What's the most dangerous animal you've come across?

[+iamapom]

The Eastern Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus) - only the 4th most venomous snake in the world.

[+jindi kid]

Kangaroo

Did it kick you or something?

 

no but was guarding its territory

[+Planet]

It wasn't always while caching, but I have run into bears, bobcats, coyotes, snakes, ticks, spiders, deer, and one mountain lion we never reported. The say mountain lions don't live in CT, but I saw it, up close and for a good long time (we woke it from its nap) and someone hit and kiled one with car recently.

 

That could not possibly have been a mountain lion. It must have been a cougar. Or perhaps a puma.

 

HAHAHA, that's funny. I get it. At first I was going to ask if you were kidding, but since you said puma too, I get it.

 

I'm adding Moose (and Squirrel) to my list and a gator in FL.

The bears were seen while caching.

[+Themundies]

Haven't really had any dangerous animal experiences, but this one afternoon we were going for a cache in Audubon Park in New Orleans and had the oddest thing happened.

 

I was sure that the cache was hidden in some plants near the water and Mrs. Mundie wasn't so sure. So we were having a discussion about this when this really tattooed guy comes strolling by (and I'm talking like prison tats with tear drop tattoos and all) with a phone out and a back pack. He didn't look like a geocacher, but he was really behaving like one. I'm trying not to watch him, but I sort of am and Mrs. Mundie is trying to get me to give up till he goes away. I kept saying to her "I think he is a geocacher, I mean geocachers come from all sorts of walks of life, so he could be?" Well then the guy goes right over to the plants I was looking at. At this point I'm sure he is a geocacher, and he pulls on a string I must have missed and pulls this Tupperware container out of the water. He then cuts the string, puts it in his bag, looks at me and smiles a gold toothed smile and walks away.

 

I know what you are thinking! Guy just stole the cache! That's what I thought too! Except Mrs. Mundie found the cache as we were heading back to examine the area.

[+Team_Schnauzer]

Lots of ticks. A really long snake in a tree that scared the bejesus out of me!!

 

So... I know how to handle rattlesnakes. Tread loudly (vibration wise) so the snake will let you know he's there (usually). Then avoid.

 

How do you protect against ticks? Hats & sprays?

 

We haven't come across too many ticks this year, but the answer is exactly that, hats and sprays. If I'm out in the woods, definitely going to wear a hat so if the tick lands on me it'll get to the hat first. Secondly, wear long sleeves and pants. Yeah, they're quite uncomfortable in the summer, but ticks will have a more difficult time reaching your body if they have fewer access points. Also, dark colors are better than lighter colors because ticks are attracted to brightness. Finally, wear a mosquito spray that has DEET in it (at least 10% content). The ticks may jump on you but they'll quickly jump off if you have this stuff on.

 

On the topic of coming across "dangerous" animals, we were group caching back in July and I went in to make the find on a park gazebo and was attacked by a bunch of mad, black hornets. I didn't get stung but it wasn't pleasant either. For Iowa, this is about as bad as it gets unless you come across a coyote (rarely), mountain lion (in SW Iowa but again, a rarity) or even a rabid raccoon.

[+AmphibianTrackers]

Gators, ticks, spiders, oh my!

[+Cache Sleuth]

Copperhead snake, which resulted in $200 emergency vet bill to save the cache dog when she got bit in the mouth.

 

Rabid opossum, which tried to attack me and the cache dog and had to be fought off with limbs, a walking stick and rocks.

 

Those are the two worst, by far. I have also encountered bears, deer, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, non-poisonous snakes, otters, groundhogs, many dogs (friendly and unfriendly), cats, mosquitos, black flies, hoards of swarming gnats, bees, yellow jackets, hornets, mice, spiders, and many humans (mostly friendly, but occasionally unfriendly - particularly when I am searching for a cache that was hidden on their property without permission!).

[+EdrickV]

While Geocaching, the worst I've really encountered would probably be mosquitoes. I did scare up some deer once, but they weren't any danger to me.

