I am currently reading this book about the five large carnivores of Scandinavia and I am absolutely humbled, both by finding out how little I knew about them, what prejudice I had against them and how people that live in close proximity to them can both love, respect and be angry with them at the same time. I am reading the original release in Swedish.
- What have you encountered in the wild?
- When, where, how?
- What were your initial thoughts, feelings and reactions (physical, psychological, etc.)?
- What do think of them in general? <— this last question applies to everybody, regardless of whether you have seen or met one of these large carnivores or not.
Personally, without having met any one of them, I am humbled, scared, amazed and intrigued by them. I feel for those whose - for instance - livestock are threatened by them, especially if it directly damages business. I also strongly believe that the matter should not be dumbed down to the dichotmy of “ignore those that suffer from them” or “eradicate them”. We are far too intelligent and developed a race to degrade ourselves so.
Around day four of a week-long backpacking trip just east of Yosemite, I encountered a bear one morning on my way to do my business. I turned a corner around a large boulder and there he was, was sunning himself on the trail. When he saw me he slowly got up and wandered back into the trees. That simple description left out the few seconds of sheer panic I experienced realizing that the bear could, if it wanted to, cover the distance between us before I could turn around and take three steps. There was nothing but flat, open ground between us and that is what was most frightening.
I was walking through some forest in Costa Rica to go from my car to the beach. Halfway through I look up to see an adult crocodile about 50 yards away from me.
I was pretty scared because this was a small stretch of forest and didn’t expect it. Once I go to the beach I turned my chair to make sure a croc didn’t want to eat me or go to the shore of the beach. I later found out crocodiles are really slow. If it was an alligator I might have been toast. I don’t believe Costa Rica has native alligators though.
I’ve had multiple encounters with bears, cougars, alligators, and meth heads.
The closets I came to dying was being chased around my car for 30m by a mother black bear after I disturbed her hiding in a basement via coal flue. Lost my keys and had to wait for a park ranger to come save me.
only a coyote, i thought it was a husky one time, but it was actually a coyote casually walking pass me.
Unfortunately coyotes around here are too comfortable with people. I live in an urban area near a wilderness area and they come into the neighborhoods looking for rabbits.
They follow the train tracks into the city here. Coyotes are smart and very adaptable.
Bears do the same thing.
I live in the US. I’ve seen black bears in the wild a couple of times, and personally I don’t have a lot of actual fear when it comes to them. I respect that they’re totally capable of hurting me severely, but also I know they are mostly harmless to humans and just want to be left alone. Grizzly bears scare me a lot. I’ve not seen one yet but I’ve been near them a couple times. They are far more likely to be aggressive. Realistically though, for us, carnivores aren’t the biggest concern most of the time. Bison, mooses, and even deer can be deadly.
Lions in africa and other big cats freaks me out a lot. Luckily we don’t have many big cats here and the ones we do have make themselves very scarce.
I was staying in a cabin and went to get something from the car and a black bear was just cruising past. He looked at me and I looked him. We both kinda panicked and scurried off.
Black bears don’t really scare me. Don’t like. Get up close and fuck with them for no reason. But I don’t do that with large dogs either, and a black bear is way more likely to just fuck off if you start yelling at it than even a large dog. Little dogs don’t fuck off for anything but worst case scenario you can just yeet them.
Yeah, exactly
Bears, bison, moose, nor deer are carnivores. This thread isn’t about megafauna, it’s about carnivores.
I mean this sincerely: are you fucking stupid? Every time I see you post, it’s just the dumbest shit imaginable.
Bears are omnivores
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I’ve been almost killed by a grizzly, twice, when I used to live on the eastern slopes of the rockies in Alberta. Climate change and human activity are making it hard for the bears and they are hungry as fuck in those parts.
One time when I was like 6 years old camping with my parents, I went on a walk to the river and got charged from behind a bush, but it didn’t seem hellbent on killing me
Another time I was hiking up a fire cutblock and my buddy and I thought we saw three hikers maybe like 3km uphill from us. Eventually it was obvious is was a mom and cubs, and they were chasing at us full speed (we were upwind from them). If we were a little further into the hike, I think one of us wouldn’t have made it back to the truck in time.
I’ve also been trapped by a moose in my parents garage for 6 hours, once
I still would rather run into either these animals out in the sticks than random humans. I’ve encountered some really sketchy people in my time spent in the woods. Seems to be getting worse too. I’m not a gun person, but that’s why I have a gun.
Trying not to make this personal but I’m much more afraid of a person intentionally carrying a gun, than some random stranger. I understand the urge to protect yourself, but you should take a closer look at your chances of defending yourself, and why you live in fear
Several black bear sightings (and one very close encounter) at a recent vacation in Tennessee
I saw a guy at a McDonalds who needed two chairs to sit. Terrifying.
Probably my buddy Larry. Larry’s out there convincing people to go vegan so there’s more meat for him.
