--Dave Maccar

A 42-year-old British expat reportedly lost most of his right leg and part of his left foot after being repeatedly bitten by a great white shark off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa today. A YouTube video (below) taken moments after the attack shows a huge shark lurking in the water.

From this story on the UK Telegraph:

Several beaches along the city's False Bay coastline this afternoon remained closed after officials warned it was likely the deadly beast remained in the area.

Craig Lambinon, a spokesman for the National Sea Rescue Institute, said the victim was this afternoon in a serious condition in a private hospital in the city.

"It repeatedly bit at both of his legs and caused serious wounds on both the right and left side.

--Hal Herring

Amid all the grizz stories coming out of the Rockies these days, this one stands tall. If you ever find yourself about to be keelhauled by 600 pounds of furious airborn grizzly, you can only hope that 25-year-old Erin Bolster is riding nearby on the mighty 18 hands tall horse, Tonk.

Check out this wild tale written by F&S Rut Reporter Rich Landers in The Spokesman-Review via Missoulian.com:

A young woman on a big horse charged out of the pack of grizzly bear stories this summer near Glacier National Park. In a cloud of dust, the 25-year-old wrangler likely saved a boy's life while demonstrating that skill, quick-thinking and guts sometimes are the best weapons against a head-on charging bear.

On July 30, Erin Bolster of Swan Mountain Outfitters was guiding eight clients on a horse ride on the Flathead National Forest between West Glacier and Hungry Horse.

--Chad Love

Early one chilly fall morning some 16 years ago, on the scout day for a weekend bonus deer archery hunt I had been drawn out on, I was stumbling my way along a game trail in far eastern Oklahoma when I stepped over--literally stepped over, with my family jewels open to immediate and easily-accessible fanged attack--a cold, curled-up timber rattler trying to warm itself up right in the middle of the trail. This brings up an interesting twist on an age-old philosophical question: If a grown man screams like a wee girl in the middle of the forest, and there's no one around to hear him, does he make a sound?

I'll let you be the judge of that, but when I saw this cool video of a large timber rattler swimming across a Kentucky lake, those nightsweats I thought I'd finally gotten over suddenly started up again...

--Dave Maccar

With the list of grizzly and black bear attacks this year steadily growing, we can add polar bears to the mix. While on a British Schools Exploring Society trip in the Norwegian Island of Svalbard, 17-year-old Horatio Chappie of the UK was mauled to death by a polar bear. The bear injured four others in the 12-person party before one of the group members shot and killed it.

From this story on BBCNews:
The four who were hurt - two severely - included two leaders of the trip. They have been flown to Tromsoe in Norway where their condition is stable. BSES chairman Edward Watson described Mr Chapple as a "fine young man".

The group contacted the Svalbard authorities using a satellite phone and a helicopter was sent to rescue them. The bear was shot dead by a member of the group.