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Pet
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Pet
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Maybe Pet
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Run for your life
this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Side note: In Sweden, the general advice for bears is "play dead", but maybe Canadian bears are different?
Depends on the bear. Black bears are cowards and you can generally just make noise or act big to scare them. Brown or grizzlies you'll want to play dead and pray then don't try to eat you. Polar bears, good luck, better have one of those boxes really close by.
The rule on black bears can go out the window if they are worried about their young, super hungry, or young and inexperienced with humans.
Someone with better knowledge can correct me but that's what I was taught when I was a kid.
Let me see if I remember this correctly…
If it is black, fight back
If it is brown, lie down
If it is white, good night
If it's yellow or green, it's just not clean.
Oh wait, that's not hiking advice. That's a quote from the 2003 Disney animated film Brother Bear.
Red touch yellow, kill a fellow; red touch black, friend of Jack
(snake advice)
I thought that was from a Charmin commercial
I've had over a dozen black bear encounters, and two grizzly. The blacks I've just made a lot of noise and looked like more trouble than it's worth.
The first grizzly I just froze and he lost interest or couldn't see me (I was downwind) and the second I had my nephew get behind me and keep me between us as he crept away. The bear watched and then went back to grubbing a log, so I slowly moved directly away from him.
I'm still alive so I must be doing something right, besides the part where I don't backpack where the bears are.
I believe in North America, the same advice is generally true, except for black bears, which are pretty stupid and easily scared away. The Humane Society advises you in the case of a black bear sighting to make yourself appear larger and more aggressive than the bear, and the bear will almost always run away. If the bear does attack, you can't play dead. You have to fight back.
There are plenty of news stories about black bears being warded off by small dogs. They're not much of a threat.
Nah last one grab by neck lift up the body tuck it under arm and you got free dinner
Free dinner for the cobra chicken, you mean
You've never picked up a pissed off Canada, I gather. I have, it's distressingly difficult to finish them off by wringing their necks, not to mention them trying to kill you as you do it.
Don't just squeeze. Use it's body like a club.
Grab the fucker by the neck and use him against his friends. Fuckin hate Canada geese.
They're pretty heavy to go flailing around, especially when they're flapping their wings trying to hit you. They're big. But so tasty.
7-14lbs isn't that heavy but I'll admit with it trying to fight back it'd take a bit of effort but I have no doubt the average human could produce enough force to swing it hard enough to at least break it's neck.
Might not be flailing it around but it should still be enough for one good whack
Ok, but what do I do if I encounter all 4 at the same time?
You freeze and walk away slowly for your life being as loud as possible.
Ah, the ol' slow scream. Works good on scientologists too.
Rattlesnakes can only strike half their body length, just fyi. For big ol' 6 foot monsters, that's 3 feet. And, the ones on the western side of North America just want to be left alone. From what I've seen, you'd have to be practically trying to get bit by them, like obliviously step on one with earbuds blasting. Seems like even a little awareness is plenty to keep you from ever having to fear.
Have heard Eastern rattlesnakes are more aggressive, but don't have any experience with them.
Yeah unlike the black mamba, where nature turned the words “fuck you” into a creature
I live in the southeast and work with snakes on the side (volunteer work and relocating them). Eastern Diamondbacks are a very defensive but nothing to worry about. Pygmy Rattlesnakes are the same way. Timber Rattlesnakes are the odd ball. They're placid to a fault. Overall, the same rules apply as with all North American snakes. Keep your distance, leave it alone, and you have nothing to worry about.
We have rattle snakes up here?
from Wikipedia:
Rattlesnakes are native to the Americas from southern Canada to central Argentina
If not for the scissortail flycatcher, Oklahoma's state bird would be the rattlesnake.
The only time I’ve ever personally seen a wild rattlesnake was in Ontario. The massasauga rattler exists in the area and is also venomous
Oh dang. Suppose I won't see one crawling around young st anytime soon but still growing up in a tiny farm town in southern ON I only, very rarely, saw a gardener. I assumed that's we had.
I've seen a couple on a few hikes in the Alberta Badlands.