Most Dangerous Animal You've Handled/Been Close To

[DoomyMcDoom]

Cougars, on several occasions, thank fuck they didn't decide to see me as a threat. I lived in Victoria BC at the time, and normally, one would say seeing a mountain lion in town is preposterous, but Victoria is an interesting place, lots of deer roaming around eating everyone's gardens, a bunch of wild rabbits that you see everywhere nearby the University of Victoria, so there's a lot of food for a big cat to snack on, so every once in awhile, there're sightings in neighbourhoods in outlying areas, such as Saanich where I lived for the majority of the 26 or so years I spent there.

Ran into one while I was walking home from work one night, I stopped, and slowly backed away from it, for like 2 blocks, musta been within 10-15 feet of me when I noticed it.

Another was on my roof running around making a racket, it totally mangled the fuck out of the tree next to my house to get up there, when I went in in the morning, hours after the noise stopped, I saw huge claw marks all over the tree, and some large scratches on the roof.

Heard a couple of small animals get attacked and eaten by them over the years, kind of disturbing to hear at night.

If you don't know what a mountain lion(cougar) looks like, look em up, tons of images out there, I'm too lazy to find any to post here.

 

[krazykidd]

I slept with a 4 foot boa constrictor around my neck on a long car ride, that wasn't very bad at all. My father signed me up for a 'sheep ride' at the rodeo when I was five, which resulted in me falling off half way through and getting trampled until a rodeo clown pulled me out by an arm. So in my experience sheep are much scarier then big snakes.

Children. One of those fuckers bit me once. People need to put those things on a leash. The worst part is people are like " but he/she/it is just a child". Next time someone get's bit by a dog i'm gonna say " but it's just a pup".

Kids would figure out their toilets way faster if we trained em like dogs. "What! what! If ya don't want me tah stick yer face in it use goddam toilet."

You should write a book on potty training. I would buy one for every baby shower.

 

[Something Amyss]

Dat gator is not amused.

My mother and sister went later, and it turns out that there was a bear cub and its mother hanging around there, as the garbage bins were right by the bathroom (because that's a good idea).

I don't know. From the bear's perspective, it's basically one-stop shopping.

<..>

Good you didn't die, though.

OT: I've been near two brown bears in my life, and a couple poisonous snakes. I'm told I also encountered a black bear when I was younger, but I have no memory of it. Either I was too young or too scared. I'm assuming the former, since I apparently wasn't directly threatened by the bear. My grandparents lived on an old farm and deer would frequently wander on, but not bears. Apparently, one summer was particularly bad for them and they started getting more adventurous.

Although that pales compared to the fact that I am routinely surrounded by the most dangerous animal of all...MAN!

 

[Something Amyss]

When I went to the Lake District I held a snake and loved it.

Spoiler

Looks like you're talking to it. Are you a parseltongue? Did you open the chamber of secrets????

 

[Lieju]

I keep arachnids. Mostly tarantulas, so they're hardly dangerous, but I've kept several scorpions. I'm not sure which one is 'the most dangerous'... I'm not as much into scorpions as some of my friends, but I like family Buthidae that include more venomous ones.

But it's not like they're dangerous when you know how to keep them. And I don't handle them.

Some of my friends have also had venomous snakes, so those are probably the most dangerous animals I've been close to.

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot about this one time when I was a little kid and did the stupidest thing possible; I tried to pet a wild bat. It freaked out and tried to bite me, as wild animals are wont to do when careless people try to lay their dirty mitts all over them. Luckily, it either didn't have any teeth left, didn't manage to penetrate the skin, or missed the bite altogether, so I was able to walk away from the incident without contracting rabies. So, yeah, lesson learned; don't touch wild animals, no matter how fuzzy and adorable they are.

Bats didn't exactly come to mind when I thought of dangerous animals.
But I've handled bats a lot. The house I used to live in had bats on the attic in the summer, and they'd occasionally get into my room when they were leaving for their nightly hunt.

So I had a pair of thick gloves I used to catch them and get them out if they refused to be driven out of the door.

 

[Guffe]

I know most people say rats were the reason to the plague that killed 2/3 of Europes population back in... 15th century?
I've owned two rats as a teenager.

Even if technically it wasn't the rats, it was the lice traveliing on/in the rats, but people still blame these cute little bastards

 

[shootthebandit]

I saw a camel spider the other day. Probably not the most dangerous animal but they look it. Some of the guys have caught them in the past and made them fight scorpions (which I haven't seen yet)

Spoiler: camel spider

Spoiler: are you sure you want to click this

Not me in the picture (just stock from google) but it looked exactly like this with its legs raised

Edit: I call them face-huggers because they look like those nasty little fuckers from the alien films

 

[Michael Tabbut]

I was dry-bitten by a rattlesnake in the Mojave once when I was 10 years old. Hurt like an angry ************. More recently I was on vacation in Florida and an alligator kept swimming up to me on a dock. Can I just say that gators seem to just wait for a person or animal to fall into the water so they can eat it.

