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Your wild experiences!

When I was eighteen, I had my bed directly underneath a pair of windows (still do, actually, just different house...), and there were a few black widow nests around the outside. I never particularly cared because there were black widows EVERYWHERE in the neighborhood, and I'd never seen them come inside the house. Anyway, I woke up one morning feeling really horrid. It felt like I had a really bad hangover and the beginnings of the flu at the same time. My arms and legs hurt really badly. I thought I was just getting sick, so I didn't think much of it at the time. But two days later, I went to the doctor, who had me wear one of those ridiculous paper gowns. When he moved behind me to put the stethoscope on my back, he asked what the bites were from. I didn't know they were there. I guess spiders had feasted on me. I don't know if they were another species of spider, or maybe baby black widows, or a particularly nice adult, but whatever it was didn't kill me. The doctor said that, as it had been two days, I obviously wasn't going to die, so the only thing I could do was wait it out. I had to go to school the next day, and I assessed myself. The pain had subsided, but my hands were feeling a little numb. I figured that was better than pain, so I decided I'd go to school. Big mistake. The numbness progressed as I drove, and by the time I parked, my fingers were useless. I sat in my car for a half hour because I couldn't get my door to unlock (no automatic door locks on that car, just the pull-tab thing). I finally thought to grasp a pencil with my palm and the fleshy part of my hand under my thumb, push the lock up, and got out. Then I had a friend drive me home. I sat around for two more days until I got the feeling back in my hands.

And believe me...getting out of my car wasn't the only thing I couldn't do. Showering and other bathroom activities were VERY difficult indeed. :)
 
Lmao great story there Thoth, I liked your last couple of sentences. So you never found out exactly what bit you then?
 
Snake Dave said:
Sadly I've never seen any native reptiles here in the UK. But I don't live near to a river and I live in the Welsh mountains, not ideal habitats/climate for grass snakes lol.
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Wrong Dave, I only live 6 miles from you and I know where there are Grass snakes, Adders (caldicot Castle, The forest of Dean, Around Tintern abby) Slow worms (My garden).
I'll get some directions for you and e-mail them to you.
MIKE
 
The scariest wildlife thing that ever happened to me involved a cow. Yes, a cow. A zebu, to be exact (a cow that is tolerant to heat, and is common in tropical areas). After college I lived in Madagascar working as a field assistant and one night we were doing an all-night follow of one of our lemur groups. That night the group decided to come back to camp and settle down in the camp trees, so my boss and I decided to keep an eye on them from the camp hammocks, making it easier to look up at them, and also be nice and comfy. We were lying there in the dark, chatting quietly to keep ourselves awake while our lemurs were snoozing, and we started to hear the cows. The cows are allowed to roam free in the forest (this particular forest is no longer a forest, because it wasn't a protected area), and they came through camp every night to forage on the tsitopa fruits that fell from the tall camp trees. We didn't need to scare the cows off or anything, so we continued talking quietly and the cows didn't seem to mind. Eventually, we realized that there were LOTS of cows, more than we had ever seen or had ever realized were in out camp at night, and we were surrounded by cows on all sides! Well then we started getting a little tense, because that last thing you want is to be lying in a hammock in the middle of the night, surrounded by giant animals who startle easily and will break your ribs if they run into you. So, in an effort to avoid startling them, we got quiet and waited for them to finish foraging and move off. That was maybe a bad choice, because they soon moved VERY close. And lots of these zebu have very big horns, and lots of them are irascible. Unfortunately for (and heretofore unbeknownst to) me, there was a lot of very tasty tsitopa fruit directly beneath my hammock, and the biggest cow with two feet long horns decided he or she just HAD to eat it. So there I am, lying in a hammock in the dark, surrounded by cows, suspended about 6 inches above the horns of a massive, very stupid, flight animal. I started to sweat. What if I sneezed? What if I coughed? What if one of the lemurs awoke from a bad dream and alarm called? What if a tree fell in the forest? All the cow had to do was raise his or her head suddenly to look around at its surroundings, and it would have unintentionally impaled my torso with both horns. And that of course would startle it, so it would take off, wrenching its horns back out of me, an idea I found not appealing at all. The darn thing ate for a couple of minutes, nearly bumping me with its horns several times (my boss could see from her position) before it FINALLY moved its head from beneath my body. We lived a 70m, 14 hour trip from the nearest phone or hospital, so needless to say I was relieved! Next time that happens, I'll not be so accommodating and I'll scare the cows off before they get anywhere close!
 
