What Local Animal Are You Most Afraid Of?

[surya]

Geese are mean and they bite. I saw a huge black snake the size of that one in a corn field once. I don't know what kind it was, I ran away quick. I don't think most kids would try and catch a snake that size, they are scary.

 

[arouetta]

Where I used to live the SPCA ran the local shelter and they had a petting zoo. Some animals were just too dangerous and were in cages (pretty sure petting the alligators would not go over well) but others were in the main area and you literally could pet them. In the middle of the area was a sheltered area that had those gumball style 25¢ machines but they were filled with dried corn. You put in a quarter, you get some corn, you can hand feed the loose animals. Well all those animals knew what the sound of the handle turning the gear meant and you were swamped immediately. The taller animals would put their mouths on the opening so you had to be a bit aggressive to get the bulk of your corn.

There were some Canadian geese there, lots of teeny little goats, emus, llamas and they even brought in a herd of deer during the last few years. Nothing like seeing 20 animals come running at you full speed because you've got a bit of corn in your hand. There was one Canadian goose they had, he had been badly hurt at one point, his wing was all messed up, and he was by far the most aggressive of the geese.

Lol, one of the times I was being rushed by geese and goats, I took a step backwards.....only to find out there was a llama directly behind me when I bumped into him. He had been planning on snaking his head over my shoulder to my hand and me backing up a step gave him the perfect chance.

The deer were kinda neat. I went to the zoo shortly after they got them and they were skittish as heck. They walked as a group away from the people in any direction they could find. I managed to kinda corner them and then toss corn at them from 10 feet away and after a lot of corn landed on the ground they walked a foot or so towards me and did that some watch/some eat. The next trip was 4 or so months later, they were so people friendly you could walk right through the herd and touch them. And they were right there in a nudging contest with the llamas, emus and the taller goats to eat directly from the corn machines.

 

[Norachan]

Nooooo. Geese are not gentle. They're MEAN. People around here keep geese if they've had stuff stolen from sheds---geese won't let any stranger get away with anything, and they won't be bribed like dogs. They're fierce critters.

I've hear of people keeping Guard Geese too. I"d like to have a pet goose.....that would be kind of cool.

 

[denice]

When my son was little he was a real daredevil who feared nothing, he was the one that I had to keep a close eye on because he would try anything. The only time I seen him scared as a small child was when he was charged by a goose and it was a domestic goose. We were visiting my parents in Kansas. We went to visit some friends of theirs. They had all kinds of animals even llamas. They had some domestic geese. My son got too close for their comfort and one came at him with a lot of noise and wings spread.

 

[Mother Dragon]

kashmir64

I posted the Ratsnake photo on the company I work for website. That way people have click the link and it won't show on here to make people uncomfortable.

http://www.accessrigging.com/GrayRatsnake1.jpg

Wow! He IS a big boy! And beautiful, too. I've worked very hard to overcome my fear of snakes and have held several under controlled conditions. I even had a weary chicken snake go to sleep on my lap. Coming across one unexpectedly is something else. It depends on how close and if I can identify it as non-venomous. The copperheads we have around here are nasty and the water moccasins are actually aggressive. The little guys such as gopher snakes and such can go their merry way and I'll go mine. The rattlesnake we found in our house was NOT welcome at all!

In south Texas we have indigo snakes that grow up to 14 feet long. They're arboreal, too. They're endangered. They like to eat rattlesnakes, so that makes them OK in my eyes. I can just imagine a drunk stumbling along when an indigo snake (which really IS very dark blue-black) fell out of a tree onto him. What a tale he would tell if he survived the fright.

 

[denice]

I have the unreasonable fear of snakes as did my mother. I grew up on a farm so I seen a lot of snakes. We had a large black snake that decided to stay around the house and neither my mother or I were happy about that. My dad would not kill snakes because they help control the rodent population. I remember my dad got that snake into a large burlap sack and took it several miles down the road and let it go.

 

[Mother Dragon]

The ancient Romans used geese to guard their temples. They were called sacerdotes. They made an awful noise when someone came around and if he didn't go away, they would attach viciously. The wings of geese can break limbs and the bills can leave a very deep bruise.

When I was small, my Aunt Betty, who was an animal whisperer, had a pet goose that would let her carry it around. It would let people go into the house, but they couldn't walk out without Aunt Betty with them. I was about four when she was keeping me while my mother went to meet my dad's ship. She told me I could play with the chickens but to leave the goose alone. A while later I came into the house, howling, a big red whelt on my arm. She looked at me and said, "You messed with the goose didn't you?" I got no sympathy whatsoever, and I never did mess with the goose again.

