Thought everyone understood that wild animals can be dangerous, but mostly hide or run away.
Only laid eyes on a panther once. It had checked me out ahead of time, utterly ignored me. Only seen one gator that wasn’t hauling ass away from my canoe or kayak. Saw a mama black bear with tiny babies galumphing along behind as she ran off. Went back the next day, couldn’t see her, but I heard the warning! Water moccasins hiss and pitch a fit, run away. You’d have to be deaf and step on one. (I’ve come close!)
Then you got people like my wife. She went to meet me at the trail entrance the other night, saw a small animal cross the path, got spooked and ran back to her car. Daughter and I saw a roll of teenage armadillos, up close! My wife asked if they would attack us.
Wife’s friend came over from England. She was choking down panic and the sun set on our camp in the swamp. I assured her that speaking in a normal tone of voice would scare anything away. Never been in wild woods and never at night!
I’ve had people online act like I’m an idiot for getting into the uncivilized places I often go. Many people here in NW Florida won’t go on the water unless it’s a large body and in a large boat. They think I’m going to get attacked in my kayak.
So, what’s your perception of the animals where you live? Do you think the people in your area feel the same?
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.
Always fascinated to learn how animal populations are counted! Kayaking with my gf, we ran into a nerdy college student on the river’s edge with a clipboard. He was tallying soft-shell turtles! Neat! Funny thing is, I have no idea how he got to where he was, and he certainly wasn’t dressed for the mission. :)
Anyway, nice to hear about people like you, out in the field doing the work.