The man escaped the bear attack by cutting his arm with a knife. (representative picture)
At a wildlife foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a 32-year-old man was forced to chop off his arm with a knife after a bear grabbed his teeth and refused to let go.according to Weekly newspaperThe man from Switzerland, named Stefan Claudio Specogna, was feeding an Asiatic black bear in a cage in a wildlife reserve when the black bear bit him. He held his right arm. The 32-year-old tried to free his arm but ended up having to cut it off with a knife as the animal refused to let go.
according to Weekly newspaperThe incident occurred in the foundation compound. Mr. Stefan put his right arm into the bear’s cage to feed it. Unexpectedly, the wild animal bit him and refused to let go. The 32-year-old man struggled to free his arm from the bear’s jaws but escaped the attack by cutting his arm with a knife as he did not want to harm the animal.
Mr Stefan was given first aid by bystanders and taken to a nearby hospital. From there, he was taken to another hospital for surgery. His arm was injured from the elbow down. His severed arm was found torn into pieces. bangkok post the report said.
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Asiatic black bears are native to East Asia, Southeast Asia, India and the Himalayas. These bears can weigh around 300 pounds and are similar in build to brown bears. They are usually shy but more aggressive toward humans than brown bears and American black bears. The bears are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with numbers declining due to deforestation and poaching, often for their skin and gallbladders for use in traditional medicine.
Meanwhile, in a similar incident last year, a 23-year-old animal keeper was mauled to death by a Himalayan black bear at the Indira Gandhi Zoo in Andhra Pradesh. B Nagesh Babu was attacked by Jihwan the bear, estimated to be around 15 years old, an official said.
“Nagesh left all the doors to the animal’s night house open and went in to clean it, before the animal entered the night house and attacked the keeper,” the zoo said in a press release. Mr. Babu was found lying in bed, the zoo said. Next to the animal’s night house, he was in a comatose state with severe injuries to his head, left arm and chest.
