# Suddenly Come Across Wild Animals



## Brian Mcculloch (3 Nov 2017)

This has happened to me a lot of times, most of the times it has been bears, deers, leopards. I want to know if you've ever suddenly come across wild animals?


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## zozo (3 Nov 2017)

Beers and leopards don't live anymore in my country.. But regularly crossing path with deers.. The times i still did mountain biking i one time had a herd with deers running with me for a few 100 yeards. That was awsome, it was at the woods edge, they had no other place to go than run paralel with me till the point they had no other choice than to cross my path deeper into the woods and they did in front of me, i had to stop. That was my best and most spectacular wildlife encounter ever. Riding with the deers..


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## roadmaster (3 Nov 2017)

Lot's of deer here.
Once was walking through stand of tree's early in the morning and a whole flock of wild turkey's that were roosting in the tree's above me, suddenly too flight.
I nearly soiled my pant's.


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## Tim Harrison (3 Nov 2017)

I've been blessed with a fair number of such encounters myself, but two immediately spring to mind...

I once crested a ridge at the top of a very long and arduous scree scramble/climb in the Taurus Mountains and came face to face with a very large wild boar with very large mean looking tusks...
We both froze and stared at each other for what seemed like a heart stopping eternity, but in reality probably no more than a second or two, I guess sizing each other up...
I was just considering coiling up ready to spring to one side, incase it decided to charge, when it suddenly turned on its heals and bolted in to a nearby patch of garrigue. I didn't follow...






Another time, long ago, I was cycling the 20 miles home in the early hours of the morning a bit worse for a few beers (don't ask). My route took me down narrow and windy country lanes, with only the dim light of a crescent moon to guide me; I didn't have any lights. When out of nowhere ( well, a hedgerow actually) I heard a very loud and unearthly growling accompanied by the scraping of sharp claws on tarmac rapidly heading my way. I very nearly sh*t myself, and sneaked a panicked glance over my shoulder. What I saw put the fear of God in to me; a black amorphous shape rapidly closing in on me (remember it was very dark). I immediately assumed the worse and decided I was being chased by a werewolf 

I've never peddled so fast in my life, and would have easily won the Olympic Road Cycling Time Trials. Eventually, the werewolf gave up the idea of trying to catch an easy meal on wheels and I heard it head back in to the hedgerow, but not before I caught a better glimpse of it...it turned out to be nothing more than a startled badger 

Werewolf are often confused with, and mistaken for, badgers by amateur naturalist and drunken cyclists alike.


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## zozo (3 Nov 2017)

Tim Harrison said:


> it turned out to be nothing more than a startled badger


 Now i remember not so long ago, near my house is a creek delta and a paved but at night very dark path runs through it, always take that route with teh bicycle as shortcut. One night I also statled a batcher with my headlight in front of me and i also noticed it's nails scratch the tarmac when it took off. Remebering that sound, i can imagine sh*ting my pants hearing this behind me in the dark not knowing what it is..

I also know the Blair witch Syndrome.. I used to bike a lot in the woods at night with my super duper awsome 6 volt battery halogene headlight a had back then. When i went alone, i had it a few times, riding like hell through the dark woods with the idea beeing chased.. Actualy stupid to do these freaky things alone.. But young and wild, but still almost did sh*t my paints a few times, probably for nothing more than just an idea.


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## KipperSarnie (3 Nov 2017)

I've spent the last 15 years twice a year with a 4X4 & a tent.
Had plenty of such encounters!
Had to give it all up due to health, so I returned to fish keeping!


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## Tim Harrison (3 Nov 2017)

zozo said:


> i also noticed it's nails scratch the tarmac when it took off. Remebering that sound, i can imagine sh*ting my pants hearing this behind me in the dark not knowing what it is..





zozo said:


> I also know the Blair witch Syndrome.. i had it a few times, riding like hell through the dark woods with the idea beeing chased.. Actualy stupid to do these freaky things alone.. But young and wild, but still almost did sh*t my paints a few times, probably for nothing more than just an idea.


