Most Dangerous Animal You've Handled/Been Close To

[Raggedstar]

I pet a rhino at a zoo once. This rhino was a particularly nice one though, and loved human attention (you just have to be sure your hands aren't between metal bar and rhino, or else you would get squished). One of the people at the health unit often handled tours, and he would often take high ranking CEOs and other rich folk to him. He would call the rhino over, and this massive creature would come barreling over from the other side of the pen and stop right in front of them (and everyone would wet themselves).

Working at a zoo, I've been near a lot of wild (captive) animals. I've been within several feet of elephants, hippos, lions (nearly got pooped by one), baby Komodo Dragons, wolves, and hyenas. I also hand-fed a giraffe once, and while they are well within capacity to kill a person (a kick can shatter a lion skull), they're usually pretty cool about it.

As a veterinary technician, I mostly deal with cats and dogs. You'll find more grouchy cats than grouchy dogs, and say what you will about cats, you need nerves of steel sometimes. Their bites are also pound for pound more deadly than a dog bite (cat teeth are more likely to deeply insert bacteria that will turn into infections that can range from simple swelling, to amputation, to full-on septicemia and death). However, I have been threatened by dogs as small as Shih Tzus to as big as Great Danes. One Great Dane was totally fine with me 5 minutes before and something triggered later to cause that 120 lb pup (yes puppy) to lunch at me. You can never tell.

Can't say I've just bumped into dangerous animals though. Not many in the Toronto suburbs outside of the odd exotic pet (seriously, someone tried to keep a Komodo Dragon) or badly trained dog. Only venomous animals we have in Ontario are a rattlesnake (which is usually found more south of here and is endangered) and the rare black widow that somehow finds it's way up. Our gigantic raccoons are pretty fearless though, and I've had a run-in. Fearless could mean they could lunge at you, but usually they just look at you and go on their merry way since they know how humans act. A momma raccoon wasn't pleased to see me when I went out to inspect a noise, but she didn't do anything.

 

[Hagi]

Wild Lion, about 2 meters away.

It was taking a dump. I was on top of one of them safari cars, we got quite lucky there.

Also had snakes and such around my neck like in those pictures but wouldn't call those dangerous since they've all got their teeth removed.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Err the only one I can think off was an Eagle Owl when its handler was in one of my parent friend take away. It had really sharp talon!

Sure I have seen Tiger and other dangerous animal in a zoo but since they're were in a zoo, I was in a safe distance away from them.

 

[Angelous Wang]

I've been face to face with the (at the time) president of Gambia's personal Lions. They were only behind basically a chicken wire fence too.

We were told not to stare them in the eyes or they will get provoked and they will easily come through the fence to get you.

But then there were armed soldiers everywhere, so they'd have been put down quick, just depends if the soldiers were quick enough.

 

[Little Woodsman]

I was holidaying in Florida and we came across what we thought was a grass snake, we huddled around it looking at it, I hovered my hand over it where it tried to bite me, only later we looked it up and by the colouration of the snake, it was actually venomous (or so we were told) So yeah, that was fun.

Okay everybody remember this little mnemonic device:
"Red next to black is a friend to Jack, but red next to yellow will kill a fellow."

 

[Little Woodsman]

Once I had what I thought was an unusual looking German Shepherd run up to me on an otherwise deserted street. She had a collar and tags with her address on them, which was just a couple of blocks away so I took her back to her home. When the owner came out to talk to me he was surprised that she had approached me and was willing to follow me because "Wolves just don't do that!".

We get mountain lions around here occasionally. The smarter deer have figured out that they are safe in the city limits during hunting seasons, so they come in to the city and the mountain lions follow them. I've been within four feet of a mountain lion once, within about 10 feet of one another time and about 25 feet away from one once.

We get about 3 coyote attacks per year in my town. People are warned to have/carry walking sticks if they are going to be walking in the less populated areas, especially at night.

 

[The Sanctifier]

Probably my cat He likes to bite people to let them know he has enough of cuddles. Though so long as he isn't staring at your arm he's usually fine.

I remember once though when I was on holidays I was feeding ducks at a pond and there was one particularly angry mother goose which approached me. It honked at me or whatever you call those noises they make but it didn't really end up attacking me.

 

[BNguyen]

I think it was when I was three or four. My dad took me out fishing and we were walking in the woods along a river. I almost stepped on a very large snake. I don't know what kind it was but I remember it being blue and black in color.
The only other time I was near a dangerous animal was my own dog. He had bit a person and was starting to become aggressive. We had to call animal control to take him away but before they were going to come (they don't work on weekends and it was on a Friday afternoon). I tried to put him on a leash and he nearly bit me when I did.

