Tuesday, January 30, 2007

When Animals Attack...



If you fish the Chattooga river between South Carolina and Georgia you might need to worry about more than lazy eyed banjo pickers if a recent sighting by a federal forest service employee is any indication. Terrance Fletcher came face to face with what he described as a 7-foot-long panther with "jet black" fur. Mr. Fletcher used good common sense when he encountered the creature:

"The animal started running ... so I decided to run and get away and jump in the river to get across to the other side," Fletcher said this week. "It was a life-changing event for me."

In other news of animal revenge, it seems a bald eagle in Juneau, Alaska knocked out power to 10,000 residents when it attempted to pick up a deer head from a local landfill and carry it back to the nest. The ambitious bird was unable to gain enough altitude and crashed into power transmission lines causing the power to go off. The JuneauEmpire.com reports that it would have been a sweet deal for our national symbol could he have made off with the loot:

"This would have been a major score," Wood said. "That eagle would have been the king eagle of the Lemon Creek group."

Anybody besides me thinking of an Animal Farm type conspiracy theory here? If you want to prepare for the coming darkness you might want to take Field and Stream magazine's latest survival quiz in which you take on the role of the unluckiest hunter in the world.

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