When animals raid a sport's field, it can be a fun and amusing event. It's difficult to tell why or how they managed to enter the field but it can be funny and outright hilarious. What's further amusing is the attempts to capture the, 'intruder' and the running around to get the intended target.
In 2019, during a football match in Tanzania, bees interferred. It started on the 53rd minute. Thousands of bees descended on the pitch. Anyone who has ever heard the hum of an angry hive will understand why the players suddenly threw themselves on the ground at the arrival of the unexpected away team. Several players were stung and some of the crowd fled the stadium to avoid the same fate. Play was eventually resumed, and the Young Africans managed a 4-0 triumph over Iringa United.
Surprisingly, this is not the only time that bees have attacked football matches. In 2012, a match had to be called off in the UK after the referee was stung and suffered a severe allergic reaction, which he thankfully recovered from. A Brazilian match in 2011 had to be stopped for 20 minutes while a swarm of bees was removed from one of the goals.
Teams like to have names after powerful animals e.g. lions. However, it's widely expected that these animals don't interfere with their presence. It's apparent that a black bear didn't get the memo. The bear was wandering along the fence at a baseball game. Many in the crowd were probably considering just how flimsy the fence was and whether it could stop a bear as well as it stops a ball.
Bears also have a fondness for golf. In one case in Alaska, a bear wandered onto the green when a group of golfers were trying to complete their game. It pawed at the flag before giving the golf bags of the players a sniff, despite the shouts of the golfers. To the chagrin of the players, it grabbed something and sauntered back into the woods. What a bear does in the woods is its own business.
Dogs will always be man's best friend. However, there's no need for this friendship during a competitive match. There have been several cases of dogs invading pitches while a football match is being played. In one match, a stray black dog made its way into a game that went underway in Georgia. Seeming to think the players were just having fun, it joined in and spent three minutes dashing about and rolling over for belly rubs.
In Bolivia, in 2020, a shaggy dog made its way onto the pitch and managed to pick up a football boot to play with. The boot was swiftly recovered and the dog had to be carried from the game by one of the players before play could resume.
Kangaroos are a well-known marsupial species that inhabit Australia. Beware though, they can be dangerous. They have sharp claws, are quite muscular and can be aggressive. They are particularly dangerous to drivers as they move quickly and make for a mighty crash if they get hit. Which makes it particularly unfortunate that the Bathurst racetrack has a bit of a kangaroo problem.
Drivers there are aware of the kangaroos but accidents can still happen. In 2004, Jim Richards collided with a kangaroo at high speed. The kangaroo was killed instantly and tossed into the air while Richards’s car suffered a lot of damage. For the remaining laps, the other drivers had to dodge the remains of the animal.
It's a weird fact that even animals can be thieves. Case in point, a fox. Foxes are well-known for their habit of stealing everything from shoes to phones to wallets if they come across them. It should come as no surprise then that a number of golfers have found their balls getting nibbled by an inquisitive fox. In several cases, the foxes have run off with their prize, leaving the golfer feeling emasculated.
At the Canyon River Golf Course in Montana, there was a resident fox who loved nothing better than darting out and snatching up a golf ball before carrying it off. One golfer described how it was funny the first time, still a novelty the second time it happened but by the third act of pilferage, he found it annoying. Luckily for the fox, most of the golfers found it charming to have their own little golf buddy who might come out to play. The fox became a mascot of sorts for the course.
Another 'criminal' that hovers around golf courses are seagulls. The Players Championship is one of the golf tournaments on the PGA Tour. Usually, the most that players have to worry about at the Players is a member of the crowd doing something a little uncouth and shouting out mid-swing to put off your game. In 1998, Brad Fabel faced a more direct act of sabotage.
He had just hit his ball onto the green on the 17th hole when a seagull that was lurking nearby decided to investigate. After a bit of pecking and kicking, the bird managed to pick the ball up and fly off. Unfortunately for the gull, it lost its grip on the golf ball and dropped it into the water. Fabel was allowed to place a new ball at the spot it had landed without a penalty. Perhaps the bird had gotten into his head, though—he ended up getting a bogey on the hole.