snakewispera snr said:
Wrong Dave, I only live 6 miles from you and I know where there are Grass snakes, Adders (caldicot Castle, The forest of Dean, Around Tintern abby) Slow worms (My garden).
I'll get some directions for you and e-mail them to you.
MIKE
Click to expand...

Oh right, thanks mate! I said that because I've never seen one and I don't live near water, which is an ideal habitat for Grass snakes.
 
desertanimal said:
The scariest wildlife thing that ever happened to me involved a cow. Yes, a cow. A zebu, to be exact (a cow that is tolerant to heat, and is common in tropical areas). After college I lived in Madagascar working as a field assistant and one night we were doing an all-night follow of one of our lemur groups. That night the group decided to come back to camp and settle down in the camp trees, so my boss and I decided to keep an eye on them from the camp hammocks, making it easier to look up at them, and also be nice and comfy. We were lying there in the dark, chatting quietly to keep ourselves awake while our lemurs were snoozing, and we started to hear the cows. The cows are allowed to roam free in the forest (this particular forest is no longer a forest, because it wasn't a protected area), and they came through camp every night to forage on the tsitopa fruits that fell from the tall camp trees. We didn't need to scare the cows off or anything, so we continued talking quietly and the cows didn't seem to mind. Eventually, we realized that there were LOTS of cows, more than we had ever seen or had ever realized were in out camp at night, and we were surrounded by cows on all sides! Well then we started getting a little tense, because that last thing you want is to be lying in a hammock in the middle of the night, surrounded by giant animals who startle easily and will break your ribs if they run into you. So, in an effort to avoid startling them, we got quiet and waited for them to finish foraging and move off. That was maybe a bad choice, because they soon moved VERY close. And lots of these zebu have very big horns, and lots of them are irascible. Unfortunately for (and heretofore unbeknownst to) me, there was a lot of very tasty tsitopa fruit directly beneath my hammock, and the biggest cow with two feet long horns decided he or she just HAD to eat it. So there I am, lying in a hammock in the dark, surrounded by cows, suspended about 6 inches above the horns of a massive, very stupid, flight animal. I started to sweat. What if I sneezed? What if I coughed? What if one of the lemurs awoke from a bad dream and alarm called? What if a tree fell in the forest? All the cow had to do was raise his or her head suddenly to look around at its surroundings, and it would have unintentionally impaled my torso with both horns. And that of course would startle it, so it would take off, wrenching its horns back out of me, an idea I found not appealing at all. The darn thing ate for a couple of minutes, nearly bumping me with its horns several times (my boss could see from her position) before it FINALLY moved its head from beneath my body. We lived a 70m, 14 hour trip from the nearest phone or hospital, so needless to say I was relieved! Next time that happens, I'll not be so accommodating and I'll scare the cows off before they get anywhere close!
Click to expand...

Wow, great story there mate. One truly from the wild!
 
Okay, here's a treat for you all. This is the leopard that I mentioned in my opening post. I just found the disk that had all of the photos on (this is a new computer, so they were backed onto a disk from the old one), so I'll post some others too after I've re-sized them, but I thought I'd do this one first.

There you go:
 

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Oh and here's one for all the amphibian lovers out there. I don't quite know what exactly this is, but I saw it so I took a picture lol. If someone could identify it that would be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately the quality was reduced somewhat when I re-sized it, but I think it's okay.

Here:
 

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Snake Dave said:
Okay, here's a treat for you all. This is the leopard that I mentioned in my opening post. I just found the disk that had all of the photos on (this is a new computer, so they were backed onto a disk from the old one), so I'll post some others too after I've re-sized them, but I thought I'd do this one first.

