Man-eaters: Animals Turn the Tables

It's Mondo Missy Monday again!

Thanks for checking out another edition of The Missy Show blog.  We're still your premiere source for fun and informative pet topics.  I also want to give a special thanks to everyone who tuned in to our Google Hangouts episode last night, ("Sexual Aggression in Dolphins: The Story of Peter").  If you thought that one was "out there," be sure to tune in to our final April episode on the 28th.  But let us take a break now from the animal sexy stuff, and get into animals eating people.  Yep.  That's right.  Man eaters.  We usually chow down on animals; but these are the creatures that chow down on us!  You've heard of man-eating tigers or lions.  Well, is there any truth to that?  And we know crocodiles and alligators can enjoy some good ol' "man stew", but what are some other animals we should be aware of?

Tooth Issues Make Us More Likely to be Food?
In two cases of man-eating cats, (The Leopard of Panar and The Leopard of Rudraprayag), both creatures were found to be suffering from dental problems that may have caused it to be too difficult for them to hunt and kill their normal, wild prey, and inevitably made humans much more easy targets.  To read more about these animals and 5 other of the most deadly man-eaters, check out the scribdol.com article, "7 Deadliest Man Eating Animals in Modern History":

http://scribol.com/environment/animals-environment/7-deadliest-man-eating-animals-in-modern-history/

Wikipedia also discusses some of the man-eating animals (and yes, man-eating lions and tigers have been real):

Tigers

Tigers are recorded to have killed more people than any other big cat, and tigers have been responsible for more human deaths through direct attack than any other wild mammal. About 1,000 people were reportedly killed each year in India during the early 1900s, with one individual tiger killing 430 people in India. Tigers killed 129 people in the Sundarbans mangrove forest from 1969–71. Unlike leopards and lions, man-eating tigers rarely enter human habitations in order to acquire prey. The majority of victims are reportedly in the tiger's territory when the attack takes place. Additionally, tiger attacks mostly occur during daylight hours, unlike those committed by leopards and lions. The Sundarbans are home to approximately 600 royal Bengal tigers^[5] who before modern times used to "regularly kill fifty or sixty people a year". In 2008, a loss of habitat due to the Cyclone Sidr led to an increase in the number of attacks on humans in the Indian side of the Sunderbans, as tigers were crossing over to the Indian side from Bangladesh.

A theory promoted to explain this suggests that since tigers drink fresh water, the salinity of the area waters serve as a destabilizing factor in the diet and life of tigers of Sundarbans, keeping them in constant discomfort and making them extremely aggressive. Other theories include the sharing of their habitat with human beings and the consumption of human corpses during floods.

Lions

Man-eating lions have been recorded to actively enter human villages at night as well as during the day to acquire prey. This greater assertiveness usually makes man-eating lions easier to dispatch than tigers. Lions typically become man-eaters for the same reasons as tigers: starvation, old age and illness, though as with tigers, some man-eaters were reportedly in perfect health.

The lion's proclivity for man-eating has been systematically examined. American and Tanzanian scientists report that man-eating behavior in rural areas of Tanzania increased greatly from 1990 to 2005. At least 563 villagers were attacked and many eaten over this period—a number far exceeding the more famed "Tsavo" incidents of a century earlier. The incidents occurred near Selous National Park in Rufiji District and in Lindi Province near the Mozambican border. While the expansion of villagers into bush country is one concern, the authors argue that conservation policy must mitigate the danger because, in this case, conservation contributes directly to human deaths. Cases in Lindi have been documented where lions seize humans from the centre of substantial villages. It is estimated that over 250 people are killed by lions every year.

Man-eating lions studies indicate that African lions eat humans as a supplement to other food, not as a last resort.

Crocodiles

Crocodile attacks on people are common in places where crocodiles are native. The saltwater and Nile crocodiles are responsible for more attacks and more deaths than any other wild predator that attacks humans for food. Each year, hundreds of deadly attacks are attributed to the Nile crocodile within sub-Saharan Africa. Because many relatively healthy populations of Nile crocodiles occur in East Africa, their proximity to people living in poverty and/or without infrastructure has made it likely that the Nile crocodile is responsible for more attacks on humans than all other species combined. In Australia crocodiles have also been responsible for several deaths in the tropical north of the country.The Mugger crocodile is another man-eater that kills many people in Asia each year, although not to the same level as the Saltwater and Nile crocodiles. A lot of other crocodile species are also dangerous to humans, but most of the others will usually not actively try to hunt them.

Bears

Polar bears, being almost completely unused to the presence of humans and therefore having no ingrained fear of them, will hunt people for food, though with the right precautions they are easily deterred. Although bears rarely attack humans, bear attacks often cause devastating injuries due to the size and immense strength of the giant land and shoreline carnivores. As with dogs, predatory intent is not necessary; territorial disputes and protection of cubs can result in death by bear attack. Truly man-eating bear attacks are uncommon, but are known to occur when the animals are diseased or natural prey is scarce, often leading them to attack and eat anything they are able to kill. In July 2008, dozens of starving bears killed two geologists working at a salmon hatchery in Kamchatka. After the partially eaten remains of the two workers were discovered, authorities responded by dispatching hunters to cull or disperse the bears.

Lone, predatory black bears are responsible for most human attacks in the United States and Canada, according to a study from 2011. Unlike female bears, motivated to attack humans to protect cubs, male black bears actually prey on humans, viewing them as a potential food source.

For a list of the other "man-eating" animals, click here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-eater 

Based on what I've read, it seems like most of these animals aren't man-eaters, in the since that they go out specifically seeking people.  Some of them are just looking to protect their turf or their young, when they feel threatened by people getting too close.  They kill you for self-defense--then they eat you, (because why let a potential meal go to waste)?  Sometimes, there's simply a shortage of the food they normally eat, and humans are the next best option.  And then there are those dental issues, plaguing the big cats.  When you've got gum disease, killing and tearing apart a human is just so much easier...

Okay, that got dark. 

Anyway, here's to wishing you a Magnificent Monday!  See you back here on Wednesday!

This is your host J,

signing off...

Do I look like a man-eater to you?