What was your gravest encounter with an animal?

In my late teens I was Grouse hunting, hadn’t seen a bird all day walked around this brush pile and came face to face with a Cougar not more than about 15feet between us,and the neat thing that cat made no moves against me and we just watched each other for about twenty minutes and it was I who slowly backed away and left.
That cat never hurt me nor I it, and no I wasn’t afraid since I had a loaded 12 gauge in my hands.

I haven’t had any really grave encounters with animals. After being attacked by a swan when I was a toddler (it bit my foot and took my shoe), I’ve not run afoul of much.

I charged a possum once, thinking it would run away but it stopped and hissed and I stopped and let it waddle away.

A normally-peaceful terrier bit through the toe of my boot when I tried to get between it and the door of a room with a Guinea pig in it.

I held off a dog attack, but the dog was going for another dog, not me.

I’ve had my hair grabbed by flying crows.

I’ve gotten close to alligators and crocodiles, but they just continued to sit and sunbathe.

If hornets count, I used to do battle with those, mainly as a kid. Got stung several times.

Well and mosquitoes. I have a blood feud with mosquitoes, but so far it’s mostly grave for them. Oh and horse flies are included in that feud, but I don’t live where they do, which is good for both of us.

I was driving a Chev Malibu sedan down a highway at night in winter in Canada and all the sudden a moose trotted up an embankment and out of the ditch right in front of me as I was travelling at highway speed.
I slammed on the breaks, hit the moose and it’s large body landed across the windshield of my car and eventually rolled over the roof and off the side sending my car sliding sideways in the middle of the highway and coming to a stop with the front end in the ditch and the poor moose laying injured in the ditch as well.
A passing motorist killed the moose and pulled my car back so I could drive it off the highway.
When I look at the car I don’t know how I made it without some life changing injury.
The windshield was smashed right in and some of the glass is still positioned very close to where my face would’ve been and the roof near the windshield is crumpled inward so the moose’s body hit right in front of me.
I had glass all over me, scratches on my hands and some glass in my eyes, but other than that I just went to work that night and wasn’t even sore the next day.
I feel terrible about the moose, but I was very fortunate, lucky, blessed etc.

@Zaku I’ve not run afoul of much.

lol I see wut j00 did thar

I got attaked by a dog when I was in the kidergarden. I was going home and passed right by one house. The giant, angry German Shepherd jumped out if there and attacked me. Luckily, a woman that was passing by saw it and chased away the dog.

I had some sort of a fear of a dog for a long time since then, but it passed away now. Also, I never, ever, went past that house again.

I came around a bend in the trail once when backpacking in the Rockies, and found myself facing a moose that was about five feet away. But she was grazing, looked at me for a second, and went on grazing.

This was in Orlando, Florida, when I was a hotel inspector. Near the end of an inspection, the hotel’s manager pointed out the window and said, “Ah, there is our local alligator in the pond on the property.” (And no, they didn’t buy it. It just mysteriously crawled from somewhere else and settled there.)

Since taking over the Florida territory, it had been a personal goal to see one in the wild. I asked if it would be okay to take a break so I could go get a photo of it. He agreed, so I set off for the water’s edge armed with a camera.

After about five minutes of checking each other out, the alligator started swimming towards me. It was only about 4–5 feet long, but when it started swimming towards me at an alarming speed, I turned around and dashed back up the hill, probably screaming like a banshee.

A few years ago, there was a report of a family spending a holiday in Orlando. Instead of lounging by the hotel pool, they decided to cool off in a nearby pond. The couple’s toddler was splashing at the water’s edge when it was suddenly snatched by an alligator and pulled underwater. The body was recovered a week or so later.

It’s a sad story and makes me realise how stupid I was.

When I was in high school a bunch of my friends and I went hiking in Griffith Park up to the old abandoned zoo. Stupid teenage boys started throwing rocks at a bees nest and all of these bees came swarming out. I have never run so fast. While I was running I could see bees around me. I got away, but it was terrifying.

I was chased by a bear a couple years ago. I don’t backpack alone now because of it.

I live in the Sierra Nevada foothills and have had all kinds of wildlife encounters over the years.
Came across a Mtn.Lion behind my goose barn some years ago one night. I was locking up my pet geese for the night and heard something in the brush behind the barn. I bent down to peer around the corner of the barn and caught two huge, glowing green eyes in the beam of my flashlight.

