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?

On a University field trip to South Africa, our group managed to get caught between a Rhino and her calf.

That was terrifying.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

I did meet adder, which is not really exciting tho because to a heapthy adult size human it's not THAT dangerous. They keep sunning in lots of frequented places

I saw an adder on the coastal path in Cornwall one spring. It slid away, quite slowly, and I wondered if it had only just come out of hibernation.

And I was startled by a badger one night while camping in West Sussex.I thought someone was trying to nick something, and when I looked out, it was a badger licking the dog's dinner bowl clean!

There is a family story of a relative who was working in southern Africa in colonial times. Some friends of his had a tame pet leopard that lived in the house, and he went to visit them.

On arrival, he saw the leopard snoozing on the front driveway, and went over to give it a stroke. All good.

... Until he went inside and found that the family's pet leopard was actually in the back garden. He'd just treated a wild leopard like a bloody house cat

Also encountered a monkey at a reserve & the head honcho decided he wanted me gone. Shaking the tree & baring his teeth at me. I hate monkeys!

A wasp tried to get in the bath with me recently. 🤷‍♀️

Out walking dog at late dusk in park at end of road. Suddenly dog started whimpering and sat by my feet - I could hear a very large patter of very large claws coming towards me. It was a huge badger which proceeded to launch itself at me -I swerved as it neared - I live in Whetstone north London so hardly the open countryside 🦡

We live in Utah USA so there potentially are mostly rattlesnakes and cougars to worry about while hiking. I’ve encountered a rattlesnake but I gave it plenty of room and it was fine. I don’t go hiking at dawn or dusk so thankfully I’ve never encountered a cougar/mountain lion. We did see moose hiking a few times and gave them plenty of berth. People think they are harmless, they are not!

A horrible ostrich pecked the cup out of my hand once.
South Africa.
Avoid.

What on earth is a vinegaroon - scared to look from the reactions here. I think words may be less scary than pictures!

@AbsentmindedWoman

Sometimes I think the really large (huntman, tarantula size) spiders are quite cute in a way.

Yet I cannot deal with big house spiders a fraction of the size

Part of the issue with huntsman spiders is they do seem to like houses. (and cars) I also grew up in Australia and we camped a fair amount. To be honest, the only really troublesome wildlife encounters I recall are 1) kookaburras stealing someone's breakfast off the barbeque and 2) the time a kangaroo undid the cover on our trailer and stole most of our bananas ... We certainly came across various snakes, but usually they got out of the way fairly quickly, and if they didn't you just waited till they wanted to move, if you couldn't go around them.

On safari, in the hotel restaurant for lunch. All the doors and windows were open because it was really hot. All of a sudden the staff started running around closing them and then we realised why. There was a lioness peering in the window. She got bored and wandered off eventually.

After dark we all had to have an armed guard back to our huts, and were told not to go outside at night unaccompanied under any circumstances, because (apart from the lions) there were too many elephants about and they could get tetchy with you if you got in their way.

MIL was punched by a kangaroo! Luckily not that hard as apparently they can do some real damage.

In less threatening news, my friend fed a bison at Antwerp zoo years ago and it sneezed all over her - never seen so much snot.

I was bitten by a monkey once on a trek.
I've also been chased by a pack of wild dogs on a beach in Thailand.
Less scary than some predatory men encountered on some of my other travels.

We camped in the Rockies and one night a bear walked past all our tents, lots of people took pictures, and I was chatting to the Canadian couple from the next pitch who assured me it was a black bear. So I said what would we do if it was a grizzly, get into the car was the response. Thought nothing more of it until the next night when the rangers drove past and said to us all that there was a grizzly around, same one from the night before and if we saw it to get in the car but we could get some good photos...... Head in hands moment! Thankfully we didn’t see it again!

I was a passenger in a pick-up truck, being driven on forest tracks in the northern Congo. The truck jolted violently and the driver braked. We went to see what had been run over. It was a boa constrictor. One of the Congolese guys put it in a sack and said, 'My wife will cook for dinner.'

Went on a trip to the Antarctic peninsula quite some time ago. Within ten minutes going ashore on our first landfall - elephant island, we encountered baby elephant seals, which I can tell you are bloody huge. They’re naturally curious and they all bounded toward us. We were told to ‘walk towards them and clap your hands’ to scare them away. Jesus Christ those things can shift at a pace, and unbelievably are actually scared of you if you clap your hands at them.

