Dangerous animals. Attacking people - deliberate aggression or self-defense?

Since school, we are told about the exclusivity of a person, calling it "the crown of creation". In some ways this is true, but in some animals, people do not cause absolutely no trepidation.

In particular, there are some dangerous animals, an attack on people from which they often meet. In such cases, opinions are divided: someone speaks of "monsters hungry for human flesh," and someone reminds that a man often provokes an aggressive attitude toward himself.

So who is right? Let's understand. We will determine that we will consider "acts of aggression" only from mammals (and sharks), since the same poisonous jellyfish can not be deliberately unfriendly towards people.

So, what kind of animals are these? Attacks on people often occur on the part of lions, tigers, sharks, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, elephants ... In short, the list can continue indefinitely. In our forests, you risk falling into the diet of a bear, a wolf or a lynx.

As for the bears, in the summer they attack only when a person provokes them himself. A classic case is an animal that is hunted on a hunt, which will consciously take revenge on a person. With the trot, the situation is similar, but "terrible gray wolves" are more often than not afraid of people.

But in winter everything is somewhat different. As for the same bears, at this time of the year they are asleep. Released the same from the den in the winter, "a clumsy bear" is a terrible beast that will attack any living being from hunger. Hungry can be guided by a wolf pack and lynx, but these animals, an attack on people on whose part is extremely rare, people are more likely to avoid.

The fauna of hot countries is another matter. Experienced travelers say that with elephants should be extremely careful. Of course, domesticated representatives of the species are completely harmless in 99% of cases, but among their wild relatives there are often specimens injured by poachers. Such animals, attacking people who do not normally commit, can become a real disaster.

Thus, Indian-wounded Indian elephants sometimes devastated whole villages, simply trampling the entire population under the cover of night. With Indian tigers, there are similar stories. For example, the construction of whole branches of railways was sometimes postponed due to the fact that workers were being terrorized by cannibal tigers.

What is the reason for the attack of wild animals on people in this case? Unlike hungry bears, wounded elephants and other victims of hunters, striped predators become cannibals because of ... old age!

The fact that the old tiger is very difficult to catch some big beast, and virtually absent fangs and dull claws somehow do not contribute to a successful hunt. Man is a different matter. He is careless, can not run fast, is prone to panic. In short, it is an ideal target for attack.

So because of what happens the attack of animals on people: are they guided by some kind of aggression to a person or a simple famine? For sure it's hard to say. Despite the spread of the media "horror stories" about such cases, thousands of times less people die from wild animals than in road accidents.

Each such case is unique. Most often, attacks are committed by the waders, as well as animals, who are "lucky" to get acquainted with the hunting trap. Exceptions are only tiger-cannibals and bears-rods, for which a man is a walking breakfast or lunch.