 

Aside from Geocaching, my most potentially dangerous encounter would have been with humans. It was near a relative's house out in the country. They've got a good bit of property and I grew up wandering all over with my cousins playing. Much later on, I still liked to walk around the property and see what the places I used to play at looked like years later. One thing I'd discovered is that a herd of deer liked to visit a field owned by a neighbor. At certain times of the year, I would often go out to a spot near the property line at a certain time, settle down for a bit, and could watch the herd of deer come out to feed.

 

One day when I was doing that, a couple guys with guns came from the neighbor's house and ended up going up into a tree blind not far from where I'd been watching the deer from. When I first saw them, I stayed put and quiet because I certainly didn't want to startle them. Once they were settled down in the blind I tried to leave the area without making any noise. Don't know if they ever saw me, but once they were in the blind they were likely looking away from me. (I assume they were going to hunt the deer, and I didn't really want to stick around for that.) The blind was just on their side of the property line.

[Luckless]

The only thing, of all those mentioned in this thread, that I've had trouble with is tics. I stopped at a rest stop in Virginia coming back up north on rt. 95. The cache write up said there were tics, but I'd never been bothered by tics so I ignored the warning. Didn't find the cache, but I was pulling tics off me in 45 MPH, bumper to bumper traffic. Stayed at a fancy Marriot hotel that night. Wonder how many I left in the bed. (Sorry) Opened my suitcase when I got home and there was one sitting on top of my clothes. Those tics were nasty. Ugh, I'm scratching just thinking about it.

[+taggdog]

I was climbing Mt St. Helens about a month ago (found a cache near the summit). While coming down a ridge line we saw a cougar descending a rocky slope about a half mile away. About a minute later on the other side of the ridge we saw a black bear trying to climb a scrubby tree. Crazy to see two predators so close and within a short time frame. Pretty neat climb.

[+John in Valley Forge]

Crackheads are just so darned unpredictable. I give em a wide berth.

Ticks and skeeters can give you disease.

White tail deer are so overpopulated here they are a menace to drivers.

[+Team Pixos]

Horse flies; bite through anything

 

Bears

[+Pedagog]

Two very scary, very large and very frisky horses, who yesterday were circling me and kicking out.

 

Have to say I have never been more scarred of an animal as I was then. Especially as I had three young children with me. In the end a stern "No get away" did the trick and we proceeded along the path very quickly and out of that field.

[+popokiiti]

Most dangerous animal? My caching partner if I miss reading a critical part of the cache description....

[+Harry Dolphin]

After due thought... Snakes don't worry me. Bears are frightening. But if they see you, and you see them, there shouldn't be a problem.

We were in (a lower class section of a major city). Okay. They guy with his trunk open is probably sellng something illegal. Not a problem. Historic, but somewhat run down park. Interesting cache. Head back. Someone in a car is stopped next to the cachemobile. Now. That had us worried! Run back, and he drives off. Now. That had us worried. And that's when we stopped hunting caches in the (lower class sections of a major city.) One cacher noted that he had admired our bravura. I guess it was our naivete.

[+BigAl437]

The most dangerous? Ticks and mosquitoes. I've also encountered a few copperheads and and rattlesnakes and lots of black bear (we have black bear up the wazoo in NJ).

 

Also on an overnight backpack/cache hunt in the Adirondacks we heard blood curdling feline sounding yowls close to our tent. They kept us up for a while wondering what kind of animal was responsible until they faded into the distance. When we got home we listened to recordings of some North American cats, bobcat, lynx and mountain lion and the closest to what we heard was the lynx.

 

Try listening to a Common Loon and see if that sounds more like what you heard. They can sound pretty interesting at night.

[+BigAl437]

My most dangerous was a Corral snake down in Texas while visiting my son in the Air Force. I was caching while he was at school and I came across it in the woods. It was neat looking.

[jbuffethed]

I saw a deer as it ran out in front of my car doing 55mph on my way to a CITO.

 

 

 

[+DragonsWest]

Rattlesnakes - several of them, one as thick as my forearm.

 

Mountain lions - twice that I've seen them. Who knows how many times they've seen me and I haven't seen them.

 

Black Widow spiders - more times than I can count, in logs, under LPCs, in sheltered locations.

 

 

Take your pick.

 

BTW, deer can kill, too. There was an unfortunate incident in Yosemite National Park, years ago, where a young boy was feeding a buck. For some reason it charged him and impaled him.

