“AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Bears killed and ate a monkey in a Dutch zoo in front of horrified visitors, witnesses and the zoo said Monday. In the incident Sunday at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park, several Sloth bears chased the Barbary macaque into an electric fence, where it was stunned.
It recovered and fled onto a wooden structure, where one bear pursued and mauled it to death.
The park confirmed the killing in a statement, saying: “In an area where Sloth bears, great apes and Barbary macaques have coexisted peacefully for a long time, the harmony was temporarily disturbed during opening hours on Sunday.”
“Of course the habitats here in the safari park are arranged in such a way that one animal almost never kills another, but they are and remain wild animals,” it said.”
Must be a slow news day. Is there anything all that unusual about this.
Too many years of watching Yogi and BooBoo got to these folks.
Not the least upsetting to me. After all, humans aren’t the only ones who like meat in their diet. Perhaps the bears were lacking a bit of protein in theirs. Or, like many of us who choose steak when we really don’t need it, they were in the mood for a bit of monkey meat. Personally, I find monkeys far to stinky for me to want to get that close, but I know their are many folks, such as in Central and South America, and Africa, who eat monkey regularly and the news media doesn’t make such a stink about that. As you say, it must have been a slow day for news. What does surprise me is how and why humans would be shocked at this occurrence, or how slow a news day this must have been for bears acting out a natural behavioral characteristic, could become news in the first place. Do most humans really believe the natural law of the hunter and hunted, a survival need and genetic component of many wild species, would somehow stop at the zoo gates? The bears simply did that which is part of their nature to do, hunt and eat. I can’t really fault them for that. Bears will be bears.
I love animals- they are fascinating and while I might feel badly for the monkey I can’t be upset. The bear is only following nature.
What did they think was going to happen? It’s a freaking bear!
Nooooooooooooo!! Oh how sad…. and strangely fascinating, too.. Wow. makes you wonder.