Close Encounters - Of the Nature / Natural Kind

This calm and smart reaction to a very curious moose amused and inpressed me.



I bet others have similar photos or videos to share.

Whatcha got?

"Got any muffins in that bag?"

I alas (thank goodness) did not record my calm reaction to a rattlesnake on a hiking path. In carefully stepping backward to give the snake some space, I managed to plant my backside directly on a cactus. I apparently still had some work to do on being aware of my surroundings at that time, hope I've gotten better since.

Now I'm really curious how a face to face encounter would have played out!

I have had a close encounter with nature - wildlife, actually.

Back in my hippy days, I was cycling my rainbow bike through a park which had deers.   Ahead I saw a deer starting to walking onto the concrete pathway (grass either side of it).  I duly slowed down allowing for it to pass across....except it didn't!  It just froze on the spot. Much to my horror I couldn't brake in time/fast enough and....yes, you've guessed it, I bumped into its backside!  (I could have been done for it since the deer are royal property, I learned later).  The deer seemed fine - just ran away.

It left me on the ground, underneath my bike.  Someone came up and, again I didn't get the expected reaction (e.g. 'are you alright?')   He picked up my bike and exclaimed that it was fine.  Jeez....thanks!

Encountered a young moose in Evanston WY 5 years ago. Walking along a path by the river through town at dusk, 15' from a parking lot, quarter mile from I80. Rounded a corner and...  Well Hello!  About 20' away. We looked at each other and I heard it's buddy snuffling around in the bushes close to the river. I backed up slowly. Looked decidedly LARGE to me. Taller than I was, anyway. Carefully put a car between us and it decided there was more interesting stuff by the river.

Back in '78 (?) I darn near got trampled by a deer couple miles outside Lead, SD. Again at dusk, taking an after dinner walk from my camp. I heard some thumping, turned out it was 3-4 deer playing and romping in a clearing. Guess I wasn't any smarter then than I am now cuz I proceeded to walk toward them slowly. It was really getting dark and hard to see; they were maybe 50yd away. They must have got wind of me because they freaked and took off - in all directions, one of them straight for me! It saw me at the last moment, and veered around (glad one of us was functioning...). Probably a matter of a couple feet - close. It was by and gone before I could even twitch, much less think. Took me a couple minutes to count my fingers and toes. Those things really pound the ground when they're moving!

Nature is just totally neat. Especially when it's big enough to get your attention.


Cheers,
Rufus

Tereza Okava wrote:"Got any muffins in that bag?"

I alas (thank goodness) did not record my calm reaction to a rattlesnake on a hiking path. In carefully stepping backward to give the snake some space, I managed to plant my backside directly on a cactus. I apparently still had some work to do on being aware of my surroundings at that time, hope I've gotten better since.

Your post reminded me of a fairly similar snake encounter I had in Italy (minus the getting intimate with a cactus, ouch!)

I was walking on a mountain path when, suddenly, I saw a large snake.  Its head was raised, high up, in attacking mode.  I was probably just a few feet from it!  I didn't know whether it was poisonous but wasn't going to take any chances!  I instinctively knew not to make any sudden movements whilst realising that the snake might have been just as scared as I was and needed reassurance.  I had heard that dogs go by the tone of your voice, so I spoke slowly and softly as I inched myself away.  Thankfully that did the trick!

Not a good sign...

I'm loving all the stories!

And that last picture is priceless, thanks Ruth!

Oh, Josiah posted this here about a bobcat outside Allerton Abbey on the lab:

Josiah Kobernik wrote:#11
One of the kittens fought off a bobcat. The lab is a wild place for sure. I followed the tracks for a while and they traversed ant village a couple times.

He said the kitten that fought it off was Gretel, the calico runt of the litter! (Of course, she's larger than that linked picture now. The kittens are about 5 months old.)

I'm a visual person, so does anyone have any pictures or videos of close encounters to post?