I am currently reading this book about the five large carnivores of Scandinavia and I am absolutely humbled, both by finding out how little I knew about them, what prejudice I had against them and how people that live in close proximity to them can both love, respect and be angry with them at the same time. I am reading the original release in Swedish.
- What have you encountered in the wild?
- When, where, how?
- What were your initial thoughts, feelings and reactions (physical, psychological, etc.)?
- What do think of them in general? <— this last question applies to everybody, regardless of whether you have seen or met one of these large carnivores or not.
Personally, without having met any one of them, I am humbled, scared, amazed and intrigued by them. I feel for those whose - for instance - livestock are threatened by them, especially if it directly damages business. I also strongly believe that the matter should not be dumbed down to the dichotmy of “ignore those that suffer from them” or “eradicate them”. We are far too intelligent and developed a race to degrade ourselves so.
I once walked up on a sow Grizzly bear and her young adult cub while walking my reactive to everything puppy in the woods. We were alone because anything and everything would set her off and she would scream and carry on, and was upsetting my other dog, who I had, in part, to scare bears.
They gave 0 shits about me, and the puppy didn’t notice them, despite being uncomfortably close, thank God.
My initial thought was ‘oh shit’ followed by ‘yeah, I won’t confuse them with black bears’. (Black bears can sometimes be brown, and I had always wondered how I could tell the difference between a brown bear, and a brown black-bear. The answer is: the desire to poop your pants is much greater with brown than black. Black bears, whole they technically kill more people, don’t instigate the same fear response.
I still hike the same hikes, I just double up on deterrant methods, always go with a buddy, and keep my dogs leashed if there is bear activity. (Unleashed dogs on hikes where I live is a cultural norm) Everything has risk, and I live here because I love nature.
I saw a guy at a McDonalds who needed two chairs to sit. Terrifying.
Probably my buddy Larry. Larry’s out there convincing people to go vegan so there’s more meat for him.
I encountered a large carnivore in the civilized before but not in the wild. Canadian here for what it’s worth. Ran across a black bear on night shift bang in the middle of a massive oil refinery complex. Paved for a kilometre in every direction.
Black bears are very low risk to humans and I had an F350 between me and it, even still it’s just not something you mess with. It changed the whole course of my day instantly as I had to start reporting to site safety etc, I spent the next 3 hours on the radio.
Other than that I’ve seen the occasional lynx or mountain lion, but at great distance. Generally these things aren’t seen by humans unless they want to be or don’t care. You see them because they’re chasing prey or you get lucky and their out sunning themselves or something and you’re far enough away they aren’t threatened.
Large carnivores are pretty rare and not necessarily the largest wild animal threats to humans or livestock. Something like racoons or foxes taking chickens is a much larger nuisance to many more people than something like a mountain lion taking sheep. And something like a moose or a goose is a lot more likely to fuck you up because people don’t perceive these animals as threats and take way larger risks than they do around predators.
Not a carnivore … but a pack of wild boars with piglets in a nearby forest. My initial thought was “fuck” as I walked backwards like Homer in the meme. Once I had some distance I started running.
Any animal regardless of size or perceived danger should just be treated like it’s 10 times larger and covered in knives if it has babies nearby
I encounter wild boars quite often walking back home after work. My advice is to be noisier than them so they can avoid you before you even know they are there.
do you live in eurasia, wild boars are native there they are a seperate species. feral pigs/hogs are the one mostly encountered in us. boars/and feral pigs are viscious, i think they are more dangerous than carnivores.
Yep, that happened in Europe. It was definitely boars.
boars are viscious, even more so than predators. feral pigs are very aggressive in the wild, especially if there are piglets around.
I grew up in Florida as a kid, and I lived on a lake. I have on more than one occasion encountered alligators. They are assholes.
I remember on occasion, I was probably six years old, maybe a little older, and my parents called the police because there were a couple of alligators sunning themselves on the back lawn by our boathouse. The local police came over and clearly had no idea what to do. They started yelling at the alligators, trying to shoo them back into the water, with little success.
Eventually, the two alligators did creep back into the water, but they were lingering around the boathouse, and in an effort to get the larger one, a female, to go away, the frustrated officers began shooting at the water. This did not have the intended effect. Alligators are not just assholes, they’re much more clever than most people seem to think.
As the officers kept firing into the water, the alligator would hiss at them, and then go under the boathouse to the other side. As the officers would run over to the other side, the alligator would hiss and, predictably, go to the other side of the boathouse and hiss them again. This went on for about five minutes or so until my father had the good sense just to tell them to stop and request that they contact animal control.
As soon as the officers backed off and left, so did the alligators, with a noticeable final hiss that I swear was them laughing.
I have had three…
Two were encounters with sharks in the ocean, and while both sharkes were not really larged, less tham three feet in lmgth. When you are in the open ocean they might as well have been Bruce.