The cat and I were about 6 feet apart, and it was a tense few moments until it just turned and disappeared into the brush.
I backed down the hill and then turned and ran for my back deck. haha
One of my pet geese survived having a Bobcat try to drag her off and a Coyote as well. The Bobcat caused a spinal cord injury but she survived.

Rushed her to the vet at 9 p.m. and she pulled through the shock and injury. I had to gavage feed her for a few weeks as she would lose her balance and tip over when trying to tilt her head back to swallow. She always listed a bit when she walked after that but she survived.
The Coyote was a 3 legged Coyote that tried to drag her down the hill right in front of me at 5 o’ clock in the afternoon when I was out washing my car in the driveway.

My goose was a big girl and she just sat down in the pine needles and dug in her heels making for a lot of drag resistance. I literally hit the Coyote over the head about 3 times with a stick before it let go and gave up and ran off. My goose was fine but shaken up badly.
Life number 3 began. haha

I have also been very close to a huge bull Elk and have tripped over more than one rattlesnake. My cat survived a rattlesnake bite under my deck in 2012. His front leg swelled up to the size of my forearm, not exaggerating. I have also stumbled across a couple of Mtn. Lion deer caches in these hills.

Half eaten deer carcasses haphazardly covered with leaves and sticks waiting to be re-visited. Those are scary because you don’t know if the cat is lurking nearby. I KNOW I have been watched many times out here in these hills unbeknownst to me but have not been paranoid. I love Mtn. Lions and it is extremely rare to be attacked by one.

It was morning in Little Yosemite valley. A 250 lb. bear came into our campsite and investigated my backpack for edibles. I had already eaten all of my vittles the night before, so I was content to let Smokey sniff away. However, the fool I was with started yelling at our visitor, thinking that would scare away the bear. It didn’t work; Bruno did a 180º whip around, dug her claws into the ground, and hissed at us. I was not expecting a hiss. The bear turned back to my pack, finished her olfactory inspection, and walked off to her next dining attempt.

That will be a horse, I went riding on the beach during a lunch break at work when I was 18.
Now, what you must understand is this, i’d never so much as sat on a donkey before & was really only there because I fancied the girl at the riding stables.
Anyway, the horse must have sensed my fear, it’s so fucking high up there & broke into an unexpected trot. My arse slapped off it’s back like a barn door in a hurricane & unsurprisingly I was spat off landing in a heap in the mud. Never sat on one since & the girl went right off me too, all round bad experience…know your limits :D

Working on loan to telephone repair, I walked down a dark, steep stairway, and heard something behind me, that sounded like a vibrating pager. I turned around, and found myself eye to eye with a 3 foot long rattlesnake.
I immediately turned, and grabbed a mop handle, and parked on top of the snake. It extended straight out towards me. The homeowner and I killed it, and I brought to home.
Although it was dead, it moved around in the bag all the way back to the yard. I was completely unnerved.
It also cured my fear of snakes.

Fifteen years old on vacation with family in Yellowstone, staying at the old Fishing Bridge campgrounds when it was “primitive”, tent area and picnic tables. Two o’clock in the morning coming back from a trip to the latrine flashlight in hand. Trail to latrine is 75 yards from campsite, almost back to site and . . . a four foot tall bear is standing and staring at me in the path. I whoop and holler shaking flashlight back and forth.
The bear tried climbing a six foot tall tree and failed so he went running down the path in the direction I was going. Never was so scared of an animal in my life.

When I was very young I went to the toilet with mom. It was very dark because we didn’t turn on the light. Suddenly a really big insect dropped near my mouth. It could very much be a cockroach since I didn’t see any other big insect in my house back then. I was frozen with fear and unable to say or do anything for 5 seconds when the cockroach sat on my face. Luckily it only stayed for 5 seconds.

I developed a phobia for cockroaches since.

I was petting my cousin’s dog once, and he went berserk. He practically bit my head off. We sped to the hospital and I got seven staples in my head.

My answers are here and here

I was mauled by a rabbit and still carry the scar on my index finger.

Damn, hissing bears and crazy ass horses, nice stuff people. :)