Close Encounters of the Wild Kind

CUTS LIKE A KRIS

CUTS LIKE A KRIS

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Sep 28, 2005
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OK- this was suggested in the martin thread so I thought I would take the ball and run.

What kind of close encounters with non-human wildlife have you had??

Last year I was hiking a half mile away from where a man got attacked by a bear in Banff National Park. I had a Crawford Survival Staff, mini survival kit and was making sure I was loud enough to make my presence known yet not so loud that I could not pay attention to the sounds around me.

As a kid I tried to help a magpie chick back into its nest and the mother kept swooping down on me- resulting in a bleeding scalp- the worst I've ever been hurt by wildlife!!

The most dramatic was while I was part of an Eider Duck study in Nunavut (Nyak Lake to be specific). We were trying to see how the ducklings went from the lake to the Arctic Ocean as they were not leaving through the river that led to the ocean. I was tasked with climbing to the top of the cliffs to see if any of the lakes on top had the ducklings in them.

I approached one of the lakes from a cliff that overlooked it from a fair distance as to not disturb any life on the water. As I sat down at the edge of the cliff and started watching the water, I was amazed as I saw a hawk rise straight up from the cliff face and dived at me!!! I threw myself to the ground on my back and watched as its mate rose above the cliff face and started to dive at me as well. These two were very accomplished kamikaze divers. As one swooped from the front the other swooped from behind me- and they were serious. As I scurried on my back away from them, one got really close and I had to strike it with the staff I was carrying- not hard, mind you- just hard enough to make sure I was not bleeding:D
After I got far enough away they left me alone. Later on in the study some of us returned to the area at lake level and found out that the hawks had a nest about 10 feet below where I was sitting.

How about the rest of you?
 
Over the years I've had close encounters with Rattle snake, Bear, Cougar, Badger, Eagle, wild Hogs, Pack of dogs, Coyote, etc. I think the most memorable was when I was hiking back to the truck in July about 7 years ago. I was walking on a narrow dirt road (if you can call it that), just nearing the Los Padres Dam in the area where we live. It was high vertical hill on my left and the right was a shear 30+ ft. drop to the deep water of the reservoir. Each side of the road was about 2 feet of brush and as I was treking along, I heard the distinct sound of rattler. Needless to say, I stopped dead in my tracks and a few feet in front of me, to my left, a snake showed itself. It crawled to the center of the road and stopped. Then another snake came from the same area. I'm assuming the first snake was the male and the second the female. The second snake got to the first and they both coiled up and started rattling at me. Then I hear another from behind me and I slowly turned my head and sure enough, just a few feet behind me was another snake. I thought about drawing an arrow from the quiver and shooting the 3rd snake, but decided against making any movement. Then the first two snakes stopped rattling and the 2nd snake continued on it's way to the water side of the road, followed by the first snake. Then the 3rd snake stopped and I turned and it was nowhere to be seen. So, when the first 2 were out of sight, I continued gingerly past their location and headed back to the truck. This was actually my third encounter with rattlers in this same location and about the same time of year, but this one took the prize for making me want to check my shorts. :D
 
I had a heron fly at me from it's swampy perch. Nothing like something with a six foot wingspan coming at you when you are unprepared. From where I was standing I was pretty sure it was a pterodactyl coming to eat me.

I've had many water moccasins chase me up trails and away. I had the unnerving experience of turning around and seeing a deer standing 3 feet from me. (That one gave me a bit of a turn, since I wasn't prepared for a large animal to be staring me down that close).

And the only actual dangerous encounter I've had. Walking down to pick up a rock near a waterway in Florida. As I was reaching I noticed something in the water, so I stepped back a few steps and looked closer. Yup, a nice big alligator sitting right there pretending to be a log.

As for injuries, I've been bitten many times by snakes, but only once by a poisonous snake. (Copperhead) I've been stung by every species of wasp, hornet and bee native to the East Coast. And the worst of all, multiple times by spiders...4 times by Black Widows and once by something really bad. They have no idea what it was, and it could have just been an enzyme effect. But it made me so sick it just about hospitalized me. And I have to take meds to this day because of it.
 
No more than 8' away -great horned owl, turkey vulture, black bear and closest almost being run over by a deer !!
 
I was coming up from my favorite sitting spot by the river. Saw the brush across the old railroad bed (now a well known trail for bikers and walkers) and thought "Deer! Cool! I'll stalk up on it!"

Wasn't a deer. The very loud hiss and the tawny yellow eye staring at me though the salmon berries made me rethink the whole idea.

I slowly backed away, saying calmly and quietly "Oh! It's you. Very sorry, I'll just go this way....."

