Hiker dies after bear knocks him into 2,600-foot ravine in Greece, witness says
A veteran Greek hiker died Tuesday after falling into a ravine in the north of the country after a bear encounter, rescuers said.
Christos Stavrianidis was declared dead at Kavala hospital shortly after he was found in the 2,600-foot ravine in Fraktou forest in northeastern Greece, the Ekav national emergency center told AFP.
Stavrianidis was in the forest with another experienced hiker, Dimitris Kioroglou, when the incident happened on Monday.
"I suddenly saw a bear which attacked me," Kioroglou told news portal NewsIT. "My dog delayed it for a few seconds. I used pepper spray, and it headed to where my friend was and knocked him into the ravine."
Panos Stefanou, spokesman for Greece wildlife group Arcturos, said the bear was likely defending itself.
"This is more a defensive behavior, not an attack. The bear is trying to push back what it sees as a threat," he told state TV ERT.
The hikers were heading towards the remains of a Greek warplane that crashed in the area some seven decades earlier.
Stavrianidis had found the plane deep in the forest last August. He was leading efforts to identify a more accessible route to its location to enable more people to visit the wreckage.
"It's a beautiful discovery that deserves to be viewed on location... the fuselage is nearly intact," he had told a local journalist last year.
"It's a treasure of nature and should be left (in the forest)," he had said.
Brown bears are protected under Greek law, according to Ursa Trails, which notes the biggest populations are located in the mountains of western Rhodopes and Northern and Central Pindos.
Photo taken on June 4, 2018, shows an adult brown bear standing by the wire fence inside Arcturos wildlife sanctuary, where more than 20 bears have found shelter, in Florina, Greece.
Xinhua/Dimitris Tosidis via Getty Images
The brown bear population is much denser farther north in Europe. Last month, Slovenia approved the culling of more than 200 brown bears, whose population in a forested area outside the capital had grown to around 1,000.
Slovakia has also grappled with a surging brown bear population as well as attacks on humans. In April, lawmakers approved a plan to shoot about 350 brown bears in Slovakia after a man was mauled to death while walking in a forest there, the BBC reported.
Last year, a woman died in Slovakia after being chased by a bear through dense forest and mountainous terrain.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Relatives 'gobsmacked' after grave mementos smashed
Relatives of people buried in a Nottinghamshire cemetery say they are 'gobsmacked' after wildlife were blamed for smashing mementos left on graves. Families started a petition in protest after Broxtowe Borough Council said it was going to remove the mementos, which then led the authority to put any changes on hold for 12 months. Visitors say they then found flowers, plant pots and crosses had been overturned last week and were told by the council ants, birds, badgers, foxes and muntjac deer were responsible. But families have blamed council grass cutting, going so far as to stake out the cemetery to see whether animals were causing the problems. Lindsey Collins, 46, from Beeston, whose son, Josh, was buried in the cemetery in 2021, said the problems were noticed on Tuesday 10 June. She said: "The gardeners had been in and after mowing, several graves with pots, ornaments and memorials were damaged. "In all the years we have been in the cemetery this has never happened before. "The odd breakage is to be expected, but this damage was over several sections and areas of the cemetery. "I was disgusted, heartbroken. And with Father's Day coming up I was worried how it was going to affect people." Ms Collins estimated around 20 plots were affected with other visitors visibly distressed. But this turned into surprise when Broxtowe Borough Council denied its gardeners were responsible. "They said it was ants," said Ms Collins. "They said the ants were nesting in the tubs and then birds were coming to peck at them and then knocking the vases which then get caught in the long grass and get mowed. "Then apparently badgers, foxes and muntjac deer also knocked over the ornaments. "We were gobsmacked. "So the cemetery committee staked out the area overnight and we never saw any activity from the animals which might explain what happened." A spokesman for Broxtowe Borough Council said: "We have an experienced team that understands the sensitivities of working within our graveyards. "All items are placed at the owner's risk." The wider issue of leaving tributes on graves was discussed by the council earlier this month but a decision was deferred. Follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@ or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210. Families 'disheartened' by proposed grave rules Broxtowe Borough Council
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Thailand credits prey releases for 'extraordinary' tiger recovery
