50 Times Wildlife Reminded Humans They’re Not Nearly As Tough As They Think

Once I tried to chase a possum off my lawn and it started chasing me back so that was pretty startling. That or the time me and a buddy were camping a little outside town and could hear coyotes howling from what sounded like all around us.

A pack of Swans was hunting poor little me when I was 9 years old.

I cycled (at speed) past a pack of feral dogs and triggered their prey instinct.

I was out on a straight road, slightly downhill, in the middle of nowhere. When I saw them getting ready I knew I had to go past them as it was too late to stop and cycle back up hill (and besides that was the only road home)

I committed. They chased. I pedalled harder than I have ever pedalled and eventually lost them, but I didn't turn round to look for quite a while.
I checked my bike computer when I got home and saw that I had hit 79km/h.

The scariest part was realising I would trigger them and that I HAD to go through the pack, hoping they wouldn't trip me up as either the fall or the dogs would have maimed me.

Magpies. I was riding my bike to primary school one day and two streets away out of nowhere I feel the flap of wings on my shoulder and it flys by in front of me. It was quite large, probably an adult and it came back but I saw it and ducked. After that it flew by a few more times (repeatedly actually) and it actually hit me a few times hard and left a few beak dents in my helmet. I could only peg my bike as fast as possible to school until I was through it’s “territory”.

Quite a few other instances being swooped by the black and white death birds but another time with friends I gave myself a bleeding nose after ducking and slamming my face on my own bikes handlebars...

My friends thought that was funny.

Sitting out by a campfire at night in Uganda and suddenly spot a hurt and upset water buffalo standing by a lamp in the dark circa 15 meters away. Safe to say that we ran back to the big lodge and didn’t spend anymore time outside that night.

Either that or when a snake fell from the bathroom ceiling at one of my friends at the first bathroom stop we had while traveling in Uganda.

When I was a kid I was invited to my 2nd grade teacher's wedding. My parents were friends with his fiancée, she was one of their ESL teachers, so that had a lot to do with it. The wedding was in upstate New York and so my parents and I drove up there along with my godparents, (who were became friends with my parents and her at the same ESL class) friend Juan and my dog Snoopy, who was just a puppy.

Her parents had rented out cabins for guests to stay in, which was pretty awesome. My parents took one room and my godparents took the other, so Juan and I slept in the living room. We didn't mind at all, because there was a TV, and the first night there we stayed up watching this show about aliens. It kind of freaked me out, but I didn't want to seem scared so I acted like it didn't bother me and tried to go to sleep.

It took me a while to fall asleep, but when I did I was having a dream that aliens abducted me and were doing experiments on me. It all seemed so real and I was scared, especially when they said they were going to drill into my head. It was all so real, it was like I could feel them drilling into my head and after a bit I woke up, but I was still feeling that so I screamed. My dad came running out of the room to see what was up, thinking we were in trouble. It ended up being Snoopy just biting at my hair because he was a puppy and I was sleeping on the floor. Given the context it was definitely the most terrifying experience I have had with an animal.

I got rushed by a pitbull once while I was walking to the bus stop. This was by a set of Townhouses in the owner had just opened the door to let her go pee because he didn't want to go out in the cold. Thankfully the dog just wanted to be petted but it was a scary couple of seconds. PS it has nothing to do with breed I'd be scared Getting b*m-rushed By any large dog.

South Africa, on a game drive in a small private reserve bordering Kruger National Park.

It’s me and my husband, a guide and a spotter. The guide is also the owner of the lodge we stay in within the game reserve, and he has done this since he could walk. With him he have a rifle for protection.

We are driving, it’s soon to be dark. Our guide is in radio contact with surround cars and is being tipped of that a lion pride is near by. We tell him that we haven’t seen any lions yet, and he’s like “then come along”, and he just exits the car and starts walking in to the bushes. Like, are you for real? We join in.

A quick safety briefing of “stay behind me, stay low, keep voices down, no sudden movements,, do what I do” and off we go.
It doesn’t take long before he spots lionesses some 50 meters ahead of us. They’ve of course already heard us, and are starting to leave as we approach. Two large males stands ground.
We move forward slowly. We stop when there is 20-25 meters between us and the prides two male lions. One of them is growling these low and deep growl, and suddenly the other male is jumping forward with a mighty roar and a stop in the ground, telling us to back the off.

So we do. Slowly backing out of the bushes back to the car.

Adrenalin still pumping, amazed as what we’ve just seen, we drive away (like 5 kilometers away) to a small lot to have a glass of red wine and watch the sun set. We are out of the car again here, standing in an open lot, used by the nearby lodges to go sunset watching with the guests.

As it is dark, we enter the car to drive home. As we turn on the engine and the lights, the lion pride we had been watching earlier, walks out of the bushes and continues to walk past our car.
They had no doubt been stalking us. Who knows if they had grabbed one of us had we been hanging around for a second glass.

Still, the most terrifying animal encounter I’ve ever had, was that time a spider crawled up my neck and into my hair one time when I was watching tv on the couch.

Went for a walk, I live at an intersection, and the side street next to me is pretty dark at night. Id walked two houses up, when I see movement out of the corner of my right eye.

