For many animal lovers, the chance to get up close and personal to their favourite creatures or spot big beasts in the wild is the highlight of a holiday. But sometimes tourists get a little too close — and that's when bad things happen.
Panda-monium in Beijing
Gu Gu the panda is one of the unquestioned stars of China's
Beijing Zoo, but he doesn't seem to like sharing his cage with foolish animal-lovers.
On three separate occasions, Gu Gu has given well-meaning interlopers a mauling. You'd think that tourists would learn to stay well clear by now, but they just keep on coming.
Gu Gu's first visitor encounter was in 2006 with a drunk who climbed in to give him a cuddle. The reward was two badly bitten legs.
The next year, Gu Gu saw off a 15-year-old who clambered in at feeding time. The idiot boy left with large chunks of flesh removed from his body.
And in January 2009, Gu Gu claimed a third victim when a man braved the panda's den to retrieve his son's toy. The rather unsurprising result was severe bites to the legs and major ligament damage.
Charging elephants
It's a mistake to think of elephants as peace-loving, placid beasts. If they decide to stampede, you're in serious trouble. Many tourists have discovered this over the years, and one of the more recent unfortunates was Frenchwoman
Del Yotel Annie.
The 66-year-old was attempting to photograph the elephants near a tiger reserve in Bokkapuram, India, in August 2009. As she and her colleagues clicked away, an adult and a calf charged at them. Ms Annie was trampled to death and two others were injured.
A World Wildlife Fund spokesman called it an avoidable tragedy — the group was on grazing land in an elephant corridor that should have been left well alone.
Hippos from hell
The often-quoted stat of hippos killing more humans than any other African animal is nonsense (mosquitoes top that list by a country mile) but they're certainly not to be messed with.
Take the experience of British tourist Vinka March, who was canoeing on Botswana's Okavango Delta. She spotted a hippo lurking in the reeds and it suddenly lunged at her canoe, snapping the boat in half.
Thrown into the river, she was saved by her fellow travellers who repeatedly hammered the water with their paddles as a distraction.
It is thought that hippos kill up to 15 people a year in Africa, and they are notoriously bad-tempered.
Beware of the bear
Bears have a bad reputation for good reason, although they'll rarely attack unprovoked. When one does go wild, though, it can be carnage.
A group of tourists found this out to their cost in the mountainous area of central Japan when they were set upon at a bus stop in
Takayama, Japan, in September 2009.
The 1.3m-tall Asian black bear managed to injure nine visitors, four of them seriously, after it broke loose in the station. Brave staff managed to trap the bear inside a souvenir shop where it was later shot dead by hunters.
It was thought that the bear had been panicked, leading to its unusual — and potentially deadly — behaviour.
Crossing the lion
A walk through a Zimbabwean nature reserve went horribly wrong for English tourist
Kate Drew in 2008. After shelling out for the privilege of walking with supposedly tame lions, the unfortunate teacher was leapt on from behind by a 178kg beast.
The lion sunk its teeth into the back of her head, leading to a series of deep wounds. Drew required 30 stitches and was very lucky that the lion didn't get its teeth into her brain — it was not far off.
It was the first time that any such incident had occurred at the reserve, and it is thought that the lion mistook Drew — who has long, blonde, mane-like hair — for a playmate.
Alas, lions don't play particularly nicely.
Croc carelessness
Of course,
Australia isn't immune from animal attacks on tourists. One of the most notorious incidents occurred in 2002 when German tourist
Isabel von Jordan was killed by a crocodile in
Kakadu National Park.
Her tour group had decided to go for a night-time swim at Sandy Billabong in Nourlangie Creek, around 1.5km away from their camp site. Despite signs warning against swimming in the area, the group's tour guide gave them the go-ahead.
The unfortunate von Jordan was taken by a 4.2m-long saltwater crocodile weighing around 400kg, and it took a while for the rest of the group to realise she had been dragged under the water.
National park rangers later found and killed the croc, managing to retrieve von Jordan's body.
Tour guide Glenn Robless was given a three-year suspended sentence for making a dangerous omission that lead to the German girl's death — the coroner later found that Robless knew that salties were likely to inhabit the creek.
Related video: Wild panda attack!
