?

Partly because they remind us of nature. In a pet, we have a little slice of real life nature in our environment. Like plants, they are not strictly required but something in us calls us to embrace nature. We are intrigued by it. Have we managed it, in our desire to control everything about our environment?

Not really. Which is also why, although it's one of the saddest IotDs to date, this series has to be shown. Sorry.

Last Sunday, in a safari park in the Netherlands, sloth bears attacked and killed this barbary macaque in front of horrified onlookers.

First the macaque wandered into an electric fence in water, and got shocked hard until he was stunned.

Normally the bears and the monkeys live in the same space and it works out okay. But now the bears can't believe their luck. They're salivating at the prospect of this suddenly defenseless prey.

At first the monkey is completely stunned. Onlookers throw stones at the agitated bears for ten minutes. The macaque manages to climb onto the grass before collapsing. A keeper shows and tries to throw fruit at the bears to coax them back into their cages. During this time the macaque manages to find some strength and to crawl away.



The macaque, still moving slowly, manages to climb up a man-made structure. But the keeper can't keep the bears away... they return.

The most intrigued bear can't be kept away any longer, and what follows is nature at work. Wild animals remain wild, even in the confines, and relative safety and security of a safari park. Bears attack and kill things... it's what they do.









These images are copyrighted by the owner and photographer, Marco Barelds, and use of them here is by arrangement. The summary is taken from his own story of the events. More, and higher-res photos can be had from him via paypal; details are at this PDF.