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Closest you've been to a wild animal

On a deer study with the Department of Fish and Wildlife we net gunned deer from a helicopter and then "mugged" them for transport back to the processing station where they underwent a series of observations and were released. On another similar project we captured fawns for a captive study at Washington State University. I caught the first fawn for the project. So if either of those count.
 
Been 8 to 10 feet from a doe and fawn once; I figure I would have got at least a few feet closer if my buddy hadn't started hooting and clapping from behind me.

I got chased up a tree by a few wild boar one time too. I'd say one of them got within a foot or two of my feet before I made it up that tree. :)


and yellow sac spiders, been bit by those more times then I want to remember. Necrotic like the brown recluse but nowhere near as severe. I use a drawing salve to pull out the poison, cuts down on the effects and the scarring. The one I use is goldline ichthammol ointment. from what I understand it is almost identical to the old time black salve folk remedies. all I know is that it works for me and a tube of it stays in my bag at all times now.
 
Yellow to blue phase black bear - 10ft.

Sierra Calif. mule deer - stalked and touched it with tip of 28" arrow

Calif. cougar - 14ft.

Bobcats - 10ft.

New blacktail fawn while scouting deer in sierra's - 1ft.

Mojave green rattler 3ft.

And we all lived to tell the story. :D
 
If you spend time in the woods, you will eventually come in very close contact with wild animals. The ones that don't act wild are the ones you need to worry about.
 
I live at about 32.191 Lat. and -111.1 Lon. I have picked up many a rattler, Diamondbacks mostly, had mountain hummingbirds sit on my finger(food was involved) , hiked past, almost into, a Javelina Mom and her kids at about midnight. Scared away many a coyote , a rare Bobcat , had an Elk almost scare me away, and so many more. I have hiked around here for over 40 years and been fortunate enough to see lots of critters. Sit and be quiet early on a summer morning and they all come around if you get a good spot. ;)
 
Black bear: 100' and going the right direction-- away!

Deer: arms length (wild but in a protected area, quite tame)
Deer: 10' in a National Park
Deer: 100'+ -- can't begin to count

Elk: 100 yards in a National Park

Sea gull: slight nibble on my finger

Rabbit: came out of a "post hole" I fell into next to a tree in 4' of snow. I was at least as surprised as the rabbit was. I evidently fell into a run he had under the snow and he followed my foot out of the hole. I manged to flop around on the snow trying to get away from whatever it was.

Golden eagle: 12' (sitting on a fence post in American Camp, San Juan Island, WA). Fat and sassy from eating the local bunnies I expect.

Bald eagles: 6' overhead

Raccoons: arm's length

Killer Whale: 12' in kayak

Gray whale: 25-30' in kayak WOW! I heard him blow behind me and turned to see the tail. I nearly capsized from the surprise.

Dahl's porpose: deck to bow wave. Beautiful animals.

Harbor seals-- paddle reach in kayak. It's really weird to have a head pop up out of the water and LOOK at you.

Sea lions: 100 yards in kayak

River otters: 30' in kayak

Beaver: 20' (no jokes!)

Great Blue Heron: 20' drifting in kayak ---fantastic birds

Red Fox: 100 yards

Humback whale: 50 yards in motor boat

Mountain goats: 100 yards

Possum: my garden fence

Rats: under boot

Mice: under boot

Rattle snakes: out on the road, never underfoot. I've heard a couple off the trail and didn't want to find them!

Homo Sapiens Sapiens females: full body contact, mild bites. Several quite wild and dangerous.
 
i got a couple.
One i was taking an early morning walk in Long Beach california, and i stumbled on a mother and baby possum. They were sitting on the sidewalk. She ran into some bushes, so i walked out into the street to avoid the baby, but it followed me into the street! So i picked it up and placed it in the bushes and ran away. It didnt follow me the second time.

Then theres the time a couple of deer ate out of my hand. This was at Yosemite National Park, you could probably argue that the deer in that park are domesticated tho.

I see deer all the time up on Orcas island, been about 10 feet from a few before they bolt. I was working up there last winter, building a kind of work room/home office for someone that lives out in the forest there. She found a dead deer on the side of her drive way, and since i t was a private road the "city" wouldnt come pick it up. So i got a bonus that day for throwing the body off her cliff into the ocean. Thoes things weigh much more than i expected, especially when they've been out in the rain over night.

Oh and then there was the time i accidently ran over a little green garden snake on my skate board when i was in highschool. Poor little guy was just sunning himself on the sidewalk.
 
I used to run into rabbits & skunks & snakes on the way to work at my last job most nights in the summer, easily within 8-10 feet. Been closer to possums, squirrels, raccoons, beaver & a really pissy muskrat once. Had a baby squirrel climb up on my boot a few years back, first snow of the year & I was quietly waiting outside for a buddy to pick me up, it seemed pretty happy to have found a warm place to sit & I was in no rush to move. Been within maybe 10-15 of deer a couple of times (once in the city of all places).
 
