Wild at Heart
In most cases of wild animal attacks on humans the victim has been heard saying, “He attacked me for no reason!” This is not entirely true. The animal attacked you because it is wild and no matter how socialized or domesticated you think a wild animal is, in its heart it will always remain wild. Just ask Charla Nash, Dawn Brancheau and Roy Horn...
BUBBLES GOES BANANAS
In the early ‘80s Michael Jackson adopted a young chimpanzee called Bubbles from a research facility in Texas. The singer was mocked by the media for his close bond with the primate, and was even accused by ex-brother in law James DeBarge (married to Janet) of monkey-ing around with the ape, if you catch the ridiculous drift! As a baby, Bubbles slept in a crib in
Michael’s bedroom and used the singer’s toilet but by 2003 he had matured into an aggressive adult chimp. He frequently “lost the plot” and ran around Neverland, traumatising staff and biting the pop star. He was eventually sent to a California animal sanctuary where he, believe it or not, allegedly attempted suicide. Today, 26 year-old Bubbles lives happily at the Centre for Great Apes in Florida.
GOING APE!
Geography : Idaho, USA
Victim : Charla Nash, 56 Years-Old
Attacker : Travis, The Chimpanzee
Before
After
Every well-behaved animal knows that it never pays to bite the hand that feeds you — but how about the face? When Travis, a 91kg chimpanzee from Idaho, decided to go… erm ape on his owner’s best friend, Charla Nash, the damage he inflicted was so extreme it led to new US laws being passed regarding animal control. Travis didn’t just bite Charla, he literally tore her entire face off and shred her fingers to the bone. Somewhat unexpected for a “socialized” chimp who was hand reared from just three days old! In 1999, well-off couple Sandra and Jerome Herold, adopted baby Travis from a local chimpanzee sanctuary. The couple treated the primate just like a real boy. He ate at the table with the family, drank wine from a wine glass, bathed with Sandra and snuggled in bed with his hairless “parents”. During the day he enjoyed watering the plants and feeding hay to the horses and often accompanied the Herolds to work in their tow truck. When he went to the shops he was always asked to pose for pictures with the locals and became a bit of a celeb in his hometown. But, while Travis was taught to behave like, and live with humans, beneath all that charm remained a wild, and apparently frustrated, animal. In November 2009, Travis escaped from his enclosure at the Herold’s home and refused to let Sandra put him back. Annoyed, Sandra called on employee and close friend, Charla Nash to help her. Charla, who had always been nervous of Travis, reluctantly agreed to help — a decision that would change her life forever! As soon as Travis caught sight of Charla, he went for her. “I don’t ask a whole lot about my injuries,” Charla told Oprah Winfrey, in her first interview to the world in February 2010. “I don’t feel pain but I try not to touch my face to avoid knowing the full extent of my injuries”. And how extensive those injuries are! Charla, who now drinks her meals with a straw, through a small hole where her mouth used to be, lost her nose, her eyelids, her lips and both her hands in the unbelievably savage attack. Doctors were later forced to remove her damaged eyes due to an infection. The fate of Travis? During the attack, Sandra called 911 for help and when emergency workers arrived on the scene, they ended the nightmare by shooting Travis three times. So bad was the episode, that emergency workers are still receiving counselling. Sandra has publicly apologized to her friend, but Charla’s family are suing the millionairess for $50 million dollars — not much, considering Charla’s medical expenses for the rest of her life.
TILLY IN TROUBLE
Back in 1999, Tilikum (aka Tilly) was also involved in another fatal incident. When staff arrived at work one morning, they found the body of a naked man lying on the whale’s back. SeaWorld staff later concluded that the man, who had either crept into SeaWorld after closing time or hidden in the park until it closed, had either jumped, fallen, or was pulled into the frigid water of Tilikum’s tank where he died of hypothermia. There have been calls for SeaWorld to set Tilly free, but this cannot happen because Tilly has broken many of his teeth on underwater cages and will not be able to provide for himself in the wild.
MOMMY, WHY IS IT CALLED A KILLER WHALE?
Geography : Sea World, Florida, USA
Victim : Dawn Brancheau, 40 Years-Old
Attacker : Tilikum, The Orca Or Killer Whale
SeaWorld extravaganzas have long thrilled audiences with amazing Orca tricks like: the Kelly Slater, where the trainer surfs on the belly of the swimming whale; or the Rocket Hop where the whale propels the trainer high out of the water for an impressive swan dive and the Drowning, where the Orca grabs it’s trainer by her ponytail, thrashes her around and then holds her underwater until she is dead. What? Not a trick! Well, this is what a horrified audience was subjected to on February 10, 2010, when they witnessed the death of highly experienced, head trainer Dawn Brancheau at the hand, or rather the fin, of her beloved Killer Whale, Tilikum. Traumatised witnesses recounted how Dawn had just finished explaining to the audience what they were about to see, when Tilikum rose up out of the water and yanked her into the pool. The two-ton beast then shook Dawn violently —her blood spilling into the clear water— as she struggled to use trainer signals to calm him down. After a minute, Tilikum finally let a weak but alive Dawn go and she struggled to swim to safety. But just as she was about to exit the pool, Tilikum grabbed her once again and dragged her underwater for another minute, this time killing her. Tilikum then settled at the bottom of the pool holding a lifeless Dawn in his mouth where she remained until staff emptied the tank enough to semi-beach Tilikum. This violent attack on Dawn stunned the world. Dr Scarpuzzi, the spokesperson for SeaWorld acknowledges that the ease with which trainers and whales appear to interact often leads people to believe orcas can be as tame as household pets. “They remain wild animals and each trainer has to make a decision for every show whether he or she can get into the water with a specific whale and whether the animal is ready psychologically and physically for a safe performance.” The fate of Tilikum? Luckily for Tilikum, it’s SeaWorld’s policy not to destroy an animal but he was separated from the rest of the performing troupe and kept in isolation. Animal rights group Peta says it has long been asking SeaWorld to stop taking wild, ocean-going mammals and confining them to an area that, to them, is “the size of a bathtub”.