 

[wcaypahwat]

Woke up to a king brown snake waiting for me outside my bedroom door one morning.
Been charged by an ornery emu coming out of the darkness.
Encountered various sharks, octopies, jellyfish and other venomous fish.
Spiders. Spiders everywhere.
Wild boar are mean.
So are magpies.
Only played with baby crocodiles in captivity, but people get attacked by man-eaters quite often here.
Haven't managed to upset any kangaroos yet, but they've been known to turn violent.

Thats the local fauna.


played with a big eagle and a baby tiger in thailand as well. mostly because they were cute.

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.

I have a pomeranian/toy poodle cross. She loves to show off her "kills" too. Rubber squeeky pigs for the most part, and other stuffed toys, thankfully. Keeping a very close eye on her at the moment though since I just adopted a 5 week old orphan kitten

Probably my cat He likes to bite people to let them know he has enough of cuddles. Though so long as he isn't staring at your arm he's usually fine.

I remember once though when I was on holidays I was feeding ducks at a pond and there was one particularly angry mother goose which approached me. It honked at me or whatever you call those noises they make but it didn't really end up attacking me.

Freakin' geese, man. Freakin geese.

 

[Haunted Serenity]

Moose, one of those buggers was within 10ms just watching us and chillin.

I never saw it but I did get lost overnight in the Rockies once with a couple of friends and when my dad went looking for us he found my hiking boot print 1 maybe 2 hours old with a cougar print on top and a trial of cougar tracks following ours. We had heard rustling that wasn't us a few meters away and I always felt like something was watching us.

 

[Brennan]

Once, when I was 14 and stupid, I was in the park with some friends, and we spotted a snake poking its head out of some tall grass. Wanting to show off my actually non-existant snake knowledge to my friends, I was like "oh, that's just someone's escaped pet baby boa constrictor". Then I reached down and picked it up by the scruff of the neck, and as I was holding it up, its body dangling from my fingers...

...it rattled.

"Oh shit!" says I, and I flung it far out back into the tall grass. I was too busy feeling scared/relieved be embarrassed, but the lesson about not pretending to know important shit you don't know teaches just as well through shock as through embarrassment, so there's that.

These days I deal with brown widow spiders a lot. That's a sibling species to black widows. They look the same, except brown widows are stripy brown instead of black. Supposedly their venom is more powerful, but they inject less per bite, so it works out more or less the same.

Biggest difference between black widows and brown widows is behavioral. Black widows are shy: they like to nest in dark, out of the way places. Brown widows think they're your roommates, and will casually nest out in the open wherever.

Thing is though, that casualness extends to their temperament, so despite their venom and willingness to hang out where you're likely to run into them, they're actually really low risk. I've been bitten by ordinary non-venomous brown house spiders many times(usually while sleeping) but never by a brown widow. They're like little Jeffry Lebowskis. Creepy, venomous Lebowskis.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

I got to play with a baby tiger once. It was cool, but I was scared out of my mind.

 

[SirDeadly]

I was running along the beach and my foot was literally a foot away from stepping on a brown snake (yay Australia!) before I stopped. Also seen hundreds of red back spiders, hell my state cricket team is called the red backs!

 

[cojo965]

Once, when I was 14 and stupid, I was in the park with some friends, and we spotted a snake poking its head out of some tall grass. Wanting to show off my actually non-existant snake knowledge to my friends, I was like "oh, that's just someone's escaped pet baby boa constrictor". Then I reached down and picked it up by the scruff of the neck, and as I was holding it up, its body dangling from my fingers...

...it rattled.

"Oh shit!" says I, and I flung it far out back into the tall grass. I was too busy feeling scared/relieved be embarrassed, but the lesson about not pretending to know important shit you don't know teaches just as well through shock as through embarrassment, so there's that.

These days I deal with brown widow spiders a lot. That's a sibling species to black widows. They look the same, except brown widows are stripy brown instead of black. Supposedly their venom is more powerful, but they inject less per bite, so it works out more or less the same.

Biggest difference between black widows and brown widows is behavioral. Black widows are shy: they like to nest in dark, out of the way places. Brown widows think they're your roommates, and will casually nest out in the open wherever.

Thing is though, that casualness extends to their temperament, so despite their venom and willingness to hang out where you're likely to run into them, they're actually really low risk. I've been bitten by ordinary non-venomous brown house spiders many times(usually while sleeping) but never by a brown widow. They're like little Jeffry Lebowskis. Creepy, venomous Lebowskis.

You may not have been in as much danger as you thought. Rat snakes rattle their tails against the environment to make the same noise rattlers do. I should know, I had a red rat snake/corn snake that did that after being found when he escaped for the first time. Can you remember what its head looked like?

 

[Plasticaprinae]

When I was very young, I was friends with a girl whose mom worked at a zoo. I got to go behind the scenes of the zoo and see the animals be fed and animals in hospital care. Got to feed some cheetahs with only a chain-link fence between me and them.

