RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW
Eagle vs lamb, chickens vs fox, man vs monster, plus piranhas found in Yorkshire fishing lake
SEA EAGLE THREAT
This photograph of an eagle carrying a lamb was taken by Douglas Currie, while on holiday on the Isle of Mull with his wife. Mr Currie, 74, from Loanhead, Midlothian, said: “We saw this big shape through the sky and my wife thought it was a fish. We then realised it was a lamb and I rattled off a load of shots. The bird was struggling. It’s the most extraordinary sight.” The photograph has sparked a row over plans to reintroduce wild sea eagles to England’s south coast.
With a wingspan of up to 8ft (2.4m) and a beak resembling a meat cleaver, sea eagles are sometimes referred to as “flying barn doors”. They were once widespread throughout the British Isles but had declined by 90 per cent by the time of the Industrial Revolution. The last bird was shot in 1918. In the 1970s, however, they were reintroduced in Scotland, and have since flourished. There are currently 130 breeding pairs, and the population is predicted to soar to 700 pairs by 2040. However, crofters have complained of lambs going missing, and of bloodied corpses found miles from home. Others have found animals with their eyes pecked out and limbs ripped off. According to one report, the sea eagles have even developed a taste for their smaller cousins, golden eagles.
Even so, the birds will soon be reintroduced to England, after a group of conservationists secured a five-year license. Thirty breeding pairs are planned for the Isle of Wight, with the first birds due for release this summer. Supporters have announced that sea eagles will soon be “soaring over The Needles”; but the plan has horrified sheep farmers, who claim their livestock will be picked off in their fields. Sea eagles have not been found to target household pets, although they have been known to take feral cats. While most ornithologists believe that large birds such as eagles and condors
cannot carry more than their own weight (about 12lb/5.4kg), there are accounts of small children being carried off, such as five-year-old Marie Delex in the French Alps in 1838 (see FT347:44-49; also the chapter on avian abductions in Bob Rickard & John Michell, Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena, 2000, 2007). D. Telegraph, 10 May 2019.
MENACE IN YORKSHIRE
On 15 April, Davey White, 37, fishing in Martinwells Lake in Edlington, South Yorkshire, spotted a dead fish floating near one of the pegs (fishing platforms). Retrieving it, he noticed its teeth and realised it was a piranha, one of the world’s fiercest predators normally found stalking the waters of the Amazon basin; they can grow up to 14in (36cm) long. Mr White broke the news to a reporter on the Doncaster Free Press. The lake is in a former clay pit and is usually well stocked with carp, tench, bream, perch, pike and chub, along with the usual pond life of newts, frogs and toads, plus birdlife including ducks, coots, water hens and swans. Fisherman Gary Walker said he had noticed that his hauls at the lake had reduced recently.
The day before Mr White’s discovery, Toni Hooper, 32, found another dead piranha in the lake. “When we realised what it was, it sent shivers down my spine,” she said. “This is a popular spot among families, dog walkers and fishermen… We came here to feed the ducks and on Sunday we noticed there was only one duck and two ducklings. I’m concerned about where the wildlife is. I’ve spoken to others who have said they’ve noticed there aren’t as many ducks.”
Gill Gillies, assistant director of environment at Doncaster council, said that given the natural habitat of piranhas, it was “highly unlikely” either of the fish was alive at any time in the lake. “We assume that these were pets that were placed in the lake,” she said. “The presence of a piranha is somewhat of a novelty, so they have since been taken away by the Environment Agency for testing. In any event, we would always strongly advise against anyone paddling or swimming in this or any lake due to the dangers of deep water.”
Known for their sharp teeth and powerful jaws, piranhas are known to have killed humans, though attacks on people are rare. Human attacks normally take place when the fish are stressed, such as when water levels are lower during the dry season and food is scarce. Splashing attracts them, so victims tend to be children. In 2011, a drunk 18-year-old was eaten in Bolivia after he leapt into a river. A Brazilian girl aged five was killed by a shoal of piranha in 2015. theguardian. com, 17 April; Times, D.Mail, Sun, 18 April 2019.
BEAST OF BADEN
Marco L, 21, was left with cuts all over his face and his arm in a cast after a bizarre attack by a “mysterious and highly aggressive amber-eyed beast” that ripped open his tent during the night of 13 May, while he was camping with friends near Waiblingen in Baden-Württemberg. “I woke up and felt a sharp burning sensation on my neck,” he said. “Suddenly, something grabbed my right hand and bit me. Sharp teeth pinched into my arm. The animal bit me, flinging my arm back and forth. This must be a nightmare I thought.” He tried to hit the creature and wake his two friends who were camping with him. “The animal did not let go of me. I yelled: ‘Help! Wake up! I’m being attacked
by something’. When the animal let go of me, I saw a lot of blood.” The creature then returned and Marco grabbed a pillow to fend it off. “The animal bit into the pillow. I saw two amber-coloured eyes right in front of me.” Only when he switched on his mobile phone light and his friends also put on their lights did the animal run off.
Marco had cuts all over his cheek and bite wounds in his neck. He underwent surgery on his hand and received post-trauma rabies treatment, which normally involves several booster vaccines as well as special antidotes. He feared the creature might carry rabies, which causes inflammation of the brain of the animal, which can result in bizarre and often highly aggressive behaviour. Rabies is lethal for humans, and there is no known cure for the viral disease once symptoms start to appear. Experts from the state’s Ministry of the Environment investigated traces found in the garden to determine the mysterious creature’s identity. Sun online, 14 May 2019.
CHICKEN KARMA
Last March, a young fox aged about six months, snuck into a chicken coop at dusk at a farm school in Brittany, northwestern France, and become trapped inside by light-controlled automatic hatch doors that close when the sun goes down. Chickens, like all birds, are the
descendants of dinosaurs – and this particular coop held 3,000 hens. The birds channelled their inner Tyrannosaurus rex and attacked the fox. “There was a herd instinct, and they attacked him with their beaks,” said Pascal Daniel, head of farming at the agricultural school Le Gros Chêne (The Big Oak). “It had blows to its neck, blows from beaks.” Students discovered the fox’s dead body in a corner of the coop the following morning when making their rounds to check on the chickens. The farm is home to up to 6,000 free-range chickens, kept in a five-acre site. The coop is kept open during the day and most of the hens spend the daylight hours outside, unless they are laying eggs.
Such turning-of-tables has a precedent: in 2010, three hens called Izzy, Pongo and Pecky (with the help of a large cockerel) killed a fox that invaded their coop in Basildon, Essex. [AFP] theguardian.com, 12 Mar; livescience.com, BBC News, D.Mail, 13 Mar 2019. For a fox killed by chickens in 2010, see “‘Chicken coup”, FT262:6.