strange enounters with wild animals

Great encounters, those are adventages of living in continents...

Edited by Ikki - 12-Jan-2009 at 23:07

I think that these two are probably my most interesting stories.

Between the bus stop and my house there is quite alot of empty land behind some houses, just filled by long grass and a few trees with a concrete walking tracking going through it. I was walking through it one day (on the path) when I saw only about 2 meters from me a crow that was swooping, pecking, and deliberately irritating a brown snake. It was using a low branch of a tree as a base to escape the reach of the brown snake, while periodically flying down to annoy it.
Now all I can say is, I think this bird must have had a death wish because Brown Snakes are really quite dangerous! Needless to say, I wasn't hanging around only a couple meters away from a pissed off brown snake. So I made a careful exit as quickly as I could.

My other great animal story was a fully fledged battle I witnessed between a group of Bull Ants and little black ants. Bull Ants are about a centre meter long, while black ants about 2mm, so the Bull Ants have a size and strength advantage. Black ants however can deliver quite a sting when they bite a human, so I expect it must be really painful to a Bull Ant.
When I started watching there were about 7-8 bull ants trying to fight off a horde of black ants. Each bull ant had been attacked by numerous black ants. The black ants would bite into the legs of the bull ant and hold on, the bull ants in an attempt to remove the black ant would rip the body off the black ant. Usually leaving its decapitated head still holding onto the bull ant's leg. Some of the bull ants that had been killed had obviously been overwhelmed by the black ants. Usually there were several black ant corpses and heads around and in the bull ants body. The bull ants were relying on superious physical strength & size, while the black ants were relying on numbers and probably their poision. I watched it for about half an hour, the Bull Ants ended up loosing the battle.

Originally posted by Omar al Hashim I think that these two are probably my most interesting stories.Between the bus stop and my house there is quite alot of empty land behind some houses, just filled by long grass and a few trees with a concrete walking tracking going through it. I was walking through it one day (on the path) when I saw only about 2 meters from me a crow that was swooping, pecking, and deliberately irritating a brown snake. It was using a low branch of a tree as a base to escape the reach of the brown snake, while periodically flying down to annoy it.Now all I can say is, I think this bird must have had a death wish because Brown Snakes are really quite dangerous! Needless to say, I wasn't hanging around only a couple meters away from a pissed off brown snake. So I made a careful exit as quickly as I could.My other great animal story was a fully fledged battle I witnessed between a group of Bull Ants and little black ants. Bull Ants are about a centre meter long, while black ants about 2mm, so the Bull Ants have a size and strength advantage. Black ants however can deliver quite a sting when they bite a human, so I expect it must be really painful to a Bull Ant.When I started watching there were about 7-8 bull ants trying to fight off a horde of black ants. Each bull ant had been attacked by numerous black ants. The black ants would bite into the legs of the bull ant and hold on, the bull ants in an attempt to remove the black ant would rip the body off the black ant. Usually leaving its decapitated head still holding onto the bull ant's leg. Some of the bull ants that had been killed had obviously been overwhelmed by the black ants. Usually there were several black ant corpses and heads around and in the bull ants body. The bull ants were relying on superious physical strength & size, while the black ants were relying on numbers and probably their poision. I watched it for about half an hour, the Bull Ants ended up loosing the battle.

What does a bull ant look like? I have seen documentaries about Brown snakes, much worse than any rattle snake or even our deadly coral snake.
I use to love to watch ant wars when I was a kid visiting my Greek relatives in upstate New York. I remember watching one battle between some red and black ants and a much larger brown ant accidently walked through their battle field and also got decapitated. Our black ants usually do not have a bad sting or any sting but watch out for the red ones- I am glad we don't have fire ants here. Arizona is different than Washington state so I will have to learn what to watch out for. A lot of things sting, bite or burn you here. I think in Washington state we had one variety of rattle snake - the timber rattler and then black widow spiders, Hobo spiders and the brown recluse- the latter is not a native. They do not have wood ticks here but they have some wierd beatle that can climb into bed with you and bite and suck your blood. They leave a nice welt!! The rattle snakes sun themselves outside my brother's house sometime so you have to watch it. The wild javelina or wild pigs make me nervous at night, sharp tusks.
Are skunks native to Europe at all? nasty creatures who can carry rabbies.

now here is a coral snake:
It looks a lot like a king snake so the poem to tell the difference is:
red and yellow kill a fellow - red and black friend of jack- refers to their bands. I have seen plent of King snakes in my life but never a coral snake- Australia is the capital of poisonous snakes though. Do you have poisonous lizards? We have two in the desert southwest.

Name: coral.jpg



Edited by eaglecap - 14-Jan-2009 at 21:08

This is what I am calling a Bull Ant (I just discovered the govt calls them carpenter ants)



and a black ant. Scales don't match.

Australia is the capital of poisonous snakes though. Do you have poisonous lizards? We have two in the desert southwest.

Nope, no poisonous lizards. Some can bite pretty hard but none are dangerous


Edited by Omar al Hashim - 14-Jan-2009 at 23:12

Although we here in Denmark have a rich fauna, we don't have any wild creatures that really can do you any harm.

More wild animal encouters!!
Boy, last night the javlina or wild pigs were noisy around my place. Makes me a bit nervous to go out at night. I read about a Dutch man who was seriously attacked by a javelina in some nature/museum park in Tucson, AZ. He has filed a law suit for losses.

I remember hiking in the Seven Devil mountains of Idaho and a mountain goat with kids kept coming into our camp and not in the least afraid of us. The Seven Devils are extremely jagged and incredibly beautiful. They border Oregon and Idaho.

I was on mount evans and these big horn sheep climbed into my car and stole a bag a chips right while I was in the car

I was looking at some old slides, from a hike in the Seven Devil mountains of Idaho, of a herd of rocky mtn goats- it is nice to experience wild animals. The whole herd came into our camp but ignored us, still does not mean I will pet them. I also love tracking animals and I can usually recognize most animal tracks. I remember while hiking over the Piegan pass in Glacier National Park in Montana I found some wolverine tracks and a wildlife biologist friend confirmed it. I have also tracked mtn lions in the snow and sighted them from afar. A rare sight!! My older brother was sitting by the camp fire in the Gila wilderness area of New Mexico and he looked up and saw a pair of glowing eyes- it turned out to be a mountain lion. It was sitting there just simply watching him by the camp fire, I do not think it was a threat. Maybe it was interested in one of his dogs for a mid-night snack-

Edited by eaglecap - 26-Jan-2009 at 18:53