Just as i turn the biggest bear I've seen just stops and looks at me. Now where I live bears are common. But this bear was something else it was huge. I'm not exaggerating.

My first instinct was to stop. But something told me to just keep walking. Scariest animal encounter in my life.

Was walking back from the pub through a suburban street. About 1 a.m. Heard thumping noise getting progressively louder. Stopped to look about and a kangaroo landed no more than two feet in front of me, after bounding over the high fence I was walking next to. Scared the hell out of me.

Walking down a long private road in the woods with friends when two baby black cubs stumble out in front of us and the mother bear trots out behind us.
We calmed the girlfriends down and the big bear walked back into the Bush and the cubs followed.

When my partner and I went to Bali we went on a walk around Sanur. We figured we'd take a short cut back to our resort going down what looked like a pathway. Turns out it was a dead end but no problem. We turn back. Problem is this square headed dog that looks like a mixed pitbull is now standing on the pathway snarling at us. I'm pretty okay with animals usually even if they're aggressive I can keep my cool but this dog looks like he's one half blink away from mauling us. It's mangy with a crazy glint in its eyes too and with how prevalent rabies is in Indonesia I'm freaking out.

We edge around this dog painfully slow so as not to provoke it and any movement that's a little quicker than snail pace it tenses it's muscles and growl barks.

We got out okay but I swear it was only by the skin of our teeth. That thing wanted meat.

At a lodging in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. a group of Baboons walking across the garden and i took some photo's with my camera at the time, with the flash on. It must of pissed off the alpha Baboon who was in charge of them, cause he came storming over to us and we all ran in the little house, and he was banging on the window trying to break in it seemed. He had some scary big teeth. I was only around 12 years old at the time. Uncle was from Zim, so he had a bit of experience with them, when he noticed what was happening he ran out and chased them away.

Growing up, my grandma babysat me. She lived with my uncle. He had a Rottweiler, who was very friendly.

One day, when I was 9-10, I decided I wanted to pretend to be a wrestler. I did this by putting white masking tape on my hands and arms. I ended up fighting stuffed animals and all that. When I got tired, I just grabbed some action figures and went to the carport, which had deer stands. This was where the Rottweiler also slept.

So the dog was asleep when I got there. I started playing with the toys. A few minutes later I heard the dog stirring. I pay no mind to it. I then hear growling. I turn around and the dog is growling at me. I try to let her know it is me but she is still growling.

I then slowly back away and she lunges at me. Being the somewhat smart kid I was, I noticed immediately she was going for my arms. I rip off the masking tape, throw it at the dog, and run back into the house.

Avoided that dog for days until I was asked to feed her. She was friendly again.

Went swimming at the beach and decided to race my mate out to the shark net buoys. I'm 5 metres away, giving it my all when I slap my hand down into the water for my next stroke and hit something real squishy. I stopped and looked up to find I'd booped a box jellyfish square on the top of the thing. Noped out of there so hard. The worst bit was I didn't even win the race.

Just last week. Went to walk into the toilet at home, only to discover a massive green tree frog in the doorway. Not scary to some I know, but I have a phobia about them and was absolutely terrifyingly, out of my mind screaming, scared. Hit the hallway wall whilst screaming for my husband, and then sat on top of the kitchen table while he took the frog outside, in case it got loose and hopped around and attacked my legs.

My family think it's hysterically funny and continue to give me frog-themed gifts at xmas and birthday. They're all sitting in a box in the cupboard and I refuse to look at them.

For some unknown reason I've always been afraid of dogs, no matter their size (ironic considering from birth I'd been around dogs and never had a problem).

A couple weeks ago I'm walking through my local park as a shortcut home and I'm listening to some music not really paying attention to what's going on around me, until I notice movement to my left. It was a dog. My fear kicked in and I froze until I realized it was wearing a collar and holding a ball in its mouth. He clearly just wanted to play, and for the next five minutes I had a very excited dog zooming around me whilst I waited for his owner to return. Not the most terrifying of experiences I know but it was the sudden realisation that there was a dog beside me and no owner that really caught me off guard.

I used to live next to a forest when I was very young, I fed the stray dogs sometimes.

Stranger came to visit me, and the strays went full beast mode. Hackles raised, drooling, baring teeth, etc.

I thought they were directed both at me and the stranger but they moved around me and went after the stranger.

I was only 8 or 9, so it was extremely scary but in hindsight the dogs was protecting me.

I was attacked by a grizzly bear in the Tetons. It was in the fall right before hibernation. It was after what was in my backpack. I thought I had stored my trash away properly, but some scent must have lingered. Basically pinned me to the ground trying to tear into my pack and when that didn't work it threw me around like a rag doll. My friend was spraying bearspray the whole time trying to get it to leave. It eventually did. I came out relatively unharmed. A few broken bones and some mild cuts. Ruined my favorite pack and coat though.

When I was just 5 years old my neighbor had a Doberman who was usually very friendly dog, however , one day I go into his backyard to ride one of his bikes that he usually lets me ride as I was exiting the backyard the Doberman jumped on me and knocked me to my bum and pinned me down staring me in the face growling viciously. Eventually when Neighbor comes out of the house and yelled at him "Damien get back in here". I don't know if that dog ever wanted to really end me or just scare me.