In the thick, steamy forests of western Thailand, 20 skittish sambar deer dart from an enclosure into the undergrowth -- unaware they may find themselves in the jaws of one of the habitat's 200 or so endangered tigers. The release is part of a project run by the government and conservation group WWF to provide tigers with prey to hunt and eat, which has helped the big cat make a remarkable recovery in Thailand. The wild tiger population in Thailand's Western Forest Complex, near the border with Myanmar, has increased almost fivefold in the last 15 years from about 40 in 2007 to between 179 and 223 last year, according to the kingdom's Department of National Parks (DNP). It is an uptick that WWF's Tigers Alive initiative leader Stuart Chapman calls "extraordinary", especially as no other country in Southeast Asia has seen tiger numbers pick up at all. The DNP and the WWF have been breeding sambar, which are native to Thailand but classed as vulnerable, and releasing them as prey. Now in its fifth year, the prey release is a "very good activity," says the DNP's Chaiya Danpho, as it addresses the ecosystem's lack of large ungulates for tigers to eat. Worrapan Phumanee, a research manager for WWF Thailand, says that deer were previously scarce in the area, impacting the tiger population. But "since starting the project, we've seen tigers become regular residents here and successfully breed," he says. Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam have all lost their native populations of Indochinese tigers, while Myanmar is thought to have just 23 left in the wild, in large part due to poaching and wildlife trafficking. Over the past century numbers worldwide have fallen from about 100,000 individuals to an estimated 5,500, according to the IUCN, which classifies tigers as endangered due to habitat loss and overhunting of the species and their natural prey. But major tiger recoveries have been recorded in India and Nepal, where in recent years numbers of Bengal tigers have grown to 3,600 and 355 respectively thanks to conservation measures. - 'Incredibly successful' - In a forest clearing in Khlong Lan National Park, DNP staff open the gate of the sambar deer enclosure where 10 males and 10 females have been grazing. The deer watch cautiously as one brave individual darts out, before the rest follow at speed and disappear into the trees. Worrapan says prey release programmes -- now also happening in Cambodia and Malaysia -- are part of wider restoration efforts to "rebuild ecosystems" in Southeast Asia, where they have been adapted for local purposes from similar initiatives that have existed for years in Africa. The breeding and releases also aim to solve the problem of the sambar deer's own population decline due to hunting, says Worrapan. "The purpose of releasing deer is not solely to serve as tiger prey but also to restore the deer population," he says, adding that GPS collar-monitoring has allowed researchers to track their lives after release. He says despite having only known captivity, the deer show a strong ability to adapt to outside threats. "(They) don't simply wait passively. They try to evade predators and choose safe areas to thrive." Chaiya says only a small number of the released deer end up as predator dinner, with most going on to reproduce. The sambar deer and their offspring "play a role in the food chain within the ecosystem, serving as prey for predators," he says. sjc/pdw-sah/mtp
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
A Scary Encounter Inspired Her to Become a Rattlesnake Wrangler. Now, She's Dedicated Her Life to Saving Them (Exclusive)
Danielle Wall has made a name for herself in Joshua Tree as a local rattlesnake wrangler. After encountering one on the road in 2018, she taught herself about the species and how to handle them While California's animal control laws require captured rattlesnakes to be euthanized, Wall sends them away from properties without harming them. She does not charge for her services at all Wall supplements her reptile management volunteer work with paid gigs handling animals on TV and film sets, and she's also gained a following of over 116,000 on social mediaIt was August 2018. Danielle Wall was in college at the time and trying to make ends meet. She worked jobs at a wedding venue and took tutoring gigs to pull in some cash. She was driving to her home in Joshua Tree, Calif., after yet another long day when something in the middle of the road made her suddenly swerve her Honda Civic. Sprawled out in the center of the street was a rattlesnake, something Wall had never seen in her two years living out in the desert. She didn't know much about snakes, but she knew she didn't want to crush it. Wall maneuvered her car directly over the reptile so the tires would pass by it on either side, but when she looked back, the rattlesnake wasn't moving. "I pulled over, and I was like, 'Oh God, did I kill it?' Because it was just laying there, not moving, not doing anything," she recalls to PEOPLE almost seven years later. But looking at it from outside of her car, she realized it was alive. With no cell service or any experience with snakes, Wall was scared. Terrified, in fact, but not paralyzingly so. Her empathy for the living creature took over. She broke off a stick from a nearby bush and returned to the road to poke the snake. After a jab, the rattlesnake took off, slithering away from the road and out of danger. "That's the grand story," says Wall, now 31. The next chapter of her life unfolded from there, the moment she simply poked a rattlesnake on the road. She's since dedicated herself to safely removing rattlesnakes from dangerous places, where