Animals, And The People Who Love Them

There's a natural attraction:

JOHANNESBURG, July 29 (Reuters) - A man was eaten by lions after running past guards into the Kruger National Park at dusk just as the gates were closing, park officials said on Friday.

Park spokesman Raymond Travers said guards and rangers searched for the unidentified man in the dark after he ran into the park on Thursday, but failed to find him. He was found after dawn on Friday as the lions feasted on his corpse.

...Mentally ill people had occasionally broken into the park and been eaten in the past, he said, but it was highly unusual.

Then Gabe pointed this out to me also:

"GRIZZLY MAN" - A documentary from director Werner Herzog ("Fitzcarraldo," "Aguirre, Wrath of God") that chronicles the life and violent death of bear researcher enthusiast Timothy Treadwell, who was killed and eaten by the creatures he so adored. Released by Lions Gate Films. This movie is not yet rated.

Herzog makes great movies, so this is bound to be an excellent film! But what makes us think we feeble humans can escape the fate of lesser creatures when confronted by large predators?

I remember visiting the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas in August, 2001, when the Siberian Tigers were there. The large white, striped predators were the highlight and focus of Siegfried and Roy's magic show, which ran for many years there. You could see the animals lounging in their enclosure through glass windows.

A teenaged girl passed between me and the glass window, outside the walkway railing, and despite the bright sunlight outside and the smoked glass, one tiger caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, and quickly shot an icy predator stare - directly at her (and at me, behind her). I won't forget that! These animals can, and will kill, given the opportunity! It's magical thinking to think you can escape (although Roy escaped for many years, so he might be excused for thinking his luck would hold). But, hey!, we are human, and we think we can avoid fate through magic, or science, or diet, or runes, or the many other ways we have for refusing to face reality, and those nasty, sharp teeth!