Australia has none except crocodiles, I have seen crocs in the wild
I saw black bears in Canada from the car
I’m glad the animal we had that was hippo-like in behaviour - a dangerous herbivore - is extinct. We have the old bunyip stories telling us to keep out of swampy parts of rivers.
Australia has none except crocodiles, I have seen crocs in the wild
Some other apex predators probably count as ‘large carnivores’. For example, apart from crocs (especially salties), Wedge-tailed eagles come to mind. They are an apex predator, carnivorous, with a maximum wingspan of almost 3m (which I think counts as large). Arguably a dingo is big enough to count as well (since OP’s link counts wolverines & lynxes).
I was quite near a black bear once but with a group of people so I felt pretty secure. It actually followed us for like a mile walking late at night, middle of winter along a mountain road. Technically I don’t know it was a black bear because we didn’t see it, but we heard it keeping pace in the darkness maybe fifty feet away and it’s the only thing (other than Bigfoot) that checks all the boxes for that behavior. A deer wouldn’t be doing that and if it had been a mountain lion we wouldn’t have heard it.
I’ve seen brown bears from a distance and from inside a car. I’ve been close to coyotes, swam near sharks, always with people or with some kind of barrier.
The one that freaked me out was different. I was living in California and regularly hiked the nearby trails, my favorite being up Cerro San Luis. One day I decided I wanted to watch the sunset from the peak so I grabbed my water bottle and walking stick (tall and pointy) and set out in the evening. It was gorgeous! Fog rolled in right as the horizon lit up all shades of red, really breathtaking. I watched until it got dark and that’s when I realized I had neglected to bring a light of any kind. (This would have been ~2012. Whatever phone I had was not particularly useful for illumination.) The night was moonless, and the trail was now blanketed in thick fog.
I got lost.
I took the wrong turn at a fork and didn’t realize until I was clear under the fog a mile or two the wrong direction. While contemplating my situation I happened to glance a dark shape just barely silhouetted against the clouds. Something on four legs that watched me for a few moments then silently melted away. In that moment I remembered seeing “mountain lion sighting” warning signs at the trailhead earlier that month and felt an intense, primal sensation I’ve not experienced before or since. Being stalked, being hunted, in such a precarious position… I picked up a large stone and waited in silence for at least ten minutes, grateful the whole time that I always hiked with my stick, before I decided it was safe to pick my way back up to where I got turned around. Slowly, cautiously, nauseous from the adrenaline, until on the main trail I ran into a family of four merrily returning from the top with headlamps and I rather sheepishly asked to join them. (They were nice about it). I don’t night-hike solo anymore.
In the light of a new day I went back and looked around and I’m pretty sure what I saw was a large bobcat rather than a mountain lion, which would have still been worrying given the circumstance of being nearly blind, so I wasn’t in as much mortal danger as I felt. In the moment I’m not sure if “afraid” is the right word. Yes there was fear but it was tempered by other instincts. I was prepared to fight that animal with a rock and a pointy stick just like our distant ancestors would have, and everything in my mind and body was shifted into that very specific gear. No coherent “I could die here” thoughts or anything like that.
What do you think of them in general?
I’m glad they’re out there. Even if I had been attacked I wouldn’t bear them any ill will, that’s just carnivores being carnivores. I was more careful after that to avoid a similar situation but I don’t want wild spaces to lose their large predators. It’s pretty easy to be safe and share the planet.
I encountered a large carnivore in the civilized before but not in the wild. Canadian here for what it’s worth. Ran across a black bear on night shift bang in the middle of a massive oil refinery complex. Paved for a kilometre in every direction.
Black bears are very low risk to humans and I had an F350 between me and it, even still it’s just not something you mess with. It changed the whole course of my day instantly as I had to start reporting to site safety etc, I spent the next 3 hours on the radio.
Other than that I’ve seen the occasional lynx or mountain lion, but at great distance. Generally these things aren’t seen by humans unless they want to be or don’t care. You see them because they’re chasing prey or you get lucky and their out sunning themselves or something and you’re far enough away they aren’t threatened.
Large carnivores are pretty rare and not necessarily the largest wild animal threats to humans or livestock. Something like racoons or foxes taking chickens is a much larger nuisance to many more people than something like a mountain lion taking sheep. And something like a moose or a goose is a lot more likely to fuck you up because people don’t perceive these animals as threats and take way larger risks than they do around predators.
Never.
Seriously lucky to live in Australia, rather than growing up somewhere dangerous.
EDIT: /s
But I heard drop bears were a huge danger.
a black bear has killed a hunter in a forest by dropping on him, after being shot at by said hunter.
Huge danger, small carnivore. 🐨
Just don’t walk under trees, and you’ll be right.
Sarcasm? Australia is known for having many dangerous/deadly animals.
Yes, you’re right, that was half joking. Have added in the /s.
Australia does not have large carnivores, but you still need to be careful in the bush or outback.
General guideline is, look where you step and don’t put your hand somewhere that you can’t see(under logs, in rusted cars etc.)
