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

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.

I saw one picture of this event in the newspaper, accompanied by the story in text. The picture they ran didn't show the story at all. It was of a bear nuzzling a ball of fur on the ground. This IotD does a much better job than the paper did.

It's a sad story though. Poor monkey.

Sometimes when I'm at the zoo, I imagine what it would be like to be trapped in a cage with the animals. This is what it would be like.

#1 threat to the US: BEARS

As much as I love them I don't think they have the offense to pull it off this year.

I've been checking these pictures out for a few months and this finally prompted me to post.

I live in Omaha, and our zoo recently built a new exhibit. In the exhibit were boars (or whatever Pumbaa on the Lion King was) and some white stork-like birds. As we were watching the animals, one of the boars started chasing a bird around the cage. A keeper was watching too, and said that happens all the time, but they coexist well together and are just playing. However...a few seconds later, the boar caught the bird and tore it to pieces. I have a few pictures of it on my camera. Needless to say, the next time we went there, the birds were all gone.

I'm glad you joined the Cellar to post that. Good story.

I'm sorry, but this is what I couldn't help thinking with that first picture. I'm a bad person.

You are, but that's exactly you've not been banned.

like largirl, just had to add my piece.

was in belfast zoo with my brother and a young cousin. Stopped beside a group of 5-10 year olds to look at the oh so cute bears. This real cutie bear wandered right up to the barrier and smiled sweetly at us. There was a chorus of "ahhhs" from the mums. Then the bear bent over and started to give himself a blowjob!
My wee cousin started yelling "he's drinking his wee! he's drinking his wee!", me and my brother were falling about in hysterics, and all the mums were giving us filthy looks while trying to cover their kids eyes and ears at the same time!
was a classic

Ha ha! We saw a bear doing the same at the Syracuse Zoo a couple weeks ago. It is a boring life at the zoo... but he'd probably do the same thing in the woods.

I remember when I lived in Omaha, there was a brand-new wallaby enclosure. A couple days later, a stray dog makes it into the park, where he starts barking at the wallabies in their cage. The frightened marsupials jumped as far away from the dog as they could... and jumped right against the bars of the cage. Every one of them died.

Els - you are going to Hell.

Don't take my seat.

I guess sloth in this case doesn't mean slow.

Nature is never niggardly when it comes to reality checks. So sad. But so real.

This is what i call really 'having a bad day'.

The story, I first saw, said the bears chased the macaque into the electric fence. That would make sense because he'd need a good start to stretch that wire all the way to the water. Also, in the first picture, it looks like the bears have a healthy respect for that fence.

You Brits better hope the Sloth Bears don't make it to Gibraltar.

I head the same as Bruce , I wounder though if the monkey had been messing with the bears , flinging poo and the such , OR if the bears just got sick of eating fruit and dead meat ,
A bear IS a drooling carnovor .

I can just hear the bears now " Ok Louie , you chase him in to the shock fence , and I'll chase him down and EAT him ,,,,
Ahhh monkey brains , some fava beans and a nice Cianti , SultSultSultSultSult !!!!"

Hanable Lecter from the movie Slience of the lambs

via Metafilter: Tiger vs. Monkey

Happy Monkey - oh yeah, that gibbon is on the menu once those tigers get bigger.
I'm amazed they didn't snag him off the tree after the ear pull or the tail honk.

Ha! Reminds me of the Grizzly Man. Dumb monkey for playing nice with a predator. Even dumber monkeys for being at all shocked this could happen, or even putting the two together in the first place.

Perhaps a degree in Zoology next time, and a little less Bambi.

Wowsa.

Look at the claws on that bear climbing to get the monkey.

I just love the bear's face in that picture - it looks like an "oh boy oh boy oh boy" hopeful puppy.

poor monkey looks so exaughsted. he probably thought it was all ok for a while there. stupid keepers.

I would be a tad concerned about that gaping hole in the electric fence surrounding vicious carnivorous predators.

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenchica like largirl, just had to add my piece. was in belfast zoo with my brother and a young cousin. Stopped beside a group of 5-10 year olds to look at the oh so cute bears. This real cutie bear wandered right up to the barrier and smiled sweetly at us. There was a chorus of "ahhhs" from the mums. Then the bear bent over and started to give himself a blowjob! My wee cousin started yelling "he's drinking his wee! he's drinking his wee!", me and my brother were falling about in hysterics, and all the mums were giving us filthy looks while trying to cover their kids eyes and ears at the same time! was a classic

I saw the baby elephant at the National Zoo humping his toy ball.

zookeepers?

Something doesn't add up.

Why would zookeepers try to keep the bears away from the monkey if this sort of "natural" behavior is allowed, as the zoo spokespeople claim afterwards? Wouldn't the zookeepers not interfere and also tell people not to throw anything at the bears while they're menacing the monkey? If, OTOH, the bears' actions were undesirable, why couldn't the zookeepers actually do something effective? What if a child had fallen in? Or is the only intervention possible in these situations putting the animal(s) down?

You'd think there'd be some effective and non-lethal way for the zoo to control the animals when undesired behaviour or accidents occur.

Two funny zoo stories:

1.) Ape in Riverbanks zoo in Columbia, S.C. who gives unbelieving visitors the finger.

2.) Your truly was making growling noises at a lion who was pacing near the cable fence at the Indianapolis Zoo. Everyone thought it was funny. Seemed to get a rise out of the lion, too. Eventually, he turns his backside toward us and sprays this really smelly goop out of his hindparts. Misses me, but completely covers the woman standing next to me! Probably a quart of fluid. I am both impressed and horrified, and counting my lucky stars that she took the "heat" for me (so to speak). "OK kids, come on, time to go. By the way... do you want a kleenex or something? Have a nice day!"

Lion probably thought if he sprayed her, she'd beat the crap outta you. Nice try, Lion.