Ask Lemmy

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.

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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.

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 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.

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.

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.

9 out of 10 if I leave them alone they will leave me alone.

My feeling is pretty similar to yours, though I am also aware that there are animals that can and will hurt me. For example, for one of the trips I want to take above the arctic circle, standard advice is to carry a shotgun and surround your camp with a portable electric fence to protect from polar bears, since polar bears will actively hunt humans.

But in general I expect animals to not want anything to do with me. For this, I use what I call the "raccoon principle", which goes like this: Suppose you see a raccoon. It is hissing and growling at you, clearly pissed off. Do you want to fight this raccoon with your bare hands? Probably not - sure, you could almost certantly kill it. But not before it bit the shit out of you, possibly doing significant and permanent damage to your soft tissues and giving you an infection. So understand that for most large animals, you are the raccoon.

Im in the UK so basically every wild animal is scared of humans. (Edit : Except geese. Theyre fucking bullies)

If I was in "The Wild" though, like a jungle or Savannah, I would shit my pants 24/7

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.

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

If the animal can physically hurt me, i will keep my distance. E.g. i don't mess with cows in a field, even though they are likely harmless. I usually have to cross fields when going to fishing spots. During the summer they are full of animals that could EASILY kill me by mistake. Therefore i keep my distance.

Smaller animals and bugs that i know aren't venomous don't bother me in the slightest.

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.

Where I live they mostly mind their own business but from time to time I have to yell to scare away some wild boars just in case, luckily they aren't used to people and run away pretty easily.

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.

Depends on the animal.

For the most part, deer are more afraid of me than I am of them. I'm really only scared that they're going to run in front of my car.

Raccoons just get left alone in the trash I usually find them in.

Saw what looked like Mother black bear and her cubs while on a hike. The bears didn't look threatening, but I turned around to keep it that way.

Mostly harmless if you leave them alone, but I wouldn’t want to fight any of them. And isuppose when it’s mating season or there are cubs, all bets are off. I have to admit I back away from geese though

It probably helps that I live where there really aren’t dangerous animals. Technically there could be rattlesnakes but I don’t know anyone who’s encountered one. Black bears don’t want to bother. Moose are mostly dangerous while driving. Coyotes don’t want to deal with adults, unless you’re with snack on a leash

When I was a kid, the adults always stressed not to have food in your tent while camping because “it’ll attract bears”. Aside from a few places where bears have gotten fat off trash they don’t want to deal with people. It’s the raccoons and mice that will chew through your tent to get the food, and the most likely problem is now you need a new tent

I spent a month counting animals in a small African preserve. The way it worked was that each member of the team would walk in a given direction for a few hours and make a note of all the animals we'd see in a two hundred metres radius. Also we all had one ranger which came with a 1940s rifle and one bullet.

There were one or two countings per day. We saw lots of animals. I never saw any large predators, although I saw lion tracks a few times. Hippos were probably the most dangerous animals we regularly met, so the banks of lakes and rivers were avoided. The other animals ignored us or avoided us.

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

if yes, then they are a danger to me.

Let me modify a quote, "To believe all animals harmless would be folly. To believe none so, is something worse."

All manner of creature is variable. That which hungers shall attempt to hunt justly, that which starves shall hunt foolishly. This is to mean the threat is that which has to make drastic decisions.

That which is comfortably fearful shall let the traveler pass. That which is burdened by doubt, fear, and pain shall doubt the traveler. This is to say, the temperament of their emotions impacts the behavior. Those at a loss to something else will lash out to feel a fleeting sense of control.

All animals are capable of harm, however the animal of the wilds know it is better to let beasts slumber and pick your fights. Another day shall be won if you act without unbridled necessity, haste, or pride. The insect that stings is the insect that is killed, the lion who eats man is the lion that is hunted.

It is the comfort of living unencumbered that makes the creature insidious. Social living and the security that makes one desire more than what they have.

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.

I have watched enough memes to know that given the chances, wild animals will attack me.

I'm in an urban Midwest area & most of the "scary" wildlife stays away. The raccoons are probably the most "dangerous" common thing I see, and they usually run off at loud noises, unless they're drunk.

I've seen coyotes, but never closer than about 20 yards or so, and at that range they are usually running away.

Deer are skittish, and mostly only dangerous jumping in front of your car.

The one encounter I had that I was actually afraid was trying to get an 18 inch wide snapping turtle out of the street. A big stick & a ratchet strap accomplished that with no one getting hurt.

Panther or gator close in the wild, yup you seem crazy. Works out until it doesn't.

Oh and bear with younglings. Especially any animal with young ones!

You could not escape any of those three animals if things went south.

This is from a German perspective and we might only like have a wild boar that could massacre us (which are not just easy food as depicted in comics). Maybe you also just have the weaponry to feel safe.

But especially even knowing house cats very well I see a lot of people insanely overestimating themselves.

E.g thinking they could hold a candle to a (muscle only) shimpanzee or people trying to pet a wild horse, the latter being lucky to get away with their life and only bruises instead of easily broken arm and bleeding to death.

In Yosemite a tree above the trail started shaking itself. A while later we turned back and now there were bear tracks following the path toward where our car was parked. I know they can be dangerous if they feel threatened, but I really hoped we’d see it. Didn’t see a single bear.