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?

There was a big wild cat on the loose in East Finchley about a year ago.

www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/east-finchley-wildcat-police-called-as-savannah-cat-escapes-billionaire-3661310

I was at the local zoo as a teenager and they used to let the baby chimps on the lawn in pets corner once a day. The chimps used to have a disastrous tea party and then chase and punch the rabbits! One chimp made a break away and as went to run past me he spied a discarded sweet on the floor. He held my leg with his hand whilst he used the other one to pick up the sweet. I was thrilled even though my legs went wobbly.

A few years later, same zoo, passing the adult chimp enclosure we saw one sneaking out of a window. A keeper shouted "oi you, get back in here" and the chimp duly turned around and went back the way he'd snuck out.

I once had a run in with a giant rat by some bins.

@changi - that is literally my nightmare. Never heard of bubonic plague? Bleurgh!!!

We got evacuated from Chester Zoo because some animals escaped.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197741/Panic-5-000-visitors-Chester-Zoo-30-chimpanzees-escape-enclosure.html

We were right by the jaguar house so were ushered inside. Luckily we had just eaten lunch and had just been to the loo as were were stuck inside the jaguar house for ages. Then they let us out and ushered us out of a side gate to the car park.

There were long queues leaving the car par and they had zoo employees giving away bottle of water to people who had been stuck in cars for ages.

I rang the zoo a couple of days later and they said they would either refund our tickets or send us free ones to go another time, plus a free ride on the monorail or boat and discount in the restaurants and shops. We decided to take the free ticket option, and went again a couple of months later and had a fabulous day out.

I thought they handled it brilliantly, and took the safety of the visitors very seriously.

so many pictures of people holding vinegaroons in human hands, they don't seem so scary

I have seen in wild but not been actually scared by black widow spiders, rattlesnakes, black bears, sharks...

2 snarling domestic dogs cornered me once. That wasn't so good a moment.

We used to have frequent run ins with copper head snakes whilst living in America. I used to hide on the raised porch with the dog until someone dispatched them!

@Justilou1 Ha ha!

It isn't really a rat. This is a front view...

I did a walking safari on Komodo with a couple of guides who only had forked sticks to protect us. It was thrilling, exciting and scary. Every rustle in the forest and every suspicious log made us fearful.

There is a water hole with a fenced enclosure for people to stand safely to observe the komodo dragons, but the best bit was when we were walking back to the jetty and a whole load of komodo dragons were walking on the path towards us. The guide in front whispered loudly for us all to get back. We stepped off the path and the dragons just went past us. A real heart in the mouth moment.

Baboons in Mauritius. Got out of taxi at a beauty spot to admire the view and after a short walk surrounded by them doing the mouth wide, fangs displayed “call” they do.

Never shifted so fast before. Or since.

[quote CovidCorvid]The above stories are obviously from when I lived in Africa. Bizarrely back in the UK a kid from my school was killed by a lion in the Midlands when it escaped from the circus. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/day-10-year-old-boy-was-mauled-death-escaped-lion-lincolnshire-market-town-46459[/quote]
That is terrifying the poor lad. Unimaginable.

On holiday I chased a Lion fish in the sea to get a photo with my new underwater camera. I went on a glass bottom boat the next day and learned that they are poisonous.

I've chased 3 Highland Cows out of my garden! Does that count?

Nothing exotic to report but I did get bitten on the shoulder badly by a new forest pony. We were eating a picnic and she just sneaked up behind me and decided she would try to eat me. I only had a vest top on as well. Needed hospital treatment.

I got too close to a warthog to take a photo which charged and tossed me in the air I had 2 holes in my shorts and puncture wounds! Kept my distance after that - good photo though....

@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?

Lived somewhere with tigers. We had to wear masks at the back of our head when sleeping and take shifts. I woke up randomly and a tiger was half inside the open window and staring at me. My colleague responsible for tranquilising them had somehow missed it . Thankfully it was young and ran off when I shone my torch.

On a different trip I encountered a bear. It literally charged into the house we were staying at so we left it to it and scarpered.

Yes, with a kangaroo! I spent a year travelling around the world in my mid twenties and when I was in Australia I caught up with a guy I'd had a brief fling with in the UK, but who I was completely obsessed with and I thought he was the love of my life! I stayed with him for a couple of weeks while I travelled around the area and on one of his days off work we ended up in a kangaroo farm where you get up close to them and feed them etc. And a bloody kangaroo jumped on me and started attacking me! I ended up with cuts etc and Aussie guy told me he'd never seen anything like it before! Thankfully he did rescue me and prised the kangaroo off me.....i thought it might have been a romantic ending where he saved me and we ended up getting married.....but no such luck unfortunately.

@Aprilwasverywet

Do Highland cows count?

Only if they’ve forgotten their cowlculator.

I have survived multiple terrifying encounters with bloody HUGE house spiders. It was very much touch and go a couple of times and I hope never to repeat the experience.

I woke up randomly and a tiger was half inside the open window and staring at me.

My goodness. You must have been terrified. I think tigers are beautiful animals, but I have recurrent nightmares about being attacked by a tiger.

What was the mask on the back of the head about? What kind of mask?

Tons of cartoon-like dramatic encounters but I grew up in the bush in Africa. Elephant, lion both very memorable but the most horrific was hippo + canoe. Not me, was on the bank, but thought someone would die.

We live an hour away from the Canadian Rockies and camp and hike a lot, most weekends in the summer. I've seen tons of bears whilst on hikes or driving to and from the trailhead. Also heard a few coming past/through campsites, they're always looking for food so it's really important that anything edible is kept in a locked vehicle, bear locker or tree cache away from the tent if backcountry camping. You have to make a lot of noise whilst hiking and carry bear spray in a very easily accessible place. I've never had a bad encounter, generally you just catch a glimpse and hear a lot of crashing as they run away. I've seen a wolf from the car on a remote backcountry road, and thankfully never come across a mountain lion - they are really terrifying as they will stalk from behind and you don't know its there until it's on you. Seen hundreds of elk and a quite a few moose - they look dopey and docile but they are enormous and the males can be unpredictable and very dangerous.

The one thing that did make me grab the dogs and run for it on a hike was... a skunk 😂 That's an encounter we really don't want!

I travel a lot, backpacking and often camping, and have seen lots of snakes, alligators, cayman, crocodiles, lots of spiders, elephants, lions and hippos in and around campsites in various countries. In Botswana one guy went to use the WC and there was a cobra already in there behind the sink stand, he exited very very fast!

Tarantulas, hammerhead sharks and woolly monkeys chucking branches at us in Ecuador.

I have also been bitten by a donkey in Herefordshire.

You don't even really need to go camping though, we live in a suburb of Calgary, which is a fairly big city, and have seen black bears, moose, lynx, bobcats, deer, beavers, great horned owls, bald eagles and porcupines in various places in and around the city. It was on the radio one day that the Transcanada Highway (which runs right through the middle of Calgary on its way across Canada) was closed in a section going out of the city to the west as there were two moose running along it.

@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).