From The Guardian:
Last seen several thousand years ago loping through the ancient forests and glens of Scotland, two moose have arrived at a remote reserve in the Highlands as part of plans to reintroduce wild animals now extinct in the UK.
The male and female moose are part of ambitious and controversial proposals by a millionaire landowner to recreate an ancient mountain habitat, complete with wolves, lynx and brown bears roaming freely within a vast fenced-off wildlife reserve north of Inverness.
It has of course never, ever happened that a moose, wolf, lynx or brown bear has jumped or climbed over a fence, or somehow pushed through a break in one.
From Next Nature:
Hans Jørgen Olsen, a 12-year-old Norwegian boy, saved himself and his sister from a moose attack using skills he picked up playing the online role playing game World of Warcraft...
When the moose attacked them, Hans knew the first thing he had to do was ‘taunt’ and provoke the animal so that it would leave his sister alone and she could run to safety... Once Hans was a target, he remembered another skill he had picked up at level 30 in ‘World of Warcraft’ – he feigned death.
The moose lost interest in the inanimate boy and wandered off into the woods. When he was safely alone Hans ran back home to share his tale of video game-inspired survival.
Well, even assuming there's a single word of truth in all that, he could have saved himself a lot of faff by telling his sister to play dead and running off himself.
Spotter's badge, both articles: Derek.
Sioux chef
33 minutes ago
16 comments:
"he could have saved himself a lot of faff by telling his sister to play dead and running off himself."
Maybe he's saving that one up for the wolves.
It seems the authorities in Argyll are having some difficulties keeping track of their beavers.
Given the difficulties presented by the terrain, I can imagine that moose on the loose are a distinct possibility - accounts from Canada suggest they are skilled escape artistes.
Still, if they go ahead with the wolves, lynx and bears it should all even out in the end.
Meanwhile, given the number of unarmed hill-walkers in the area and the density of population compared to, say, Alberta, I suspect you'll need a whole new blog to chronicle the results.
As I undertand it, yer N American moose is similar to yer Scandowegian elk, and yer N American elk is similar to our red deer.
Releasing wolves might be a good idea - something should be done about all those bloody red deer. About bears, though, I have reservations - mainly that there's no chance that they'll stay on their reservations. Snow falls, snow accumulates, bear strolls out.
"Snow falls, snow accumulates, bear strolls out."
Wouldn't they be hibernating if it was winter?
"It has of course never, ever happened that a moose, wolf, lynx or brown bear has jumped or climbed over a fence, or somehow pushed through a break in one."
Ask any zookeeper - surprisingly, moose are quite accomplished escape artists, something to do with their extremely flexible mouth being good at opening locks. No doubt coupled with the fact that no-one expects such a gormless-looking beast to have the necessary mental agility, so letting their guard down...
"Once Hans was a target, he remembered another skill he had picked up at level 30 in ‘World of Warcraft’ – he feigned death."
Bloody Huntards - always drawing aggro, then dumping it on the nearest cloth-wearer!
"Wouldn't they be hibernating if it was winter?" I doubt that a perfect correlation exists between snooze and snow depth.
Still, as Wadders would doubtless say, bears snoozing is a risk factor for deep snow.
"Wouldn't they be hibernating if it was winter?"
American Black Bears 'leave their dens when the ambient temperature is above 10 °C and snow is melting rapidly. They tend to leave the den once there are two to four consecutive days reaching 10 °C'.
One for the global warming brigade...?
AKH, now that's spiteful.
McH, that beaver story is the sort of thing I mean. But as you say, I can branch out into wold, lynx and bear attacks as well as cows.
D, the Americans seem to have mixed up the names somehow.
B, snow is another good one, if it's deep enough, yer wild predator can simply walk over the fence.
JM, I'm afraid I don't know what a Huntard is. Should I be knowing it?
D (second comment), that's a bit harsh. Clearly snow is a risk factor for bears hibernating and not the other way round.
McH (second comment) not bloody American black bears! I hope they'll be using more generic brown bears like what they have in Eastern Europe.
Do mooses "lope"? I'd have been more inclined to think that a big old heavy vegetarian with enormous and heavy coathangers on its head would sort of amble, or stroll, for the most part.......
Yer wolves would lope, mind. Especially if a small Norwegian boy were in their sights.
FT, I suppose first of all we have to find out whether the animal in question is a North American moose (which is the same as a Scandinavian elk) or possibly a completely different animal, then we'll decide whether it lopes or not.
As a result of reading this I now have what I believe the Germans call an "earworm" - when a tune won't stop playing in your head, driving you mad.
Currently, it's Lord Rockingham's XI and "Hoots Mon" - and the immortal line:
"there's a moose loose aboot this hoose".
(WV: juncomat)
FT, yes, they call a catchy tune an earworm (it's neither a compliment nor derogatory) , but what's the English word for this?
Earworm: you've probably got there as well by now, but Wikipedia informs us that
The Official Earworm Synonym List includes alternative terms such as "music meme", "humsickness" , "repetunitis", "obsessive musical thought" and "tune wedgy."
It also helpfully explains that it is not to be confused with the creature depicted in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
I looked it up for a post some time ago after being infected by a particulary virulent form.
It's the Hunter class in WoW that has the ability to feign death. It's the most-popular class for clueless newbs, because it's easy - hence, 'Huntard'.
McH, those are fair approximations but "earworm" is better.
JM, aha, thanks for explication. But wouldn't the best way of avoiding attacks be to simply not play the game in the first place?
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