Man Eaters

[Felis Rex]

Throughout history certain large predatory animals have come to the conclusion that humans are easy prey and taken to hunting them instead of their more common menu items.
Some of these animals have racked up hundreds of victims in their pursuit of human flesh, building quite a reputations and acheiving legendary status.
Im not sure if you guys would be interested in discussing such but I thought I would put it out there.

[Venomous Dragon]

Tigers,lions and leopards seem to be maneaters more often than jaguars but im not sure.

[Felis Rex]

To get the ball rolling here are some statistics on the more infamous documented man-eaters. Let me know if Im missing any. There are some that might go on the list but dont have a # of victims to document.

Champawat Tiger; 436 victims
Panar Leopard; 400 victims
Gustave; 300 victims
Leopard of Rudraprayag; 250 victims
Thak man-eater; 200 victims?
Leopard of the Central Provinces; 150 victims
Tsavo man-eaters; 135 victims?
Beast of Gévaudan; 113 victims?
Chowgarh tigress; 64 victims
Leopard of Gummalapur;42 victims
Wolves of Paris; 40 victims
Kirov wolf; 22 victims
Wolves of Turku; 22 victims (mostly children)
Wolves of Périgord; 18 victims
Wolves of Ashta; 17 victims
Tigress of Jowlagiri; 15 victims
Wolves of Hazaribagh; 13 victims (children)
Sloth bear of Mysore;12 victims
Wolf of Gysinge; 12 victims (children)
Tiger of Pilibhit; 8 victims
Sankebetsu brown bear; 7 victims
Tiger of Mundachipallam; 7 victims
Malawi terror beast; 3 victims
Jersey Shore shark; 4 victims
Leopard of the Yellagiri Hills; 3 victims

[Anomonyous]

Amazing how Gustave is actually still alive, you'd think people would put down a bounty on his head.

[Felis Rex]

Dec 25, 2011 2:49:31 GMT -5 Venomous Dragon said:

Tigers,lions and leopards seem to be maneaters more often than jaguars but im not sure.

Doesnt seem to be any info on particular man eating jaguars, though I know their have been jaguar attacks

[Felis Rex]

Somewhat ancedotal information of Jaguars

There have been one or two known cases of missing people and body's being found in South America. Thing is, the people who live in jaguar territory are completely secluded. They are generally tribes, or ranch farmers. If a member of a tribe is taken by a jag, the western worlds never going to find out about it.

There was one child who ran of with a friend, and his friend came back to the camp saying that his friend had disappeared, a few weeks later the body was found with the obvious puncture wounds to the head, obvious of a jaguar kill, but the child had not been eaten, nor scavenged upon.

That's the thing about jaguars, they have been known to kill and not eat, either because they have been threatened, or because they think another human will come along and kill them. The fact nothing had tried to scavenge, shows that the animal who killed him was high ranking in the jungle, no one wants to steal from a jaguar...

Jaguars have killed 3 people in zoos, that was out of stress not hunger.

But jaguars are so different to other big cats, they are the most elusive, but they are also the most observant.

I have read so many things about zoologists/scientists who are studying jaguars that have tracked a jaguar for days, never seeing it, but turing around to see him sitting and staring at them, they turn and the jaguar is sitting there, quite happily, just watching them. They say that after about 30 second, the jaguar just stands up and walks away.

Also, jaguars prey on small animals, hard shelled things and small mammals. Smaller mammals are generally more abundant than large ones, which means the jaguar never goes hungry. However, a tiger needs large deer, but human hunt large deer, when there is no deer left, the tiger seeks another alternative.

Jaguars are not man eaters, not in the way other cats are.

They see us more as something to watch over and keep an eye on, just because we are in their territory, but they are willing to share. They know they are the top predator, but they don't need to show it.

There will be deaths that have not been documented, I have found some obscure ones in books I have, but it will only ever be for starvation or if its really scared.

---

According to this cougar attacks are exceedingly rare, and the eating of attack victims rarer still.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America

[Tyrannosaurus]

Believe it or not, sharks are man eaters. People can throw statistics around, say they're extremely unlikely, but that's because few people ever end up in water with a shark and they don't attack when they're not hungry.

[Venomous Dragon]

Feb 18, 2012 23:57:15 GMT -5 Tyrannosaurus said:

Believe it or not, sharks are man eaters. People can throw statistics around, say they're extremely unlikely, but that's because few people ever end up in water with a shark and they don't attack when they're not hungry.

Sorry but thats a very stupid thing to say as anything that has ever eaten a man is a technically a man eater .

[Tyrannosaurus]

I'm just saying that if you encounter a shark, you're just as likely if not more so to get eaten as if you encounter the big cats you guys were talking about. People say it's just a stereotype, it's not.

[Venomous Dragon]

Man eaters in this case is referring to animals that actively seek out humans to prey on in loo of there standard prey items, sharks simply dont do that.

[DinosaurMichael]

Crocodiles such as the Saltie is the only known animal that regularly prey on people and see them as food. That's what I heard. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

I also heard people saying that Polar Bears regularly prey on people as well. But I don't believe that.

As for other animals. They'll only eat people if food is low or if they are desperate for food really bad.

[Anomonyous]

Sharks that are large enough to kill humans and have the appropriate arsenal to do so often don't see humans as good prey.
There are also hundreds of videos where divers got in water with sharks that never attempted to attack. To say that all of them were not hungry is rather doubtful.

[Reticulatus]

There have been several man eaters thoughout history that aren't listed here of the homo sapien variety.

[Felis Rex]

The Jersey Shores shark attacks (second to last on the list) are assumed to be the work of one shark who found human prey to its liking. There is little doubt that it was a single animal commiting these attacks, the only real debate about it is if it was a bull shark or a great white.

Tigers, leopards and lions are all known to "turn man-eater" that is to specifically attack humans over their more natural prey items, usually due to an ailment of disability that hinders them. Some wolves have also been known to turn man-eater for the same reasons, along with environmental tension.

For the most part croc and gator attacks seem to be opportunistic, with rare cases such as Gustave standing out.

[Venomous Dragon]

I think both sharks and crocs are oppertunistic. they dont view us differently than anyothers, mammals seem to do it because we are usually easy kills.