(Bruce was the nickname of the mechanical shark in Jaws)
The third was a boar when i was stationed in germany. Again the magnificantion effect, ibet the beasty was maybe 50 pounds. When you are stumbling throught the forest at night with mo lights and a thing about the size of a coffee table starts miving around and making noise…
Why were you in the forest at night with no lights?
… like i said, Germany….
When you train in the Army you dont use lights at night.
Never.
Seriously lucky to live in Australia, rather than growing up somewhere dangerous.
EDIT: /s
But I heard drop bears were a huge danger.
Huge danger, small carnivore. 🐨
Just don’t walk under trees, and you’ll be right.
a black bear has killed a hunter in a forest by dropping on him, after being shot at by said hunter.
Sarcasm? Australia is known for having many dangerous/deadly animals.
And yet kinda lacking in large carnivores, I think. They have Crocodiles? I can’t think of anything else.
Sharks. Whites and bulls.
Yeah, large carnivores not so much. Apparently dingos and tasmanian devils are the closest in that department. I’ve just always thought of Australia as a place of greatest concern in terms of animals due to the many deadly snakes and spiders they have.
The big predators live in the water.
That totally tracks. It definitely has plenty of dangerous wildlife. They have plenty of problematic animals that will fuck you up. Just not a ton of large carnivores.
Yes, you’re right, that was half joking. Have added in the /s.
Australia does not have large carnivores, but you still need to be careful in the bush or outback.
General guideline is, look where you step and don’t put your hand somewhere that you can’t see(under logs, in rusted cars etc.)
The actual top animal dangers in Aus are bees, snakes, spiders, according to this data(2021-2022).
https://aussieanimals.com/conflicts/venomous-creatures-australia/
The two on that list to know, if you plan to visit Australian beaches, is Blue Ring Octopus [ 12 to 20 cm (5 to 8 in) ] and Cone Shell [ 1.3 cm to 21.6 cm ].
They can catch out unaware tourists, who pick them up because they look quite beautiful.
As well as the above two guidelines, another one is to keep hands off any wildlife at the bush or beach.
Thanks for the response and for the info. I’d love to visit Australia some day for more than a couple reasons! We have some friends there being only one of them.
Australians themselves don’t seemed bothered by any of it, except the bush flies, though.
There are so few dangerous animals. Up north there are crocodiles, ask a tropical Aussie how to avoid those.
On the coast there’s the blue ring octopus so we’re taught to not pick up small octopuses, and cone shell molluscs so we wear shoes when walking on seaside rocks and rock pools. There are two dangerous spiders, redbacks are the same as black widows, Sydney funnel-webs weave a distinctive web, you mostly avoid those by not sticking your fingers into finger sized holes,
There are snakes that mostly flee from you. Wait a few metres away from the snake and wait for it to move. Almost all snake bite victims in Australia are snake handlers and wildlife fans.
Our one dangerous bird (cassowary) is only dangerous if cornered and attacked
See, where I live, you can pretty well ignore small creatures, walk barefoot anywhere and stick your bits into whatever you want. The worst thing you can get is a wasp or bee sting. But, yes, in exchange there are things that could rip you to shreds and just choose not to. Edit: I guess there are skunks, still.
Having worked with birds a bit, one that’s big enough to mess you up does scare me pretty good. Mammals have some kind of common sense of fair play, birds are just ruthless.
The bird is a herbivore. It doesn’t want to eat you, it just defends itself
Sure. That is largely based on what you’re used to. Africans also have tons of mostly deadly snakes. None of them seem concerned talking to me about it, despite losing a dog every year or two to venomous snakes.
Mandatory “sounds like they’re just feeding dogs to the local snakes” meme.
Heh, kinda yeah
I’ve been almost killed by a grizzly, twice, when I used to live on the eastern slopes of the rockies in Alberta. Climate change and human activity are making it hard for the bears and they are hungry as fuck in those parts.
One time when I was like 6 years old camping with my parents, I went on a walk to the river and got charged from behind a bush, but it didn’t seem hellbent on killing me
Another time I was hiking up a fire cutblock and my buddy and I thought we saw three hikers maybe like 3km uphill from us. Eventually it was obvious is was a mom and cubs, and they were chasing at us full speed (we were upwind from them). If we were a little further into the hike, I think one of us wouldn’t have made it back to the truck in time.
I’ve also been trapped by a moose in my parents garage for 6 hours, once
I still would rather run into either these animals out in the sticks than random humans. I’ve encountered some really sketchy people in my time spent in the woods. Seems to be getting worse too. I’m not a gun person, but that’s why I have a gun.
Trying not to make this personal but I’m much more afraid of a person intentionally carrying a gun, than some random stranger. I understand the urge to protect yourself, but you should take a closer look at your chances of defending yourself, and why you live in fear
I’ve literally been robbed while solo camping before
Since covid there are just a lot of bad people out there. I put my shotgun on my tailgate now and have not had a random drunk crew pull unto my campsite in the middle of the night since lol
I’m much more afraid of a person intentionally carrying a gun
Yeah that’s kind of the idea haha
Yes, all the innocent people you may encounter need to be afraid of being murdered because you live in fear after being robbed by one group once?
