Let me guess... She was either on drugs, or pitifully stupid...
Woman who climbed into zoo tiger enclosure charged with trespassing
Over a week after she was filmed hopping a fence to taunt a tiger at a New Jersey zoo, a 24-year-old woman has been charged with trespassing.
In a statement released Monday, the Bridgeton Police Department said the woman entered a restricted area adjacent to the Bengal tiger’s enclosure at the Cohanzick Zoo. She reached her hand into the cage before quickly pulling it back when the animal reacted aggressively.
The woman, identified as Zyair J. Dennis, was charged with defiant trespassing on Friday.
Police said Dennis also entered the restricted area of a bear enclosure during her visit to the Cohanzick Zoo on Aug. 18. Authorities said “there was similar video depicting the same scenario” near the fence to the bear cage.
In footage from the incident involving the zoo’s tiger, the animal is seen pacing back and forth while Dennis stands on the other side of a wire fence. When the woman pushes her hand through the fence links, the tiger surges forward and onto the barrier at the provocation.
To get to the position in front of the tiger enclosure, Dennis passed a sign warning guests not to approach.
Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong....
Woman injured after orcas ram another boat off Spain’s coast
A pod of orcas rammed a sailboat and bit off chunks of the ship’s rudder off the coast of northwestern Spain, prompting a bungled rescue mission that resulted in the one of the boaters being seriously injured.
The incident was the latest example of orcas attacking boats around the Iberian peninsula, a phenomenon that scientists noticed a steep uptick in around 2020. Hundreds of attacks have been reported since, logged by the Atlantic Orca Working Group, which studies the Iberian orcas. It’s unclear why the orcas are attacking ships, but theories range from vengeance against humans to hunting practice for young killer whales.
The latest attack occurred Sunday near the coast of Galicia, when two Belgian nationals sailing through the Bay of Biscay were set upon by a pod of orcas. Similar to other attacks, the killer whales rammed the ship’s rudder, leaving the vessel immobilized.
The man and woman on board called the Spanish maritime rescue service for help around 4 p.m. and authorities deployed a rescue tugboat to their location, Reuters reports. During the towing manoeuvre, the woman seriously injured her hand and needed to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital.
The couple on board spoke to Belgian news outlet HLN and provided more details about their ordeal.
Wim Vandenhende, 43, and Dana Huens, 36, said they were sailing home from Greece in their yacht, the Amidala, when a pod of orcas began pushing and shoving their rudder.
“My steering wheel suddenly started making very strange movements,” Vandenhende said. “I also felt that the boat was being pushed.”
“When I looked to the side, I suddenly saw an orca surface next to our boat,” he added. “If I had stuck out my hand, I could have just touched it.”
Vandenhende tried to steer away from the animals to no avail. He felt about three or four more blows against the rudder and after that, the steering device was left useless.
“Without a rudder,” Vandenhende said, “the only thing we did was turn in circles.”
The couple knew that orcas had been ramming boats in the area and had already discussed their plan of what to do in the event of an attack. They called the Spanish maritime rescue service, which immediately responded.
It took about an hour for the rescue tugboat to reach them. When they arrived, rescuers threw over a tow line to attach to the couple’s boat, but Huens’ hand got caught between the tow line and the ship. Her hand was crushed.
“A rescue helicopter was called in, which took my wife with it,” Vandenhende said. “I stayed on the sailboat, which was towed to a harbour. Due to the wind and the rough sea, the towing lines broke twice.”
The maritime rescue service told Reuters that the operation was hampered by adverse weather, with winds up to 65 km/h and waves up to three metres tall. It took about five hours to tow the damaged sailboat back to port.
The orca attack left the Amidala with extensive damage, though thankfully it didn’t take on water, Vandenhende told HLN.
“The damage is considerable,” he said. “Pieces have been bitten out of the rudder.”
Would that be like biting the tail of a shark to the whales?
Museum mishap: 4-year-old boy accidentally
shatters 3,500-year-old jar
A rare Bronze Age jar was accidentally smashed to pieces at a museum in Israel when a curious four-year-old boy got too close while inspecting the 3,500-year-old artifact.
The Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel said the jar was created between 2200 and 1500 BC. It was likely used to carry or store substances like wine or olive oil during an era predating biblical royalty King David and King Solomon.
As part of the museum’s mission to display ancient artifacts in a manner accessible to all, the crockery was not housed in glass or behind a protective barrier.
The father of the young boy told the Guardian his son was curious about the jar’s contents from where it was on display near the museum’s entrance. During their visit this week, the four-year-old reached for the priceless jar and it “tipped over and fell,” he said.
“My initial reaction was denial,” the father, Alex, admitted.
He said the sight of the broken jar made the young boy cry. As the family stared at the broken pieces, Alex said he felt shocked and angry over his son’s actions. He’d been certain the destruction of the jar would come with legal or financial repercussions for his family, or at the very least, get them banned from the museum.
Instead, the father said museum officials “invited us to visit again.” They were also offered a guided tour of the building.
Inbal Rivlin, director of Hecht Museum, said the boy broke the vase accidentally, and the situation is being dealt with as such.
“There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police. In this case, however, this was not the situation,” she said. “The jar was accidentally damaged by a young child visiting the museum, and the response will be accordingly.”
Rivlin said conservationists are working to piece the jar back together and restore its original shape. When the jar is fixed and returned to its place in the museum’s display, it will likely remain without a protective barrier.
“The museum believes that there is a special charm in experiencing an archaeological find without any obstructions,” Rivlin explained. “And despite the rare incident with the jar, the Hecht Museum will continue this tradition.”
The Israeli news outlet Ynet said the jar was found in excavations in Samaria, the central region of Israel, and has been on display at the museum for 35 years.
The pottery was considered a rare archaeological find because it was intact, unlike most similar jars, which are discovered already broken in pieces.
