What Local Animal Are You Most Afraid Of?

[Mother Dragon]

What animal (humans don't count) in your area are you most afraid of and why? Have you ever seen one? Have you had a close encounter with it?

For me, it's alligators. They're stealth predators and once they grab you, you're not likely to get loose. It's usually over and there's not much left to find. We have a state park full of them and there are warning signs everywhere. They turn up everywhere after a flood or during mating season. Pools, schoolyards, parking garages, porches. Even if you do escape, alligator mouths are teeming with nasty bacteria and those can kill you almost as easily.

A small town near here has a Gator Fest every year. Maybe this photo of a 13' 8.5" 900 lb. gator will show. I held a 3' baby gator with its mouth taped shut. It was pretty placid but it could have taken a hand off without blinking.

Second place would be big sharks for the same reason. However, their attacks are often survivable.

 

[orange&white]

Rattlesnakes. 'nuff said.

 

[mizzely]

I would say mountain lions. They are rare around me but they come nearby every few years. I've never seen one in the wild, never had an encounter. The sound they make, the stealth and ambush nature of them... the news plays stories about little kids getting attacked and dragged off and it makes my blood run cold. My son is only 2 and I can't imagine losing him like that!

 

[Mother Dragon]

Rattlesnakes. 'nuff said.

I'm not fond of unexpectedly finding any snake and poisonous ones unhinge me. We had a ground rattler get in the house once. That was not pretty.

When I was about 11, I was at a zoo when a massive king cobra suddenly struck the glass right at my face. The sound of the snake hitting the glass was loud. They tell me venom ran all down the glass but I wasn't anywhere close by then so I didn't see it. I didn't go back to look, either.

 

[orange&white]

I scream and run from harmless garden snakes. ...and I'm not much one to scream, normally.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

A year ago or so DD and I went out into the backyard in the middle of the night to watch a meteor shower. We live in a fairly rural area but our backyard is fenced in. (I can't remember if I posted about this on TCS when it happened). We were on the back patio watching and I shined the flashlight from my phone across the yard and some orange eyes glowed back at me! They were headed toward my neighbor's also fenced in yard. Whatever it was; fences were not an issue!

We don't have much dangerous wildlife here. There are some poisonous snakes and spiders; but that's it. I remember in high school hearing an announcement at the end of the school day that no students were to go near the park down the road (the school's cross country trail lead there) because a cougar had been spotted. Or someone claimed to. I don't think I've heard of any other sightings.

I like to see wildlife; but not necessarily in my backyard. We get little garden snakes. As long as they don't surprise me and I know they are there; I'm ok with it. We found a baby one curled up, sunning himself on our wood pile a few weeks ago. He was small enough to be cute. But only right where he was! DH and I have both seen snakes go under our concrete steps outside the back door. We get lots of frogs around this part of the yard so I'm not surprised.

 

[Willowy]

We don't really have any dangerous animals. The farmers have exterminated anything remotely hazardous to livestock so that pretty much takes care of anything that could hurt humans too :/. The occasional cougar wanders through (I saw one once) but they're so rarely a threat to humans that the chances of a wanderer doing anything are slim to none. It's usually injured or sick cougars that attack people. Coyotes aren't much threat---it has happened, but the coyotes here are so heavily hunted that they're sneaky and scared and try to stay away from humans as much as possible. I'm told that rattlesnakes have been found in the rocks near the river but I don't know how accurate that is. They aren't known to be anywhere else locally.

So, not much to be scared of! So I'll say that I'm most scared of skunks. Now, I love skunks, I think they're cool, I want a pet skunk someday, but! I do NOT want to be sprayed by one, or have my dogs sprayed by one. Nope.

 

[kashmir64]

I have no fear of the local wildlife, and we have plenty. The bear does his bear thing, the wolves just meander around, the mountain lion loves to sleep on my car. Yes, my car. The coyotes and what I call wolfoytes (coyote wolf hybrid) although they sound like bigfoot attacking a chupacabra, they are harmless.

But for some reason, I have a death fear of crickets. Been that way since I was little. Go figure.

 

[debbila]

Coyotes, even though they don't come around where humans are, they are a danger to our pets. I let my cat go out during the day when there are neighbors coming and going. I close her doggie door at night so she can't get out.

