Pet Dog Attacks Wild Bear, Saves Life Of Five-Year-Old Japanese Boy

Published on 24 Jun 2014

A pet dog living with its family in the town of Odate in northern Japan is being hailed a hero after she was credited for saving the life of a five-year-old boy. According to Yahoo News, the six-year-old dog, a Shiba-inu breed named "Mego" took on a large 1 meter bear when the boy was attacked by the wild animal. The boy was reportedly walking by a riverside with his great-grandfather when the incident happened. According to reports, the alert dog barked unusually loud after it spotted the bear before attacking it. The boy, however, did get minor scratches on his body. The boy's clothes were torn and his back and bottom were covered in scratches where the bear had apparently clawed at him. Odate is located around 340 miles north of the capital, Tokyo. According to a local police spokesman, the boy was taken to hospital, but he was released on the same day. The local Japanese media also reported that when the bear attacked, the child's 80-year-old great grandfather raised an alarm. According to locals, Mego was always known to be a calm and timid dog. For the same reason, it came as a surprise to many when they found that Mego managed to scare a large bear away and save the life of the little boy. "Mego is usually calm and timid. It was a great surprise that she chased away a bear. Mego has always been his friend and we have rewarded her with meat and other treats," the dog's owner told the Sports Hochi daily. The bear species that attacked the boy is believed to be an Asian black bear, which is common in the northern fringes of Asia, particularly in Japan. While not as big as Brown bears, they are big and strong enough to cause injury and death to human beings. Japanese authorities have confirmed that they have seen an increase in the number of bear sightings in the area where the attack was reported, says Japan Today. They have also stepped up patrols in the area so incidents like this are not repeated.

Japanese aquarium staff horrified by shark that went cannibalistic

Published on 2 May 2014

The Aqua World aquarium in the Ibaraki prefecture in Oarai, Japan, features attractions like sea lions, jellyfish, dolphins and sharks .... which eat other sharks. Surprised? So was one of the Aqua World caretakers who was checking on the aquarium's residents. At around 11 a.m., his rounds took him to the multi-tank Sea of Sharks exhibit, reports Jin115. The tank reserved for the largest creatures is home to a 1.6-meter whitetip reef shark, as well as a 2.8-meter sand tiger shark. That was when the caretaker saw the larger shark trying to turn the smaller shark into breakfast. But while the sand tiger shark has the sharp teeth you'd expect from an apex predator, it still wasn't able to bite entirely through the hard skin of the whitetip. So the sand tiger switched to Plan B and tried to swallow the smaller shark whole. After about 40 minutes of struggling to choke the whitetip down, the sand tiger shark eventually gave up and ingloriously spat the deceased creature back out. The aquarium staff promptly removed the smaller one, worried that if they didn't do so quickly, the hungry survivor might be tempted to try again. Sadly, the whitetip later died from the injuries it had sustained. "In light of this event, we will be further increasing the effort we make when judging which sharks to place in the same tanks, taking into account their relative size and possible hostilities," a spokesperson for the aquarium said. In the meantime, Aqua World hopes visitors will continue to support the facility and its Sea of Sharks exhibit.