A European pine marten is a creature a little like a ferret and can grow to over 1.5 feet (half a meter) in length. In Switzerland, in 2013, FC Zurich was playing FC Thun when a pine marten ran onto the pitch. Martens are quick and nimble but one of the players was faster. Loris Benito, one of the Zurich defenders, pulled off a masterful dive and managed to grab the invader by its neck. This proved to be a mistake as martens have sharp teeth and are not afraid to use them. Benito was bitten on the finger and the marten escaped. It took the goalkeeper of the Zurich team with his thick gloves to finally, and safely, capture the animal and carry it from the pitch.
A stray grey and white tabby briefly held up play during a Liverpool vs Tottenham game after wandering onto the pitch. A steward eventually picked up the cat and released it into nearby sidestreets.
In 2001, Baseball Hall of Famer, Randy Johnson, threw a ball that hit and killed a bird. He launched the ball with no expectations that anything could happen between the moment he released and the bat. Seemingly out of nowhere, a puff of feathers exploded before his eyes. The ball had struck and utterly destroyed a bird that just happened to fly into the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time. After consulting the rule book, it was decided that the pitch could be redone.
The bird was not the last to die in this way. In one week of 2023, two birds were hit at two separate major league baseball games. Perhaps they should find another sport to watch.
Bees love the game of cricket. There are billions of human cricket fans around the world, but these numbers are matched by the number of bees that apparently love cricket. The stinging insects cannot get enough of the sport. This is evidenced by how often huge swarms of bees descend on cricket matches, causing havoc.
According to Sportz Wiki, the first recorded "invasion of bees" that stopped play was in 1962. In 1981, a match had to be abandoned completely when six players and an umpire were stung. Bees saw players running for cover during major international matches in 2007 and 2008. USA Today reports in 2017 a bee invasion during a Sri Lanka-South Africa match necessitated the use of sticks, honey, a bucket of soda, fire extinguishers and finally a beekeeper before play could resume. Bees stopped play temporarily during a match in Australia in 2018 and one in Zimbabwe in 2016. A swarm in India in 2019 not only paused play but saw five spectators taken to the hospital with injuries.
Other animals like cricket as well. The Telegraph says two monkeys invaded the pitch during an England-India game in 2012. In 1957, a hedgehog wandered onto the field during a championship match in England. When the players failed to shoo it away, the wicketkeeper, who wears big gloves, was tasked with removing the prickly animal. During the 1982-83 Ashes, an Australian fan released a pig onto the outfield as comment on the rotund physiques of two England players.
The hybrid game in inherently peculiar, so perhaps it was only fitting that a canine dashed around Croke park for eight minutes during a Test match in 2004.
Even more remarkably the game wasn't held up with the two umpires deciding to allow play to continue all the while. Eventually the dog was grasped successfully by stewards.
German Sabine Lisicki's most recent grand slam match prior to the 2013 US Open had been the Wimbledon final. The scene was a little less auspicious on the outside courts at Flushing Meadows when a squirrel halted her clash with Russia's Vera Dushevina. Lisicki was already a set up at the time and soon after ensured her progression in straight sets.
Earlier this year, a cougar stalked and attacked a group of five mountain bikers. The cyclists managed to pin down the cougar and call emergency services before a wildlife officer arrived and killed the animal, while a second cougar apparently fled. It was said that cougar attackss on humans are "extremely rare."
It's quite clear, at least to me, that these invaders mean no harm. They are just curious and minding their own business. They will only attack when they are provoked, such is the case of the pine marten. Like I said in the beginning, it can be very amusing and fun to see. It can bring life back to the match if it starts to become a snore fest.
Source Material
Afshar, P. & Cullinane, S. 2024. Cougar attacks mountain bikers on Washington trail. CNN.
Benjamin, K. 2023. Bizzare things you didn't know about Cricket. Grunge.
Cherny, D. 2014. When animals attack sporting events. The Sydney Morning Herald.
Gazur, B. 2023.10 Times Animals Interrupted Sports. Listverse.