A week or two later while walking through the same forests of Western Washington (Near North Bend) a robin landed on the limb just in front of me (and about 4 feet over my height) and began what I would have to call and "alarm" call. It was pretty strident, and I automatically assumed the cause was me, except, as close as we were, the bird wasn't looking at me. It was looking behind me.

I got a shiver down my back for some reason. I kept walking right under the robin, who did NOT fly away, but kept calling and looking behind me.

Then, about 15 steps later his mate landed on the trail above me and began doing the same dang thing! I was kinda freaked, but I kept on walking right underneath HER. She didn't fly and kept calling.

15 more steps, and a Pileated Woodpecker lands, again right on the trail, just out of reach and starts chittering. Again, looking behind me.

I realize that this sounds like something for the Tall Tales forum, but it's all true.

By this time, having previous knowledge that a cougar, I'm starting to sweat, so moving up the trail a little, I knelt down between the halves of a big old cedar that had been sawn ot of the trail, and pull out my Kabar (the only weapon I had).

In the end, I didn't see anything, but the birds did. Both Robins and the woodpecker's beaks followed something moving right to left across my backtrail. Then, they calmed down and a few minuted later flew off.

So, once everything calmed down, I moved on, keeping an eye cocked behind me... and a Rough Grouse exploded up from my feet, nearly giving me cardiac arrest!

Clint Hollingworth
The Wandering Ones webcomic
http://www.wanderingones.com
 
went fishing over on egmont which is one of the islands located off the coast of vancouver.

it was a beautiful day and i'd been reeling in a few rock cods (great stew fish) and some sea cucumbers off the rocks and was about to pack it in for the day and decided to go for one more cast.

sat around for a while having a smoke and watching some boats pass by, and decided to reel er in and call it a day. the line wouldnt budge, and i figured i snagged on something so i pulled as hard as i could and to my surprise something was on the line.

i fought and fought the damn thing for near 20 minutes before reeling in a ling cod which was over a meter long, was pretty proud of myself. that ling cod became dinner :)

havent run into any bears but i've seen plenty of coyotes and deer. great thread by the way.

cheers
 
Dunno if this counts , but looking back on it ( it's a funny story now ).

Used to ride my mountain bike on some beautiful flattops not too far from my old pad , was one of my favorite places to 'get away' without driving to the mountains.

Anyways , I had been riding and exploring these little caves for about 4 hours , was tired and ready to ride back to my truck.
To save distance I decided to cut across this little valley of sorts with only one flat way out , otherwise it was a hike or a ride up steep hills to get to the next little valley.
So I ride down the bumpy side of a flattop and around this little bend to get out of the previously mentioned exit and I some to a sudden halt.

In front of me are several very big cows , the ones with the longhorns. And a very big , very stern looking bull with a mouthful of grass.
It was unsettling because every one of them was looking at me , and although we all know cows are vegetarians , the first thought that was triggered in my mind was they wanted to first , stomp me to make me tender , then add me to their lunch course. lol
I had nowwhere to go but back up the steep hill , or thru the longhorns.

Which way do you think I went ? :D

Let's just say my calves were killin me after I got home ( no pun intended lol )
:D
 
Many years ago I was float tube fly fishing Harriet lake here in Oregon.

I was fishing along, minding my own business when a small round brown face popped up out of the water about 30 ft. in front of me. That otter and I stared at each other for about 45 seconds before he decided to submerge. Talk about an eary feeling! I never did see him re-emerge. I scared the crap out of myself heading back to shore when I bumped into a submerged log.
 
My best friend and I are huge fans of survival hikes, where we just take the rucksack and wonder for a few days. Anyways, this past summer we went for a 14 day portage through Northern Quebec. Whenever we got hungry, one person would use the rod to try and hook some fish while the other kept paddling. Then we would just go ashore make a fire and fry it in a pan. Now, as any seafood fan can attest to, frying fish smells lovely. Unfortunately for my friend and I, Grizzly Bears have a keen sense of smell. After we were about halfway through our delicious Arctic Char, I noticed that a large brown hill nearby us suddenly decided to move. I truly believe that no olympic sprinter could have moves faster than we did in that moment. In seconds our we had all our gear into the canoe and we were paddling for our lives. In hindsight, bringing the char with us in the canoe was a poor decision, as grizzly bears can swim. So, my buddy waved the fish at the bear then threw it onto shore and continued paddling for his life. For the rest of the trip, we made sure that there were no suspicious hills around before we started cooking.
 