 

[gitabooks]

Eastern Coyotes are the biggest predator we have around here. You don't really have to be afraid of them as they are very secretive and shy. However, one morning I found my cat Tiger Tail with a nice big bite-mark that could only be from a Coyote on his back. He healed up and was fine, but it was scary to think that they are out there hunting cats! They also got some of my chickens, so I sat out in the yard the next evening and when it came I stood up and shouted at it and called it names and it went running away and never came back. I guess I hurt it's feelings : )

 

[arouetta]

I had a cat get bitten and my dad said a coyote did it. But the teeth alignment seemed wrong for an animal with a narrow muzzle. A week later we had a bobcat in our yard, first one anyone had seen for a few years, after that we thought that had to be who he tangled with.

 

[MJO12]

I live in a crowded suburb, so not much is left here. We do have racoons, and every year animal control catches one or two rabid racoons. So that's what I'm afraid of. Also, though I love dogs, I am cautious about stray dogs.

 

[Mother Dragon]

You wouldn't think you had to fear a mockingbird, but you do during nesting season. Those things are fearlessly aggressive and will swoop down and give you head a good thumping if you get too close to the nest. In some areas letter carriers have to wear hard hats to protect their noggins. They'll chase a dog or cat some distance, plummeting down to deliver a sharp beak to a head. It's bad when it's the animals' home yard. Those birds just won't give up until the fledglings are out of the nest. They usually nest in the same place every year, too.

 

[Tornado Tammy]

I'm in NZ, and we don't have many wild animals that would attack here. Possums and feral cats would be about it, there may be more, but nothing I know if. No snakes, no crocs, no bears, but a we do have couple of poisonous spiders! The Katipo and the Whitetail! I think we have a much higher chance of being beaten up by Gang related yobbos - most of whom have P Related drug addictions.

Plenty of pests, more likely to attack crops rather than humans.

BUT I HATE COCKROACHES AND MICE! And neighbour's who leave loads of rubbish outside without rubbish bins. At this time of year here in NZ, currently mid winter, cockroaches in particular make their presence known when they manage to get inside houses, mainly coming in from under the house for warmth - through gaps in water underfloor piping, in such places as kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, hot water cupboards, etc.

I always have some spray on hand in those places. I give the cockroach a good squirt, then I put a paper towel over them, then stamp on it to make sure. Then I put it outside, as I once read that cockroaches either eat their own dead, or take a dead one back to their nest to share! Subsequently, the ones who help to devour the dead one, also die, as they are also getting the toxic stuff which killed it in the first place.

I don't know if that would have happened with the last one I sprayed I ran out of the cockroach spray, and the nearest thing I had to hand was hair spray, so I zapped it with that, - did the job very quickly, then tossed the horrible thing outside!

 

[kashmir64]

I'm in NZ, and we don't have many wild animals that would attack here. Possums and feral cats would be about it, there may be more, but nothing I know if. No snakes, no crocs, no bears, but a we do have couple of poisonous spiders! The Katipo and the Whitetail! I think we have a much higher chance of being beaten up by Gang related yobbos - most of whom have P Related drug addictions.

Plenty of pests, more likely to attack crops rather than humans.

BUT I HATE COCKROACHES AND MICE! And neighbour's who leave loads of rubbish outside without rubbish bins. At this time of year here in NZ, currently mid winter, cockroaches in particular make their presence known when they manage to get inside houses, mainly coming in from under the house for warmth - through gaps in water underfloor piping, in such places as kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, hot water cupboards, etc.

I always have some spray on hand in those places. I give the cockroach a good squirt, then I put a paper towel over them, then stamp on it to make sure. Then I put it outside, as I once read that cockroaches either eat their own dead, or take a dead one back to their nest to share! Subsequently, the ones who help to devour the dead one, also die, as they are also getting the toxic stuff which killed it in the first place.

I don't know if that would have happened with the last one I sprayed I ran out of the cockroach spray, and the nearest thing I had to hand was hair spray, so I zapped it with that, - did the job very quickly, then tossed the horrible thing outside!

I'm sorry but when I read the first paragraph of your post I got an image and started laughing.
"Run...it's an attack Kiwi".

 

[Tornado Tammy]

I'm sorry but when I read the first paragraph of your post I got an image and started laughing.
"Run...it's an attack Kiwi".

Kiwis are nocturnal animals, and are very seldom seen in the wild! I think they'd run away and hide from you! However, you do need to watch out for some of the human kiwis

 

[Shane Kent]

I'm in NZ, and we don't have many wild animals that would attack here.

In Ontario, Canada there are lots of animals that could attack you but typically you would have to provoke them into it. Provoke or catch them off guard and corner them with their young.

Some of the guys I work with went to the DEW line (Distant Early Warning) to build scaffold so towers could be accessed for maintenance. They were at defense stations in the far north of Canada. They said the polar bears are huge and extremely scary to see in the wild.