they may be threatened or where they may pose a threat to others. In most scenarios, Wall explains, the latter only occurs after the former. "People think they're aggressive, but on paper, they have the same behavioral defenses as feral kittens. And a feral kitten's not going to attack a human or bite a human for no reason," she tells PEOPLE. "But if you trap it, the feral kitten's going to try to run past you before jumping on you. And the snakes are all the same ... Most bites are completely preventable." Of course, Wall didn't know that back in 2018. But when she got home after her first rattlesnake encounter in the round, she decided to familiarize herself with the species and find out how others handle such encounters. Her search yielded chilling information, findings that didn't sit right with Wall at all. California animal control's typical protocol was — and still is, legally — to euthanize found and caught rattlesnakes. The violence of it all got to her. A born nature-lover, Wall was appalled to learn that people were killing wildlife out of fear. Wall wasn't just going to sit with the horror. She felt compelled to fix the problem. "I was like, 'How hard could it be? I'll teach myself or reach out, see if anyone will teach me,'" the SoCal resident recalls. "I found no resources. And then the few people I did reach out to that answered were like, 'No,'" says Wall. "One guy said, 'Sit down, little girl, you're going to get hurt.'" Rejection after rejection, Wall resolved to just put herself out there. She educated herself on reptile husbandry and rattlesnake anatomy, reading research published by the likes of Loma Linda Medical University's herpetology department. And she watched local Facebook groups, waiting for a post by someone looking for help with a rattlesnake. Her interest was piqued by one woman's post about a snake on her property. In her caption, she specified, "I don't want it killed." The replies completely dismissed the woman's wishes. "Out of the 30 comments saying, 'Kill it,' I'm the one comment saying, 'I've moved one off the road before. I've got a stick and a bucket. Can I come try?'" Wall remembers. The woman agreed, and Wall was able to successfully, safely send off a second snake. It wasn't just how easy it was for her to catch and release the snake. It was seeing how happy and calm the woman was as Wall helped her out. "That was the pivot of, 'I can f------ do this,'" says Wall. "And then it built up from there." At first, she expected it to be a "little bit of a side thing," Wall explains, especially since she doesn't charge for her rattlesnake wrangling service at all. It's donation-based, and she was lucky enough to nab a tire sponsor after she once caught a snake for a man who owns a tire company. He gave her a $2,000 set of tires to help her drive the lengths of Joshua Tree. The new tires came at the perfect time, too, because it didn't take long before Wall's phone was constantly blowing up with requests for her to wrangle on various properties across the desert. COVID hit during year three of her business, and with so many people staying home — and plenty of city folk heading out to quieter Joshua Tree residences — they started to notice more and more snakes. "The population was getting higher. The building rates were exponential, just so many houses being built. So a lot of territory for the snakes was demolished," she explains to PEOPLE. That's not to say there were never any roaming snakes to start with, though. Snakes are all over the desert, hiding in plain sight, especially in Joshua Tree National Park, where people regularly hike and hang out without noticing any vipers. In fact, Wall nods to their widespread presence to illustrate just how mild these creatures really are. "There's no such thing as an aggressive rattlesnake towards people, because if they were aggressive, no one could live in Joshua Tree. It'd be like the movie Zombieland, but snakes," she says. "If the snakes actually decided to say, 'F--- people,' they could run everyone out of this desert." Wall continues, "They're plentiful out here, but they're so peaceful and they don't ambush us. It's nothing like that. People just think, 'Oh, well, I don't see them. So, they're not there.'" During lockdown, her phone started ringing nonstop. She was constantly dropping everything to go visit properties and remove visiting reptiles. It got to the point where she could no longer keep up with her busy lifestyle, balancing school and full-time paid work. She dropped out of college and pointed all her efforts toward snake wrangling. In place of a steady income, she picks up odd jobs on the side, usually cleaning houses. She used to offer classes on rattlesnakes, charging people $150 to attend a session, but wrangling got in the way of that, too. "I'd book an hour-and-a-half class, then 10 minutes in, I'd get a snake call. I send my assistant, and then two minutes later, I get another call," she says. "It got to the point where the anxiety I was getting trying to schedule classes to make money was making it so I couldn't go save the snakes, which is my whole purpose." Legally, she's not able to officially turn her work into a business, but even if she could charge for rattlesnake wrangling, Wall says she wouldn't. She looked at non-profit options, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife