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Creature you'd most like to avoid on a trail

Creature you'd most like to avoid on a trail

  • Bear

    Votes: 50 44.2%
  • Moose

    Votes: 37 32.7%
  • Mountain Lion (Cougar), Bobcat

    Votes: 66 58.4%
  • Rattle Snake

    Votes: 31 27.4%
  • Farm Animal

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Skunk

    Votes: 19 16.8%
  • Wolf

    Votes: 11 9.7%
  • Coyote

    Votes: 9 8.0%
  • Bugs (mosquitos, ticks, and other tiny nuisance)

    Votes: 20 17.7%
  • Other

    Votes: 15 13.3%

  • Total voters
    113

oldschoolskier

Making fresh tracks
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Ontario Canada
This story made our local news in Reno.
Alligators climbing a fence....this is the stuff bad movies are made of.
https://www.kolotv.com/content/news...W_zhoWp3ThRJdJsdz-LZ5KMI05s5SkJbp6zY7hOVI8w1g
Two things come to mind :eek::rolleyes:.

1. Overheard just before getting eating by Alligator “That’s new! When did they learn to do that!”

2. Obviously wildlife services screwed up big time do to budget cuts. They forgot to tell the Alligators that Alligators can’t climb fences!
 

4ster

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!
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Sierra & Wasatch
423E997B-BF82-4273-A851-BC7D1F345DAC.jpeg
 

P-Ute

Getting off the lift
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upload_2019-9-6_20-58-8.png


In Girdwood, Alaska they seem to be more worried about bears. I concur, but I would also prefer to not surprise a moose too.
Picture is from Winner Creek Trailhead at base of Alyeska Resort.
So this raises the question, does a moose yield to a bear or does a bear yield to a moose?
 

oldschoolskier

Making fresh tracks
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Depends if its rutting season.

If it is, the bear definitely yields willingly or unwilling.

The rest of the year depends on who's the biggest and grumpiest at that moment.
 

P-Ute

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As you drive up I-89 in Vermont, at different times you go by "Moose Crossing" and "Bear Crossing" signs. Obviously it depends on whose home turf it is.

I will risk mixing this thread with the "Localism" thread.
So are you saying tourists should yield to locals?
 
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Gary Stolt

Mr. Style
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Franklin, KY
I have encountered a bear in camp and a moose on a trail but I get the most nervous when running by the neighbors house where 2 pit bull/bulldog like creatures bear their teeth and challenge the invisible fence. There is no hint of making friends in their growl tone. Next door is a german shepard that per its owner, even with teeth showing and growling like a bear - "just wants to play." He is not fenced and my everyday suggestion is "Why don't YOU play with him then". I'm running and am not in the mood for his type of play. On one occasion, another neighbor came to my rescue with a baseball bat. In that case the german shepard decided not to play.
 

Jerez

Skiing the powder
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I encountered a German Shepherd in my neighborhood. I stopped when he came running toward me. "Dont worry; he wont bite!" Shouted the friendly owner from a block away. I put my hand out to be sniffed and he grabbed my arm. I went limp so he let go...then took a chunk out of my thigh.

Statistically, your neighbors have the 3 most likely to bite breeds. You are right to be wary!
 
Thread Starter
TS
Tricia

Tricia

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I encountered a German Shepherd in my neighborhood. I stopped when he came running toward me. "Dont worry; he wont bite!" Shouted the friendly owner from a block away. I put my hand out to be sniffed and he grabbed my arm. I went limp so he let go...then took a chunk out of my thigh.

Statistically, your neighbors have the 3 most likely to bite breeds. You are right to be wary!
Wow, what did the neighbor say after you got bit?
 

Jerez

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Wow, what did the neighbor say after you got bit?
She was appropriately apologetic. Met me at the doctors with rabies vaccine info so I didnt have to get a shot. But he stays on the leash now! I can still feel the damn thing years later. Makes me super sympathetic to stories of dog attacks. That stuff really hurts!!!
 

François Pugh

Skiing the powder
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Great White North (Eastern side currently)
Owners sometimes don't know what their dog is like outside of the owner's presence. My brother once had a yellow lab. Nicest dog you could ever meet. I stopped by his place one day when nobody was home. Dog was fiercely defending the property; the only way I was getting in would have been to kill the dog..... a complete Jeckle and Hyde personality transition.
 

