Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Rescue in Zimbabwe

I like animal stories, especially the strange ones. Like the exploding toads in Germany and Denmark, or the python in Florida that swallowed an aligator and ruptured to death. It's not that I actually enjoy death or blood-and-guts. It's more that these things are so odd, so far out of my realm of what's normal in the animal world.

Today's story, though, is one with a happy ending. It's from yesterday's Scotsman and tells the tale of an otherwise-unfortunate hunter in Zimbabwe. Letikuku Sidumbu and his uncle went hunting (the article doesn't say what they were after), when a crocodile grabbed Sidumbu by the arm.

As the animal clenched its jaws on his right arm, villagers formed a chain to tug him from its grip in a struggle that left him with a broken leg and chest and stomach injuries, he told a newspaper from his Harare hospital bed.

The article pointed out that last year there were 13 recorded cases of crocodiles eating people in Zimbabwe, which makes Letikuku Sidumbu a very lucky man.

Let's hope the rest of Zimbabwe can be pulled out from the jaws of the crocodile named Robert Mugabe.

1 comment:

Deanna said...

I like strange people who like strange stories. Keep it up!