doesn't grant third-party permits. She's come to terms with the unsteady income, but even with acceptance, Wall admits that times do get tough. "I struggle financially, big time. People have no idea. They have no f------ clue, and maybe I should be a bit more transparent about it," she tells PEOPLE. "I've had my electricity cut off because I'm more worried about making sure there's gas in my car to go and get snakes instead of paying my own bills." In place of money, however, Wall soon gained something else: notoriety. "You post one picture of a small tattooed chick holding a rattlesnake," she chuckles, admitting, "It got a lot of attention, and I didn't anticipate that." Wall's Instagram page, @High_Desert_Dani, has over 116,000 followers. The attention has paid off in a literal sense, too. She works in the entertainment business every so often, with sets hiring her to handle snakes featured in film and television. "I can charge upwards of a thousand dollars a day. So, if I get two or three really good set gigs over the year, it'll help me make my bills," Wall explains. "But I'm still in the red every year on terms of upkeep on just the snake stuff." It's an uphill battle, but it's worth it to the California native. She wants to see the state's animal control laws evolve toward a more humane approach. Other parts of the country don't require the vipers to be killed when caught. Elsewhere, there are wildlife facilities that offer rattlesnake relocation training classes and seminars. "There's other states that are already doing this, and that's how California should be. It shouldn't be that it is just me," she says. Wall admits that she gets anxiety doing publicity for herself, whether she's speaking to the press, appearing on a screen or posting for her substantial social media audience. She pushes on because she knows more attention will help her change her state's Fish and Game official protocol for handling rattlesnakes. "When I did some research, that's how a lot of other states ended up getting laws changed: Publicity," she notes. "Enough of the community was in an uproar over the killing. They were able to push for each individual county and eventually the state to uphold those laws." Sometimes her means of advocacy is misread. People challenge her motives. "I get people online that are like, 'You do this for the fame and money,'" says Wall. "And I love that people do question me, because there are people that claim to do good and they're evil. So I always say, 'Please question me.' I love to be able to prove that I'm doing this for the right reasons over and over and over." She can sense when someone is in the rattlesnake wrangling business for the wrong reasons. Those people usually wave the bright red flag of a competitive attitude. "People are like, 'Well, Danielle, you must not want more snake wranglers coming out and taking your job.' I'm like, 'What do you mean f------ taking my job?'" Wall says. "There's always snakes to save. I could use 10 helpers that I could trust, and I would be so grateful." In Wall's experience, men can be particularly competitive with her, though the snake wrangling is generally a male-dominated field. Wall has had her fair share of sexist remarks since that first "Sit down, little girl." But she's also learned that snake biting is a male-focused area, too. While she was researching the reptiles, she learned that hospital data largely shows snake bites on men 75% to 80% of the time. "There's a guy at Loma Linda [University] that does the presentations and lectures and seminars on snakes, and he's like, 'The two main reasons for rattlesnake bites are testosterone and booze,'" Wall explains. "And he is a middle-aged man, and he has no shame of being like, 'Men are dumb sometimes.' Because that's how it is in the bite world." Not unlike the rattlesnakes that lash out, Wall calls men the "number one" thing that scares her. But having grown up with brothers, it's not that she's intimidated, nor that she hates men in general. "It's more so the fact that these other male snake wranglers have to be better than me," she says. "If that's your goal, you're in it for the wrong reasons. Because I didn't get into this to be the best, I got into it to have a purpose in life." That really is how it boils down. Rattlesnakes came into Wall's life when she needed something bigger to guide her, something that she could do and feel good doing. Somehow, the timing has always made sense; in addition to her advocacy motive, these reptiles continue to pull her out of her lowest lows. One December saw Wall deeply depressed. She was going through a "pretty gnarly" breakup, and snakes rarely come out in the winter months. Without wrangling requests on her phone, she really couldn't bring herself up and out of bed. Over the course of months, she lost weight and fell further into that dark place. On the other side of winter, the sun warmed up the desert again. Snakes started to come out of hiding, and Wall's sense of happiness returned with the snake calls. "It was a very pivotal moment of just figuring out what makes me happy, why I do what I do, why I am the way I am," she recalls to PEOPLE, with an emotional catch to her voice. "I didn't realize how much the snakes actually gave me the purpose to get up ... I saved snakes and they saved me." Read the original article on People
