Revenge of Pale Male

[urbpan]

"This happens all the time in poor areas and people think it's funny, but when it happens in a rich neighborhoods they start calling them attacks," Carvalho said.

Hawks Attack More Than 100 People in Rio

Hawks Attack More Than 100 People in Rio
Sep 18 5:15 PM US/Eastern

By ELIZABETH DWOSKIN
Associated Press Writer

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil

Residents of crime-plagued Rio de Janeiro have a new kind of predator to worry about _ hawks. A pair of hawks have attacked more than 100 residents of the upscale Ipanema beach district over the past year, scratching peoples heads and faces, doormen working at buildings in the area said Monday.
"People leave the building carrying umbrellas to protect themselves from the attacks," said Luis Honorato, a doorman in a building near where the hawks have built a nest. "At first, they think that someone is throwing something, like a can, onto their heads from the floors above."

Honorato said that one day he saw five attacks in 20 minutes.

"Every time I leave the building I keep waving my hands over my head," said Mario Roxo, a 75-year-old chauffeur who had his head badly scratched by a hawk.

The O Globo newspaper reported that one woman lost part of her scalp to a hawk and another man mistook an attack for a stray bullet.

Rodgrigo Carvalho, a biologist with Brazil's environmental agency, said the hawks were just trying to defend their young.

"This happens all the time in poor areas and people think it's funny, but when it happens in a rich neighborhoods they start calling them attacks," Carvalho said.

He estimates as many as 1,000 hawks live in the city, flourishing because of a lack of predators and easy access to rats, pigeons and garbage.

Residents have asked the fire department to remove the nest, but officials say they cannot until they get approval from Brazil's environmental protection agency.


Cross-posted to animal_attacks

Comments

[egretplume.livejournal.com]

I know this isn't really funny, but then it kind of is.
It reminds me of the hawk attacking the chihuahua in Bryant Park a few years ago (http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/106863p-96643c.html).

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think it is funny. I hope no one hates me for that. (I said as much on my cross post.)

[dragonwrites.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's funny. when it happens to someone else.

about 15 years ago, a red-winged blackbird attacked my brother's head while he was riding his bike, and he's never gotten over that. (my brother has shiny black hair and we suspect it was a case of mistaken identity.)

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine said a seagull attacked someone in his hometown (Drogheda, Ireland) the other other day leaving them needing sixteen stitches! He could've been bullshitting me though.

[g-weir.livejournal.com]

There must Eb something uniquely amusing birds attacking humans. Even the original short story, "The Birds" had it's share of humor. One of the characters is sprinting across a field, dodging and batting away the smaller birds that re mobbing him but doing little real harm, ..."And then he saw the gannet."

Now, the story went on to explain that a gannet is a large bird capable of very swift dives and if one ever decided to drop directly into a humans head, as the one in the story was certainly considering, the human would surely be killed.

The tension was dreadfully intense, yet 'gannet' is such a silly word, the result was a wonderfully crafted scene that struck a rare cord between frighting and absurd as it touched upon the apparently universal idea that birds attacking humans is amusing -- odd, since they are descended from dinosaurs, and few people dismiss dinosaur's ability to threaten humans.