 

Respect all nature.

[Night_Hiker]

Rattlesnakes - several of them, one as thick as my forearm.

 

Mountain lions - twice that I've seen them. Who knows how many times they've seen me and I haven't seen them.

 

Black Widow spiders - more times than I can count, in logs, under LPCs, in sheltered locations.

 

 

Take your pick.

 

BTW, deer can kill, too. There was an unfortunate incident in Yosemite National Park, years ago, where a young boy was feeding a buck. For some reason it charged him and impaled him.

 

Respect all nature.

 

This summer was definitely full of black widows, I counted 6 with like 4-5 geo trips

[+mpilchfamily]

Most dangerous animal... It would have to be a tie between a Vogon and Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.

Edited September 3, 2011 by mpilchfamily

[+luvvinbird]

Wasps. I know, not an animal, but sure were aggressive little beasts. I stirred up a nest of them in Whistler, B.C. and got stung twice...I was lucky. Still throbbed after two days.

[AZcachemeister]

[+scottyw]

Chiggers

[+wildchld97]

Aside from the obvious ticks, mosquitos, and those annoying no-see-ums....I've had a couple of unexpected encounters with animals.

 

One cache was hidden inside of a rock crevice. I could barely see it through the two baby groundhogs sitting in front of it. They were soooo cute! They didn't seem afraid of me at all. I patiently waited for them to move along before I used my trusty pole to slide the cache out. (I wasn't so sure that mama groundhog was out for the day.)

 

One other time I was hiking alone in the woods in a remote area and a bobcat jumped out of a tree right in front of me. Scared the living bejesus out of me. I'm glad he wasn't hungry. Actually, I think I scared the crap out of him too.

 

I came across a black bear in the Pocono's once but he wasn't too concerned with me, just snuffeled and went the other way.

 

I've been lucky about snakes and poisonous spiders so far.

 

The scariest creature in the world though is human. I'd trust a bear alone in the woods before I trusted a person. A bear is more predictable.

[+Chokecherry]

I think I mentioned skunks in a thread like this before as the animal I would least like to encounter in the woods.

 

Moose are right up there for dangerous here as they tend to take on people and cars.

 

Then bears which are used to eating people food and who associate people with food. Normal old bears who aren't used to that tend to not be a big problem here as they are kind of skittish.

 

And finally those squirrels that sit up in the trees chirping away throwing bits of stuff down at you.

[+EraSeek]

Has it been said already? Humans.

(actually, a grizzly once.)

Edited September 4, 2011 by EraSeek

[+popokiiti]

We did see Mama Bear and Baby Bear on a logging road just after our final cache of the day. This was back in May and we're returning to the area tomorrow to complete the rest of the series.

[+EScout]

I see lots of rattle snakes, but they are very timid. Got close to a coyote once. A black bear mother with twins made us run back to car. Moose on the side of the road, stayed in the car. Last month, Catalina Island, finished a hike and caching and this bison crossed the trail in front of us.

[+Alkhalikoi]

I had a close run in with a Bobcat once, but that's about it. Not particularly scary of itself, I'm sure, except when I first spied him I was cleaning my glasses, and so at first thought I had stumbled into a mountain lion. Eek.

[+Mn-treker]

Beware the geostalker Sasquatch! Here in Minnesota I have been very near wolves while geocaching in the arrowhead area. I found tufts of wolf hair and wolf scat on the geotrail.

For those who have reported Black widow spiders. Treat them with great respect, my dad who lives in Texas was bitten last year and came close to death. He spent two weeks in the hospital from that bite.

[+Semper Questio]

Most dangerous critter I've come across is a whacked out homeless muggle that seemingly thought I was there to steal his stuff. That or a pair of HUGE dogs roaming wild in a greenbelt and none too happy I was in "their" space.

[+Postholedigger]

I have to throw in with the rattlesnake crowd. Last one I ran into one about a month ago kept me stuck on urban caching for a week or so. That rattling sound is haunting. I mix my caching with trail running often and one time I rounded a curve a came face to face with a pack of coyotes. It stopped me dead in my tracks till I realized that they weren't going to tear me limb from limb but instead were going to take off running in all directions.