Here's a photo one of them took.

 

[denice]

From what I have seen on nature shows and read Polar bears are the most dangerous. Luckily they are in areas where there are few humans so bear/human contact under uncontrolled conditions are rare. Most people who come close to polar bears do so through tours like the ones to their den area in Manitoba.

 

[jcat]

Nooooo. Geese are not gentle. They're MEAN. People around here keep geese if they've had stuff stolen from sheds---geese won't let any stranger get away with anything, and they won't be bribed like dogs. They're fierce critters.

The U.S. Army used to employ "guard geese" in Germany. Swans and turkeys can be just as aggressive. I know of people who've had to be hospitalized after swan attacks and have witnessed them attacking large dogs. Friends of ours kept geese, and we'd have to stay in our car and honk when we dropped by, because the geese attacked the minute you tried to get out of the car.

A History of Geese as Guard Animals and for Weed Control

 

[Mother Dragon]

I'm in NZ, and we don't have many wild animals that would attack here. Possums and feral cats would be about it, there may be more, but nothing I know if. No snakes, no crocs, no bears, but a we do have couple of poisonous spiders! The Katipo and the Whitetail! I think we have a much higher chance of being beaten up by Gang related yobbos - most of whom have P Related drug addictions.

Plenty of pests, more likely to attack crops rather than humans.

BUT I HATE COCKROACHES AND MICE! And neighbour's who leave loads of rubbish outside without rubbish bins. At this time of year here in NZ, currently mid winter, cockroaches in particular make their presence known when they manage to get inside houses, mainly coming in from under the house for warmth - through gaps in water underfloor piping, in such places as kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, hot water cupboards, etc.

I always have some spray on hand in those places. I give the cockroach a good squirt, then I put a paper towel over them, then stamp on it to make sure. Then I put it outside, as I once read that cockroaches either eat their own dead, or take a dead one back to their nest to share! Subsequently, the ones who help to devour the dead one, also die, as they are also getting the toxic stuff which killed it in the first place.

I don't know if that would have happened with the last one I sprayed I ran out of the cockroach spray, and the nearest thing I had to hand was hair spray, so I zapped it with that, - did the job very quickly, then tossed the horrible thing outside!

In the US we have a product called Terro. It's a bait used for ants but it works very well on roaches. I don't know how big your roaches get but our Texas cockroaches, a.k.a. palmetto bugs, get huge, from 1.5"-2". They fly and will sometimes fly right at you. They're noisy, too. We had one cat that would not only hunt and catch them, but crunch them down with great gusto. Ugh! They live primarily in trees and other wood but are quite willing to come inside for a drink of water or a nosh. It's downright disgusting to be awakened by one that's sneaked into the house through an impossibly small hole, landing on you with a thump and scrambling with its spiky legs to go elsewhere. I. Do. NOT. Like. Them. At all!

 

[Norachan]

In Ontario, Canada there are lots of animals that could attack you but typically you would have to provoke them into it. Provoke or catch them off guard and corner them with their young.

Some of the guys I work with went to the DEW line (Distant Early Warning) to build scaffold so towers could be accessed for maintenance. They were at defense stations in the far north of Canada. They said the polar bears are huge and extremely scary to see in the wild.

Here's a photo one of them took.
View attachment 188429

I find any kind of bear scary, but the thought of coming face to face with a polar bear sends shivers down my spine. I think they're beautiful animals, but I would not be walking around any where close to a wild polar bear.

 

[Tornado Tammy]

In the US we have a product called Terro. It's a bait used for ants but it works very well on roaches. I don't know how big your roaches get but our Texas cockroaches, a.k.a. palmetto bugs, get huge, from 1.5"-2". They fly and will sometimes fly right at you. They're noisy, too. We had one cat that would not only hunt and catch them, but crunch them down with great gusto. Ugh! They live primarily in trees and other wood but are quite willing to come inside for a drink of water or a nosh. It's downright disgusting to be awakened by one that's sneaked into the house through an impossibly small hole, landing on you with a thump and scrambling with its spiky legs to go elsewhere. I. Do. NOT. Like. Them. At all!

I. FEEL. YOUR. PAIN. AND. HORROR.......As well as the little ones, the big ones I've had have been about 2" long. The ugliest scariest things I have seen. Especially in winter at the last place I lived in where the hot water cylinder/linen cupboard was in my bedroom, and when I turned on the light one would be crawling up the wall behind my bed. UGH! I would get rid of it, and then pull my bed to pieces to make sure there were none in there! Can't tell you how many times I did that! I also felt compelled to change the bedding each time that happened, but some were even squirrelled away in the clean linen, so I would have to check those out too!