re: Most Dangerous Animal You Have Come in Contact With in the Wild? (no snakes)

a woman.

Wildabeast and Zebra at my uncles ranch. Had to jump on the roof of the truck when those frickers started charging

I'm not sure these will count as they weren't in the wild, it was when I was volunteering at a zoo, but I've been pretty damn close to some very dangerous animals, even apex predators, so you might find it interesting. I once helped load a 450 lb male lion into the back of a 1980's Toyota pickup and then had to sit next to his only partially sedated head so that I could keep his oxygen mask on.

On the way to the zoo's hospital we went over a bump and the freaking lion leaned half way up so that he could peer out of the truck and then, thankfully, laid back down as I sat there trying to pretend I was part of the truck rather than a tasty morsel.

I've personally transported adult Jaguars to the hospital for checkups, nursed cubs, played with them (cubs & adults) (while they were behind bars...just like any cat it's funny as hell when you catch one sleeping and sneak up and give them a flick, they're thinking, WTF was that!? lol) and trained them a little.

I also was part of a team that had to manually guide a fully grown African rhino back to its enclosure using nothing but a lot of hands and rope. When I worked in the Great Apes exhibit you always had to follow this yellow line in the halls between their enclosures because if you swayed too far they could literally grab your arse. My first experience in that area was cautiously walking down that line when all of a sudden an adult male gorilla literally charged me and just slammed the shite out of his cage bars...didn't hurt him at all, but it's an interesting experience getting charged by a fricking gorilla, bars or not.

Actually, I did remember one in the wild. Ran into a family of black bears in Virginia during the winter while camping.

Sharks, Gators, Sting Rays, Barracudas and One Bear.

The bear was a little bitch though. The one really bad encounter was with a shark, second was the group of Barracudas.

quote:

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Human being.

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Easily. Bears, Moose, Sea lions, (mean m'fers) have nothing on a human.

Moose in Montana. Was close enough to do damage if she had chosen to. Luckily she just kept going.

Confronting two guys much larger than I am about being on our property when all I had was a bow. Also decided to walk to the stand with no light one morning. Heard a shuffle a few feet away. Hit the flashlight and I was standing about 8 feet from a 6 point buck, again only holding a bow.


ETA: I guess for dangerous animal, I'd have to go with wake boarding where RJ and Jay Paul hunt gators. Was always fun to wipe out and then see one slide off the bank

Camping in the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas. Saw a mountain lion cross the road that day while we were riding four wheelers about a mile from our camp. That night we were chilling by the fire with the kids and a weiner dog when between us and the creek came a scream that almost made everyone there piss their pants. He was up close enough where if he wanted to take the dog or a kid he could have done it very easily. Was no more than 20 yards away. We never knew he was there.
Scared the frick out of us. Bigtime.

cougar in Colorado

shark as big ask kayak hooked in 4' of water from kayak...


two hairy gator encouters....


big pit bull roaming through woods headed to where son was hunting in a ground blind......