I also went on a gator tour down in Florida. Just.. wild alligators all about, roaming around. So many of them. So I got to be about a meter away from a alligator (I was inside a airboat) One time we got off the airboat and I was just freaking out. I stood as close to the airboat as possible and just stared at the closest alligator which was about... 10 meters away. I watched a lot of animal planet in my day, so i knew that if that alligator decided that it wanted my tasty 8 year old flesh, it could just take it. Alligators can run up to 30 miles, about as fast as a dog, ya know.

I have also been close to dolphins. The fuckers.

 

[Twintix]

Well, I rode an elephant when I was 8. Does that count? It wasn't wild or anything, but elephants can be pretty dangerous.

I held an alligator baby when I was 12. Mom and I were in Miami on vacation, and we visited the Everglades and went on an alligator safari. At the end of the tour, we got to take photos with a small alligator, and we got to hold it. It was just by the tail, though, (the guide held the body) but before it was my turn, an adult woman was too afraid/grossed out to even touch it. So when it was my turn, and I took the tail without even flinching, her boyfriend pointed at me and said: " See?! She can do it, and she's just a kid!"

The woman probably just didn't like reptiles, but it felt pretty cool to be braver than an adult.

 

[Brennan]

Once, when I was 14 and stupid, I was in the park with some friends, and we spotted a snake poking its head out of some tall grass. Wanting to show off my actually non-existant snake knowledge to my friends, I was like "oh, that's just someone's escaped pet baby boa constrictor". Then I reached down and picked it up by the scruff of the neck, and as I was holding it up, its body dangling from my fingers...

...it rattled.

"Oh shit!" says I, and I flung it far out back into the tall grass. I was too busy feeling scared/relieved be embarrassed, but the lesson about not pretending to know important shit you don't know teaches just as well through shock as through embarrassment, so there's that.

These days I deal with brown widow spiders a lot. That's a sibling species to black widows. They look the same, except brown widows are stripy brown instead of black. Supposedly their venom is more powerful, but they inject less per bite, so it works out more or less the same.

Biggest difference between black widows and brown widows is behavioral. Black widows are shy: they like to nest in dark, out of the way places. Brown widows think they're your roommates, and will casually nest out in the open wherever.

Thing is though, that casualness extends to their temperament, so despite their venom and willingness to hang out where you're likely to run into them, they're actually really low risk. I've been bitten by ordinary non-venomous brown house spiders many times(usually while sleeping) but never by a brown widow. They're like little Jeffry Lebowskis. Creepy, venomous Lebowskis.

You may not have been in as much danger as you thought. Rat snakes rattle their tails against the environment to make the same noise rattlers do. I should know, I had a red rat snake/corn snake that did that after being found when he escaped for the first time. Can you remember what its head looked like?

Oh, it was definitely a rattler. The thing was dangling in the open air when it rattled, so there was nothing for the tail to be rattling against, and in any case, once my attention was called to it I could clearly see the rattle. It was short, only three segments or so, and the snake overall was small, so once I could see it was a rattlesnake, it was clear that it was a juvenile one.

Don't remember the head shape, but I do remember the coloring: mostly solid black (the belly was either black or white, I don''t remember) with two thin white lines on the back that crisscrossed in a diamond pattern. Given the above, I suspect that was an immature color scheme, and not what an adult of its species would normally look like.

 

[Strazdas]

Depends on what qualifies. Nearby but safe - i have been less than a meter from a white shark. but he could not touch me.

Nearby but nothing happened - that would probably be the time i tried to give bear food to distract it or when i had a standoff with a boar (he did not attack though, i later found out they often stand and stare but rarely go out of the forest near the houses, tohugh i still should have gotten away since when they do they are angry).

Actual fight? Dont know whether it was the time i got tackled by a dog or a cock (no, perverts, this cock [http://www.quickmeme.com/img/3d/3d41f7c05e448cb6244f9bd7f91f23345c8efde48c8e5583e879780107a78634.jpg].) The dog story is boring, the time i got attacked by a cock was no fun. these bastards can fight and their claws are sharp.

I was near a bear once.
So I could've died, is what I'm saying.

Unlikely. Bears are not agressive unless they are threatened or you invade their territory. since they came scavenging into your territory the second one does not apply, so if you had went to the containers to throw out trash or something they may have reacted, but going to a toilet nearby probably wont make them think your attacking them. then, a mother with a cub will be more diligent in its defense.

P.S. i see repotile as worst animal trend here surprisingly. i expecte more mamal offenders.

 

[lee1287]

Has anyone said, humans? (DUN DUN DUN)

Been near an elephant, as part of a show, but he was pretty cool.

 

[Mr Fixit]

I was about 6 inches from a Copperhead once, barefoot of course.

Spoiler

I touched a Black Widow accidentally. I'm quite lucky it didn't bite me.