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?

Wild camping in the national parks in North America, had wolves howling and circling our tent. Bison sniffing round the tent (I was just praying they wouldn't stamp on me!) and came face to face with a brown bear as I rounded a corner on a path. You have to act differently with black bears vs brown bears and my mind went blank! I backed off slowly and he did lots of sniffing then turned and ambled off. Phew.
Australia - shared accommodation with many a spider, possum and frog.
Costa Rica - a spider WITH A FACE that I have never looked up because I'm too scared lept at me in the jungle. I'm cringing just thinking about it. Also came across tarantulas and kaleidoscope of butterflies.
Coast to coast walk UK - shared my tent with my lovely Labrador. Perfect company and kept me warm.

Ooh, but the most freaked out I have ever been was when I found two massive parktown prawns in my garage. I swear they were as big as lobsters, I was petrified.

We were charged by elephants in South Africa. It was really quite scary. The ranger was keeping an eye and clearly getting a bit concerned and then suddenly said “everyone back in the vehicle” and we all jumped in and raced away as they charged after us. They go quite fast!

The DC thought it was amazing. I’m now a bit wary of elephants.

Yes. I was bitten by a squirrel in Central Park. It was bloody painful. I still love squirrels though.

One of my Pugs this morning he may not be 'wild' but he was grumpy and peed off about something

Well I did get quite a fright on holiday when the hosepipe laying across the path reared up and hissed at me.

Shat myself!

@hels48 where abouts were you? There's been a few stories on here about Big Cat encounters in the countryside. I'm sure there was one not that long ago actually.

Oh and we live quite rurally. One highlight was having to stop the car in the middle of the road whilst a herd of cattle ran towards the car. Farmers, farm hands and a tractor all trying to round them up and get them back in the field!

I’m amazed my car wasn’t damaged tbh, but that was actually fairly terrifying!

Twice on safari:
Once with lions roaming through camp (we had to stay indoors, turn on all the lights and make as much noise as possible before the rangers arrived with huge guns!)
And another time on safari we got too close to the desert elephants and a male charged the safari truck which was bloody scary

I live in Africa so it’s more likely to happen here..but we’ve had a very grumpy and highly venomous Cape Cobra in our house. Also many encounters with baboons (although I don’t find that frightening) and other venomous snakes. No other wild animals other than when on safari but that doesn’t really count as even in the unvented properties, you’re still pretty safe in your room..

Not wild as such, but me and a friend were chased into a ditch by a herd of heifers on walk once. It took ages to get out and run to safety. I've since seen several news stories since of people being trampled to death by them. It makes my blood run cold.

@HoldontoOneMoreDay

I believe that about there being lots of tigers in people's backyards than in the wild.

Here's the story about our wandering tiger that was found this past weekend:

www.cnn.com/2021/05/16/us/india-tiger-houston-missing-sunday/index.html

When on safari vehicles, we’ve often had very close encounters - the most scary with lone bull elephants. A month ago, we encountered one and we couldn’t move the vehicle so had to sit still and wait for it to move past us. It stuck its trunk into the vehicle and sniffed/touched my 6 year old.. Luckily she stayed very still and didn’t scream..

I was climbing up a hill in a forest park bout ten years ago when I met two wild goats. I wanted to go up. They didn't want to let me pass. The goats won and I turned around and went back down. I'm not daft enough to cross a pair of stubborn goats.

Wild camping in Seattle with my best friend aged 18. We'd met other hikers who'd put their tent opposite ours for safety and company. We heard noises, peeped out of the tent and saw grizzly bears wandering past us. They caused no harm and walked straight between the tents but it was like a horror film- one wrong move and we'd be goners. We made eye contact with the people in the other tent who looked just as terrified. Funnily enough I haven't wild camped since then- I stick with secure static caravans in Devon!

Years ago BC (before children) I was working in Tanzania and was out in jeep that was turned over by an angry elephant. Really scary.

Doing some filming at a waterhole, came face to face with a young and inquisitive male leopard.

DS and I went to a monkey park in Japan where all the monkeys run wild, it’s the famous one where the monkeys go in the hot spring. We sat on a rock in a far corner of the park, quietly watching and without even realising, we became surrounded. There were probably around 30 monkeys around us. A monkey then jumped on DS shoulders and started grooming his hair! He managed to slide the monkey off and we walked slowly away trying not to make eye contact. One ran up behind me and was pulling my dress! It was quite cool, and the monkeys were really cute. But i’m well aware that if they’d turned on us they could have ripped us to pieces! DS doesn’t really feel safe around monkeys anymore!

@elp30

I grew up in the southwestern US where a mountain range is in the middle of my city. As a child, I lived near the mountain. When we would have drought, wildcats and coyotes would come down looking for water. That doesn't include the other desert "friends" like rattlesnakes and tarantulas and strange creatures like vinegaroons. Ugh.

I'm now in a suburb of Houston and my son was walking with his girlfriend and saw a tiger hanging out on someone's lawn. It's been captured now, btw.

Just googled vinegaroon and I want to delete the last 5 minutes of my life!!

I've been chased by cows a few times and a herd of ponies once, and another time by a large scary pig. Driving in the dark with my boyfriend at the time in the rain we saw a huge adder stretched out across the road, he got out to move it off the road so it wouldn't get run over and picked it up with a tire iron whilst it lunged and hissed at him!

@Icancelledthecheque I had exactly the same experience driving along a quiet lane and coming across cattle being moved from one field to another....... only a cow did jump on my car and wrote it off. They only just avoided coming through the windscreen. I've never been so scared in my entire life. We still live in the same area and I've never driven down that lane again as it's right by a farm.

I wasn't a pupil at the time, but this story of a lion escaping the zoo and going into a school in 1980 is still famous round here:

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/14999129.escaped-lions-at-devizes-school-story-to-be-revisited-on-tv/

Circus not zoo

Shated a shower with a Lans Ferdinand snake ( inadvertetly), saw a wild tiger paw print in the wild, sat on a scorpuan infested bench, got very close to wild elephants and rhinos but i used to study zoology so was part of the fun!

Scorpion*