Just came across this article (This Is the Worst Insect Sting in the World ) which made me curious to your worst "animal-accident". I think most of us have already some experience by being bitten, stung or scratched by (zoo)animals and it would be intresting to hear your stories !
I think that almost only zookeepers or exzookeepers experimented that with zoo animals. Usually this almost never would happen with visitors. And I think that most zoochatters are not zookeepers (I just wish to be). In my case, nothing too much bad happened. Appart from some stings of paper wasps (Polistes) in the wild, the only noticeable incident was a harris' hawk that hated me (I was controlling weight of a group, and all the others birds were "normal"). He flew to my head and gave me a quick beat with its claws behind my neck.
Kinkajou bite, I woke her up- she is not a morning (or should I say early evening kink) and she didn't appreciate it. Bit into my pointer finger, felt like it hit the bone! She has also "pierced" the nipple of a guy that takes care of her for me with a bite. She was really acting weird for a few days, now back to normal and very sweet!
Was bit by a juvenile dolphin at SeaWorld FL in 2002 at the touch pool. Apparently it was time for guest feeding rather than touching. It left multiple, small but deep holes all over my hand. I was immediately taken to the Emergency area by one of the docents and had my hand wrapped and taped up. The positive thing about the experience was getting a free shamu stuffed animal out of it.
I got a terrible bite to a knuckle from an African grey parrot a few years ago. Among many stings, scratches and bites, the one which currently sticks out is an experience in the Red Sea, when I was snorkelling over a very shallow reef before an immense drop-off. A wave picked me up away from the reef, and then slammed me down onto plate fire coral (Millepora sp.). Torture. I raced out of the water, clenching my chest - the pain was so sharp and intense that I thought I was barely holding the skin together over a gaping wound. I got out of the water and looked back, expecting to see a trail of blood, only to find that the coral hadn't even broken the skin, and I ended up with a four inch seadragon-shaped graze which rapidly improved. I can't begin to imagine what the more intense fire corals would feel like!
I was scratched by a pigtail macaque at Bitola zoo as kid. I was offering food to a male macaque and he suddenly grub the food from my hand and scratched me on my hand, through the enclosure fence.
A tarantula bite from my mates spider was just like a double bee sting, sounds worse than it was. Most painful occurrence ever was getting unknown jellyfish species 'sting' in my eye whilst sea fishing, most painful thing to date in my life.
My worst attacks have been from birds. A captive sulphur-crested cockatoo once flew onto my back and bit my ear. He wouldn't let go either, and there was a ridiculous amount of blood. The worst was when I was younger though, around 4-5 I think, and a rooster knocked me over and scratched my back very deeply. I don't really like roosters anymore. In contrast, leech bites are probably the least painful of any creature!
For sheer instantaneous pain, a soldier ant inserting its mandibles into a soft, thin-skinned, part of your anatomy, takes some beating. Large ants can ascend legs with surprising speed, so their arrival in the groin area is shocking, particularly if several individuals co-operate. In my experience, the pain is even more excruciating if one of their fellow travellers finds a particular soft spot at the back of the knee more or less simultaneously. I have written in another thread of the moment when I was surrounded by a party of chestnut wattle-eyed flycatchers in a forest clearing in Ghana and further distracted by the approach of a Gambian sun squirrel, so that I was unaware of the number of ants around my feet until they made their presence felt. Fortunately, there were no people around to see me remove my jeans and underpants to detach my assailants. Alan
if we're doing insects, male tree weta have powerful jaws...! I've had a lot of bites and stings and kicks and so forth. The insects are the ones which tend to stand out for some reason. I had an excrutiating wasp sting on my forearm during a night drive at Danum Valley, which within a short time left me barely able to straighten my arm and felt like someone had poured boiling water over it. It took two days to settle back to normal, and there was a noticeable hole where the sting went in for a couple of weeks. @zooboy28, I've still got a rooster scar from when I was two!
A monk parakeet. One of my friends had one and the bird bit my index finger. The beak hooked all the way through the skin below the first knuckle. I had to gently push the beak out the same way it came in or would have lost a chunk of skin.
Wasp sting in the lower back was quite painful, bulldog ant sting on the finger was worse and lasted for days. I have been stung on the forehead by a jellyfish but the worst is when a bluebottle tentacle wraps around your leg. Some small parrots like cockatiels and lovebirds know exactly where to bite you to cause maximum pain - in my case they tended to favour the webbing between your fingers or the tender area either side of your fingernail. Hix
I know of a zoochatter who shall remain anonymous, and who allowed himself to be bitten by a bullet ant
My worst was probably a Cockatiel, took a piece out of my thumb next to the nail as above. Next worst is a whole series of Penguin bites.
Had quite a lot of larger and smaller "conflicts" with all kind of animals and I will report by and by about these. None of them was however real big and sofar I still have all my bodyparts . One of the "accidents" happened at Walsrode Birdpark. During the winter-time many of the species are housed in indoor-enclosures and one day we had to bring in the cormorants. When I was walking with one of them in the direction of the wintering-house I had a closer look and was looking in the beautifull eyes of this bird and then to it's bill and though: "Wow what an impresive hook does it have at the tip of it;s bill". At the same time I was thinking this the bird must have though : "Wow what a nice neck does that guy have" and snapped to it ! A large bleeding wound was the result and it was only 2 centimeters from my carotid, so somehow I was quite lucky that day.....
My friend's husband was taking part in an experience flying birds (captive but not quite zoo I guess). There is video of him having a bald eagle land on his arm and then take a step up onto his forehead, luckily missing his eyes. Hospital visit required but no lasting harm done!
Somehow no animal has done any real damage, though a wasp in my underpants was not pleasant and an intifada of army ants on mylegs was also not nice (fortunately they did not climb high). Among the most painful was a greater horseshoe bat biting in my finger tip. Not painful but having a high impact was a very large grass snake shitting all over my hand, that still smelled of rotten fish after 2 days...
A long time, my sister was largely a tomboy, she was proud about this fact. Well one evening, when she was about nine or ten, she was playing football with a nice boy of the similar age, when the duo began a heated argument about her tackles. Well, apparently the boy's dog was watching them fight, and decided to bite my sister's leg. She had to go to hospital, but she was fine, just it was not that deep! Also, I have been bitten by an African Gray Parrot and many other parrots such as a lory but neither broke my skin. So my family is pretty lucky!
catching grasshoppers as a child I put the net over the entrance to a wasps nest, I was stung on the back of my neck and some went down my wellies and up my trousers getting stick in my string vest ( why did we have to wear those pointless items?) I was stung all along my tummy. Budgie bite to the base of the thump in the middle of my palm, it hurt like hell. and a rhea bite at a local zoo they looked so friendly and curios not at all viscous.