James

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She was appropriately apologetic. Met me at the doctors with rabies vaccine info so I didnt have to get a shot. But he stays on the leash now! I can still feel the damn thing years later. Makes me super sympathetic to stories of dog attacks. That stuff really hurts!!!
At least she didn’t say it wasn’t her dog.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Whitefish, MT
Owners sometimes don't know what their dog is like outside of the owner's presence. My brother once had a yellow lab. Nicest dog you could ever meet. I stopped by his place one day when nobody was home. Dog was fiercely defending the property; the only way I was getting in would have been to kill the dog..... a complete Jeckle and Hyde personality transition.
When I was growing up, myself and two girlfriends ran in and out of each other's houses several times a day, like they were our own. The lady across the street had Dobermans, whom I had known for years. And then one day I came in with a pea jacket on (dating myself, aren't I?). One of the dogs leapt up headed for my throat and I knocked it down with a lucky sideways swipe reaction before my friend's mom rescued me. You never know.
 

Eric267

Gettin after it
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Kings Beach
Was out with chief last week and had a little run in. Walking down the fire road next to the snow creek. Creek bed is all dry now but super grown in with tall grass and bushes from the crazy amount of runoff from martis peak this spring/summer. Chief (on a 25ft leash) dipped into the thick growth an immediately jumped back out. Was strange since since the sound of him crashing through the bushes continued after he was back on the road..

Got violently louder and louder for a few what seemed like a few seconds. At first I thought a huge branch broke off a tree but when I looked up I immediately spotted two tiny cubs on a broken down tree lying across the creek. No sooner did I see them I realized the noise was the momma charging at us!! Then boom she appeared about 15 feet away, stopped dead in her tracks, stood up and started grunting and staring us down!!

Didn't really phase chief as he just started growling and barking but man it completely caught me off guard!! Backed away slowly and continued down the road for a bit before I stopped to gather myself.

We come across bear fairly often living on the edge of the national Forrest, but never been charged before..

One of the little Cubs from where I stopped to check and see if I had soiled myself :)
image.jpeg
 

mdf

entering the Big Couloir
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On one occasion, another neighbor came to my rescue with a baseball bat.

Dogs and baseball bats remind me of a problem we had at our first house. The next-door neighbors had a big Chow that would sit in our front yard and bark loudly late at night. We tried phoning the neighbor -- no response. We tried phoning the police -- the neighbor was buddies with a lot of them, so no response. This went on a couple of nights a week for several weeks.

Finally I went out one night with a baseball bat. My wife was scared I was going to get bitten. Didn't hit him -- all I had to do was threaten the dog convincingly with it. He took off running and never barked in our yard again. Unfortunately he didn't shut up, he just relocated to the front yard of the house on the other side of his own yard. But that was far enough away that we could ignore him.
 

oldschoolskier

Making fresh tracks
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Ontario Canada
I/we have/had dogs for over 45 years, the same thing I tell everyone when asked “Do they bite”, is “Don’t know, they haven’t bitten anyone yet”. None has yet.

Our latest is a small sweet Jack Russell that can be extremely docile in a crowd or very aggressive if she feels she is defending our property. We are working hard as we don’t want her to be our first biter.
 

oldschoolskier

Making fresh tracks
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Joined
Dec 6, 2015
Posts
4,225
Location
Ontario Canada
Was out with chief last week and had a little run in. Walking down the fire road next to the snow creek. Creek bed is all dry now but super grown in with tall grass and bushes from the crazy amount of runoff from martis peak this spring/summer. Chief (on a 25ft leash) dipped into the thick growth an immediately jumped back out. Was strange since since the sound of him crashing through the bushes continued after he was back on the road..

Got violently louder and louder for a few what seemed like a few seconds. At first I thought a huge branch broke off a tree but when I looked up I immediately spotted two tiny cubs on a broken down tree lying across the creek. No sooner did I see them I realized the noise was the momma charging at us!! Then boom she appeared about 15 feet away, stopped dead in her tracks, stood up and started grunting and staring us down!!

Didn't really phase chief as he just started growling and barking but man it completely caught me off guard!! Backed away slowly and continued down the road for a bit before I stopped to gather myself.

We come across bear fairly often living on the edge of the national Forrest, but never been charged before..

One of the little Cubs from where I stopped to check and see if I had soiled myself :)
View attachment 79857
Lucky.
 

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