I often startle animals in the woods. Mostly roe deer, sometimes snakes, hares, three times I came across boars. Once there was a group of does crossing our trail. I was lucky to see some foxes too but it's pretty rare and it was always far away from trails I normally walk.
No, but I was literally next to a skunk looking up at me and it walked w/me. I had just moved from the city, so I wasn’t expecting to run into anything walking on my new street. I thought wth is this, please don’t spray. It didn’t. Another time I saw one chase my friend when he was trying to scare me at my window. It was so funny as he ran and the skunk was looking like he was hopping chasing him far down the street. I watched from my window 🤣
I also was terrified of a pitbull at my then bf’s sister’s house. They insisted she get used to me before we went to sleep and even w/a muzzle on she tried to attack me. They said she sleeps in their room not to worry if I had to go to the bathroom or kitchen. The bf asked me to get him water and after getting a glass I went to walk back to the room and saw in my peripheral vision the dog watching me like wtf why isn’t she scared anymore 😂🤣 I thought I was done but remembered being told as a kid to not look or act scared.
Too many to count. Some were serene and others were downright frightening.
Everything from waking up in the woods with a chipmunk on my chest in NH, to a momma bear and her 3 cubs 15 feet away from me in the Sequoia Natl. Forest, to a giant 9' tall bull moose walking out of the woods and staring at me for 15 unnerving seconds on the slopes of Mt. Katahdin in ME, all the way to a whale bumping the tiny boat I was on off Cape Cod ...
Many more times of near misses and close calls of all sorts as well
Lots of snakes, including venomous cottonmouths and copperheads, possums, raccoons, deer, a bobcat, alligators and some really ferocious squirrels and bunnies
- 2 AM: Large bear chuffing at tent door. Came for buffet of scraps site neighbors left out. Sounded like an idling diesel locomotive.
- Bull moose 10' easy - huge rack, grazing on maples. I was close. Turns head abruptly, I'm sure he's going to charge. He was only reaching higher branches.
- Very large skunk examined my workboots when garage lights shut off:
Stopped to look at the stars. Something had me look away & down. 1st thought: Badger??... then Skunk!!! I yelled & jumped, skunk bolted.
Motionless against the garage, it couldn't discern me from the landscape, except it had new scent. When I jumped, it was like the building moved. He was afraid/confused, but not threatened. That's my theory why it didn't spray.🤷♂
- Many close ups with Doe's, & feeding a group of three, 5ft away.
- A curious River Otter.
- ''Talking'' to a Barred Owl on a full moon night, exchanging vocalizations.
Cape buffalo in Tanzania. Stared us down in our Jeep for what seemed like forever. We remained still and silent until it finally wandered off but when our driver pulled out a machete from under his seat we knew that the outcome could have been quite different.
