Have you ever had a run in with a dangerous wild animal?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I'm sipping my coffee and dreaming about going camping in the wilderness. Somewhere really remote. It would be awe inspiring, but also in reality I'd be too scared of getting lost or being eaten by some of the local wildlife so will probably never actually do it.

Has anyone been wilderness camping or similar? Did you have any narrow squeaks with snakes/ jaguars/ crocodiles?

DH and i were swimming in a little cenote in Mexico that had some freshwater streams leading out of it covered in vines. We decided to investigate where they went and were commenting on how many logs were under the surface before we realised they were actually young alligators. We quickly returned the way we came, luckily we hadn't gone very far!

Mine are standard Australian, really.

Red bellied black snake - one in a pond in the mountains - it swam over to where we were bird watching, looked at us, then swam back to its hole and disappeared (as did we, quite quickly!) and the other about 100m from the house in bushland - sunning itself on a treestump. I thought it was a discarded bike inner tube from a distance - we were collecting fire kindling - but when we got closer and realised it was a snake we backed away slowly. It didn't move but was gone when we returned.

Kangaroos - lots - mostly danger to the car rather than us!

Huntsman spider, redback spider, white tip spider (no funnelweb yet, thank goodness!) - all standard.

Possum down our chimney into the house - not dangerous unless you try to grab it - we just ushered it out again.

Emu in a wildlife reserve - took my husband's hotdog out of his hand!

Goanna - they can be a bit scary when they tent-raid. Make more noises than you'd think, too.

Saw an adder in the UK once - again, sunning itself, beautiful creature! - but it disappeared when I went inside to get a camera.

Nothing nasty in NZ, fortunately, except the Katipo spider (a small, shy, redback relative with very mild venom). They live in the sand dunes on the west coast. A few years ago, an unwary Australian camped out in the dunes, sleeping apparently without the encumbrance of clothing. A careless Katipo bit him on the willy. You can imagine the consequences.

A swan had it in for me when I was four. We had quite the tussle at Center Parcs.

[quote VenusTiger]@elp30 omg! why oh why did I just look up images of a vinegaroon !!! I can't look at photos of scorpions as it is! I need to check the bottom-end of my bed now (in UK).[/quote]

I'm so sorry but I had to laugh!

My sister and I were once trapped in our shared bedroom when one was found just chilling ON THE DOOR! It was absolutely massive! I'm not exaggerating but it was 10" long! 😧 We first started shrieking but obviously, it still hung on, we decided to throw our shoes at it but then realized we had nowhere to run once it fell from the door. The thing held us hostage for three hours! Our uncle came by and found us cowering on the bed. He actually picked the thing up by its tail to put it outside. Obviously, the vinegaroon didn't like that and sprayed its lovely scent! Our room stank for two days!

My sister, years later, put her foot in her shoes and felt an almighty sting! There was a scorpion in her shoe. She called poison control and told them she had been stung by a scorpion and was worried it was venemous. The operator counted to 10 and then asked if anyone was on the phone. My sister answered, "Yes, I'm here." The operator then said, "If it was venemous, you wouldn't be answering at the count of ten. Put a cold compress and you'll be fine in a few days. Bye." 😂

I forgot about goannas. They move hell-fast and the noise!

Also forgot about being chased by a cassowary (a full grown male). He didn't hurt me, I hurt myself trying to get away

I live in Australia. So pretty frequent encounters with spiders and defs had a few snakes under the verandah looking in the windows. Also has a couple of issues with big male kangaroos refusing to move off paths. I sometimes think it must be so easy living in a country where less things can kill you!

I live in Australia on a large-ish, rural parcel of land that includes some bush and farmland. One hot day I was sitting on the grass next to my chook run chatting to my favourite hen. It turns out this was a mistake - I heard a slither in the leaves next to me, and looked down to see a lovely large Eastern Brown snake brushing past my butt. It actually touched me on the way past. Now, I don't think I've ever jumped up and run off as fast as that ever before and since. I even left my shoes there. Eastern Browns are known to chase people, but this one didn't. I think it was simply curious. (For context, the Eastern Brown snake is ranked the second most venomous snake in the world, can be quite cantankerous, and lacks the shyness of other snake species.)

Camping in Kenya with dp and went for a row on the lake in a little wooden boat. We were having a lovely relaxing time until we suddenly realised that the things in front of us weren't floating water plants but the ears of submerged hippos. We didn't know if there were any mothers with babies (who would have felt threatened if we'd got much closer) but didn't stop to find out. We rowed back the way we'd come as fast as we could.

Camping in South Africa with dp and dd when a warthog appeared. It was a very large male with pretty impressive tusks. He wasn't aggressive but neither was he taking any notice of us. We tried shouting at him and dp tried very slowly driving the car towards him but he completely ignored us and he was much too big to get close to. We'd been about to start cooking dinner when he turned up and the greedy bastard ate the whole packet of dried pasta.

On the same holiday, dd was very put out when a monkey stole the gingerbread man that she was about to eat.