That is wild... I know that feeling too. It grips you and won't let go. The hysteria rapidly builds to the point where the unthinking organisms fight or flight mechanism takes over...it's very exhilarating though


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## zozo (3 Nov 2017)

Tim Harrison said:


> That is wild... I know that feeling too. It grips you and won't let go. The hysteria rapidly builds to the point where the unthinking organisms fight or flight mechanism takes over...it's very exhilarating though


It is indeed.. Beeing alone in the dark woods, senses run overtime.. Strange things happen in the brain, turning left on a path and 30 seconds latter getting a creepy feeling, neck hairs rising, hitting the brakes, turn around and take another route because it just didn't feel safe. Than start thinking 6th sense or not, was it real? It felt real, but i will never know..


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## KipperSarnie (3 Nov 2017)

Tim Harrison said:


> That is wild... I know that feeling too. It grips you and won't let go. The hysteria rapidly builds to the point where the unthinking organisms fight or flight mechanism takes over...it's very exhilarating though





zozo said:


> It is indeed.. Beeing alone in the dark woods, senses run overtime.. Strange things happen in the brain, turning left on a path and 30 seconds latter getting a creepy feeling, neck hairs rising, hitting the brakes, turn around and take another route because it just didn't feel safe. Than start thinking 6th sense or not, was it real? It felt real, but i will never know..


Our first solo trip my wife & I would be in the tent as soon as it got dark.
as we became more experienced we would sit by the fire lamping the bushes for watching eyes!
That was fine because you could see...  But once in the tent no visual but listening to the animals inspecting your Land Rover & pots & pans you could feel the adrenaline pumping.
My wife could always go to sleep immediately where as I would lay there trying to stop her snoring.....  Adrenalin was always at it's highest if you could hear breathing or something big brushed against the tent.  I used trail cameras, it was normally Hyena, occasionally Leopard but once Lion!

Serengeti 





Botswana


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## Tim Harrison (3 Nov 2017)

Wow, you must have had some great adventures. I think though I would have opted for one of these


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## tam (3 Nov 2017)

I met a hedgehog yesterday


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## mort (3 Nov 2017)

During a trip to the everglades as a 12 year old I was told off for feeding a racoon marshmallows, getting too close to a coral snake that we stumbled across and sitting on a bridge with my feet nearly in the water feeding an alligator my burger from a native American restaurant (it looked massize but was probably only 4-5ft). My parents weren't reckless but I was an inquisitive child who you just couldn't turn your back on, surprising I've made 30.

Since then it's been less worry some encounters but did have the crap scared out of my when a 6ft tuna bolted past me, much scairer than dIvinghoe wit sharks.


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## Tim Harrison (3 Nov 2017)

tam said:


> I met a hedgehog yesterday


Hedgehogs are awesome little creatures. I once found one flaked out on my lawn with its legs almost spread to the four points of the compass. It was a very hot summers day and it'd probably succumbed to dehydration and heat stroke. I picked it up and placed it out of the way in shade. I went to check on it later that evening around dusk and it had gone, hopefully it made a full recovery.


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## zozo (3 Nov 2017)

Not sure it's a real wildlife encounter, it was more intended.. It's a fishy one from the artificial lake behind my house. It more of a very huge sandpit, from the worlds most famous finest sand supplier. They are digging and sucking there since the late 1940's i beleive. so by now it is huge and very clear and rich in wildlife. It had at one time about an acre surface about a knee deep, with aqautic plants growing and large patches of reed growing at the banks. In the warm summers you could see from the higher banks very large schools of wild bred carp close to the surface circling the lake. After observing them for hours i noticed they followed a patern.. Every few hours the swam through the shallow part following the same rout along side the reed banks. 

So i took my tripod stool and a bag of slized bread and sat myself down in the shallow water keeping very still waiting for them.. And they did..  A mate still sitting on the high bank over seeing it signaled me they were comming. So i threw pieces of bread all around me before the arrived and kept still again. This also was a awsome experience, sitting in a large school of carps sucking up all the bread around me.. I wanted to touch them. but ii knew i couldn't, one move and all would heve been gone again for hours..


