From amateur caretakers to widely acclaimed naturalists whose passion took them all over
the world, here are 9 attacked animal lovers: Number 9 Sir David Attenborough
When asked on The Graham Norton Show what his closest brush with breath was, Sir David
Attenborough spoke of a rhinoceros attack that took place in East Africa.
While driving in a Land Rover along with a local big game expert, Attenborough heard
a strange tapping sound like footsteps.
The expert said they’d just been charged by a Rhino with a the me charge and that there
wasn’t much to worry about.
Then they heard the same sound again, only this time with the rhino ramming its horns
into the back of the Land Rover.
It lifted the back of the vehicle off the ground and started violently shaking it.
It was at this time that Sir David Attenborough said he truly felt in danger.
Luckily, the rhino gave up the charge and both of the men were unharmed.
Number 8 Florence Lenahan On her property in Delaware, Ohio, 74-year-old
Florence Lenahan cared for many animals including cows, horses, cats, dogs and even llamas.
In fact, her favorite pet was a llama called Baby Doll.
Lenahan had bottle-fed Baby Doll from she was young and the two of them appeared to
be inseparable.
One day, when Lenahan’s friend, Kevin Scott, came to visit, he found her lying on the ground
unconscious.
It was later discovered that, while running to greet Florence, Baby Doll had slipped on
the wet grass causing her to collide with Lenahan.
As she fell, her head hit the concrete and she later succumbed to her injuries.
Scott, with the help of the Delaware Humane Society, vowed to find new homes for all the
animals on Lenahan’s property.
Number 7 Vitaly Nikolayenko Vitaly Nikolayenko, a Russian self-educated
naturalist and photographer had such a deep fascination for the brown bears of the Kamchatka
peninsula that he spent more than 33 years living with them.
During this time he wrote hundreds of journals and walked roughly 620 miles each year through
Kamchatka’s remote coastal plains and river valleys.
His massive body of work is considered crucial when it comes to understanding the behavior
of brown bears.
For 20 years he followed a very large male that he named Dobrynya.
They’d developed such a bond that the animal would often curl up and sleep only several
feet from Nikolayenko.
Unfortunately, his love for these creatures ultimately led to his demise.
In December 2003, he spent longer than planned in the wilderness.
When a helicopter arrived to pick him up, Nikolayenko couldn’t be found.
His body was discovered in January 2004.
A bear paw print and an empty can of orange pepper spray, which he most likely used to
defend himself, were found near the body.
Number 6 Patricia Wyman Canadian wildlife biologist Patricia Wyman
was excited about her new job at the Wolf Center in Ontario’s Haliburton Forest and
Wildlife Reserve.
She started work in April 1996, but the pack she was assigned to consisted of five wolves
not yet socialized with humans.
She went to feed them alone and later that day expressed concerns to her fiancé regarding
the aggressive behavior of one of the males, but didn’t share her concerns with the park’s
more experienced staff.
On April 18, two employees found her body in the wolf enclosure.
Her clothing completely torn with strips strewn around her body.
Some flesh was missing from the extremities and there were multiple puncture marks on
Wyman’s body.
She was filled on the third day of her employment.
At the order of the coroner, the wolves were put down and examined for rabies but results
came back negative.
Number 5 Ali Khan Samsudin In Malaysia, Ali Khan Samsudin was known as
the ‘snake king’.
His love of snakes even earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
In the early 90s, Samsudin lived with 400 cobras in a small room for 12 hours a day,
for almost two months.
He also became known as the ‘scorpion king’ when for 21 days he lived in a glass enclosure
with 6,000 venomous scorpions.
Samsudin was bitten many times throughout his life by snakes but the fatal bite came
in 2006 by a king cobra.
He was taken to the hospital but died before he could receive treatment for the bite.
Number 4 Carlos Carvalho Award-winning South African filmmaker Carlos
Carvalho was filled by a giraffe he was filming, on a farm about 40 miles from Johannesburg.
The giraffe, named Gerald, reportedly seemed curious when Carvalho and his crew first approached
it to start filming.
While Carvalho was looking through the camera’s eyepiece, the animal swung its neck hitting
the filmmaker on the head.
