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Your encounters with wildlife

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#baconsflyswatter
 
Some awesome stories on here thanks for sharing everyone. You guys that have gone on hunting safaris are making me more than a little jealous.

Best story I have is occurred on a family trip out west. We went during Thanksgiving break when I was either a senior in HS or a freshman in college, not completely sure which one. Any way we went to all the big stuff, Grand Canyon, Hover Damn, Lake Powell, Las Vegas, several other National Parks etc. Well also went to Yellowstone and did a snowmobile tour through the park. Pretty awesome, highly recommend it to anyone going in the winter. Well as we are cruising along we come across a big group of Bison that are about 50 or so feet away form us on our left hand side. We stop take some pictures, but not much else. Well a the group behind us pulls up on the heard and against the urging of their guide, hop off the snowmobile's and proceed to walk toward the Bison. Bad idea. The Bison notice these dumbass tourist walking toward them. When the people get about 20 or so feet away one of the bigger males turn toward the group of people and does what looks like a full out charge (it was actually a bluff charge, he didn't go more than 15 feet) but these people saw him coming at them and took off backwards as fast as humanly possible. About this time we absolutely lost it and were cracking up. Pretty hilarious and pretty spectacular as well, Bison are a lot quicker than they look.
 
When we were pretty deep on a trail in Yellowstone, we stumbled upon a massive elk. I know elk are pretty docile and unlikely to charge, but, dude, when you come up an animal that big, any reasonable person keeps a safe distance. Any idiot who would approach a bison deserves whatever he gets. Survival of the fittest.
 
i live on the eastern escarpment of the blue ridge in western nc...the pisgah national forest is right out my back door...i see so much wildlife (not including my musician friends), and just right around the house: black bear, foxes, turkey, lots of raptors, deer, coyote, wolf. we have a very healthy ecosystem in this part of the world. i try not to take it for granted.
 
mercurydime said:
i live on the eastern escarpment of the blue ridge in western nc...the pisgah national forest is right out my back door...i see so much wildlife (not including my musician friends), and just right around the house: black bear, foxes, turkey, lots of raptors, deer, coyote, wolf. we have a very healthy ecosystem in this part of the world. i try not to take it for granted.
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KnightAtWake said:
That guide is a totally moron. I can't believe that the guide allowed this to happen. Bison are mean as shit and usually end up killing someone every few years. When I went to Philmont in New Mexico, Bison were addressed in our training - nothing like cows, a lot more like crazy people that will go off at the drop of a hat.
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Sounds to me like he told them not to.
 
Say Hey Deac said:
I don't know man -- if a person gets stung by yellow jackets hundreds of times all over his entire body, I don't think it's particularly irrational to fear them going forward.
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Well thank you guys, but I would like to stop being so scared of them. You can rarely picnic or hike without seeing a yellow jacket, but I am so scared I can't enjoy myself if one comes around.

ETA: And I know it's not that bad getting stung. I guess that's why I call it irrational. I know it doesn't hurt that much, but I still freak out every time I see one.
 
Trout fishing in the North Georgia Mountains and we hiked about 2 miles to a nice water fall with a deep pool at the bottom. I climbed down about an 8 foot cliff to fish the pool. I was standing with one foot on a slippery rock and the other on a piece of wood. It's mid afternoon so what happens next is totally unexpected. A bat came out of a small cave in the cliff and started dive bombing me. So there I am trying to keep my balance and not drop my gear in the water and a bat is trying to take my head off. Finally it leveled off and is sort of hovering in front of my face. I can see his angry little eyes and his murderous intent. I remove my hat to swat at him several times and finally make contact and he is knocked into the water. He splashes, takes back off again and disappears. I never fell in.
 
Came a few inches from putting my hand on a copperhead as I was climbing a hillside this weekend. Fortunately, I looked down before doing so. My friend had just climbed directly over the snake without incident.

Apparently, we were pushing a large black bear as we made our way through the woods. Its prints were bigger than my hand.

Got stung by a nest of yellow jackets on the same trip.

But I caught (and released) a few nice brook trout so it was all worth it.
 
Last night makes 2 straight Fridays that I've run into a copperhead on the street while walking my dogs. This one really freaked me out because it was just a baby and was curled up in striking position, so I almost didn't even see it (usually they're just slithering across the street and pretty easy to spot and avoid).

It bugs me that the only snakes I ever see at night are copperheads. During the day, I only see the harmless ones -- gray snakes, black snakes, garter snakes. But at night, when it's hard to see, the scary ones come out. I need a better flashlight.
 
Last night we saw a bear run across the PA turnpike as we were getting on in Breezewood...it was bizarre.
 
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