I also had a closer than exoected encounter with a komodo dragon once. We had gone to an island specifically to look for them but I'd expected to try and spot one in the bush, not to see one right in front of me when I opened the toilet door! I walked out to find the other tourists standing a lot further away than when I'd gone in and a park ranger walking towards me wielding a very big stick.

Agree @TwoShades1.... We are Aussies, but lived in the Netherlands for years. My kids spent all the toddler & primary school years there. The worst we had were daddy longlegs who always hung out in the toilet. (Didn't stop DD2 launching herself out of the loo screaming with her knickers around her ankles....) Now we live in QLD and have it all. Was explaining to my kids how my kitten was eaten by the python that lived in my ceiling when I was a kid, and they were like, MEH..... You get that..... Obviously acclimatised now.

We live in Canada. We see coyotes and raccoons reasonably regularly and often have warning posters around about bears and occasionally cougars. Last week there was a bobcat in the playground a couple of doors down from our house.
Today my daughter told us they had to keep the doors shut on their very warm dance studio at school because there was a bear wandering around the ravine on the edge of the school,
Btw - we live in a fairly urban suburb about 15 mins drive to a v big city - not out in the wilds at all!

Well I live in Oz so every July-September/November you'll get attacked (swooped) by magpies (birds with horrid sharp beaks) if you enter their territory. Which is everywhere. Vicious little buggers too. One sliced my head with it's beak once. The sound of those wings flapping behind you is more terrifying than any horror movie.

I posted earlier about close encounters with hippos, a warthog and a komodo dragon but, thinking about it, the scariest animal encounter I've had was being divebombed by a huge flock of seagulls in my own backgarden.

As a teen I spent some years living in Germany on an Army camp, we were surrounded by wild boars that came into the camp looking for food every night. While the mother and babies looked so cute from our windows you had to be careful. They would raid the bins and rip up large areas of grass most nights.

One of my best friends was cycling from my house back home one evening and spent over 3 hours sitting at the top of the slide in the playground as a large male destroyed his bike and tried to get to him. He was eventually rescued by a MP patrol.

Another friend on returning to her house late at night was stopped by another patrol as she just opened the gate to her block and told to return to them slowly and quietly, when she got to them and turned around there was a huge boar stood in her garden.

As a child I managed to put my foot through a rotten tree stump into a next of baby adders, these were then taken and put on display in our local zoo ( again not the UK). We were invited to go see them as a family. I love large snakes, but baby sized one still make my skin crawl .

Some of these are amazing! I didn’t think I had any encounters to share but then I started remembering a few.

Was pecked by geese when I was very small

Chased by a cow when I was about 10

Dh likes to tell everyone I nearly sat on a lion fish, as far as I’m aware I didn’t, but I nearly put my hand on one as I was passing some rocks.

Was circled by a 2m bull shark when the group I was diving with split into two smaller groups, when we got back together didn’t see it again

The womble has to be my favourite so far on this thread.

We were on safari in S Africa, in an open stretched Land Rover type of thing, when a male elephant that was ‘in must’ - I.e. needing to get his end away and so more aggressive than usual - took a violent dislike to the look of our vehicle and decided to charge. It was scary how fast an animal like that can move! And the terrain was rough, and our driver seemed to take forever to turn the vehicle around and get the hell out.

One of the many good things about Australia is that even a walk to the shops can be interesting.

Centipede in Cape Verde.
DS had previously looked up whether there were any dangerous snakes or bugs there and had told me about the venomous centipedes- so imagine my surprise one evening sitting in our room when I looked down to find I was wearing a large one as a bracelet.
I screamed and DH and the kids came running out of the bedrooms (it was a suite). I shook it off, orders the kids into their room and got DH to trap it under a glass. The glass wasn’t quite big enough and it was putting up quite a fight but he managed to throw it out.
I am not usually bothered about creepy crawlies but that did freak me out

I managed to get through my year in Australia with no horrid encounters...until the last week, when I encountered the following:

1. Red bellied black snake
2. Carpet python
3. Redback nest
4. Woke up to a huntsman spider literally on my face
5. A whitetail spider that ran over my foot on the way to an Internet cafe

All within 6 days - I was a wreck 😂

Oh why did I google camel spiders - horrifying!

This isn't a wild encounter but PP reminded me when I went to a zoo years ago there was a chimp enclosure. One chimp decided to come and sit right in front of me behind the glass, made perfect eye contact with me and proceeded to have a wank.
Another one ran up and hit the glass, I jumped out of my skin and I swear to god this chimp started laughing and pointing at me!

@changi

One of the many good things about Australia is that even a walk to the shops can be interesting.

What is it?

@Didiplanthis

We used to have wild boar in the woods in our rural bit of South East England ! Not seen them for years though...

They're still around - we came across a large male boar whilst driving, near Eynesford in Kent

I saw a bear from a distance while camping in the Smoky Mountains and that was enough for me.

Yes, snakes both here and abroad. We came across an adders nest when we were kids up on the moors and poke them with a stick. Not a great idea but we were all quite young at the time and endlessly fascinated. Lots of snakes in India and these huge centipede tripe things that can bite and cause horrible pain. Someone I know was bitten and just screamed and screamed all the way to the hospital. Also seen a panther on a walk in the forest in the middle of Goa. 😳