He was sent flying several feet into the air.
The 47-year-old later died from complications associated with head trauma.
A spokesperson for the farm claimed that Carvalho had ignored safety regulations about approaching
the animal.
They added that he was authorized to film and that he’d gone off on his own trying
to get better shots.
The farm decided Gerald wasn’t at fault and wouldn’t be putting him down.
Number 3 ‘Roar’ ‘Roar’ has been described as the most
dangerous film ever made.
After Noel Marshall and Tippi Hedren finished filming together in Africa, in 1969, they
stumbled upon an abandoned plantation house overrun by a pride of lions.
This discovery became the inspiration for Roar.
The film is about a family attacked by predatory jungle animals at the home of their keeper.
Hedren was an animal rights activist and hoped that the film would raise concerns regarding
the dwindling population of endangered big cats on the African continent.
Roar co-starred Hedren and her real-life daughter Melanie Griffith as well as Marshall and his
two real-life sons, John and Jerry.
Shot on location at Marshall’s private ranch in Acton, Cailfornia.
Around 150 untrained leopards, lions, tigers, cheetahs and other big cats as well as some
ill-tempered elephants were used in the film.
More than 70 cast and crew were injured during production, some to life-threatening degrees.
A cinematographer needed 220 stitches after being scalped by a lion.
Hedren needed 38 stitches after being bit in the neck by a lion, an incident seen in
the film.
She also fractured her leg after an elephant threw her off its back.
Melanie Griffith needed 50 stitches to her face after she was mauled by a lion while
Noel Marshall was attacked so many times that he developed gangrene.
The final cut of Roar featured real blood on screen because much of the footage from
the injuries ended up being used.
After a production period of over 11 years with Hedren and Marshall, who were married
at the time, sinking millions of their own money into it, Roar was ultimately a financial
failure.
Number 2 ‘Grizzly Man’ For 13 seasons, bear enthusiast and documentary
filmmaker Timothy Treadwell lived amongst the grizzly bears of Katmai National Park
in Alaska.
In 2003, at the end of Treadwell’s 13th season, he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard
were filled and almost fully consumed by a brown bear.
When an air taxi pilot arrived at their campsite to pick them up, a large grizzly bear was
on site but the couple were nowhere to be found.
The park rangers were called in and Huguenard’s partial remains were discovered buried under
dirt and twigs near the collapsed tents.
Treadwell’s disfigured head, right forearm and hand as well as his part of his spine
were found near the camp.
The park rangers were forced to filled the grizzly protecting the site in order to recover
their remains.
They also found a video camera that had been operating during the attack.
The tape was blank but the camera did record the sound of their agonized screams as they’re
being mauled to bath.
The incident as well as Treadwell’s life and work are the subject of Werner Herzog’s
critically acclaimed 2005 film ‘Grizzly Man’.
Number 1 Steve Irwin Also known as ‘The Crocodile Hunter’,
Steve Irwin was internationally famous for his extreme stunts often involving dangerous
animals such as crocodiles or venomous snakes and spiders.
The Australian zookeeper and conservationist rose to worldwide recognition with television
shows like Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter or The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, which he
would co-host with his wife, Terri.
Steve Irwin’s energetic and exuberant presenting style, his broad Australian accent and signature
catchphrase ‘Crikey!’
made him a beloved television personality.
Irwin’s work also earned him the praise of highly respected fellow naturalists like
Sir David Attenborough.
On September 4, 2006, Steve Irwin was on location at Batt Reef, Queensland, filming for the
documentary series ‘Ocean’s Deadliest’.
While there, Irwin approached a stingray with an approximate span of 6.5 feet.
He was trying to film it swimming away to gather footage for his daughter’s television
program.
As he came up behind it, the stingray suddenly began stabbing wildly with its tail.
Irwin’s cameraman was the only witness to the attack, and, according to him, the stingray
delivered hundreds of strikes in only a few seconds.
Unfortunately, one of the barbs pierced Irwin’s heart causing him to bleed to bath.
It’s been described as the first and only stingray fatality captured on video.
Queensland police viewed the footage as part of their investigation, but subsequently destroyed
all copies of it as per the request of Steve Irwin’s family.