Real Men Pet The Tigers
What’s the most dangerous animal you’ve actually touched?
I think my worst is an alligator. Some family of mine lived in the Tampa area, and on a visit we went to a wildlife sancuary/zoo thing called Homosassa Springs where they did some demonstrations with gators and manatees and other wildlife. One of the gators was small and chill and the kids got to touch it under strict supervision. So I can’t say I’ve ever really flirted with danger, but it’s a good question for a party. I’ve also touched a bunch of big raptor birds (hawks, owls, eagles) at various school assemblies and such.
Another question: what’s the most dangerous animal you’ve actually encountered in the wild? I assume most of you are like me and that you’ve only touched dangerous animals under heavily controlled circumstances, but what about out there in the great yonder? I’ve had a couple spooks while hiking alone in the Pacific Northwest. One was a big black bear that I thought was a stump until it looked at me and then shuffled up a nearby tree. I backtracked for a bit until I ran into a group of hikers and walked out with them just to be safe. Another time I am 99.9% sure I was being watched by a cougar on a different isolated trail area. All the birds and animals had gone silent all of a sudden and I felt like I was being studied. I think I caught a glimpse of it at one point behind some ferns, but I didn’t stick around to make sure, just grabbed a big stick, made a lot of noise, and kept going. I had a second encounter like that a few years later where my dog was clearly spooked by something for a stretch of trail.
Of course, all of this pales in comparison to the true most dangerous wild animal: the BMW driver.
Pretty sure I’m going to die trying to pet something I shouldnt.
“Does Mr Fuzzy Wuzzy Polar Bear want some belly rubs? Oh yes he does! Yes he- AGHHHH!”
Yes, it would love for you to give it belly rubs. Unfortunately for you, it’s favorite type of belly rubs are from the inside.
If No Fren, Why Fren Shape. Tale as old as time.
It was semi-controlled circumstances but very unexpected. I was at the San Diego Wild Animal Park when one of the staff walked up from behind me and then faced me. “Excuse me, could you hold this for me for a minute? Thanks.” He handed me a leather strap, then walked away. Odd, I thought. Then I looked at what the strap was attached to, and it was a cheetah. I don’t think I’ve ever stood so still. It was sitting there, looking at me intently as if to say, “Run. Go ahead and run. I dare you.” The staff member came back of course, and I got to VERY carefully stroke it. Solid muscle, an absolute machine, beautiful.
I accidently stepped on a rattlesnake once. It didn’t strike but boy howdy.
To be fair, depending on where you live, the BMW driver could also be a cougar…
…I’ll see myself out
Great timing posting this while I’m hiking a bunch of National Parks out west, I saw several bears at Glacier National Park last week including a mother grizzly and her two cubs from about 100 feet away, it was scary in the moment but I was with a bunch of other hikers and we all made noise to let the bear know we were here so not to surprise her, in hindsight it was really cool
I also got way too close to a moose at the edge of the lake
Does my wife count?
HIYOOOOOOO
Touched: a black bear, my college’s live mascot, when I got my photo taken next to her during an event at my cafeteria job when I was a student.
In the wild: probably the number of alligators and venomous snakes that were not uncommon sights around the neighborhood I grew up in. I recall one time when an alligator was hit by a car and laid dead in front of our house. My dad tossed it in the trash can and left a note for the garbagemen so they knew the gator was dead.
Back in 1989, my only trip to Blackpool (we tended to favour Scarborough back then), I held a mahoosive boa constrictor. Well, I say held – it was draped over me and I held its neck.
If we count everglades trips, the most dangerous encounter I’ve had with an animal is a gator, but in reality it’s probably either a rattlesnake that crossed the trail right in front of me, a Black Bear I ran into in Yosemite, or sharks (none of the really scary ones but, you know, shark).
Pet…probably a stingray.
Just a thought, imagine someone let his pet Maine Coon loose for a bit and people who never seen one thinks it’s a lynx.
I had a boa constrictor wrapped around me when I was a kid. I’ve rode an elephant. In the wild it’s bears.
I was on a safari about 7 years ago. An elephant woke us up at midnight by rubbing against our tented cabin.
Most dangerous in that moment was probably our bull, but most dangerous animal when it grows up was either a lion or a tiger. I got to pet cubs of both types once in a traveling zoo that was attached to a local fair circuit for the time being. Officially, we weren’t supposed to pet them, but the people running the show didn’t seem to care. I must have pet those cute lil bastards for a good twenty minutes.
My in the wild encounter was probably the mama black bear I saw while biking. I saw her cross the trail and stopped dead in my tracks. A few moments later her cubs appeared, following her. The moment I saw them I turned around and pedaled my ass away ASAP. I wanted nothing to do with the possibility of being seen as between those cubs and mommy.
A pitbull. My brother’s sweetheart teddy bear of a pitbull, before I bring out the defense squad, I know why they’ve got the reputation they do and I think they’re unfairly maligned, but I guess statistically that’s the deadliest, because I am a coward.
My sister has owned several of those guys and every one of them has been just the happiest puppy. Too bad they don’t seem to know what they’re capable of sometimes as they happily rip the arm off of whoever’s walking them..
It is a case of nature. All Pitbulls are capable of terrible things because they were bred for generations to be killing machines. It doesn’t mean they can’t be loving and nice dogs but certain breeds should have certificates that the owner properly trained the dog.
My cousin’s pit bull likes to put her face on my crotch.
It’s kind of a light head butt though.
I woke up sleeping under the stars in Yosemite to hear clawing on a tree. I sat up and was met by two eyes reflecting the moon and the shape of a giant and it was peering at me. It was a large black bear about 20 feet from me interested in something. I shooed it away (luckily it worked).
I once encountered a Titans fan but he vanished before I could get my camera out.
Buffaloes blocking the road while snowmobiling in Yellowstone NP.
Juvenile moose on paved bike trail in Anchorage AK with mom a few yards away.
I grew up in Florida, it’s pretty common to have alligators and venomous snakes brought in to your elementary school so you can see them up close.
Definitely caught a few water moccasins and snapping turtles, and once accidentally hit a gator with a canoe
Very curious lemon shark while diving once. Nudged it away with my leg
I touched hands with a chimpanzee once. It was being rehabilitated and was in a (roomy) cage at the National Park in Nairobi. I was looking at it, and it was looking at me, then we both reached hands towards each other, touched and immediately pulled back. Pretty strange. This was in the 1980s so a long time ago.
Moose and one small black bear. The bear wasn’t much bigger than a large dog and was hauling ass away from me, but I saw moose many times in northern new brunswick and newfoundland. They are very intimidating, especially when in a canoe.
I’ve never touched any dangerous animals though, because I am not a nut.