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## zozo (3 Nov 2017)

KipperSarnie said:


> Adrenalin was always at it's highest if you could hear breathing or something big brushed against the tent. I used trail cameras, it was normally Hyena, occasionally Leopard but once Lion!


Reminds me of the Bear dude, Timoty something if i remember correctly, Werner Herzog made a documantory with his material. The guy always went to live among the Alaska bears. He did it for years and even gave them names and talked to them.. One day he invited a girlfriend to join him.. Big Fail, both got eaten that trip..


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## roadmaster (3 Nov 2017)

I recall a humorous event some year's ago while working in Texas for railroad.(probably thirty year's ago).
Three of us were riding in a truck to the job site with a single Mexican in the back of the truck when we ran over one of a small herd of Javelina.
One it appeared was dead, so we stopped and threw it in the back of the truck with the Mexican  with plans to skin it and eat it later that evening.
Anyhow,,after a few minutes,, all hell broke loose in the back of the truck as it seems the small pig was only stunned rather than dead,and it began to chase the Mexican around the bed of the truck while we were traveling .
I can still see the Mexican who had pulled out his knife and was yelling,,"I kill you,I kill you as he stabbed at the wild pig.
We nearly wrecked the company truck we were laughing so hard at him.
We did eat the animal but it was not very tasty.


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## roadmaster (3 Nov 2017)

zozo said:


> Reminds me of the Bear dude, Timoty something if i remember correctly, Werner Herzog made a documantory with his material. The guy always went to live among the Alaska bears. He did it for years and even gave them names and talked to them.. One day he invited a girlfriend to join him.. Big Fail, both got eaten that trip..



Timothy Treadwell who thought he was a bear whisperer.
Benjy saw a bear,the bear saw Benjy,the bear got bulgy,the buldge was Benjy.


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## mort (3 Nov 2017)

Tim Harrison said:


> Hedgehogs are awesome little creatures.



They aren't so lovely when you let your dog out at 4am for a wee and then she barks like crazy because of the big scary hedgehog (well she actually juSt sit's loozing at it braking whilt the tail is waging furiously). I think we had a few living under the shed as it regularly happened this summer. Glad she doesn't have the killer instinct.


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## Tim Harrison (3 Nov 2017)

mort said:


> They aren't so lovely when your dog barks like crazy because of the big scary hedgehog



It's all really just a question of scale...


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## KipperSarnie (3 Nov 2017)

Tim Harrison said:


> Wow, you must have had some great adventures. I think though I would have opted for one of these



I only used a roof tent once, the trouble is it slows you down in the mornings, you have to stow it before heading out.
The good thing about bush camping is you hear the nights action & can head out in the right direction if your not in a National Park there are no rules so you can head out well before sun up, we used to make a flask of boiling water the night before & take breakfast on the drive........  Just make sure you have GPS so you can locate your camp.  Just a basic Wayfarer as there are no roads or post codes!  lol

Now where's that tent?"


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## kadoxu (3 Nov 2017)

A couple of years ago, I was on holiday on the Greek island Crete, had just bought a cheap waterproof sports camera and snorkeling equipment... I spent hours snorkeling along the coast every day. It was amazing!

I was able to follow a small octopus which I'm not too proud to say I provoked to spray some paint before it fled. Also freaked out a lot around sea urchins and some small scorpionfish I was able to see. But, what scared the blahblahblahblah out of me, was on the last day.

The sun was starting to set and I was still snorkeling near the rocks in Agia Pelagia beach, when suddenly I see something move between the rocks... I look a bit better and there was a freaking Mediterranean Moray starring at me... ugly teeth showing and all! I screamed like a little girl (under water, so no shame on that!) and it swam away moving like a huge creepy snake...






P.S.: The build up of the story made you think it was a shark, didn't it?


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## mort (3 Nov 2017)

kadoxu said:


> P.S.: The build up of the story made you think it was a shark, didn't it?



