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Re: Danger in the Wild

Subject: Re: Danger in the Wild
From: "Scott Connop" turaconi
Date: Sun Jan 6, 2008 8:46 am ((PST))
The second retrospective tale came from Royal Chitwan in Nepal. This is tiger 
country and any knowledgeable guide knows the story of a bird guide that was 
mauled to death in Corbett by a tiger, so we are allowed to walk only in the 
presence of local " guides ". They come with the classic local bravura, armed 
with large staves - this must be where the phrase to " stave off " came from. 
Or not.

I had a small group (about 5 people) and the two locals insisted on walking in 
front of me even though they were not very proficient at birding. Very 
suddenly, a large sloth bear walked out from some bamboo about 20 meters in 
front of us. Behind her were two cubs. I was thrilled as this was a new mammal 
for me and an amazing sight. The bear slowed down, examined us for about 10-15 
seconds, and then trundled on her way. I turned back to my clients to check 
their reaction only to find that my two body guards were nowhere in sight. I 
finally located both of them in a Sal tree about 10 meters behind us.

It turns out that they are more afraid of sloth bears than they are of tigers. 
The week previous to our arrival, a mating pair attacked two guides on their 
way home from work, managed to pull them out of a tree, killing one and 
hospitalizing the other. We were informed that the odds of a charge in that 
situation are about 50-50. Well, the claws were very formidable looking, and 
from now on I carry my own stave (for all the good it would do).

Scott Connop






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