There you go:
Click to expand...
Dave I didn't see any bars in the pic. Did you have a very long zoom lens or very steady hands...LOL
MIKE
 
Snake Dave said:
So you never found out exactly what bit you then?
Click to expand...

Nope. But as soon as my hands were able, I cleaned off the outside of my windows. I've had a healthy admiration of spiders ever since, though. I'm actually thinking of getting a tarantula and/or a scorpion sometime soon. (I'm a scorpio, so I figured a scorpion is a must eventually.)
 
Okay guys, some more pictures for you, sorry for the delay, I had work to do:
 

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Thoth said:
Nope. But as soon as my hands were able, I cleaned off the outside of my windows. I've had a healthy admiration of spiders ever since, though. I'm actually thinking of getting a tarantula and/or a scorpion sometime soon. (I'm a scorpio, so I figured a scorpion is a must eventually.)
Click to expand...
Scorpions are so cool to keep in an open topped tank with a basking spot in the middle (to stop them wandering tooooo far...LOL)
MIKE
 
Back in the 90s, I was doing a lot of consultant work with the US Navy. On one trip to Naval Weapons Station Charleston in the suburb of Goose Creek, South Carolina, I was advised that the station's annex was home to a rather large alligator named Charlie.

Now, the station has lots of alligators, especially around their golf course. Whenever one gets to be a nuisance, the Navy just calls SC Fish & Game and they come out and relocate the gator. Apparently, the Navy got responsibility for Charlie after Fish & Game came out took a look at Charlie and advised the Navy that they could not move gators over 15 feet! The Navy decide to contain the problem and built a fence around Charlie's pond. It's a very well kept compound with trees on one side, a little island in the pond with cat tails, and a grass bank for Charlie to sun on. One thing I thought was funny was that the contract for mowing the grassy bank calls for two grounds men, one to mow and one to watch for Charlie.

Well, one afternoon we finished early and I drug my reluctant assistant over to the annex to see if we could get a look at this suburban legend. My assistant had been skeptical about the Charlie stories from day one. When we got there we saw a pretty little pond and grassy area all enclosed by a serious looking chain link fence. We walked over to the fence by the grassy area which was about ten feet from the edge of the pond...no alligator in sight. My assistant grew weary of waiting and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and started waving it and calling "Yoohoo Charlie, Charlie." and generally acted a fool. Suddenly from behind the reeds on the far side of the little island in the pond came a stream of bubbles heading toward us. Just shy of the edge of the pond in front of us rose an alligator like a submarine surfacing. All we could see in the murky water was the gator's head and back. What I remember is that he was 30 inches or more wide across the back. His head was about 20" wide and every bit of three feet long. My assistant nearly knocked me down running to the car. Charlie just smirked and sank silently back into the pond. To this day, I feel like I came face to face with a real dinosaur.

I don't know if Charlie is still there, but if you're ever in the area, stop in and inquire.
 
Well my close encounters happened in the high desert in southern CA. We had a weekend cabin, I know its wierd to have a cabin in the desert but we like it. For years we didn't have electricity or running water. Shortly after we got electricity we came home in the evening I went into the bathroom and turned the light on, which I rarely did, when I looked down there was a huge scorpian right in front of the toilet, scared me sufficiently. Then one night we were sitting out side, by a campfire when one of our cats was watching something and yowling, it was sort of under the edge of the house. I went over and got way down to look when I was nose to nose with a baby sidewinder. The third time, I was going to feed the chickens in the morning and thought they are very quiet. I was walking around the side of the coop when I looked up and there was a bobcat staring down at me, he had killed all the chickens but not eaten one. We had to call animal control as he wasn't wanting to leave. I told them if was a female we would move the chickens out of the fenced area and let her have them, but it was a male so they took it to the vet had him checked and released him elsewhere, I did get to pet him, it was incredible.
 
Lmao wonderful story there Bill. Well I've been to the US twice, and I've visited 5 states, none of them NC though. However I did come across a 'gator in the Everglades in Florida, that was pretty awesome.
 
Aww wow Susang, lovely. But you're right, I've never heard that before. A weekend cabin in the desert, certainly original lol. But if you enjoyed it that's the main thing.
 
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