Author Topic: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?  (Read 11382 times)

dan76

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Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« on: 19:34:15, 25/09/16 »
My claim to fame is being attacked by a deer (whilst in a tent). Unfortunately, i was doing a spot of wild camping and probably scared the mother and her young.


I found the experience quite exhilarating.


Anyone else have some bizarre stories to tell?
I lived in a forest for a few months
Now i'm a fairweather camper +glamper..

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midnight rambler

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #1 on: 20:07:12, 25/09/16 »
Sandown Zoo, Isle of Wight, 1966. Feeding time for the lion.
Just at the wrong moment the lion raised his tail...

pleb

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #2 on: 21:08:44, 25/09/16 »
Nope!
Whinging Moaning Old Fart

wombat

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #3 on: 21:27:57, 25/09/16 »
Do bees count ?  >:(

Hedgetrimmer

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #4 on: 21:38:18, 25/09/16 »
Millions of 'em! Midges!  :o

Mel

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #5 on: 22:21:30, 25/09/16 »
Haha. Hedgetrimmer beat me to it  ;D

Dovegirl

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #6 on: 22:42:39, 25/09/16 »
A seagull nipped my finger when trying to snatch my lunch   

BuzyG

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #7 on: 23:34:22, 25/09/16 »
Several, none at all dangerous. 


Many's the time a Seal has nipped my flipper whilst out body surfing.


Seagulls have dive bombed my fish and chips a few times.  One a perfect strike knocking the lot out of my hands. (they still didn't get any ;D


By far the most memorable.  though not an attack as such.  Aged 17 cycling down hill, in the Highlands, between AlNess and Bonar Bridge ,in thick fog at 2am, two friends behind me, a huge Stag just stood in the middle of the road.  I slammed the anchors on and skidded to a half feet from the beast.  It didn't move a muscle and we gingerly edged around it.  So much for them being shy creatures.

Hedgetrimmer

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #8 on: 23:48:43, 25/09/16 »
Not walking related, and I can't really say for sure I was attacked....who knows, maybe it was deliberate retaliation for being disturbed.


I was riding my motorcycle in Oxfordshire. This is a county where the comeback of the Red Kite has been.....remarkable. I came around a bend, and there were three of the [censored] in the road, sitting on a roadkill. Two flew off as soon as they saw me approaching, but the third...oh no, no one was going to disturb him from his lunch! At the last minute, he decided to go. But he wasn't leaving his meal behind. Unfortunately, the weight of whatever it was slowed down his ascent. I'm gonna hit him, I'm gonna hit him! He just managed to gain enough height as I reached him, but the [censored] dropped the roadkill, missing me by inches.


I'm all for helping to increase the populations of our birds of prey, but there are some places where it's getting ridiculous.

barewirewalker

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #9 on: 10:38:51, 26/09/16 »
The dog was not wild in the feral sense, but it surely seemed wild at the time;


Read here; http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=8798.0


I was attacked by a swan when I was about 11 or 12 an on the retreat I turned and threw a stone hitting the swan on the head, the resulting sight of a semi-conscious swan being supported by its mate, fills me with a sense of guilt even today.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

dan76

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #10 on: 11:02:22, 26/09/16 »
I had a friend who claimed that he had been chased for hundreds of metre's by two sheep. Never seen any violent sheep myself.
I lived in a forest for a few months
Now i'm a fairweather camper +glamper..

Owner@
https://campingpodswales.com [nofollow]
https://campingpodsyorkshire.com [nofollow]

youradvocate

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #11 on: 11:05:23, 26/09/16 »
On a walk in France I was slowly making my up a boulder chaos. Halfway up I stretched both arms above my head, gripped the rock and then pushed my body upwards until my head was in line with my hands. Suddenly, "woof, woof, woof, woof!' from a dog directly in my face!!! OK, not a wild animal but at that moment he was very agitated! I didn't let go (I couldn't!) but instantly lowered my body back to its original position and waited. All was quite, so I tetatively pushed my body upwards again, "woof, woof, woof, woof!" into my face so I dropped down again. I was so nervous, I couldn't go up and it looked really difficult for me to drop back further without a risk of falling. After some heavy breathing on my part it was quite again so I pulled myself upwards once more. The dog was waiting for me. He barked in my face again but then a voice commanded him to leave and he ran away. Phew!