 

[muffy]

We don't have any dangerous wild animals around here. Last year someone hit and killed a bear cub about 25 miles from here. We have copperhead's around here but I would not know one if I saw one. Snakes don't bother me. I've seen two foxes in my yard and they are what really scare me. I saw one when I was a kid and I've been having nightmares about them ever since.

Muffy

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i guess it would be coyotes, because i worry about my cats -- even though they're indoors-only and have never been outside (except in carriers, with me, and going to see the vet).

indoors, we've been having quite a number of spiders lately -- these black ones. now, i don't mind daddy long legs spiders, they're good spiders. but these black ones...they worry me, that they might be the kind that bite, and i've seen the nasty effects of a spider bite -- not me who got bit. and the girls, DeeDee and Punky, are just intrepid hunters -- they hunt anything that moves. so i send those black spiders off to the 'great beyond' post-haste!

 

[Norachan]

Monkey. People think Japanese monkey are really cute, because they take baths in the hot springs when it's snowing. (OK, that is pretty cute.) They're a lot bigger than you think though and they can be aggressive, particularly when they have young with them. I always stay well away from the monkey.

We also have wild boar and bears here. I've seen them a few times from a distance. They run away from people and are only dangerous if you corner them.

 

[kittens mom]

Me personally rattlesnakes. The bigger more wolf like coyotes that I see now for my cats. We are so careful t make sure the babies don't slip out the door with us.

 

[foxxycat]

I don't fear much of anything. Snakes don't bother me. I pick them up. And I never seen anything other than deer in my yard, a wood chuck and skunks. Occasionally an Opossum which honeybee loves to try to sniff. We don't let her out at night-but sometimes if I come in late-she darts out-there's a stone she runs right to and rubs all over it. So I can grab her and tell her she's a bad girl and stick her back in the house. I haven't heard coyotes but I heard they are around. I guess the only thing that gives me the creeps- fishercats. Never seen one but heard they are nasty things.

 

[kittens mom]

Me personally rattlesnakes. The bigger more wolf like coyotes that I see now for my cats. We are so careful t make sure the babies don't slip out the door with us.

 

[Willowy]

As for my personal wildlife, on my property: I like the possums, I'm not scared of them at all---I'll go fill the cat dish while one is eating, and they usually just move a couple of feet away because they know I'm not dangerous to them. I'm cautious of the raccoons because they can be mean, but I'm not scared of them, I just don't get too close. I know there's a groundhog because of the holes under the old shed but I never see him, but nothing to fear from a groundhog except stepping in a hole, lol. There was a family of foxes that raised their litter under the groundhog's shed a couple years ago but I haven't seen them since. The daddy fox would go hunting in my burn pit and would run out whenever I walked too close and I got used to seeing him around, so they don't scare me.

I hear the coyotes most nights but I don't know where they are. Sound can travel very far on a clear night so they may be 5 miles away at the river for all I know. I would prefer they stay away from my place because of the farm cats, and so far I haven't seen any sign that coyotes have come by. Hopefully it stays that way. I haven't seen any deer tracks at my place either; I think I'm too far from a large water source.

 

[kittens mom]

We would not have coyote issues if my neighbors would learn how to close the lid on their trash bin and put a bungee on it or leave dog and cat food outside.
Failing to keep all food/water sources away from your home result in vermin which in turn attracts things like rattlesnakes, skunks and coyotes. As a rule I do not feed wildlife it ends up costing them their lives when the next doorstep they hit isn't friendly.
I have a fair amount of wildlife on our property and we manage to co-exist

 

[jcat]

Wild boars are about the only dangerous animals around here. I've had too many close encounters with them not to be very cautious when walking in wooded areas at twilight. The animal that really scares me is a big old badger that hangs around the animal shelter where I work. He helps himself to cat food, and I'm afraid he'll bite me when I'm collecting dishes from the ferals' outdoor feeding stations. I always look before reaching in!

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Monkey.

If Monkey's were local; they'd be my top choice. I'm definitely more scared of monkeys than bears or wildcats!

 

[kittens mom]

I have no fear of the local wildlife, and we have plenty. The bear does his bear thing, the wolves just meander around, the mountain lion loves to sleep on my car. Yes, my car. The coyotes and what I call wolfoytes (coyote wolf hybrid) although they sound like bigfoot attacking a chupacabra, they are harmless.

But for some reason, I have a death fear of crickets. Been that way since I was little. Go figure.

The first time I seen one of the wolf/coyote hybrids it was a shock. Our coyotes have always been small ugly yellow dogs.