When I was about 5 we lived in Churchill Manitoba, and had a few really close encounters, while out bear watching a mid sided male polarbear decided to try to climb into the back of my dad's pickup. Since the bear couldn't get his gut over the tailgate he wandered around and looked in the side window, so I was nose to nose (there were smudges on both sides of the window) with only the door of an 84 chevy between us, and tough as that truck is, it wouldn't have stood a change if that bear had wanted to open the door. I also remember going on an impromptu class trip to the airport to see a cub that was being airlifted to a zoo, not something that happens in most places. Churchill was full of reminders that bears owned the place, from armed guards to go halloweening, to a hole left in an ex-USAF hanger wall (steel plate) by a polar looking for food, possibly one of the only places in Canada with a gun-rack at the front of stores, for the customers use. Another time while out on the bay in our little green coleman canoe, we had a pod of whales play with us. I don't remember if they were belugas or Orcas, but we didn't know they were there until one blew, right behind us. It was cool as they moved really slowly around the canoe, but very freaky at the same time. Other than that, most of my other encounters involve nearly hitting a deer, and two owls while on quads. And I swear that the one owls wingtip touched my visor, it was that close.
 
I was out fishing a couple of years ago, trolling for Barramundi from a small powerboat. We had no luck and decide to find somewhere to cast off the bank. The waterhole had some large crocodiles so we cruised around to find a bank with some height where the crocs can't grab you from the water.

Spotted a good place about six feet above the water. It was steeply sloped and the face of the embankment was hard clay. The guy on the motor (tiller steer) brought the boat in to the bank and I got ready to hit it running and clamber up it with the bow rope in my hand, planning to use the momentum of the boat to get to the top.

The boat hit the bank and I had stood to full height only to come face to face with a huge crocodile (he was literally about four feet from my face, sunning himself at the top of the embankment).

I yelled and the bloke on the motor tried to get it into reverse. The croc panicked as much as we did and looked for somewhere to escape to the water but I was in his way. He came down the bank just to one side of me but caught on something and rolled and hit the water right next to the boat in a frenzied state, thrashing all over the place. The boat was just starting to reverse by then and I was still standing on the small bow deck. We got about ten feet back from the bank and a second croc came over the edge. He had been up on the same bank.

We didn't do any more fishing that day.
 
I had a Barred Owl repeatedly try to steal my $1.49 blaze hunting tuque while out stalking deer. Almost hit the nosy bastard with the butt of my Win 94. I couldn't stop laughing, which he seemed to enjoy :)
 
Not really scary but I've been bitten many times by red back spiders and huntsman spiders. Once got bitten on the neck by a red back while I was drying myself with a towel after a shower. That sucked.
 
I have had several encounters. When I was young and delivering newspapers on my bicycle in the dark (early morning) I would be tired and not keep the best look out. Well I parked my bike and got off and realized I was about 6 feet from a male deer full of antlers. He looked pretty irritated so I slowly backed away and he eventually ignored me. I had my parents drive me around delivery papers for a week straight after that.

One time I opened the door that led to my garage and there was a racoon about 2 inches from me. Slammed the door in its face to prevent it from getting in the house and then went and opened my garage from the outside so that it could get out.

The final experience I had really scared me. I was out in California in the woods on a ranch and I was at some native america show. They were dancing around a fire and began burning all types of herbs and fresh salmon. Now this is when I began to get scared as bears really like the smell of this and we were in bear country. I will tell you as soon as that was over, I was back to my cabin in a flash. Next morning I saw bear prints over all the cars.

Oh and I used to catch garter snakes when little and would get bitten by them.
 
I've run into all manner of critters in various places. The raccoons in north Jersey are the size of medium sized dogs, and even meaner.

I recall one time at a friend's house, I ran into his neighbors yard to get a ball, and heard a lot of feet hitting the ground at once. I looked around, and about 200' in front of me, 15-20 deer ran across the yard. Their hoofbeats were very loud. Beautiful sight.

Several encounters with bears. Once, I was loading laundry into the back of the truck, and caught something out of the corner of my eye. Did a double take, and not 20' from me was a black bear, chowing down on my garbage! Gave me kind of a bored look, then went back to his meal. Another time, I was out in the woods. Not a huge expanse, but big enough to be alone in for a while. I was standing by route 80, looking around for aforementioned bears. It had been raining, and there was still water dripping from the trees. Over that, I could hear something moving through the brush. I couldn't see anything, so I started heading towards home, about 30 minutes' walk or so. Well, I still heard it. So I looked again, and I could see the black among the leaves, right next to the only path home. So, needless to say, I made my own path. Climbed up a very slight incline, trespassed on some old jerkoff's property, and took the road home with my knife hidden in my jacket.
 
