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?

I find it difficult to believe moose exist. I’ve been in so many places where “moose sightings are common” and usually where “there were loads of them here yesterday” and never seen one that I’m beginning to think they are the North American version of the wild haggis.

We stayed in little cabins while holidaying at a dude ranch northwest of Denver one time I went out the door one afternoon and saw several little brown and grey snakes in the grass, then spotted their far bigger mother snake slithering along. I went back inside.

On the way to Wyoming one time we stopped at a Mexican restaurant on the outskirts of Denver and had the exciting experience of seeing a crew wrangling a rattlesnake into a barrel in the car park. They told us to stay in the car for a few minutes and wait for the all clear.

Closer to home, I once had to trap a raccoon who had found its way into my eaves from an overhanging tree, and was in the process of setting up camp in the crawl space. I could hear it scuffling around overhead in the wee small hours when it returned from its nocturnal business. I bought a humane trap and baited it with a tin of sardines, and around 1am heard the trap snap shut and a good deal of rattling and scratching as it tried to break the trap door.

So out I went with my torch to lug it into the back garden. It turned out to be huge and not one bit happy about being trapped. It bared its teeth, and tried to scratch me through the bars of the trap. I set it down in the garden near the back fence, and within two minutes it succeeded in breaking the door and squeezing its way out. It shot over the fence, and disappeared into the alley. I got a tree trimming company in that afternoon to take off the branch it was using to get into the eaves, and tackled the loose fascia myself.

Fortunately nothing abroad, apart from the odd gecko, although the one that shot under the doorway when I was on the loo was unnerving.

In the UK however, I've been stung by a weeverfish in north Wales (the sea was freezing as well. I wish I had bothered going in!) and was knocked over by a peacock on Brownsea Island when I was little.

I'm currently suffering sleep deprivation by starling — a pair are nesting just over my bedroom window and don't seem to go to sleep until 2 am, but still manage to wake up to join in with the dawn chorus. They keep pooing on my washing as well.

*hadn't bothered going in

I then went to the doctors when I got home because although the pain from the sting had stopped (I knew to put my foot in hot water), the barbed sting was still in my foot. The doctor took ages before he removed it, and when I asked if there was a problem, said he was trying to decide whether to choose "animal/fish bite" or "insect sting" from the dropdown list. I suppose that what you get for living in a landlocked county.

Also, on the last day of a stay in Kiawah Island in S Carolina I noticed for the first time a sign on the path across the marshy area between the beach and the house we were staying in, that said "Please do not feed the alligators".

This as some good photos to illustrate how big some animals actually are, though several of them do look like forced perspective/deliberate use of a small person to me - I’ve met plenty of Clydesdales in my time and none would tower over me quite so much as the ones in the first picture (I’m 5ft 6) so I suspect the lady holding them is a tad on the small side!

www.boredpanda.com/animal-size-comparison/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Not me but my friend lives on the Gold Coast, her first Christmas there after 18 years in the UK, she said her Christmas tree was moving.

Her boyfriend said don't worry leant down grabbed a croc by its tail and threw it out the house. She was more concerned with how casual he was about it (the boyfriend not the croc)

I have moose sometimes in my garden. They don't run from people as deer do and I have heard they have killed more people than bears.