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Drone Footage Shows Shark Tracking Surfer in Australia

A great white shark swims off Guadeloupe. KIKE CALVO / AP
A great white shark swims off Guadeloupe. KIKE CALVO / AP
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Drone Footage Shows Shark Tracking Surfer in Australia

A great white shark swims off Guadeloupe. KIKE CALVO / AP
A great white shark swims off Guadeloupe. KIKE CALVO / AP

A dramatic close encounter between Australian world championship surfer Matt Wilkinson and a shark off the east coast of the country was captured by a drone, showing the shark circle him, close in and then dart away.

Wilkinson was paddling in from a surf at Sharpes Beach, 733 km north of Sydney, when the shark swam towards him and then under his surfboard.

According to Reuters, the cameras of a drone used by lifeguards to watch for sharks captured those exciting moments. The 1.3-metre Great White Shark then circled and swam up to Wilkinson's feet, which were trailing in the water, and quickly turned away.

"I heard a splash and a noise and looked around and couldn't see anything. Then the drone came down and told me that there was a dangerous shark in the area," said Wilkinson in a statement.

The area around where Wilkinson was surfing has a reputation for sharks and has been the scene of a spate of attacks over the years.

A 46-year-old surfer was killed last month at a Gold Coast beach after he suffered severe leg injuries from a shark attack, with Australia recording a total of 19 shark attacks in 2020.

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Two Bears Escape Wildlife Park Enclosure, Eat a 7-Day Supply of Honey, Then Fall Asleep

Rescued brown bear cubs, Lucy (left) and Mish (right) explore gifts stuffed with their favorite treats ahead of their move from the Wildwood Trust in Kent to their forever home at the Trust's sister site, Escot in Devon, on Wednesday April 7, 2021. Getty images  
Rescued brown bear cubs, Lucy (left) and Mish (right) explore gifts stuffed with their favorite treats ahead of their move from the Wildwood Trust in Kent to their forever home at the Trust's sister site, Escot in Devon, on Wednesday April 7, 2021. Getty images  
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Two Bears Escape Wildlife Park Enclosure, Eat a 7-Day Supply of Honey, Then Fall Asleep

Rescued brown bear cubs, Lucy (left) and Mish (right) explore gifts stuffed with their favorite treats ahead of their move from the Wildwood Trust in Kent to their forever home at the Trust's sister site, Escot in Devon, on Wednesday April 7, 2021. Getty images  
Rescued brown bear cubs, Lucy (left) and Mish (right) explore gifts stuffed with their favorite treats ahead of their move from the Wildwood Trust in Kent to their forever home at the Trust's sister site, Escot in Devon, on Wednesday April 7, 2021. Getty images  

Two young bears escaped from their enclosure at a UK wildlife park and devoured a week's worth of food store honey before falling asleep, the park said on Tuesday.

Mish and Lucy, both aged four, got out of their enclosure at Wildwood Devon in southwestern England on Monday afternoon, according to CBS News.

The pair made a beeline for their food store where they scoffed snacks, including the seven-day supply of honey, a park statement said.

The bears “posed no threat to the public at any point” although visitors on site were escorted to a secure building as a precaution.

During the hour-long drama, the bears were “continuously monitored both on the ground and via CCTV” until they were returned to their enclosure by keepers and promptly “fell asleep,” Wildwood added.

“Our experienced keeping team acted immediately, following established safety protocols, and successfully used recall training to encourage both bears back into their enclosure without the need for any intervention,” the park said.

Police were at the scene and an investigation was underway to determine how the animals managed to break out. The park said an “operational error” allowed the bears to escape, without elaborating.

“This was an isolated incident, and we are conducting a full internal investigation to understand exactly how it happened and to ensure robust measures are in place to prevent a reoccurrence," the park wrote on social media.

It added, “While the structural integrity of the bear enclosure remains uncompromised, we take any operational lapse extremely seriously.”

The park, which covers 40 acres of gardens and woodland, is home to an array of wildlife including brown bears, wolves and arctic foxes.

Mish and Lucy were taken in by Wildwood in 2021 after being abandoned by their mother in a snowdrift in the Albanian mountains.

Several attempts were made to reintroduce the cubs into the wild but it became clear to conservationists that they could not survive on their own.