aeinfantry said:
My best friend and I are huge fans of survival hikes, where we just take the rucksack and wonder for a few days. Anyways, this past summer we went for a 14 day portage through Northern Quebec. Whenever we got hungry, one person would use the rod to try and hook some fish while the other kept paddling. Then we would just go ashore make a fire and fry it in a pan. Now, as any seafood fan can attest to, frying fish smells lovely. Unfortunately for my friend and I, Grizzly Bears have a keen sense of smell. After we were about halfway through our delicious Arctic Char, I noticed that a large brown hill nearby us suddenly decided to move. I truly believe that no olympic sprinter could have moves faster than we did in that moment. In seconds our we had all our gear into the canoe and we were paddling for our lives. In hindsight, bringing the char with us in the canoe was a poor decision, as grizzly bears can swim. So, my buddy waved the fish at the bear then threw it onto shore and continued paddling for his life. For the rest of the trip, we made sure that there were no suspicious hills around before we started cooking.
Click to expand...

Hey aeinfantry,

That must have been a black bear with a brown colouration. I always thought there are no Grizzlies in Ontario or parts east so I checked at the North American Bear Centre and it says, "Home Range: Grizzly bears can be found in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories; and the US states of Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and Montana." (Jonkel 1984, p 21). and here is a range map from another web site.

If you are mistaken, it's understandable as some Black bears reach and surpass small Grizzly size. About 20 years ago, a Black bear was killed by a transport truck, on the highway by Kapuskasing, Ontario and it weighed in at 780 pounds. At the time, it was believed to be the record for Ontario. Ironically, I was canoeing in the area, the year before. Sure glad I didn't run into that baby.

Doc
 
I was peed on by a bear (greasy, smelly animals).

One morning I awoke to a cow tugging on the bottom of my sleeping bag. :D

Once tickled the tummy of a opossum, from underneath through a gap in some outdoor steps, and he jumped off!

Had a 6-foot "chicken snake" in my attic. And at the same house a huge sow hog came out of the woods and walked up the driveway towards me. Big freakin' thing.

Exploring some old mine tailing piles, there were some very fresh deer tracks headed over a hill. Followed them a short distance until they went off a steep slope. There at the bottom of the tailings was a fresh deer, laying dead at the base of an aspen tree. I think I scared him off the edge...

Once backpacking I had the incredible urge to drink out of a small fresh-running stream that always had good-tasting water. But with the frame back it would have been a PITA, so I kept walking. About 20 feet upstream was a deer laying gutted in the middle of the stream, water running in one end and out the other. Dodged that bullet!

Only once have I seen a bear stand up in an offensive manner. That's when you know it's time to move along. :)
 
Hey Guys..

My dad and I had a Wicked cool encounter with a Beaver while camping up north...

I went on one of my nightly little walks to the waters edge to check things out.. There are some things that can only be seen at night.. This was about 10-11pm or so..
I had with me my 10 Million power spotlight.. I've seen some Cool stuff with this spot, and it cuts down into the tea colored water nicely..

Well I spotted a beaver dragging a tree into the water..Watched it for probably 20 minutes..

So I decided to haul back to the trailer to see if my dad was still up..
He was and we both went back down to the river..The beaver was still there..

After about 20 more minutes of watching him, he was quite use to us...This is in a cottage area,,so it is probably use to people...
Anyhoo...

The Beaver gnawed off a branch and ducked inbetween a row of canoes and a dock..

My dad and I slowed walked down the dock and spotted him,, but he stayed where he was.. We both laid down on the dock, right overtop of him.. We were literally 18" away from him Tops..He could have easily chewed my face off if it wanted to...

We laid there and watched him eat the bark off his stick(spotlight on the entire time), and watched him Literally Shear off a piece thicker than my thumb, like Pruning shears. We could actually hear his teeth going through the wood,,and peeling off the bark..We were talking to each other the entire time..(My dad and I,, not us and the beaver )..

My dad was getting tired and wanted to go..I asked him,, "do you think it would bite me if I touched it?"

My dad says "What do you think? " I laughed and told him I was going to touch it anyway...
I reached out and touched it head.. Very soft..
It ducked into the water and that was the last we saw of him...

I grabbed the two sticks he was chewing, and we went back to the trailer...

I have a collection of cool stuff that we find on our camper travels,,and we keep them in the trailer..
Including the Chipmunk tail my son pinched off a poor chipper by accident..
I was tossing peanuts into a Nalgene bottle, and the Chippers would jump up on my lap cral inside,, and I'd screw the cap on.. Well first time he tried it,, he pinched the tail off the poor little critter...

didn't seem to bother it as it hung around and continued to let itself get captured time and time again..

I caught one in the Nalgene,, and took it in the trailer and laid it on my wife's chest as she was sleeping..

She opened her eyes to see what I was doing,,and let out a Real nice scream,,the woke up,, Everyone in the trailer.. LOL

Pheeew!

LOL

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
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