Wild Ponies of Chincoteague are put in corrals after visitors ignore ban
A band of Chincoteague ponies have been corralled on Assateague Island after visitors to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia disregarded warnings and approached the animals. “We have tried numerous times to educate the public about the dangers of getting too close to the ponies,” Denise Bowden, spokesperson for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, who cares for the ponies, told the Salisbury Daily Times. “Still, people continue to do dangerous things when they encounter them.” Visitors are asked to stay at least 50 feet from the ponies and to restrain from feeding or touching the wild animals.
Motorcyclist dies on Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia
The first motor vehicle fatality of the year has occurred on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The motorcyclist was traveling north on the parkway near Humpback Rocks at milepost 7. According to reports, the motorcyclist and two others entered a curb when one of the motorcyclists lost control and laid down his bike. Another motorcyclist, Da’juan Morrison of Rockingham, Va tried to avoid the downed biker and lost control of his bike. He was ejected from his motorcycle, hit a guardrail and was pronounced dead at the scene. In 2018 there were almost 300 motor vehicle accidents on the Blue Ridge Parkway, seven of which resulted in death.
South African rhino poacher is trampled by elephants and then eaten by lions
An elephant at a park in South Africa trampled a suspected rhino poacher and then his body was eaten by a pride of lions, rangers at Kruger National Park said. Park officials noted that all that remained of the man was his skull and a pair of pants. Four of his accomplices were arrested, telling the man’s relatives that they had all been in the park to poach rhinos when an elephant killed him. This type of incident is not unheard of. Last year, lions killed as many as three rhino poachers at a South African game preserve. There are 20,000 wild rhinos living in South Africa, which make up about 80 percent of the world’s population. In the past decade, 7,000 rhinos have been illegally killed by poachers that sell rhino horns to the Asian market, where they go for about $9,000 per pound.