A young man came into view , helped me up to a flat area and apologised and apologised. He was the local cow 'shepherd' and it was his collie dog that was having a go at me. The dog then appeared and was by now super friendly.

midweekmountain

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #12 on: 12:10:31, 26/09/16 »
When you get into climbing/mountaineering you tend to get a lot closer to nature and wildlife than just walking so I have had a lot of confrontations with wild animals over the years.

On uk sea cliffs you get very close a lot of seabirds, most will just fly away BUT heron gulls are very aggressive they will dive bomb you and fly very close pecking at your back and head, its well worth wearing a helmet.

Fulmar Petrals are bad too they have a habit of pucking  a reeking mass of chewed up fish in your face when you appear on a ledge.

Also been buzzed by what looked like a pair of golden eagles high on a cliff in Colorado.
Had a lot snakes strike at me, adders in the uk and rattlers in the states they are scary in the morning cos they don't rattle when they are cool.

Have had several animals attacking the food in our tent at night, otters/foxes pinching bread, they leave their teeth marks as evidence.

In the states its the bears once again looking for food when you are camping/bivying. You hang your food in a tree they reach up, they try jumping to get at it, the cubs can climb trees so they often send them up a tree to get at a bag. If they manage to rake a hung bag with their claws everything just drops out, some of them have learnt to undo knots to get a hung bag down.

They open cans by sticking their claws in like a tin opener just tear the steel apart, they eat cereals box and all, the bears are scary but priceless to watch.

Found the racoons to be a bigger problem in your face pests that can be vicious, woke up one night with mother and two cubs in my tent and had to beat them off with a frying pan.

Probably the most specacular encounter was with a Snow Leopard high in the Karakoram in Pakistan, It growled at me.

fernman

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #13 on: 12:12:16, 26/09/16 »
I had a friend who claimed that he had been chased for hundreds of metre's by two sheep. Never seen any violent sheep myself.
I've been butted by a ram in North Wales, pretty weighty he was too. He made to have a second go at me as I was retreating, but left off when I was a suitable distance from him, after which he just glared at me.

Most heart-stopping moment was with my wife on a walk near Ronda in Andalucia. It was one of those typical ones from Rough Guide that look ever so good when you buy the book but turn out to be impossibly vague. We found our way as far as a stone trough that was mentioned but beyond this the way split into three. One led to some properties, while a dirt track we tried was blocked after a hundred metres by a high chain link fence across it, so the only option left was a path leading down to a green area with scattered trees.  On rounding a corner we spotted first a group of pigs and secondly a HUGE short-haired brown dog looking like the Hound of the Baskervilles. It was just pottering about but then it saw us and galloped in our direction as we fled. Just as we were about to hurl ourselves up the nearest tree there was a piercing whistle from someone and the beast dutifully trotted back to the pigs. It took me some while to catch my breath and for my heart to stop pounding.

barewirewalker

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Re: Ever been attacked by a wild animal?
« Reply #14 on: 12:14:50, 26/09/16 »
I had a friend who claimed that he had been chased for hundreds of metre's by two sheep. Never seen any violent sheep myself.


wouldn't have thought of sheep as wild animals  ;D  unless you have seen the underneath of a 140 of them. In the winter after I had left school, my godfather came to stay withe my folks. One night my father and Uncle Paddy stayed up drinking whiskey after a meal well supported with wine. I obviously had found the flavour for malt whiskey and in the hope that an early opportunity to teach me the ways of the world, father did not stint on refils and I  passed out.


My Mother, knowing I would be severely reprimanded for not being up to do my farm duties, interrupted my alcoholic coma and I eventually found my way to a field of sugar beet tops where 140 hungry sheep were waiting for their morning corn. Sugar beet tops and sheep make a very muddy mix especially on a cold, wet January morning. The concerted attack on my person did not start until after I had managed to re-align the troughs, in the mind of a sheep there is more corn in a sack than a trough, they also all think that they can all get into that sack, despite my having four more on the tractor.


My early morning hangover and whiskey impaired legs were no match for the onslaught and I went down with 140 wet, muddy sheep on top of me.
« Last Edit: 12:18:31, 26/09/16 by barewirewalker »
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

 

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