I am currently reading this book about the five large carnivores of Scandinavia and I am absolutely humbled, both by finding out how little I knew about them, what prejudice I had against them and how people that live in close proximity to them can both love, respect and be angry with them at the same time. I am reading the original release in Swedish.
- What have you encountered in the wild?
- When, where, how?
- What were your initial thoughts, feelings and reactions (physical, psychological, etc.)?
- What do think of them in general? <— this last question applies to everybody, regardless of whether you have seen or met one of these large carnivores or not.
Personally, without having met any one of them, I am humbled, scared, amazed and intrigued by them. I feel for those whose - for instance - livestock are threatened by them, especially if it directly damages business. I also strongly believe that the matter should not be dumbed down to the dichotmy of “ignore those that suffer from them” or “eradicate them”. We are far too intelligent and developed a race to degrade ourselves so.
Whilst walking my dog at night in Canada. Followed us for a few hundred meters as I walked backwards back home. Pretty sure it was a cougar (mountain lion) as I don’t think a deer would have followed us, let alone without making a sound through the brush.
Thanks for the picture! How badass!!! What did you feel? Were you affraid? Or just extra cautious?
I would piss myself. Full on piss myself.
Lots of moose, several bears, elk, deer. The coolest I’ve seen in the wild though was probably a full grown, big adult wolverine. That last one was fun times camping in northern Alberta, just south of the NWT border.
Canadian checking in! I’ve been face to face with black bears, grizzlies, bobcats, cougars.
In Ontario, the black bears were the most common. When we would go camping in the summer in the 80s, my parents were given a tip that driving to a local town dump in evening was a sure fire way to see bears from thhe safety of your car. It worked. 5 or so were feeding and would try to get through the closed window. At the same time, we would see bears in the waste bins at the park.
As I got older and did interior camping and true wilderness camping, we would encounter bears often. We practiced extreme camp hygiene and would not have food out, without fire. They would poke around the edges and see more trouble than its worth and leave.
As a working adult, I saw a blackbear on a bc highway and pulled over to take pictures. It ran away from me and I chased after it. Never got the photo.
I also saw two grizzly cubs walking along a B.C. highway. Cars pulled over would roll down their windows and feed the bears. A conservation officer pulled up, brought out his rifle and shot them both dead. The tourists formed an angry mob yelling why did they kill the bear. The CO said I didn’t, everyone who fed the bear killed it. They became habituated and a nuisance bear in that moment and the ministry is obligated to kill them before they inevitably attack people.
Only seen a wolf once, but we have coyotes everywhere. Really only a threat to pets and small children.
Cause you’re Canadian I want to ask, have you encountered a moose?
You have more to fear from a moose encounter than any of those predators in truth.
Carnivores might attack if scared or hungry, but herbivores will kill you just to be sure you aren’t going to attack them. Just as in Africa, Cape Buffalo are the most dangerous of their big game animals.
Yes. Many times. The closest I ever got was in Algonquin park, in a canoe maybe 30 ft. It was in kneee deep water feeding as my friend and I and his dad approached quietly. We could see it getting nervous when it peed in anticipation of fight or flight, and we gently backed off and watched from 100 ft or so. It calmed down once we pretended to be interested in the weeds, not it.
I also have family who hunt, so…
I once saw a spirit moose (white, but not albino) in New Brunswick on the highway near Miramichi.
Fucking hell that must have been scary, getting attention of a moose like that.
Was beautiful.
How large is large? I met a particularly chonky beagle once while hiking. Positively vicious slobber attack
Black bear, doe moose, whale.
Black bear fled immediately, moose stood there as moose do, and whale was uninterested.
I walked through a field and stand of trees for months, back and forth to work, before learning a cougar sleeps nearby and probably saw my delicious nerd self - such marbling - twice a day.
A møøse once bit my sister
I was jogging at night in rain in a cedar forest in the mountains and had a mountain lion sidle up on the switchback above me. Just checking me out, maybe 20 feet out and 10 feet up.
Two events I’ve had with bears:
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I’m hiking in a nature park by myself on a trail. I see two small black bear shaped voids run across the trail. Then I see one large black bear shaped void run across the trail. I turned around and went back, cutting my hike short.
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I’m driving in an undeveloped area and I’m coming up to a construction site. I see a mother and two cubs leap across a construction barrier for the other direction to the median like it wasn’t any problem. I commence breaking maneuvers. A car in front of me had stopped as the same family just finished crossing in front of them.
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I’ve seen a black bear- I was in a vehicle and so I was pretty safe, but he was close up. I was driving through a curvy mountain road in Appalachia, and the dude was just vibing off the side of the road.
I’ve seen multiple Lynxes, usually from a distance. I saw one just crossing the road, the other was on the other side of a lake from me just drinking.
My thoughts were mostly just, “damn, that’s cool. Don’t usually see those.” I was always safe, and I don’t have any livestock for them to bother. They can mind their business and I’ll mind mine past the occasional glimpse.
Yeah. A pig. A feral boar that weighed in at weighed in a nearly 700 pounds.
Nope. If there’s dangerous animals there, I won’t be. They can have their untamed wilderness, and I’ll have my internal organs
Norwegian here. Met quite a few elk on my hikes, once a wolf passed the road some ten metres in front of me an early morning, a brown bears glimpsed far away once or twice -never afraid, always in awe. But also always with respect, knowing full well what they do.
Thanks for the book tip!
It’s an omnivore, I suppose, but I’ve had a few encounters with black bears in my life.
They’re usually harmless if you leave them alone, but one chased me while I was on my bike back when I was 18.
Several big ass fat black bears in my yard, including one charging straight at me because my neighbors dog was chasing it, thankfully they’re scared of literally everything and it’s never been an issue. Other than that maybe a large bobcat
I’ve had many encounters with black bears (which are omnivores, and not exclusively carnivorous) while hiking over the years. Generally, they are not dangerous to humans if one gives them plenty of room. Most of the time, they’ll go right up a tree at the sight of you. The first couple of times I encountered them, I was anxious, but now I almost expect to see them.
I have had two encounters with cougars (also during hiking) that were much more nerve-wracking, as they were much more aggressive (at least on these two occasions. It’s possible that cubs were nearby, but I never saw any). Both times, I raised my arms and shouted and made a lot of noise while backing away and keeping them in my sight. I had read that cougars can be unpredictable, and so I was pretty freaked out. Fortunately, I came away from both encounters without a scratch.
Saw a black bear once when I was visiting the Rocky mountains a few summers ago. It was just hanging out eating berries at the edge of the woods beside the parking lot at one of the national parks.
Most of the people just watched or took pictures from a respectful distance. I was delighted to have the opportunity to see a bear in the wild in a (mostly) safe way. I did look around to make sure there was somebody I could outrun, though. You don’t have to outrun the bear…
Big carnivores mostly want nothing to do with people and I think we should leave them alone as much as possible. Sometimes they learn behaviour that makes them dangerous to innocent people (e.g. if somebody feeds them) and being a danger to innocent people is really the only reason I can think of that would justify killing them. There have to be better ways to deal with carnivores attacking livestock and such.
