I suspect there are also just a lot more interactions between humans and cows each year. Then again, we're responsible for a lot more cow fatalities as well, so if anything those cows are just fighting back.
I was attacked by a mad (as in angry) cow just for walking by on a hike, maybe 20 feet away but not otherwise interacting with her. I hid behind a tree until she went after another cow. Now I give them more space.
My lot backs up to a cow ranch, and I once heard one making the most amazing, and intimidating noises. It was the cow voice you're used to, but "singing" through multiple octives like her soul was being tortured in hell. There are messed up cows just like people.
Can confirm. A neighbour had a cow that would batter down fences to get out and chase people, and headbutt cars. Didn't matter how we fenced the field off, she'd break out.
Turns out a deep freeze is plenty stockproof. No-one's got time for that nonsense, and every last bit was delicious right down to the last drop of oxtail soup.
I've been around cattle intermittently since I was a child, and 20 feet is too close if you don't have to be there and don't have a relationship with them.
A cow can absolutely kill you, and easily outrun you. Not likely, but can. Same as a hog, or for that matter a moving car. None of these are inherently friendly, as a group.
Apparently in parts of the world where tiger attacks are relatively common, house cats still hospitalise more people per year than tigers.
One wonders if this is because it's not really worth taking someone that's been really attacked by a tiger to the hospital, unless you've got a couple of poly bags and a coolbox handy.
Yeah, when you think about how many people are in the water they are incredibly rare. I grew up surfing and never thought much about sharks. I knew they were out there, but the drive to the beach was much more dangerous.
Any average would seem regular. One chomping at a given interval.
But we don't know from the average anything about regularity. Maybe all 47 chomps were in the last few weeks, maybe not. One is regular the other is irregular.
Agree. Though I read that shark attacks are increasing. Possibly due to changing water temperatures, or humans over-fishing their natural prey, leading them to look elsewhere.
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File (ISAF), there were just 47 unprovoked attacks last year (worldwide, 2024), 22 fewer compared to 2023 and below the 10-year annual average of 70.
If people were honest, we'd likely discover that unprovoked snake bites are almost unheard-of.
Likewise, if every drowning victim were routinely checked for BAC, I think we'd discover that sober people are much more drown-resistant than the stats would indicate. Unfortunately, water + play correlates highly with beer/wine cooler/hard seltzer consumption, in the US at least.
People make a lot of bad decisions, and it has effects.
It's a good question, so good in fact that's it's addressed in the linked article.
Examples of "provoked" attacks that occured while interacting with sharks include bitten while spear fishing sharks, bitten while removing from nets or hooks, etc.
Unprovoked attacks are shark bites while swimming, surfing, generally minding ones own business.
It's explicit in the source that provoked attacks are understood.
But I don’t think the public sees sharks as monsters to be destroyed.
Sharks are wild animals and we are in their habitat.
Sharks deserve protection even if they eat people.