Met a few of those guys and other monster morays and they can be pretty intimidating can't they. I was in Malta also chasing octopus when I bumped into my first (it was also the same holiday I got shouted at because I went out fishing with our friend in his boat and as he pulled up the octopus he'd caught in jars, I proceeded to sneak everyone back but I was only 7). It was the same holiday I got badly stung by a jellyfish which is why I have a cool scar on my back, luckily it was before the myth of pee'ing on it was common.


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## Smells Fishy (8 Nov 2017)

Before I go on to tell you all about my tale I've got to say that this was one of the worse experiences of my life.

So I'm chilling down the beach, sat back against the bottom face of the cliff, after a few hours beachcombing. I'm writing a letter and the tides coming in fast, probably have about 20mins before I'm cut off from the exit ramp. I'm not bothered because I like to leave it till the last few minutes that I can get away with, without getting soaked. Anyway I'm getting on with my letter and then I hear a very loud thump which gave me a little fright. I look up and directly opposite me there's a badger laid flat on its front. I feel confused and a bit weary like when your confronted by a big wild animal. I look up at the cliff top and its probably a 100ft drop. The badger is about 15ft away, isn't moving or making a sound. I feel so shocked that I don't move for at least a minute but when I do stand up and get closer I can see that its still breathing! I get down to its level and stroked its head a little, it flinched but after a few strokes I think it knew I didn't mean it harm. Next I think I looked up at the sea coming in and thought F*ck! I was the only one on the beach and there wasn't enough time for me to go get help. So I phoned 999 and told them what was going on and asked for help. The 999 operator said he will contact RSPCA for me because I didn't have any credit and he would keep me up dated. After pacing about for 10mins, still no phone call I got really worried because the tide was really close. I knew if this badger wasn't going to drown I would have to lift it up and carry it to safety. Problem was, the pore thing, all of its bones were probably broken and to make things worse I had a heavy backpack full of stones. I wasn't leaving anything behind. Backpack on, I got ready to lift the badger up, ideally I wanted to man handle it as little as possible so I settled on lifting it up from under its arm pits and keeping it close to me. It was very hard to do this gently because the badger must have weighted about 30kg. The whole time its been silent until now, it made some grunts. I didn't wait about and was off. Trying to move around rock pools didn't help out at all and I knew the badger didn't like it either. I must have been causing it a great deal of pain. 2mins into this and I lost my grip and the badger slipped a little so I to put it down to get the position right again, when I got going again it had a spasm which was awful. The biggest obstacle was when I got to the exit ramp a minute or so later. The ramp wasn't flush with the floor, it was a distance from it, about hip height, normally I would use my arms to steady myself and then climb up the steps. That's impossible with me carrying this badger. I cant really remember how I got it up but I know it wasn't pretty. The badger had had enough of me and started to die right at the end. It actually did a death breath and then didn't blink again. Sadness overcame me and I sat next to the badger devastated. A few minutes had past and I noticed 3 people were at the top of the ramp staring at me. I didn't want to seem like a total weirdo so I got up and walked up to them and tried to explain but I gave up, defeated and walked home. When I got home and was walking up the stairs to my flat my phone rang, it was RSPCA. I answered and lost my sh1t!

I bet a lot of people would have done something different. I'm not a first aider, didn't have a clue what to do. I did what I thought was right but I sometimes question whether it might have been better for the badger to drown. Like now it rains down heavy on me that I killed that badger.


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## PARAGUAY (8 Nov 2017)

Well a lot would not have cared like you did,you tried to save it,you did all you could mate


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## sparkyweasel (9 Nov 2017)

You did what could be done, and there was a chance of saving the badger, although sadly it turned out to be too badly injured, which you had no way of knowing. If you had left it, it would have had no chance at all. Badger seemed to realise you were tring to help, leaving it would have been worse, it would have been terrified, tossed around by the sea, bashed on the rocks, and eventually drowned. I think you did the right thing.