MAGIC MAULING!
Geography : Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Victim : Roy Horn Of Siegfried And Roy
Attacker : Montecore, The White Siberian Tiger
After treating Roy Horn — one half of famous magic duo Siegfried and Roy— for excessive blood loss, followed by a stroke that left him partially paralysed, doctors at the University Medical Centre in Las Vegas can be forgiven for being slightly confused at Roy’s own account of the famous tiger attack. The animal trainer and magician, who has performed on the Las Vegas strip for nearly 30 years said (with a slur) that Montecore, the seven year-old white tiger, had instinctively sensed that Roy needed help after he stumbled and had simply helped him off stage. By your throat?! According to the 1500 shocked guests who witnessed the bloody scene, the mauling occurred half way through the show when Roy led Monte (as he was affectionately known before he tried to murder his trainer) on to stage. Almost immediately, the 150kg kitty became distracted by someone in the crowd and strayed toward the edge of the stage. With nothing to protect the front row, Roy leapt in font of Monte commanding him to “lie down!” Instead, Monte gripped Roy’s right wrist with his paw. With his free hand, Roy repeatedly “tapped” the cat on the head with his wireless microphone. Monte eventually released Roy’s arm, and Roy fell backwards over the tiger’s leg. Instinct then took over and in an instant Monte was on top of Roy. As he closed his powerful jaws around Roy’s neck, Siegfried ran across the stage yelling, “No, no, no!” but the tiger was obstinate and dragged Roy offstage, like a rag doll. Today, no Abracadabra has been able to fix Roy. His speech is slurred, his left arm is almost useless and he can’t walk due to a maimed left leg. He spends many painful hours trying to regain use of his limbs, but still he denies it was an attack. But animal behaviorists beg to differ. They believe Montecore was on his way to delivering a killing bite, much as a tiger in the wild would bring down an antelope. Kay Rosaire, who runs the Big Cat Encounter, a show near Sarasota, Florida says, “Even though they’re raised in captivity and they love us, sometimes their natural instincts just take over.” The fate of Montecore? Montecore is living the high, casino life at the Mirage Hotel with his brothers and sisters. He is understandably off limits to the public, but Roy visits him occasionally.
LIGHTS, CAMERA… 911
What do Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith and Bo Derek have in common? They have all nearly seen the inside of a lion. In 1972, eight year-old Jodie was chomped by a “co-star” when filming Disney’s Napoleon and Samantha. Jodie’s injuries weren’t extensive but she still has faint scars on her legs and back. Melanie Griffith was clawed in the face by a lion during the filming of Roar in 1981. At a later news conference in favour of laws regulating wild animal sales, Melanie told how she received 50 stitches after her attack and nearly lost an eye. Luckily, Mel remained bi-visual and become a leading lady in the 80s and 90s. And finally, Bo Derek was mauled while making Tarzan, the Ape Man in 1981. A lion attacked Bo in shallow water, during a beach scene, before an incoming wave broke up the attack and saved Bo from being lunch!
AND THEN THERE’S JESSICA …
Geography : Hoedspruit, Northern Province, South Africa
Victim : None…
Good Animal : Jessica, The Hippo
It’s a well-known fact that hippos kill more people than any other mammal in Africa. In Jessica’s case however, it’s beds and couches that best beware because Jess is a one-ton hippopotamus with an identity crisis. She thinks she is a Joubert family pet, and like the dogs has attempted some telly time on the couch and an in-bed cuddle, or three, with her “parents”— which ended in destruction. “I don’t know whether she thinks we’re hippos or she’s a human,” says Tonie Joubert, a retired game warden who found Jessica washed up on his farm by flood-waters when she was just one day old. Knowing that she would’ve died of starvation or become a croc feast, Tonie chose to raise Jess fully expecting her to return to the wild as soon as she was old enough. Jessica is now nine, and there are no signs of her “flying the proverbial coup” anytime soon. Although the Jouberts try to keep their mammoth daughter out of the house, she’s able to pull down door handles and let herself in. She spends most of her time in the kitchen, with her snout on the counter, waiting for her daily allowance of sweet potatoes, wheat bran, corn on the cob, cabbage, dog biscuits (which she sometimes shares with the English bull terriers) and 20 litres of weak coffee. In between her meals Jessica wallows in the river, often swimming with the wild hippos. She is free to leave but every night she comes home, settles on the veranda beneath her pink duvet and gets a massage from her “mom” Shirley, a former beauty therapist. “I can’t imagine life without her,” says Shirley, “She’s the child I never had.” Being a big girl now, wild male hippos have turned up on the river’s edge to visit and Jessica even became friendly with one of them — a 10-year-old bull they named Charlie. Sadly, Charlie was shot dead by a neighbouring farmer who spotted him on his land. Despite the less-than-friendly reputation of the hippo, The Joubert’s say that Jessica is “amazingly gentle”. “Our friends’ eight-year-old daughter slipped into the water recently and Jessica immediately swam over to her and nudged her back on to the bank. She is an amazing creature —not dangerous at all.”
JESSICA THE STAR
Jessica has starred in documentaries for Animal Planet, National Geographic and Discovery Channel, and has been featured on Sky News and CNN. She draws tourists from all over the world and is happy with all the attention. And at a bargain R50 per person, you too can meet Jessica. For bookings, please call +27 (0)15 795-5249 or Email: jessicahippo@telkomsa.net | joubert@jessicahippo.com
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