Bition back

摘要

When 30-year-old Frances Frost set off along a cross-country skiing track nearBanff in the Canadian Rockies, she was alone-orso she thought. The mountain lion stalked her silently from behind until it was close enough to pounce, delivering a deadly bite to her neck. When park wardens found her later that day, the 60-kilogram cat was still standing over her body. Although attacks like this are still rare, there's no doubt that they're on the rise. Between 1890 and 1970 there were just five fatal mountain lion attacks in the US and Canada. In the past 30 years there have been 14, half of them in the 1990s. Frost, the most recent victim, was killed in January 2001. And it's not just mountain lions that are causing alarm. Last summer, campsites at national parks across the US were closed after a spate of bear and wolf attacks on hikers. The past decade is the worst on record for shark attacks (see "Jaws too"). Predators, it seems, are back. So how should we respond?