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#1 Sea lion attacks Australian girl

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:30 am
by frigidmagi
BBC
A teenage girl has been attacked by a sea lion while surfing behind a speedboat off Australia's west coast.

Ella Murphy, 13, suffered cuts to her throat, a broken jaw and lost three teeth when the mammal leapt out of the sea and mauled her.

She is in a stable condition in a Perth hospital after having surgery.

A marine scientist said attacks by sea lions were rare and it may have been trying to play with the girl. Sea lions can grow up to 300kg (660 pounds).

'Bizarre' attack

The sea lion jumped out of the water like a white pointer shark, family friend Chris Thomas, who was driving the speedboat at Lancelin, 125km (80 miles) north of Perth, said to Western Australia's Sunday Times newspaper.

"It actually lined her up. It jumped out of the water at her and hit her head-on ... it opened its mouth and grabbed her head. It latched on," he said.

The girl narrowly avoided a second attack, Mr Thomas said.

"It was going back for her, it was looking for her and it spotted her," he said. "I had this horrible feeling I was not going to make it back in time."

Sydney Aquarium marine scientist Grant Willis told AP news agency he had never heard of such an incident.

"To be out in the water and be attacked like this is just bizarre," he said.

Mr Willis said the protected species would only attack humans if provoked.

"It might have been like a rag doll toy ... it could have been ... play for them, just wanting to shake it around," he said.
Provoked my ass, gather around kids it's magi story time.

Once upon time there was a band of brave marines doing small boat (read zodaic rubber boats) training in California. They landed on a beach and upon this beach was a cranky male sea lion. Now there were a good number of marines and they were armed. This would deter your standard cranky mammal. But not the sealion.

For a quater of an hour this cranky beast chased a double handful of marines up and down the beach baring fangs that were over an inch long. While the brave marines asked repeatly to be allowed to defend themselves against this clearly crazed predator... It was for nought. Their officers, who were not as brave, smart and handsome has the marines they led (look it's my story deal with it) refused to allow the marines the basic right of self defense fearing the wraith of the EPA and Greenpeace.

Moral of the story? Sea Lions are assholes and should be fed to Orca.

I hope the girl recovers speedly and that a orca or something devours the fucking furry menace who assualted her.

#2

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:06 am
by B4UTRUST
I firmly believe that the marine officers in the story were not as brave, smart or handsome as the enlisted marines. That I believe.

I don't, however, believe the damned thing was provoked. Animals are just funny that way. Something will set them off and they'll go off and attack something or someone for no damned good reason other then its prescense pissed them off some how.

I take this from personal experiance. I once had a very traumatic experiance of a swan attacking me at a castle in Germany. I was near the lake, my mother was taking pictures of me and all of a sudden this damned huge bird that towered over me by a good few feet came waddling up, stretched out its neck and bent it down to stare me in the face, squaked at me and then proceeded to try to bite me until I fled for my little life! All because I was where I was and it decided it didn't like me where I was.

Another similar, yet different story invovles a Peacock chasing me around a German zoo for a good twenty or thirty minutes. My father apparently felt this was quite humerous as he just kept rolling tape on the damned camera while his one and only child at the time ran for his life from the multicolored winged deathbird! I sitll don't know what I did to piss that bird off. My parents claim ignorance though I have my suspiciions. My father laughed to hard while filming for me to believe his innocence.

#3

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:17 am
by Dark Silver
Animals don't have to be provoked by the target of their rage, they could be provoked by something environmental and still attack a random target.

May the sea lion fill a Orca/Great White shark's belly well.

#4

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:00 pm
by Comrade Tortoise
The swan was probably defending territory or a nearby nest... as to the sea lion...The cute ones you see at seaworld are the ones that have been trained to be cute and lovable since they were pups. The ones in the wild are more vicious... They will rip your face off.

#5

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:05 pm
by B4UTRUST
don't defend the swan. The swan attacked me! I was a cute little child and the damned bird of doom attacked me! Traumatized I tell you!

