Got any stories on encounters with wild animals?

Be it close calls, funny stories, wrestling with mountain lions, bear encounters, etc.

It could also be reptiles and the sort.

 

One time i was snowmobiling in the Upper Pennisula and i stopped to smoke a cigerette. I shut the machine down and was just sitting there and i looked up and about 20 feet away there was a wolf. I didnt say anything, i just sat there and acted the same way and it just ran away. Then a month later i was up there and i was riding down a trail right by that one and saw another wolf. Since then ive never seen any wolves in the U.P. This happened about 2 years ago.

 

In Augusta, ME, a young moose wandered down out of the woods, and got stuck in my neighbor's yard. Apparently, it couldn't figure out that the fence was only on three sides, and it could go back out the way it went in. Took five darts to get it down, and a team of guys to get it on the truck.

 

I had a 2 year old black bear come through our campsite while I was sitting next to the campfire cooking a hot dog & coffee.

It was no more than 8 ft away but it knew the Park Warden was hot on its trail so it didn't hang around long.
My second close call with a bear.

This was back in 1976 or so at Yoho National Park Campground in the Rockies.

My first was when I was about 8 July 25th 1958 while sitting in our stopped car on Highway 93 on our way to Jasper, talking to a bear on the side of the road.
The bear came over and put its paw on my Dad's arm that was laying on the door where the window slide.

Dad jumped over to the right far enough to crush Mom against the passenger door who was throwing food that the bears on her side.
Meanwhile, apprently I'm in the back seat laughing because I thought they (the bears) were supposed to do that

A lot of people learned a lesson that day I tell ya !

 

Bull moose can be VERY aggressive. They have no natural enemies and no fear of anything. They will charge you if they feel like it.

I was camping in Algonquin PP WAY north of Toronto and there were three of us in a canoe paddling downstream to our next campsite. We stopped when we saw a large bull standing in some brush right next to the water. The guy in the front of the canoe wanted to get a little closer for a picture and the guy in the back (I got to sit in the middle - it sucked) paddled right up to shore! This thing was no more than 15ft away from our canoe. The guy in front panicked because he didn't want to get THAT close and he pushed back with his paddle. I was a little young to know what kind of trouble we could have been in, but someone told me later.

The moose must have been amused. He never moved, just watched us. Good thing he wasn't feeling frisky. The guy in the back of the canoe thought the whole thing was funny.

 

When hiking in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, a moose suddenly came out of a small grove of trees about 50' in front of us. Armed with nothing more than a camera, and 3 miles from the car, we just stood and waited until he went back into the woods. What amazed me was that the trees were very close together, but he slipped through them without a sound. How do they get their rack through that stuff?

 

I was Chukar hunting five years back up around Gerlach, Nevada in the Smoke Creek desert. When I got to the top of a draw, I stopped to catch my breath and get a drink of water. I turned around to survey the area and I saw a Mountain Lion about 50' away coming towards me!
It stopped after I yelled at it trying to scare it away, but after a couple of seconds it started advancing to me again. I grabbed my .45 and threw a shot at it wide/left when it got to within 30' and it took off. After that, I became a lot more aware of the wildlife in that canyon on the way back to camp. I never saw it again but I was looking very hard for it.

I came to find out later that another hunter a few weeks later in roughly the same area had a very similar run in with a mountain lion but he got chewed on for a bit before his buddy chased it away.

 

One time I was camping at Yellowstone National Park with a buddy, just sitting at the camp bench after flyfishing, when a bison (big Tatanka ) meandered into our campsite, just munching on the vegetation. Probably no more than 10 feet away. I wanted to pet it, but something told me I better not.

Had a bull moose almost trample my tent in Denali National Park in Alaska.
I was in it at the time. That would've hurt.

On my way back from Alaska, I went for a hike along a river and noticed bunch of shredded salmon along the banks. Then I noticed extremely big paw prints. Then a grunt. Then I made a u-turn and got my butt outta there.

Had a wild boar chase us in Henry Coe State Park near San Jose, Ca.
Hmmmm! Bacon.

So far, I've seen two coyotes, here in San Francisco, one in the Presidio and one in Golden Gate Park. That's kinda unusual.
There is a buffalo paddock with about 10 bison roaming in the park.

Along time ago my mom was in Yosemite, with a bunch of her friends sleeping in their cabin tent when a bear busted through the door and ripped the food locker off the wall. The bear drug it outside and began the rip the locker to shreds to get to the food inside. She was a bit scared. The rangers knew this particular bear and transported back into the back-country.

 

Rancho San Antonio Park is a few thousand acre woodland park skirting Cupertino in the heart of Silicon Valley. It used to be a great place to ride horse, hike or bike, until the Silly Valley crowd discovered it and made it THE place to jog and talk loudly about their stock options. A freaking zoo now.

A few years back there was a boar that would come out and run alongside the joggers...never hurt anyone, but really freaked some people out. I think they shot it.

 

It talks about your neighbor in Maine but your signature says that you don't live here. Are you from Maine?

 

I have been in Illinois all my life,so no real threatening wild life stories to tell,except for walking up on the occasional water moccasin on a trail by the lake/pond. Kind of an amusing story,though. Me and the kids were on one of our week long camping trips last summer,just sitting around the camp fire after dark enjoying the cool evening after the heat of the day,and out of the corner of my eye I see movement. all the kids were around the fire,and we were the only ones camping in that immediate area of the state park,so I knew it wasn't them,and I became very alert to make sure we weren't about to get mugged or attcked by a stray dog or something. well,it was a racoon doing recon for his family of pillagers,in about 5 minutes after I 1st sighted him,here came his whole family circling the edges of the camp fire light. About that time the kids saw them,and started getting scared. I just told them to sit still and watch what they do. we were sitting about 10 feet from the fire,and they walked right up to the fire,sniffing around for food. of course there wasn't any because I keep it in the vehicle just to keep the racoons out of it.Then the kids calmed down and started saying how cute they were.. Me,I was wary and kept my big stick handy that I use to stir the fire. Sure enough,the leader was upset that he couldn't find any food,and turned around and started hissing and growling at us,well the cuteness wore off for me at that time,and I wacked him upside the head. they all scattered like a bunch of birds that just got spooked. they never came close again,but we could see their eyes glowing in the firelight just at the edge of the woods unitl we turned in for the night. then in the middle of the night I heard a rustling noise,and looked outside the tent,and there by the picnic table was one of them eating the snack mix my daughter had spilled on the ground earlier that day.