It's been said over and over again, but the smartest thing to do in the presence of wildlife is to keep your distance
This past week was, or at least should have been, an eye opener for lots of people who may not know a lot about wildlife. There were so many examples of people doing stupid things to or acting stupid in close proximity to really dangerous wild animals.
It makes me shudder to think of the news headlines that no doubt would single out the animal as being at fault rather then the foolishness of the people involved.
One example showed some people sitting at a picnic table, and in the photo, clearly shown, was an open case of “lite” beer. Oh, and did I happen to mention that also sitting at the same table was a very large, very mature black bear? It appeared to be just a couple of feet (at the most) away from a man and twice that distance from a woman.
So what did the news story say the people were doing? Believe it or not, the man was fixing the bear a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Say WHAT? That’s right, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!
Feeding wildlife is always fraught with danger in various forms. Stupid hardly describes what those people were doing. That bear, if it had become irritated, could have seriously injured one or all of those beer drinkers.
And yes, it could have killed one or more of them just as easily as swatting an insect off its shiny nose.
Just think of the possibilities of other humans who might come into contact with that bear. What if they didn’t have a picnic basket to plop on that table? Or what might happen to a family or group of people sitting around that table when the bear silently makes its way up to beg for food.
Would they panic and startle that bear? Quite possibly.
And what about the bear? If it returns to that table, or even that general area, to beg for food, what are the authorities going to do? They may attempt to relocate the bruin by live-trapping it. Or, if they have a surplus of black bears, they may just take the easy way out and euthanize (kill by whatever means are available) it.
Regardless, the bear loses, and quite possibly because of a taste for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Speaking of bears, one angler who had just hooked a salmon on a river somewhere in Alaska observed a grizzly approaching. So this jerk left the fish splashing in shallow water just (approximately) eight or ten feet in front of him. And the bear came closer.
This jerk just squatted down in the shallow water near the fish. The bear came up to the fish, grabbed it, and took off running. And this yahoo turned around toward the video camera, and he was laughing his fool head off. What a moron!
Does anyone think that this bear won’t try that stunt again? Hey, if it worked once, why not again? And will it chase and attack someone just to get a freshly caught fish?
Or, will the authorities not take the chance and euthanize it for the safety of anglers and tourists in that area? So many questions, and the bear probably loses in the end.
What about moose? I mean, are they really dangerous if aroused?
You bet they are downright dangerous any time they get ticked off. So what are they likely to do if a group of people feed them pizza? That is a hard question to answer, but it actually happened last week.
The young bull moose was napping during the heat of the day. Some visitors to the park saw it and decided to “get up close and pet it.”
And that is what they did, for several minutes. Then one of them had a bright (really dumb) idea. They had some left-over pizza, and one of them brought a slice and put it under the animal’s nose.
Now one of three things was likely to happen. No. 1 , the moose could have gotten up and ambled off. No. 2, it could have gotten up and thrashed one or more of those visitors with its sharp and deadly hooves, possibly seriously injuring or even killing one or more of them. Or third, it could have laid there and eaten the slice of pizza.
Fortunately for all concerned (except the moose), it chose option No. 3, and no harm came to those brain-dead people. But believe me, that situation was the exception and not the rule for moose. They were very fortunate indeed.
And now for that poor moose. With any luck it will amble off and go its own way. However, if that interlude resulted in that animal developing a taste for more pizza, the potential problems become obvious. A moose can smell “food” that it likes well over a mile away. If someone sitting at a picnic table, or even carrying a pizza into his or her home, is in true and serious danger if that moose wants his fair share, which is all there is.
By the way, someone tossed some pizza over the fence of the otter enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo last summer. The male otter ate it, and died within an hour of so. Please do not feed any wild animals for any reasons.
People often have a major curiosity when it comes to bison. And every summer and fall there are several news articles about people who got too close to one or more of those big critters and ended up getting seriously gored or even killed because of their curiosity.
One nasty example of bison versus people came out of Custer State Park in Western South Dakota just last week. It seems that a large herd of these “buffalos,” estimated to be around 500 animals, was blocking the highway and keeping quite a few motorcyclists
at bay.
One woman observed a cow (female) buff with a calf that was nursing and decided a selfie photo of that event would be nice. She obviously did not know that cow bison are extremely protective of their calves. And she managed to get too close.
The video of that encounter is definitely not for viewing by the young. That cow buff gored that woman something terrible, dragging her across a hardtop road and through high grass along the way.
I’m not sure if she survived that ordeal or not. The last report I was able to find was that she was still alive and “fighting for her life.”
Readers, please keep one very important fact in mind. All wildlife, and especially mammals, should always be considered dangerous. “Fight or flight” is the only two options in their minds. Most will choose to run away if that option is open to them.
But some critters will fight if certain criteria exist. Mothers with young brings on some strong maternal instincts like protecting the kids. Hungry animals are another. Even something like just being bigger or nastier can also pop up.
You can never know how any animal might react to sudden human encroachment. That is why it is always best to enjoy all wildlife you might see, but only from a safe distance or from inside a vehicle. Always stay safe when wild animals are the subject of the quest.
Len Lisenbee is the Daily Messenger’s Outdoor Writer. Contact him at lisenbee@frontiernet.net.
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August 23, 2020 at 06:27PM
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Lisenbee: Why must wild animals be subject to our stupidity? - MPNnow.com
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