Animal Abnormal and Strange Behavior There are a lot of strange things animals do. Sometimes these actions occur, and are unusual for that type of animal, other times the actions may be usual for the animal, but they seem strange to us. Usually cows are very docile. Most of us have seen them at one time or another quietly standing behind a fence and munching on a plant or grass. We never expect these animals to be dangerous. Unfortunately, this was not true in Navajo County, Arizona lately, where upwards of 29 cows have been seen acting strangely. One woman had to call the local sheriff to get help. She had been pinned to the ground by a cow which wouldn’t move. Thank goodness for cell phones. When the deputy sheriff arrived, he tried to move the cow, but it wouldn’t budge. He was then forced to taser the cow and the woman was able to escape, but then the cow went after him, and stepped on him pinning him to the ground. Fortunately, the deputy had a chance to taser the cow several more times and it ran away. These were not normal actions for a bovine. Upwards of 29 cows in the county were reported to be acting strangely, and a reason has yet to be discovered. Abnormal behavior in animals can occur any time, just as it can in humans. In humans it can be caused by a mental illness among other things and the same is true for animals. Gus was a polar bear which was in the Central Park zoo. He seemed like a normal polar bear. and did normal polar bear things, until one day that all changed. Gus began to swim figure eights in his tank. The tank had a glass window on one side facing zoo visitors so they could see him swim. The bear would swim his figure eights up to twelve hours a day nonstop. When children would watch through the glass he would head for it and menace them. The zoo had to install a railing to keep kids far enough away from the glass so they would have less of a chance of being frightened. Ultimately the bear was treated with Prozac and behavioral therapy. A nature trail in Virginia was very popular. People would go to it to hike, and take in the splendor of the trail. This all ended for a while when the trail had to be closed down due to strange activity by bears. Bears had begun to climb into cars. It was said some people would get out and leave a door open just for a minute or two, and when they came back a bear would be in their vehicle. Why were the bears doing this? A reason was found for the odd behavior. It seems the fruit and berries the bears would eat was coming in late that year, and the bears were hungry and looking for food. The trail was reopened after the fruit grew and everything went back to normal. One thing which a lot of animals have in common is unusual behavior just before earthquake activity. These animals are able to pick up a wave that forms just before we can detect the earthquake and it scares them. Animals run for cover when they detect these waves and try and get away from the quakes. There is a chance only some of the animals running from the quake can detect these waves, but their act of running away frightens even more animals and causes those animals to run. Sometimes an animal’s normal behavior seems very strange and mysterious to us. Take the case of the banded mongoose which lives in sub-Saharan Africa. Mongooses which live in a group all give birth on the same day. Figure that one out. After mongoose pups are born a teacher mongoose, which is not related to the pup or pups takes over teaching the pup what it knows and how to survive. Bonds are formed between the two, but science is yet to find out why or how. These are strange animals indeed. When threatened a mongoose plays dead. We tend to think of horses as gentle creatures and most of the time we would be right, but there are exceptions. Sometimes, though very rarely, a horse will attack for seemingly no reason. A lady went into a paddock to pile up hay for a horse. The horse had never been trouble before. As she was piling up the hay she noticed the horse staring at her, and she became uncomfortable. There was something in the horse’s stare which scared her. She tried to finish up, but before she was finished the horse attacked her and pinned her into the corner after kicking and biting. The horse moved away, but was still staring at her, but she managed to run out of the paddock just before a second attack. Crows are very smart. Their intelligence has been rated as being superior to a dog. Having said this there have been many crow attacks on humans worldwide. When a crow attacks it usually comes from the back and pecks you in the head. Crows also claw people’s heads. The worst time for crow attacks on humans is for a couple of months in the spring. If there is a crow’s nest somewhere, the crows will attack if they think you came too close, even if you are on the other side of the street. One crow attacked a teenage boy on a bike, and when he got off and ran, the crow chased him and later went back to the bike and wouldn’t let him near it. Animals can have problems just like humans. They can have tooth aches, mental illness and other things causing them pain which results in attacks. They can also misinterpret the actions of a human and think they are being threatened. There are also cases where humans have attacked animals and they were defending themselves.
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