Every now and again we will hear a story about an animal attacking and killing someone. We assume that these are one off occurrences and that the animals that commit the act do so because they are put under extraordinary circumstances that cause a killer instinct to kick in. Animals that kill people often serve as inspiration for horror stories about animals that become serial killers. Jaws, Piranha, and Grizzly are films that weave tales of horror using animals that have gone homicidal. Most believe that the things depicted in these films are regulated to fiction, but the reality is that there are animals that have and still are committing murders.
1. The Tsavo Man-Eaters
In 1898, the British commissioned the construction of a railway bridge in what is modern day Kenya. Natives, who worked for menial wages and under terrible conditions, did all of the manual labor while a handful of Brits oversaw the project. Things only got worse when a pair of maneless male lions began attacking and eating people. The lions slaughtered and murdered people for over nine months. John Henry Patterson one of the men who oversaw the construction later said that he believed “twenty-eight Indian coolies, in addition to scores of unfortunate African natives of whom no official record was kept” were devoured by the lions.
In most cases where animals attack human beings they are provoked, but the people working on this railroad bridge went out of there way to avoid the lions and the animals continued to sneak into the construction camp and drug away sleeping victims. Even hunting parties sent to kill the beasts were slaughtered. The lions did eventually fall to one of these hunting parties but they did not go down easy. Patterson claimed that it took 13 bullets to kill the man-eaters. At the end of these two beasts reign of terror it was estimated that they had killed 135 people.
2. Beast of Gévaudan
In the mid 1700s, an animal terrorized the Providence of Gevaudan in France. The beast killed its helpless victims by tearing out their throats with its teeth. Some of the victims were also partially eaten. Some survived altercations with this ferocious animal and they all described it in the same way, a large wolf-like creature, with a red coat and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. It is estimated that this creature was responsible for over 210 attacks, 113 of which resulted in death. Perhaps the most unnerving thing about this story is that people still are not sure exactly what this homicidal beast was.
It is thought by some that the animal was a cross between a domesticated dog of a large breed and a wolf; this would explain the aggressive behavior and its unnatural size and wolfish features. Others have suggested that it was an Asian Hyena, a large animal that is now extinct. A favorite candidate for the identity of the beast among cyrptozoologists is that it was a Mesonychid.
Two different wolf-like creatures were eventual shot and killed by two independent hunting parties. The identity of the creatures is still debated among researches of the case.
3. Kesagake
In between December 9 and 14 a huge brown bear terrorized a group of rural Japanese farming communities in the cities of Rokusensawa, Sankebetsu, Tomamae, Rumoi, and Hokkaidō. The bear, called Kesgake, made its first appearance in late November, stealing one family’s corn and frightening their horse. Fearing for their horse’s safety the family shot at the bear and assumed that it would no longer bother human settlements out of its new found fear of humans. On December 9, the bear returned to another nearby home this time it killed a baby and drug a women off into the woods.
The bear was not finished; the next day the animal broke into the Miyoke family home. The ferocious animal went on a rampage all throughout the house mauling anyone who got in its way, including some guardsmen who were stationed at the home to protect the family from a potential bear attack. In two days the bear had claimed the lives of six people, one of whom was pregnant.
A group of 50 Japanese guardsmen attempted to hunt down the bear for days, but always came up empty handed. Eventually, it was decided to call upon the help of an expert bear hunter Yamamoto Heikichi. Heikichi initially refused to help hunt the bear as he had recently sold all of his guns to buy liquor, but after some persuasion Heikichi agreed to kill the bear. He put together a team of 60 men. It took the men several days, but they did succeed in killing the violent beast. The bear was a true killing machine weighing in at 836 pounds.
4. Sloth Bear of Mysore
Sloth bears are pretty freaking adorable. They are about as close to living teddy bears as the animal kingdom can get. It is unfortunate that they see human beings as predators. This is probably due to generations upon generations of our ancestors hunting them. Sloth bears react to people the same way they react to tigers and leopards. They will roar loudly and then either retreat or charge, and when a sloth bear attacks, it uses its large claws and goes for the head and the face.
The sloth bear of Mysore began attacking humans in the Nagvara Hills, east of Arsikere, India in Mysore State. It had made its home in an area that was populated with humans and it was not long before the bear began attacking. Those who survived the attacks typically lost an eye and parts of their nose. Those who were killed often had their entire faces torn off and were partially eaten.
The bear became so notorious that it eventually caught the attention of hunter Kenneth Anderson who made it his personal mission to track and kill the bear. It took Anderson three different hunting trips to track and successfully kill the man-eater. The beast had killed at least 12 people, and was responsible for the mauling of two-dozen others.
5. Gustave
Gustave is the name giving to a 20 foot long, one ton Nile crocodile that has achieve a legendary status in Africa. It is claimed that Gustave has killed over 300 people who made the mistake of venturing too close to the banks of the Ruzizi River. Gustave is too large to hunt small mammals so he hunts larger prey like humans, wildebeests, and has also been known to hunt hippos. The strange thing about Gustave is that he seems to be a genuine killer. It has been said that Gustave will often kill humans, but leave them at the banks uneaten, as if he is taunting us.
Perhaps even more frightening, unlike the other killer animals on this list, Gustave is still alive and well despite being shot at several times. His body is riddled with scars caused by bullets including a scar on top of his head. His last known human prey was a fisherman in 2008. He was last seen on the banks of Ruzizi River in 2009. I believe that he is simply patiently awaiting his next human victim.
Author: Jonathan Kaulay Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com
WTF is the last one? An alligator?
Crocodile lol