OT: "stand just a little bit closer"+Wild animal=pain

[Buzz]

Not sayin' everyone should have a pet rhino... just that several generations of people and animals being nice to each other results in a friendlier paradigm. Also been to many places where the deer are friendly, even to the point of letting you pet them, especially if you feed them. Not gonna test the snuggle blanket.


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[ka jowct]

It seems that nothing has changed. I saw similar idiocy on family trips to Yellowstone and Glacier decades ago. The worst was the out-of-shape fool in Bermuda shorts who got out of his car with two toddlers and a bag of marshmallows to approach a lean mother bear with two cubs who were attracting attention at the side of the road. In retrospect, it amazes me that no on rolled down a window to tell the dude to get back in the car. It was a frozen couple of moments. Luckily, the guy realized he could be in trouble when the mom got up a and took a couple of steps toward him. He tossed the bag of marshmallows and took his beefy self and his tasty toddlers back into the car.

No way a wild critter should end up dead because of human stupidity.

[Don C]

I was camping in Upper Michigan when I returned from Vietnam. We had seen a barrel on wheels and were told by the ranger that they were trying to recapture a bear that really liked campgrounds.

Late that night I heard a huffing/snorting sound and knowing that neighboring campers had been eating and presumably dropping pop corn, I figured that we must have a four footed visitor.

When I started hearing campers making loud noises, I carefully stuck my head out of the tent and seeing nothing, crawled out to discover that the sound I had been hearing was in fact the guy next to us snoring.

[Acer]

Don C wrote:
When I started hearing campers making loud noises, I carefully stuck my head out of the tent and seeing nothing, crawled out to discover that the sound I had been hearing was in fact the guy next to us snoring.

Did the authorities put him down?

[Racer X]

cbelt3 wrote:
Buzz..... there's a far cry between being 'used to humans' and being domesticated.

Wild is wild. The local deer will walk right up to you and look at you from a few feet away. But get between a doe and her fawn, and she'll kick the crap out of you.


Of course, get between Mrs. cbelt3's Chihuahua and her snuggle blanket, and she'll snap at you too.

There is a small herd of deer on Blake Island in Puget Sound, across from Seattle. The whole island is a marine state park. The deer for generations have co-mingled with human campers and tourists on day trips from a tour company. You can feed them by hand.

While on a Sea Scout trip to the island, a friend of mine thought it would be fun to catch one. He got a hind hoof to his forehead. Permanent dent to his skull in a roughly hoof shape.

Priceless.

[ka jowct]

Acer wrote:
[quote=Don C]
When I started hearing campers making loud noises, I carefully stuck my head out of the tent and seeing nothing, crawled out to discover that the sound I had been hearing was in fact the guy next to us snoring.

Did the authorities put him down?
No, his wife did.

[btfc]

[Speedy]

This guy has a chance if the marker is steel and he can dance around it quickly enough. Of course, he has to see the bison.

btfc wrote:

[btfc]

A little while later he moved away from the sign and was way close to a group of bison including very young calves. Some of the bison were becoming agitated by his proximity. When I said something, he first responded defensively, but later came over and acknowledged that.