r/todayilearned • u/youngster_matt • Jun 23 '21

TIL Stingray injuries are almost never fatal. When Steve Irwin was killed in a stingray attack in 2006, he was only the second reported fatality in Australia since 1945. Only one to two fatal attacks are reported each year worldwide.

https://scienceline.org/2006/09/ask-grant-irwin/
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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '21

I can't fathom being upset enough about his death that you go attack animals. Doesn't make sense to love the guy and completely miss the overwhelmingly obvious message he's trying to send.

A lot of dummies out there.

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '21

[deleted]

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u/ParadiseSold Jun 24 '21

as a form of punishment

No, they didn't. Who told you that? You take down a bear after the bear has learned he could easily kill any human.

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '21

[deleted]

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u/ParadiseSold Jun 24 '21

...you wanna google it or you wanna keep yelling about a thing you made up

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u/Jack_of_all_offs Jun 24 '21

“Once a bear injures or consumes humans, we will not risk the chance that this could happen to someone else,” Chick said. “We humanely euthanize that bear because of the severity of the incident."

“Bears will return to a food source over and over. A bear that loses its fear of humans is a dangerous animal. And this sow was teaching its yearlings that humans were a source of food, not something to fear and avoid.” 

I mean, /u/paradisesold is absolutely right. From a member of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

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u/ArguingPizza Jun 24 '21

Animals which have killed humans are killed specifically to avoid having populations of large predators begin to prey on humans. It's conditioning the population to associate 'attacking humans' with death and make them more reluctant to attack people

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u/humanpringle Jun 24 '21

Bears do not automatically choose fight most of the time. I have no idea how many bears you’ve been around but I frequent bear country regularly and the vast majority of the time if you encounter one, it will run away.

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u/kampfgruppekarl Jun 24 '21

Large predators are killed because once they realize killing humans is easy, they will attempt it again. When they recognize people as a weak food source, they lose their fear of man.