#6

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:46 pm
by Cynical Cat
Swans are vicious. The Romans used them as guard/alarm animals.

#7

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:53 pm
by Comrade Tortoise
B4UTRUST wrote:don't defend the swan. The swan attacked me! I was a cute little child and the damned bird of doom attacked me! Traumatized I tell you!
The swan didnt care... it didnt know...

#8

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:39 pm
by Josh
Comrade Tortoise wrote:
B4UTRUST wrote:don't defend the swan. The swan attacked me! I was a cute little child and the damned bird of doom attacked me! Traumatized I tell you!
The swan didnt care... it didnt know...
The swan cares not for innocence. It only thirsts for the warm blood of its foes dripping from its rapacious beak.

#9

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:18 pm
by Cpl Kendall
Petrosjko wrote:
The swan cares not for innocence. It only thirsts for the warm blood of its foes dripping from its rapacious beak.
I agree. A goose (and a swan is just a pretty goose) once attacked my sister at the Stanley Park Zoo for no reason other than she offered it a peanut. She was 3 years old and clearly no threat to the goose.

#10

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:29 pm
by LadyTevar
My dad told a story once about my great-aunt's tom-turkey chasing him out of her yard, across the street, and into his house.

I recall from my early youth seeing the turkeys Aunt Carrie kept. The tom I knew was HUGE (to a 6yr old). Aunt Carrie went in the cage to feed the hens, but the tom had its food thrown over the fence to it. I'd not be surpised if he was 20lbs or more.

Oddly enough... I can't recall just when she got rid of them or where they wound up. Probably dinner.

#11

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:39 pm
by Batman
Cpl Kendall wrote:
Petrosjko wrote: The swan cares not for innocence. It only thirsts for the warm blood of its foes dripping from its rapacious beak.
I agree. A goose (and a swan is just a pretty goose) once attacked my sister at the Stanley Park Zoo for no reason other than she offered it a peanut. She was 3 years old and clearly no threat to the goose.
Maybe it was allergic to peanuts?

And DS basically covered it. For the animal to be provoked doesn't require for you to be the one to have done the provoking, leave alone recently. Not that it's all that much different for humans, of course-how many of us have NOT been chewed out by a superior over something we had absolutely nothing to do with? Animals are just a lot more physical about it.

#12

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:56 pm
by Cpl Kendall
Batman wrote: Maybe it was allergic to peanuts?
I didn't realise geese had allergies.

#13

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 5:55 pm
by The Cleric
Cpl Kendall wrote:
Petrosjko wrote:
The swan cares not for innocence. It only thirsts for the warm blood of its foes dripping from its rapacious beak.
I agree. A goose (and a swan is just a pretty goose) once attacked my sister at the Stanley Park Zoo for no reason other than she offered it a peanut. She was 3 years old and clearly no threat to the goose.
A threat in whose eyes? Geese aren't really that big you know.

#14

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:16 pm
by Cpl Kendall
The Cleric wrote:
A threat in whose eyes? Geese aren't really that big you know.
Canada Geese are pretty big and can do a number on a three year old with a wing or a beak.

#15

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:29 pm
by The Cleric
Cpl Kendall wrote:
The Cleric wrote:
A threat in whose eyes? Geese aren't really that big you know.
Canada Geese are pretty big and can do a number on a three year old with a wing or a beak.
Sure, because a 3 year old can't properly fight back. But I'd bet that that 3 year old was a good percentage of the weight and size of that goose.

#16

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:30 pm
by Batman
Geese can do a number on most people with their beak.
They're not going to kill you outright but a broken arm is by no means out of the question for a grown-up leave alone a three year old.

#17

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:13 am
by Comrade Tortoise
Cpl Kendall wrote:
The Cleric wrote:
A threat in whose eyes? Geese aren't really that big you know.
Canada Geese are pretty big and can do a number on a three year old with a wing or a beak.
It isnt a matter of whether WE see the three year old as being a threat to the goose. It is a matter of the GOOSE perceiving the three year old as a threat