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## zozo (24 Nov 2017)

Source
https://www.facebook.com/jaap.labrijn


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## Tim Harrison (24 Nov 2017)

Wow, that's a once in a lifetime photo


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## GHNelson (24 Nov 2017)

Perch predator......great photograph!.....


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## dan4x4 (26 Nov 2017)

Smells Fishy said:


> Before I go on to tell you all about my tale I've got to say that this was one of the worse experiences of my life.
> 
> So I'm chilling down the beach, sat back against the bottom face of the cliff, after a few hours beachcombing. I'm writing a letter and the tides coming in fast, probably have about 20mins before I'm cut off from the exit ramp. I'm not bothered because I like to leave it till the last few minutes that I can get away with, without getting soaked. Anyway I'm getting on with my letter and then I hear a very loud thump which gave me a little fright. I look up and directly opposite me there's a badger laid flat on its front. I feel confused and a bit weary like when your confronted by a big wild animal. I look up at the cliff top and its probably a 100ft drop. The badger is about 15ft away, isn't moving or making a sound. I feel so shocked that I don't move for at least a minute but when I do stand up and get closer I can see that its still breathing! I get down to its level and stroked its head a little, it flinched but after a few strokes I think it knew I didn't mean it harm. Next I think I looked up at the sea coming in and thought F*ck! I was the only one on the beach and there wasn't enough time for me to go get help. So I phoned 999 and told them what was going on and asked for help. The 999 operator said he will contact RSPCA for me because I didn't have any credit and he would keep me up dated. After pacing about for 10mins, still no phone call I got really worried because the tide was really close. I knew if this badger wasn't going to drown I would have to lift it up and carry it to safety. Problem was, the pore thing, all of its bones were probably broken and to make things worse I had a heavy backpack full of stones. I wasn't leaving anything behind. Backpack on, I got ready to lift the badger up, ideally I wanted to man handle it as little as possible so I settled on lifting it up from under its arm pits and keeping it close to me. It was very hard to do this gently because the badger must have weighted about 30kg. The whole time its been silent until now, it made some grunts. I didn't wait about and was off. Trying to move around rock pools didn't help out at all and I knew the badger didn't like it either. I must have been causing it a great deal of pain. 2mins into this and I lost my grip and the badger slipped a little so I to put it down to get the position right again, when I got going again it had a spasm which was awful. The biggest obstacle was when I got to the exit ramp a minute or so later. The ramp wasn't flush with the floor, it was a distance from it, about hip height, normally I would use my arms to steady myself and then climb up the steps. That's impossible with me carrying this badger. I cant really remember how I got it up but I know it wasn't pretty. The badger had had enough of me and started to die right at the end. It actually did a death breath and then didn't blink again. Sadness overcame me and I sat next to the badger devastated. A few minutes had past and I noticed 3 people were at the top of the ramp staring at me. I didn't want to seem like a total weirdo so I got up and walked up to them and tried to explain but I gave up, defeated and walked home. When I got home and was walking up the stairs to my flat my phone rang, it was RSPCA. I answered and lost my sh1t!
> 
> I bet a lot of people would have done something different. I'm not a first aider, didn't have a clue what to do. I did what I thought was right but I sometimes question whether it might have been better for the badger to drown. Like now it rains down heavy on me that I killed that badger.



You did all you could and acted in the interests of the badger not yourself. Imagine if you had left it on the beach and then it woke up n was running around in panic waiting to drown.

I honestly feel its better to try and find out than to never know. So I hope this helps.

A mole once fell out of a cliff face next to my family, we made sure we got it to safety. It pooed all over my dads coat haha

I think people should have more respect for nature. I love being out in the wild, forests, beaches, theres always stuff to see. Just put your phone away and observe. 

I saved somebodies rabbit ages ago, i got up and it was just sat on my drive when i was looking out of the window with a cup of tea ha. i took it in and eventually found who it belonged too later that day. 

I'm lucky to have wetlands and a river around where I live and so I have observed lots. 

There is just something magic I can't explain about seeing animals in the wild, especially when they act out of character or become curious about you.


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