Bear eats campers as they slept

One man was killed and a man and a woman were injured afterbeing eaten by bears in attacks in the middle of the night on Wednesday at a popular campground on the edge of Yellowstone Park, Montana in late July 2010.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department spokesman Ron Aasheim said it was believed one bear was involved and at least two tents were left in tatters in the attack, which occurred at the height of the tourist season.

"I thought I would be dinner," said Deb Freele, 58, of London, Ontario, who recalled awakening from in her tent to find a bear chewing on her arm.

"Within hundredths of seconds, I felt the teeth in my arm, heard bones breaking. I screamed and that seemed to aggravate him. He sunk his teeth into me again," she recounted in a telephone interview from her hospital room in Cody, Wyoming.

“I had a sense that something wasn’t right, but I hadn’t heard anything. I had just woken up and felt a bit of pressure on the tent, and he closed his jaws right down on my arm. Then I screamed. Then he bit harder and I screamed more,” Freele said from her hospital bed.

“It was a brutal attack. It wasn’t like, ‘Oops, I made a mistake brewing beer.’ He was out to get me and the other people,” Freele said. She described the bear’s attack as silent and methodical, giving her the feeling that she was being hunted.

“It hurt. I can’t describe the pain. I couldn’t control the screaming, and I knew what was happening. I thought I was dead, and couldn’t believe it was happening. I thought, ‘This doesn’t compute, it just doesn’t jive, with what I understand about bears,’” she said.

Here's a picture of the 'mother' bear that was caught with some others that were believed to have been the people eaters. The fate of this bear was to be put down after it was determined after DNA tests confirmed it was the responsible bear. This was done using hair, saliva and tissue samples. Her three cups would be sent to a local zoo.

Soda Butte, which offers 27 campsites in a national forest known for its blue-ribbon trout fishing, was immediately evacuated and nearby campgrounds were closed after Wednesday's attacks.

Wildlife officials launched an all-out search for the bear, or bears, including the use of aeroplanes and helicopters on the lookout for radio-collared animals or others in the vicinity. Eventually, the beers were caught in the traps as seen in the photograph below:

Tony Latham, a retired conservation officer who has investigated previous bear maulings in the region, said predatory attacks on people are unusual, especially if fatal.

"In my 22 years as an officer in Idaho, there was only one predatory attack, and the person got away by getting into a river," he said. "I don't believe there was ever anyone killed in Idaho by a caustic bear in those 22 years."

Phew, time for a soda stream carbonated beer then eh?

What do Jelly Fish eat? And who eats them?

These Jelly Fish are the right way up!

Like boobies, Jellyfish come in all shapes and sizes and indeed, colours. But what do they eat? How to they catch their food and do they eat with ketchup? Or who eats them? What creatures find jelly fish  tasty?


First up, what are Jelly Fish? Are they actually fish? The internet reveals all: Jellyfish (also known as jellies or sea jellies or medusozoa) are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish have several different morphologies that represent several different cnidarian classes. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and as such is used to refer specifically to the adult stage of the life cycle. 


Really? I thought Medusa was a lady with snakes in her head.... but I digress, what have we appeared to have learned here children? Jelly Fish are not actually fish. Fish are fish. Fish are also friends, not food. 

Okay, I told a lie, Jellyfish eat fish. Indeed, when ordering pizza, they order extra anchovies.
Jellyfish are actually carnivorous. They eat a healthy diet of  zooplankton, smaller fish and sometimes other jellyfish. Bigger jellies eat large crustaceans like shrimp.

This guy is simply here because he looks cool!

I may have written above that fish are friends and not food, we know that's not necessarily true - the same does not apply to Jelly Fish. Many sea creatures find jellies and the members of the Medusa family to be tasty treats. Like jelly is.


So fish like to eat Jelly Fish:

Starfish seem to like to eat them, but how the fuck to they catch them? Sneak up on them when they are dead? That's what sunstars do with octopus...



And there's always a hungry turtle around that's keen to try any fish once...

Tuatara: Living Fossils

Hi, I'm Terry Tuatara, I breathe only once per hour!

New Zealand's Living Fossil, the Tuatara

The tuatara is New Zealand's famous gift to the world because it is the only survivor of an ancient group of reptiles that roamed the earth at the same time as dinosaurs.

The dinosaur era relatives of tuatara died out about 60 million years ago which is why the tuatara is called a ‘living fossil’.

Tuatara are famous for feeding on the New Zealand weta but they predominantly prey on; including beetles, crickets, and spiders.

Their diet also consists of frogs, lizards, and bird's eggs and, fun fact, baby chicks like baby petrel which they find unprotected in nest burrows.

Weta ya reckon? Nice picture?

Tuatara once lived throughout the mainland of New Zealand but rats and people drove them to extinction in that habitat. They are now found only on 37 off-shore islands and mainland islands and specific entities like the Karori Sanctuary.

There are two species.

Sphenodon punctatus is the Cook Strait tuatara which live on Stephen's Island in the Marlborough Sounds.

The Northern tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus punctatus, is a sub-species which live on offshore islands around the north of the North Island. Total tuatara population on all these islands is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000.

You wanna share my baby Petrel?

Tuatara are cousins with Komodo Dragons, in the sense they are living relatives of the ancient dinosaurs.

Extra for Experts: Tuatara are known to have a low sex drive - this Tuatara took one hundred years before he popped his cherry!

What do eels eat? Ducks? Fish?

Spare duck, maam?

What do eels eat? Ducks? Fish?

Well apparently Boris the eel likes to eat baby ducklings so we might be on to something. But first what are eels?

Eels are elongated fishes, and look like snakes. Most eels prefer to dwell in shallow waters or hide at the bottom layer of the ocean, sometimes in holes. Some eels dwell in water as deep as 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Others are fairly active swimmers and some have even been known to travel across dry land in search of bodies of water. 

Did I leave the oven on?

But what do they eat? This article suggests that a freshwater eel is believed responsible for the disappearance of water fowl, small ducks and possibly birds at the pond near the Eagle Vale Leisure Centre, somewhere in Australia.

New Zealand's department of Conservation's site tells us that freshwater eels eat "live" food. Small long-finned eels living amongst the river gravels will feed on insect larvae, worms and water snails. When they get bigger, they begin to feed on fish. They will also eat fresh-water crayfish and even small birds like ducklings (like Boris!).

Sometimes however, eels with find themselves on the back foot - nature will strike back and in return for eating a swan's sweet tasty little goslings, the swan will simply eat the eel!

No gag reflex?

Humans also love to eat eels as well. The Japanese and Maori people are well known to love eel on their sushi or smoked. And sometimes kids land grown up kids love to go eeling for the sake of it:

And another proud Kiwi family showing off their catch: