Thought everyone understood that wild animals can be dangerous, but mostly hide or run away.
Only laid eyes on a panther once. It had checked me out ahead of time, utterly ignored me. Only seen one gator that wasn’t hauling ass away from my canoe or kayak. Saw a mama black bear with tiny babies galumphing along behind as she ran off. Went back the next day, couldn’t see her, but I heard the warning! Water moccasins hiss and pitch a fit, run away. You’d have to be deaf and step on one. (I’ve come close!)
Then you got people like my wife. She went to meet me at the trail entrance the other night, saw a small animal cross the path, got spooked and ran back to her car. Daughter and I saw a roll of teenage armadillos, up close! My wife asked if they would attack us.
Wife’s friend came over from England. She was choking down panic and the sun set on our camp in the swamp. I assured her that speaking in a normal tone of voice would scare anything away. Never been in wild woods and never at night!
I’ve had people online act like I’m an idiot for getting into the uncivilized places I often go. Many people here in NW Florida won’t go on the water unless it’s a large body and in a large boat. They think I’m going to get attacked in my kayak.
So, what’s your perception of the animals where you live? Do you think the people in your area feel the same?
I guess we’ll all be some variation of “it depends” lol.
Most stuff wants to continue living and will not risk having a go at us. So really it’s just out hiking that I have to be careful. Not in populated areas. Humans are pretty dangerous on their own though.
There’s Grizzly bears and big cats around here, but pretty rare to see them in the river valley so near the city. I know of a friend who once had a Coyote snatch his puppy and kill it, but that’s about it besides inconsiderate homeowners letting their cats outside. I find a few half eaten house cats every year. It’s further away where I start to take precautions. Moose are territorial as well, worse when a mom. The wolves would probably leave me alone, but they’ve stalked my mother when walking her dog at a campground once which scared her pretty good. However, they probably just wanted to eat the Golden Retriever and still decided not to go for it after she put him back on leash after noticing them.
I’ve never run into a bear, not counting black bears. Carry bear mace and jingly loud stuff. I don’t hike solo. It’s been fine. Spiders and snakes don’t worry me. I’m more worried about ticks here in west Canada and annoying fucking flies that bite you if I visit east Canada.
Can’t speak to the oceans since I live landlocked and don’t really have any desire to visit the coast. Once I traveled to Scotland and walked along an ocean beach in the Highlands. It was covered in the corpses of dead purple jellyfish, pretty gross. That’s my general vibe of the Oceans: Gross water full of brainless alien looking stuff that might kill me or inflict extreme pain. I wouldn’t be at all worried about stuff like Sharks. More so rip tides. I’d rather just not swim in it and feel no draw to.