 

[Lieju]

I saw a camel spider the other day. Probably not the most dangerous animal but they look it. Some of the guys have caught them in the past and made them fight scorpions (which I haven't seen yet)

Spoiler: camel spider

Spoiler: are you sure you want to click this

Not me in the picture (just stock from google) but it looked exactly like this with its legs raised

Edit: I call them face-huggers because they look like those nasty little fuckers from the alien films

They are harmless, however. Most you get is a little (venomless) bite.
Humans are just creeped out by their looks.

I'd love to have some. I have had some solifugids in the past, they were fun pets.

 

[lacktheknack]

The thing I like about where I live is that there's no truly dangerous animals for quite a few hours in each direction. There's mountain lions about five hours to the west and grizzly bears about 7 hours to the north, but that's it.

I scared a coyote (and myself) while walking through the woods at night once, though. Poor sap yelped and ran off so fast I barely could tell which direction it went.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

I worked at an aviary (bird zoo) when I was 16 or 17.

While feeding the Cassowary the rotten bastard got out of the holding station, charged over to me and spurred me in the leg. Luckily he was fairly young, I was wearing a pretty heavy work suit and he was more interested in getting me away from his food than actually killing me.

I managed to get out of the ordeal with just a scar on my leg.


In terms of dangerous animals I've actually handled. My supervisor at the aviary was a trained Falconeer who allowed me to handle and feed his Peregrine Falcon a few times.

Obviously it was pretty well trained and didn't pose much immediate danger, but there's still a healthy amount of caution to be shown when handling a critter equipped with 9 razors.

 

[shootthebandit]

I saw a camel spider the other day. Probably not the most dangerous animal but they look it. Some of the guys have caught them in the past and made them fight scorpions (which I haven't seen yet)

Spoiler: camel spider

Spoiler: are you sure you want to click this

Not me in the picture (just stock from google) but it looked exactly like this with its legs raised

Edit: I call them face-huggers because they look like those nasty little fuckers from the alien films

They are harmless, however. Most you get is a little (venomless) bite.
Humans are just creeped out by their looks.

I'd love to have some. I have had some solifugids in the past, they were fun pets.

Thats what im saying they are actually not too dangerous they just look terrifying. There's a load of myths about them which aren't true. As I said people have kept them as 'pets' and pitted them against other peoples 'pets'

 

[lord canti]

I've dealt with crocodiles, green mamaba's, king cobras, rattle, snakes, and anacondas. I've been handled and been around alot of dangerous reptiles in my life.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I've been pretty close to a moose. They are actually quite dangerous.

I've also driven by a solitary wolf. I don't know if that counts since I was in my vehicle.

 

[Someone Depressing]

When I was seven, my sister adopted a baby pitbull. Probably doesn't count because he was the calmest, friendliest, and dumbest dog I've ever met, and because he was neutered by his first owners. I did see him kill a rabbit though.

It was... not nice. At all. He came up to me, tail wagging and face basically red, with two black beads happily looking at me, before nuzzling me, as if to say, "Yeah! I did that! Are you proud of me! Do you love me! It was delicious! Can we keep it? We can share!" for about four minutes. Which is the exact moment when I realised a large dog bred for bloody murder did not make a very good pet.

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

Your mom....


Ok, ok, so I dont get a low content warning, I will go with Whitefaced Hornets.

Spoiler

And by handled I mean blasted them with hornet killer 30 feet away. You dont fuck with something that has a skull painted on its face.

Now that I think of it, they also kinda look like General Grievous.

Jesus Christ, man. When I was five, I saw a nest full of those and, being stupid, I walked up and bashed it with a stick. Next thing I know, I quite literally cannot see for all the hornets swarming me. I was stung so many times I had to be taken to the hospital and given a shot in the ass. Most terrifying experience of my life.

Also, let's talk a bit about fuckin' horses. I hate them. I hate them a lot. I know from personal experience that they bite more than hard enough to draw blood. Most of the people in my family have had at least one trip to the ER with a broken leg because of them. And what's worse, the malicious fuckers are smart enough to intentionally shit on you.

And one nearly cost me my job, so yeah, I'm bitter, what of it? How the fuck am I supposed to keep a gate open wide enough for a flatbed truck to get through but narrow enough to keep the horse from getting out, huh? How the fuck does that work?!

 

[Weresquirrel]

Physical contact wise, I was tasked along with other members of my class to hold a Boa Constricter. Took about 5 of us. They're bloody strong.

In terms of interaction, while doing work experience at a zoo I helped pacify a tiger with goat's milk while she had her eye drops. She was a White tiger, and as such had numerous health problems. One of her eyes had to be amputated as she had developed severe glaucoma, and the other eye had cateracts. She was lovely though.

 

[Wilco86]

I have to say a common adder. My parents hate them and kill them on sight, so when I'm visiting their summer cottage it's my job to catch the snakes alive, put them in a bucket and transport elsewhere.

 

[J Tyran]

The most dangerous things I have ever come close to are various spiders, scorpions and snakes from around the world. I worked in a processed food factory for a short while when I was young and the boxes of fruits and vegetables came from all over the world, sometimes various bugs and snakes would be in the boxs/crates. Never really knew what they where and we just used to throw an empty tub on them and call the RSPCA in to take them away.