I went camping in Africa. I needed to use the toilet in the middle of the night and couldn’t see a thing, I didn’t realise I walked into a group of impala, they all started running and brushing past me as I just froze on the spot until they were gone!
On the same trip I almost got too close to a wildebeest, had a monkey scream at me because I got too close to its baby and also had a run in with a rhino but the car scared it away.
It’s safe to say I’m extremely oblivious to danger sometimes and really don’t think before I act, I’m very relieved I had family with me at all times (except with the impala incident) to look out for me as I’m just clueless when it comes to common sense!

@ajandjjmum

What on earth is a vinegaroon - scared to look from the reactions here. I think words may be less scary than pictures!

It’s just a spider/scorpion thing. Not too bad unless you are phobic or anything

There was a Daddy Long Legs in our hall last year, but it disappeared.
I'm still concerned that it is hiding and planning to do something VERY soon.

On a school trip to Africa, we drove over a puff adder sitting in the road. Everyone got out to look at it but I stayed right inside. The driver said you had to be very careful to not drive over snakes if you didnt have an intact roof or windscreen as they often would get flung in the air and would land inside the vehicle - very cross

We were camping later on on a nice grassy field by a lake. After night fell there was lots of huffing and puffing outside the tent and some canvass walls were clearly being nudged by something. We all just sat inside really quiet and still, absolutely petrified and my friend who needed to pee said she would wet herself rather than go out to the loo. That turned out to be a good call as in the morning we found an entire herd of hippopotami had decided to migrate over to our lake in the night and had munched their way through our camp site. Hippo are on the top ten most dangerous animals in Africa

Then last week, walking to get the post from the end of the drive, I heard a hissing in the bushes. From my best guess I think it was a Fisher cat. Im not getting my post after dark again.

Oh and last week I saw a beaver trying to cut down some trees to block the stream by our drive. He looked just like the cartoons!

Australia again
went walking with my sister & her family in a rainforest (deciduous mountain forest not tropical) it was their winter & I was wearing jeggings. So we got her home & were having a cup of tea outside & I noticed a large dark stain above my knee mid thigh
Went to bathroom to check...pulled down my jeggings
& came eye to eye ball with a fat squashed leech... my sister & niece came running to my screams & than helped me check that there wasn't any other relatives attached -they both thought it was hysterically funny & cheerful told me that it must of been attached for sometime. You cannot feel them attaching to you
When I was a kid there (many houses were built on low brick pillars our old house had a gap underneath a bit taller than a coffee table height ) my dsis & I use to chase the rabbit under the house where he escaped from the cat. Fine no probs, until one fine day whilst sitting on the ground next to the house & at the corner of my eye within a couple of feet from where I was sitting I saw a smallish spider with a LARGE RED SPOT!
An Olympic size jump & move away ...
We didn't go under the house again

@Icancelledthecheque my husband was cornered by a cow when picking blackberries. It sort of butted him and the bruises he had were awful. He was in a lot of pain. And many years ago a friend of my auntie's was killed when driving along a country road with raised fields alongside, and a cow crashed out of the field on to his car.

My halls of residence at uni had a small lake in the grounds, and every Spring there were notices up to not go near because of nesting swans. Every year without fail some hapless students were chased off by very large, noisy, aggressive daddy swan.

Yes to all the elephant fear on here! We used to live in Africa and went on safari every few months so we had a lot of close encounters with elephants. They are beautiful, intelligent animals but I have a healthy dose of fear for them now, the males can be so unpredictable and matriarchs who have young elephants in their herd are also very antsy around humans - understandably so. I would not want to get on the wrong side of one.

One safari we were heading back to camp for with a ranger. We were in an adapted Land Rover and we were very low down - enough that I did worry just how safe we would be if a big cat strolled past. Especially as we had our 5 year old with us at the time (easy, vulnerable prey for lions!). It was pitch black and nearby we could hear lions roaring. Ranger thought he'd divert to where the sound was coming from to see if we could see them. Ended up with a very vocal and agitated female lion roaring at us standing directly in front of the car and could hear other lions very close by responding to her. At this point the ranger was like "you know what this isn't safe let's get the hell out of here". We were on the back seats and so for the next couple of minutes I was terrified a lion would grab one of us while we sped away! I'm sure we weren't in any real danger- if she was trying to hunt us then she was doing a miserable job by letting us know where she was - she was probably just pissed off that she was being disturbed by a truck full of humans when she was trying to hunt, but it was bloody terrifying being that close to a lion vocalizing (they are ridiculously loud) and not knowing just how close the other lions were.

Grew up in Sweden so I have run into bears, wolfs and elks (although the latter are not dangerous, just big). Quite a lot of vipers around too and you pretty much always see one at least if you are going on a hike.

In the UK, I'm only scared of people in the woods. There aren't really any dangerous animals here. I have heard there are adders but never seen one here.