I like to study what animals are around before I’m in an unfamiliar habitat so I know what to expect. I’m not really afraid of any animals unless the situation calls for it. There’s a number of potentially dangerous animals that live around here, all are incredibly unlikely to ever attack me. The risk of catching Lyme disease from a tick is what really concern me more than any wild animal I might encounter.

Most will run, some will attack if cornered. Walk along the wind and make human noises and you won’t be bothered.

is it hungry? is it desperate? is it horny? does it feel threatened?

if yes, then they are a danger to me.

I volunteer with wild animals, so I purposely do a lot of things animals may or may not like that most people won’t normally do.

Very few animals will want to hurt you. Animals will do very little they don’t have to do. This comes down to 2 main things: calories are precious, and there is no medical care. If you aren’t food or pose a potential threat, they want nothing to do with you. Wasting calories and getting injuries makes it harder to get a next meal.

The classic fight/flight response has evolved into something more along the lines of fight/flight/freeze/fawn. Animals aren’t dumb, and in almost every way their muscles and abilities are better than yours, so there are multiple options they have, and they will pick what they think is best.

They also have unique personalities, and won’t all react the same. I have more scary squirrels at work than I do raptors.

It is also common to have small songbirds drive off hawks or owls, and the raptors just move on instead of fighting because the energy required and the potential for injury to fight isn’t worth it. If you’re messing with a nest, they may go after you, they may not.

Animals get dangerous when you take away some of their options, like the classic cornered animal. If you take away the option to flee, why wouldn’t they think you’re there to hurt them, and they will hurt you to protect themselves. Most will make noise to scare you so you go away or back off and give them an opening. If you get your hands on them and you are calm, they will often wait to see what you’re going to do.

Learning how animals react to things and seeing how unique their personalities/risk tolerances are is one of my favorite parts of working with them. People act like animals are generic NPCs, but they’ve got unique minds that are the results of their collected experiences, just like ours.

I’m from the PNW, my life has been spent in the outdoors and I have backpacked alone in the Cascade mountains. I’m of the opinion that wild animals are more frightened of me than I could be of them. I fear encountering a hungry cougar but otherwise I don’t really have any fear of other animals. I don’t want to encounter a momma bear and her cubs nor a mother moose with her calf. Those are two things I would be feeling is dangerous.

But snakes, wolves, or whatever other nasties that I might find in my neck of the woods, don’t really make me scared.

In Britain we don’t have dangerous wildlife. Only thing close to spicy is the adder, and they’re extremely rare and shy, their homes are all signposted and protected. The most killing animal we have is the cow. Don’t wander into a herd like an idiot, stay away from bulls, and there’s no problems. So it’s a bit jarring to have to worry about animals.

I’ve encountered wild bears while hiking and wasn’t scared. They were just black bears, tho. The smallest and most easily frightened bear. 🤷‍♂️

Anything big enough to be scary is scary. Deer and coyotes.

Growing up rural gives one a healthy respect for animals. I once knew a banty rooster who was known to have killed 2 snakes and a hawk going after his hens. I saw that rooster chase grown men and I did not laugh. I would have run from that feathery violence too.

I live in Australia

I find it hilarious how stupid Americans think everything here is trying to kill us constantly

Most people go their whole life never seeing a snake

Crocs are only in certain parts of the country, sharks aren’t a problem unless you are really unlucky

Our spiders are fine

I live somewhere with wildlife all around me, and it’s fantastic. There were three wallabies doing their thing where I was walking my dog yesterday and they’re lovely

Australia has a reputation for dangerous wildlife but… just don’t touch them. The only animals that might deliberately come up to you and attack would be salt water crocs and drop bears but they’re only found in very specific areas so just be careful when visiting up far north. Everything else (fresh water crocs, dingoes, snakes, etc) will keep their distance so keep your own distance and don’t bother them and you’ll be fine.

Depends on the animal and the time of year.

Is it a large animal with young? Is it a territorial animal in rutting season? Do I have smelly food on me?

For the most part you can take precautions that prevent dangerous animals (in these parts) from getting close, so if they ignored those precautions then there is another factor involved and yes I’m scared. Moose, large cats, bears, wolves, etc.
Some other animals can communicate disease, so I’m scared of them if they get into my tent or something.
But other than that, mainly not afraid, or I at least recognize the fear as irrational.

Thankfully around here all the dangerous animals mostly want to stay away (no polar bears or cougars), and are easy to see (no venomous snakes, spiders, or, again, cougars)
I’m still scared of accidentally getting between a momma bear and a cub or something, though.

Depends on the animal. The vast majority of them, I think, probably are just annoyed by our existence. However, I’m going to be real. If I see a moose and I have the opportunity to kill it, I will do so on sight.

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.

The animals I see here are birds, lizards, snakes, bugs, bats, possums and rats and occasionally a raccoon, armadillo, or alligator.

In all cases (except the crows who sometimes come here for food) the animals disregard me or are wary.

I would say my feelings about them are that I leave them alone but am happy enough when they interact with me a little. One time I shared the condensation on my drink with a jumping spider and it’s one of the things I’ll remember forever. Whenever I set down the drink it would run over and drink from the outside of the bottle. It was so cute.