| ANIMAL ATTACK FILES
Questions and Comments from Our Readers
Urgent request for information: I know there is a tape somewhere out there. A cameraman on set taped it. After over two years I am STILL going through surgerys, this one next month being my eighth. The attack was Oct.15, 1997 at Malibu Creek State Park in California. Please Help!!! Thank You. -Silvie Rodriguez Please contact the Animal Attack files if you have ANY information about the above attack. ?10/20/98 A Reader Asks: Do alligators attack when you are in deep water? What animals will attack in the deep waters in the florida lakes? ?10/20/98 A Reader Asks: Has anyone ever heard of an anaconda swallowing a human being whole? A friend of mine says that it really did happen in the 1960's. If anyone knows anything about this story, let me know. ? 10/09/98 A Reader Asks: I am living in Georgia and have seen a download of a gator that attacked and killed a young boy in the Flodida or south Georgia area. I have heard many differrent stories concerning this event and am tring to find out the truth as well as finding out where the download came from. any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. ? 10/01/98 A Reader Asks:I live in Florida and a few my friends were discussing alligator attacks. They seem to think that there have been hundreds of FATAL gator attacks on humans. I thought I heard somewhere that there has only been a handful of these fatal attacks in florida. Is there a stat somewhere that tells the truth? If you have any information, please email. ! Jim Clark (Board of Advisors, AAF) responds: That question is a simple one as I have spent tons of time in Florida as that is where my Dad's family is from. I do not have the exact statistics but your viewer is indeed correct...There have only been a handful of fatal attacks by the American Alligator. My estimate is at most 2-3 per year. Either way the assumption of hundreds is way off if you are focusing on recent times. Jim adds the following note: Although most Floridians have learned to coexist with alligators, the potential for conflict always exists. Because of their predatory nature and large size, alligators can, and occasionally do, attack pets. Regretfully, humans, too, occasionally are attack victims and in rare instances are killed by large alligators. *** Between 1973 and 1990, 127 alligator attacks on humans were documented with five of those resulting in fatalities.**** Although this number of attacks may seem high, they constitute a very small percentage of water- related incidents compared to those involving water skiing, scuba diving and boating mishaps.
* 9/19/98 A Reader Comments: Please correct your recent entry re: a "brown" bear biting a girl at Yosemite. The brown bear has been extinct in Calif for over one hundred years. the only species of bear in Yosemite is the black bear, ursus americanus. They vary in color but no matter what color, they are still black bears. Your reference to brown is confusing because the term "brown "bear is used to refer to grizzlies. Some use the terms interchangably, while others say a brown bear is agrizzly that lives within one hundred miles of the ocean. Once again, THERE ARE NO BROWN BEARS IN YOSEMITE. ? 9/30 A Reader (M.P.) asks: "I am looking for the supposed 911 call by a man in a phone booth being attacked by a deer. Can you help me find this?" If you have any information, please email.
? 9/27/98 A Readers asks: "Which African animal is the most dangerous? In a sly and witty, yet somewhat evasive, response, Igor offered, "Homo sapiens". ! Getting right to the point, Jim Clark (who, after a unanimous vote, was recently named to the AAF Board of Advisors) sent this response: "It is the Crocodile. As a fact, it kills more people than any African Animal."
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