I forgot about sharks (5 feet) and barracuda (6 inches) in my last post. wasn't even thinking about ocean life.


does catching and holding a wild coral snake count as anything but stupid?
 
I walked up on a timber rattler sunning himself on a rock. It was early in the year and he was pretty docile. Then he noticed me and started making noise and I ran like a little girl. The other one that comes to mind is when my friend and I almost walked past a moose that was about 10 feet off the trail. It was amazing how an animal that big can be so hard to see in the right cover. The moose just looked over his shoulder at us and went back to eating. He didn't seem too scared of us, but we were a little tense. Damn, they are big animals. :eek:
 
I looked under a rock where my cousin's dog was digging and going ape sh*t and came face to face with a badger...less than a foot. I got the hell out of there in a hurry, dog went back in and took some damage, nothing major. Dog has since passed, I can still see with both eyes, and I don't stick my head under rocks anymore! :D -Matt-
 
Nearly stood on a Taipan the other day in the sand dunes near the beach I frequent. He slithered off pretty quick before my dogs saw it, thank goodness.
 
Well, I live way out in the woods, and there are too many to really list in one post. I suppose all the many possums and coons I've run off of my cat's food dish don't really count, but here's a good one:

When I was 3 1/2 years old, we lived a little bit further back on the same land that we do now. We lived in a mobile home that my dad had added onto, and if it wasn't winter, the doors were usually open, as we only had AC in one room of the trailer. I think it would have been early spring at the time. My dad was at work, and somehow a water moccasin got inside, and made itself comfy on our kitchen counter, right next to the only telephone in the house. Now this moccasin was a good 6 feet long, probably six inches thick, and it was laying just as calm as could be right there on our kitchen counter. My older sister tried to get to the telephone, but the snake would threaten to strike if she got too close, so my other sister wound up having to ride her bike (with one flat tire if I recall correctly) down our half-mile-long, muddy from a recent rain driveway to my uncle's house to call 911.

So, after a goodly length of time, a black police officer showed up at the front door, came inside, took one look at that huge water moccasin and drew his pistol. Turned out they had sent the one guy on the force that was deathly scared of snakes. My mom, of course, told the guy that he wasn't going to shoot the snake in her house, and so he left. In the end, my uncle came down and killed it with a hatchet, if I remember correctly.

That day has always stood out in my mind, along with the time my older brother (I'm the baby of the family, the next oldest is 12 years up) went to pick up a tire laying out in the yard and there was a big ol' copperhead in it which promptly struck. He jumped three feet up and ten feet back from a total standstill, and the snake missed. Scared my brother half to death, though.

Edited to add: I was probably about 15 feet away from the water moccasin. I've been closer to them, and plenty of other snakes, since, but that one time just really stands out.
 
Ok umm

Ive handled a wild fawn before
5 feet from a buck
10 feet from a fin whale in a kayak
1 foot away from a funny sea lion
OOo heres a good one....5 feet away from a black bear that stole my peanut butter, i was sooo pissed:mad:

OO rite and there was this wacked fuzzy thing that attacked me in my blind before. I didnt get a good look at it cause i was screaming like a little girl.
 
I was eating a beaver one time and the god damned thing bit my nose. So I found a piece of hard white wood and stabbed it a few times. Teach that beaver a lesson I did.
 
Sorry. I am still laughing about it. Just couldnt help it is was so temping one of those " the devil made me do it " moments.
 
Let's see...I've been bitten 4 seperate times by black widows. One time by a spider that wasn't identified but caused more destruction than any of the widow bites. And bitten one time by a copperhead.

And I don't know if it counts, but when I was 12, I was water skiing in the bay in Florida and a shark started circling me while I was waiting for the boat to come back. For all I know it was a 4 ft nurse shark, but at the time it seemed to be a 12 foot man-eater.
 
I was a hiking/biking guide in Glacier National Park. It was a rough rainy day. I decided to run back to the "sag wagon" so that I may have it ready for my clients when they got back to the trail head. I was on the west side of Twin Medicine lakes. I rounded a corner and spotted 2 cubs in the distance.

I stopped immediately in my tracks. My next move was to slowly back track on the trail that I came from. It then occurred to me, "where in the heck is Momma bear?"

Just 2 feet to my left was 3 sapling aspens. And on the opposite side of the aspens was she!!!

I stopped all motion. She bounded twice toward her cubs. She then made a 90 degree bound toward me. She ended up just a few feet from me.

Her next stride was a 90 degree turn toward her cubs.

I got to the van shaken from the experience. The shallow portion between the Twin Medicine lakes is where I waited for my clients. As soon as I saw them, I yelled to them that there was a Black Bear present and to make noise.

That is the closest I will ever want to be to a bear! We eventually spoke to a ranger. The ranger mentioned that Black Bears are infamous for "fake charges." I am so grateful for this!

Travis
 
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