• Anticorp@lemmy.worlddeleted by creator
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    1 year ago

    You know what we don’t have? Large predators

    Crocodiles are pretty large, and so are great white sharks.

    You know what’s funny though? I just finished writing about how bears aren’t scary, and then I came across your post saying American predators are more scary than Australian ones. Haha. I suppose it’s all a matter of familiarity.

      • Anticorp@lemmy.worlddeleted by creator
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, crocodiles and alligators seem pretty easy to avoid, as long as you don’t have to get into the water.

        Most bears just run away long before people see them. I’ve spent half my life in the backcountry and high country, and I’ve only seen a bear 3 times in the wild, each time it was running away. Okay, 4 times if you count Yosemite, which I don’t since those are basically domesticated bears. To be clear, I’m not arguing with you, just giving you more details on the predators we have here. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them. I do carry bear spray in bear country though these days, just in case.

        I’ve never seen a cougar. They won’t be seen if they don’t want to be seen.

        Snakes are pretty much the same thing like you said, just leave it alone, but they’re a lot less likely to run away. The real danger with snakes is startling one when scrambling over rocks. They’ll just bite you out of self defense and then you’re in for a real bad time. I’ve only ever happened across rattlesnakes 3 times though. They’re very reclusive creatures. We killed the snake two out of the three times though, because both of those times the snake had set up shop on a path we frequently walked, and we couldn’t risk startling it one day without seeing it, and ending up dead, or losing a limb, or whatever.

        Spiders are the worst, because they’ll crawl inside your shoes, gloves, sleeping bags, pants, or whatever, and bite you when you don’t even know they’re there. Thankfully we only have a few very dangerous spiders, and one of them is a web spider, so very easy to avoid.

          • Anticorp@lemmy.worlddeleted by creator
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            1 year ago

            Wow! What a special treat! I’ve seen a bobcat in the wild, but never a cougar. I’m pretty okay with not seeing them though, since they’re usually planning on killing you if they let themselves be seen. Still, it would be neat to actually see one and walk away unscathed.

            I saw a wolf once. It was just sitting in the middle of the road. We got a good look at it as we drove past and it’s so very obvious that they are not dogs. The eyes held so much danger and wildness in them. It was very cool.