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I thought wild aardvark was going to kill me
Glasgow Evening Times ^
| 10/10/2001
| Martin Murray
Posted on 10/10/2001 10:17:23 AM PDT by dighton
A SCOTS grandfather has told how he thought he was going to die during a charity trek in Africa when he was attacked by a wild aardvark.
Stewart Douglas, 59, suffered four broken ribs after the 10st beast charged at him in Kenya's Samburu Province and hit the cancer fundraiser.
Terrified Stewart, of Newton Mearns, was thrown several feet in the air before landing on the wooden pommel of a camel's saddle.
He said: "I was in a party of 17 and we had lost our way after crossing a dried-up river bed. We could not find our back-up wagon, so we decided to make camp as it was getting dark.
"I think the aardvark must have been startled by one of our camels as it came charging out of the bushes and must have been travelling at about 20mph when it hit me.
"I thought it was a wild boar when I saw it charging towards me and I know the damage they are capable of inflicting on a human. I really thought I was going to die."
Stewart was later told by doctors in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi that he probably owed his life to the skills of a native guide.
He said: "After the aardvark hit me, one of our Samburu guides massaged my ribs with oil for about 10 minutes.
"When I got to hospital in Nairobi two days later, the doctors said the guide had massaged my ribs back into place and had saved me from a punctured lung."
Stewart, who worked as an engineer in Kenya's gold mines in the 70s, decided to raise money for cancer research after the disease dealt him a double blow at home.
He said: "My sister Rene died of cancer last year and my partner Margaret underwent surgery for breast cancer.
"Margaret was given the all-clear last week after intensive radiotherapy. She will be on drugs for the next five years but hopefully is over the worst."
The retired engineer said his encounter with the giant anteater would not stop him returning to Kenya to raise more money for cancer research.
He added: "I raised £2800 myself and between the other members of the group we raised a total of £27,000.
"It's one of the most barren, yet incredibly beautiful places on earth and I saw a fabulous range of wildlife, including lions, giraffes, rhinos and leopards."
Stewart's son Barry is set to follow in his father's African footsteps after giving up his job as manager with a security firm to train as a minister.
Stewart said: "He wants to do missionary work and I have encouraged him to go to Africa as it would be a tremendous experience.
"Hopefully it won't involve any encounters with aardvarks."
TIMESFILE
The Aardvark is also known as the African ant bear and, more commonly, the earth pig because of its long snout and piglike body.
- It grows up to six feet long, with its tail accounting for a third of its length.
- Its coat varies from glossy black to sandy yellow. Its rabbit-like ears also make it distinctive.
- It has long toes armed with large, flattened claws. - The Aardvark is not normally aggressive, but can fend off lions and leopards by parrying with its claws.
- It as a nocturnal creature, excavating burrows to rest in by day. At night it rips open ant and termite nests and lap up the insects.
- An aardvark's tongue is 30 centimetres long and sticky.
- Fossil relatives of the aardvark, normally found south of the Sahara, have been discovered as far afield as the Soviet Union and France.
TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
1
posted on
10/10/2001 10:17:23 AM PDT
by
dighton
To: dighton
Do aardvarks eat cheese?
/john
To: kd5cts
An aardvark once bit a moose...
3
posted on
10/10/2001 10:21:26 AM PDT
by
dirtboy
To: dighton
How not to be eaten by an Aardvark
The noble Aardvark. If animals could use phones, these guys would be the first in the book. A carnivore by nature, the Aardvark is a predator. While many prefer termites as a source of sustenance, some have been known to attack large plains wildebeest. In the pursuit of such prey an aardvark can often reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour, felling a wildebeest using their characteristic retractable tusks (not shown in picture).
The aardvark is a resident of the savannah lands of central Brazil. Hunting in packs or prides, they are intensely social animals. The leader of an aardvark pride is, somewhat unusually, the male animal with the biggest ears. As the pride leader ages the ears loose both length and internal rigidity, leading to the characteristic 'droop' identified by [Brewer 1966]. This can lead to ferocious battles between dominant males within the pride. Such battles are characterised by the guttural roars of competing bull males. This is typically followed by intense periods of 'listening' as competing pride males stretch their ears to maximise the intake of sound, and impress the watching doe aardvarks.
;)
To: dighton
Any idiot that goes afoot into the African bush unarmed is a candidate for the Darwin Awards.
5
posted on
10/10/2001 10:26:35 AM PDT
by
45Auto
To: dighton
.........and then there's
this.........
To: dighton
Yeah, those aardvarks can be nasty....
To: Brian Mosely
Lol. I was looking for a Cerebus image to post. You beat me to it.
To: dighton
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the aardvarks are not out to get you.
9
posted on
10/10/2001 10:35:26 AM PDT
by
lds23
To: MozartLover
Eewww!
10
posted on
10/10/2001 10:38:33 AM PDT
by
LibKill
To: dighton
Fossil relatives of the aardvark, normally found south of the Sahara, have been discovered as far afield as the Soviet Union and France. I believe those are the remains of my missing brother.
To: testforecho: all
That is one U-gly critter!
It looks like a kangaroo on steroids.
To: testforecho
Web sites geared toward ants--proof positive that we are now living in the End Times?
To: dighton
Paging Sharon Stone.
14
posted on
10/10/2001 11:49:58 AM PDT
by
Cicero
To: testforecho; Orual
(#4)
On many occasions, I've seen aardvarks outrun and devour cheetahs. Their venom, gram for gram, is 79% more potent than a black mamba's. On top of all that, they're formidably armored. More often than not, repeated hits with a .460 Weatherby Magnum will only annoy them.
15
posted on
10/10/2001 12:03:36 PM PDT
by
dighton
To: dighton
He said: "I was in a party of 17 and we had lost our way after crossing a dried-up river bed. We could not find our back-up wagon, so we decided to make camp as it was getting dark. Although it is not entirely clear from the article, it appears that he may have been in Samburu Game Park and it is recklessly dangerous to travel on foot through or near any game parks in Kenya. When visiting Masai Mara, we were required to be escorted from the main dining hall along the short distance to our sleeping quarters by a guide carrying a very large rifle. Having visited and driven through many Game Parks in Kenya in Land Rovers, one quickly learns that the thrill of gaining close proximity to the animals must be balanced by some common sense, especially after narrowly escaping from an elephant charge.
16
posted on
10/10/2001 1:10:20 PM PDT
by
Orual
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