[+Tuena]

Koala Bear.

 

Its Spring & last week as I was returning from a cache in the Nattai Wilderness one emerged from a cave after Winter hibernation. I stopped & hid behind a tree & fortunately it was more intent on yawning. A little later & I may have been its first meal in a while.

[+E_ZIG_A]

Koala Bear......A little later & I may have been its first meal in a while.

 

erm..... Koala Bear?

 

OH, maybe you mean the Terror Australis, common name being the Drop Bear...... fearsome creature!

[+Tuena]

You're right!

 

A yawning Koala Bear I could probably outrun. But a Drop Bear - I'd have no chance as they are renowned stealth attackers. I avoid walking in Mountain Ash forests as these are their main habitat.

[+7Gryph7]

Puffadders.

 

 

 

 

Also once came across a SERIOUSLY pissed off Warthog! Not the hakuna matata singing friendly animal you would imagine

[+Scubasonic]

I haven't found many caches, so for me, it's your garden-variety deer

 

Another Human

[Moodock]

The worst encounter I had was while backpacking and came upon a bear cub. Yep, just a cute 'lil bear cub... who started to cry. Mamma bear was nearby and not too happy about my presence.

[+ngrrfan]

Most dangerous animal? My caching partner if I miss reading a critical part of the cache description....

Yep... mine can get like that at times too.

 

I was also going to say "FTF Hounds". They can get real mean and aggressive, foaming at the mouth, growling as you approach and in general real PITAs. They are not to be trifled with on any level.

[+TreasureKid's]

Our 3 year old would say the Swan that chased him out of a park we were in. That thing was almost as big as him and was hissing the whole way.

[+humboldt flier]

She was two legged, 5'6' blonde, and had MEGA ATTITUDE of the negative variety.

[+humboldt flier]

The worst encounter I had was while backpacking and came upon a bear cub. Yep, just a cute 'lil bear cub... who started to cry. Mamma bear was nearby and not too happy about my presence.

 

You were most lucky on that encounter.

 

Got within 35 feet of a 600# bear in N.Calif. ... fortunately it was male.

 

Female bear with cubs and humans ... rarely a pleasant encounter. Luck was on your side that day.

[Moodock]

The worst encounter I had was while backpacking and came upon a bear cub. Yep, just a cute 'lil bear cub... who started to cry. Mamma bear was nearby and not too happy about my presence.

 

You were most lucky on that encounter.

 

Got within 35 feet of a 600# bear in N.Calif. ... fortunately it was male.

 

Female bear with cubs and humans ... rarely a pleasant encounter. Luck was on your side that day.

 

I'm in WV, so we only have black bears. Normally they will keep your distance from you, but coming across a bear cub can be a very dangerous situation. For that reason, I never go into the backcountry without a .357 mag on my hip. In states where my concealed carry permit is reciprocated, I conceal it in the frame of my pack.

 

For the record, I didn't shoot the bear. A few shots in the bears general direction was enough to prevent it from attacking and for me to get my distance.

[+WarNinjas]

This one was interesting and would not go away! Don't like to see them out during the day. It was friendly though.

 

 

-WarNinjas

[+TheGeoZodiac]

I scared the crap out of a squirrel the other day in the woods. I don't think he realized I was there at GZ when he ran down from the tree. He stopped and just stared at me for a good 10-15 seconds before going on his way.

[+teamblklab]

Skunks! Way too many skunks around here especially when caching in the evening. The other is free range cattle. Many of the parks around here allow grazing on their land. Being in the middle of a cattle stampede because one got spooked is scary and awesome at the same time. I always look for a good sized tree when walking in cattle territory.

[+SwineFlew]

Coyote was the most dangerous I saw while geocaching. It was last week in the hills. I wasnt scare and he moved on. There was a watch man (to protect logging equipments on weekends and nights) about .50 of a mile down the road and he seems be right at home with that coyote running about.

[+Darren V]

Black bear. I've heard stories of cougars in the area

[T3tsu0]

Ticks! The most dangerous animal in Germany! My mom got lyme disease from a tick. Really not a nice thing. There is a chance of getting tick-borne encephalitis and stuff. If you ever travel to germany watch for ticks