The actual top animal dangers in Aus are bees, snakes, spiders, according to this data(2021-2022).
https://aussieanimals.com/conflicts/venomous-creatures-australia/
The two on that list to know, if you plan to visit Australian beaches, is Blue Ring Octopus [ 12 to 20 cm (5 to 8 in) ] and Cone Shell [ 1.3 cm to 21.6 cm ].
They can catch out unaware tourists, who pick them up because they look quite beautiful.
As well as the above two guidelines, another one is to keep hands off any wildlife at the bush or beach.
Thanks for the response and for the info. I’d love to visit Australia some day for more than a couple reasons! We have some friends there being only one of them.
Australians themselves don’t seemed bothered by any of it, except the bush flies, though.
There are so few dangerous animals. Up north there are crocodiles, ask a tropical Aussie how to avoid those.
On the coast there’s the blue ring octopus so we’re taught to not pick up small octopuses, and cone shell molluscs so we wear shoes when walking on seaside rocks and rock pools. There are two dangerous spiders, redbacks are the same as black widows, Sydney funnel-webs weave a distinctive web, you mostly avoid those by not sticking your fingers into finger sized holes,
There are snakes that mostly flee from you. Wait a few metres away from the snake and wait for it to move. Almost all snake bite victims in Australia are snake handlers and wildlife fans.
Our one dangerous bird (cassowary) is only dangerous if cornered and attacked
See, where I live, you can pretty well ignore small creatures, walk barefoot anywhere and stick your bits into whatever you want. The worst thing you can get is a wasp or bee sting. But, yes, in exchange there are things that could rip you to shreds and just choose not to. Edit: I guess there are skunks, still.
Having worked with birds a bit, one that’s big enough to mess you up does scare me pretty good. Mammals have some kind of common sense of fair play, birds are just ruthless.
The bird is a herbivore. It doesn’t want to eat you, it just defends itself
Sure. That is largely based on what you’re used to. Africans also have tons of mostly deadly snakes. None of them seem concerned talking to me about it, despite losing a dog every year or two to venomous snakes.
Mandatory “sounds like they’re just feeding dogs to the local snakes” meme.
And yet kinda lacking in large carnivores, I think. They have Crocodiles? I can’t think of anything else.
Sharks. Whites and bulls.
Yeah, large carnivores not so much. Apparently dingos and tasmanian devils are the closest in that department. I’ve just always thought of Australia as a place of greatest concern in terms of animals due to the many deadly snakes and spiders they have.
The big predators live in the water.
That totally tracks. It definitely has plenty of dangerous wildlife. They have plenty of problematic animals that will fuck you up. Just not a ton of large carnivores.
Not a carnivore … but a pack of wild boars with piglets in a nearby forest. My initial thought was “fuck” as I walked backwards like Homer in the meme. Once I had some distance I started running.
do you live in eurasia, wild boars are native there they are a seperate species. feral pigs/hogs are the one mostly encountered in us. boars/and feral pigs are viscious, i think they are more dangerous than carnivores.
Yep, that happened in Europe. It was definitely boars.
Any animal regardless of size or perceived danger should just be treated like it’s 10 times larger and covered in knives if it has babies nearby
I encounter wild boars quite often walking back home after work. My advice is to be noisier than them so they can avoid you before you even know they are there.
Yeah. A pig. A feral boar that weighed in at nearly 700 pounds.
The fog hung low across the damp pine needles of the Cascades as dusk settled, turning the dense timber into an endless sea of twilight shadows. I had pulled over off the logging road to stretch my legs, the cold autumn air biting at my jacket, with nothing breaking the silence except the distant drip of moisture falling from the canopy.
Then the forest went dead quiet. No birds, no rustling squirrels, just a heavy, sudden pressure in the air that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.
A sharp, wooden crack echoed from forty yards up the ridge—the sound of a thick branch snapping with unnatural force. I froze, my breath catching in my throat as I scanned the thicket of Douglas firs. At first, I thought it was a downed tree or a black bear, but then the dark mass stood up.
It rose on two legs, unfolding to a height that made the surrounding saplings look small. It had to be at least eight feet tall, broad-shouldered enough to block out the remaining daylight behind it, and covered in matted, dark reddish-brown fur. It didn’t move with the awkwardness of a human in a suit or the sway of a bear. It moved with fluid, massive power, turning its entire upper torso to face me.
For five endless seconds, we locked eyes. Its face was heavily lined and leathery beneath a sloped brow, with eyes that caught the dim light like obsidian. There was no growl, no aggressive chest-beating—just an overwhelming, intelligent stillness that filled the woods.
It took one slow, deliberate step backward, merging seamlessly into the deep shadows of the brush. A second later, the brush swayed, and it was gone, leaving only the faint, pungent scent of wet earth and copper in the air. I stood frozen in the stillness, listening to my own heart hammering against my ribs, knowing the woods would never look the same again.