People pulling up to my campsite in the middle of the night are not innocent people
Whats your suggestion? Call the cops? Lol
Did they murder you? Does everyone do that?
I feel like you are just arguing for the sake of arguing
Every seasoned camper brings a shotgun with them here, because yes, it’s a surprisingly common issue
Probably true. I wasn’t really trying to but yeah, I have very different attitudes toward deadly weapons than you do.
Perhaps you camp somewhere with deadly wildlife, I don’t know.
I’ve had multiple encounters with bears, cougars, alligators, and meth heads.
The closets I came to dying was being chased around my car for 30m by a mother black bear after I disturbed her hiding in a basement via coal flue. Lost my keys and had to wait for a park ranger to come save me.
What did Attenborough say about the meth heads? Also, holy shit that must’ve been nerve wrecking… How did the park ranger save you? Was the bear killed?
Please, elaborate.
Jeez, that’s one hell of a workout
The biggest carnivores around here are foxes.
Where I live (Ibiza) was named after being an island with no predators. So the biggest wild predator here is a 2cm tall snake (they’re invasive)
2cm tall snake
I’m picturing someone painstakingly holding a snake upright to measure their height.
Some of the tourists can be pretty ferocious
Whenever I’ve seen a fox it’s always been through a window or, vaguely, possibly, at a significant distance.
Memories are blurry and I’ve been in vehicles and houses in the same places I’ve seen foxes. It’s possible I was outside on foot for at least one of those.
On the other hand, I could bend “wild” the other way and think about the handful of scary dog encounters I’ve had. Never been near enough to a fox to give it the remotest reason to attack. Those dogs were a different matter.
UK?
Spain, other regions have wolves and shit, but where I’m at is foxes and boars.
Mare meva
Saw a bear once at the beginning of a hike. The hike was over before it started
I have just a boring one. I was driving on my scooter, in one very early morning, when on a small, forest surrounded road, after a sharp turn around a hill full of trees, a brown bear disappeared in the bushes, from in front of me. I just drove on, and did not stop. My pulse jumped, since it was so sudden and, well, a bear, but that was it. They are usually not harmful to humans around here (Finland), unless they have cubs, or you have bad luck. The poor beast was probably as spooked as I was, from the scooter sounds, since we could not really see or hear each other early enough.
Yeah. A pig. A feral boar that weighed in at nearly 700 pounds.
I live in the US. I’ve seen black bears in the wild a couple of times, and personally I don’t have a lot of actual fear when it comes to them. I respect that they’re totally capable of hurting me severely, but also I know they are mostly harmless to humans and just want to be left alone. Grizzly bears scare me a lot. I’ve not seen one yet but I’ve been near them a couple times. They are far more likely to be aggressive. Realistically though, for us, carnivores aren’t the biggest concern most of the time. Bison, mooses, and even deer can be deadly.
Lions in africa and other big cats freaks me out a lot. Luckily we don’t have many big cats here and the ones we do have make themselves very scarce.
We are also taught here in Sweden that moose can be ridiculously dangerous if they are walking with a calf. I wonder what our bears are on that “aggressivity scale”, compared to blacks and grizzlies(grizzlys?).
Black bears don’t really scare me. Don’t like. Get up close and fuck with them for no reason. But I don’t do that with large dogs either, and a black bear is way more likely to just fuck off if you start yelling at it than even a large dog. Little dogs don’t fuck off for anything but worst case scenario you can just yeet them.
Yeah, exactly
I was staying in a cabin and went to get something from the car and a black bear was just cruising past. He looked at me and I looked him. We both kinda panicked and scurried off.
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Bears are omnivores
only a coyote, i thought it was a husky one time, but it was actually a coyote casually walking pass me.
So I need to read up on coyotes. They are obviously a problem in the states, but to me, being from Europe, they just look like undomesticated dogs.
They follow the train tracks into the city here. Coyotes are smart and very adaptable.
Bears do the same thing.
Unfortunately coyotes around here are too comfortable with people. I live in an urban area near a wilderness area and they come into the neighborhoods looking for rabbits.
Here’s a couple coyotes just chilling in a gated community. They are indeed way too comfortable around us.i had encountered them a couple time, they are definitely used to urban areas, very chill. on the west coast they are often found near the beach, where alot of invasive iceplants give cover. and there are plenty of wild rodents.
Oh my god look at those ears!!! 😭❤️ Sorry for diminishing the problems they pose, but I’m from Europe and don’t have to endure them… just look at them xD
Here they almost never attack people but the problem is they also aren’t afraid
If they’re hungry, and there’s multiple, and you’re alone, walking a snack on a leash ….
they will go after cats, so make sure cats stay indoors.
