Defending yourself against wildlife

Here’s a classic animal defense video :)

I’ve only had real stand offs against day hikers’ and backpackers’ dogs.  I think they’re (a small minority of them of course) by far the biggest animal threat on most trails.

I was descending from Floe Lake last week (narrow, steep, long) and had a grouse running in front of me refusing to leave the trail for a good 5 minutes.  I was booking so it kept having to jump in the air in a pattern of hop/flap/run/hop/flap/run.  It was pretty hilarious.  They are seriously dumb!

“I was descending from Floe Lake last week (narrow, steep, long) and had a grouse running in front of me refusing to leave the trail for a good 5 minutes.  I was booking so it kept having to jump in the air in a pattern of hop/flap/run/hop/flap/run.  It was pretty hilarious.  They are seriously dumb!”

Sounds like it was trying to distract you from a nest or group of chicks.  I’ve certainly had both grouse and quail do that to me.  You are supposed to think it is injured and chase it to eat it…meanwhile, leaving the youngsters at peace.

On the original topic, I’ve never had to defend myself from wildlife in the backcountry, and that over more than sixty years–admittedly, very little of it in grizzly country. But I have had confrontations with wildlife in popular campgrounds.  I don’t blame the wildlife for those, obviously.

Yep, ptarmigan also. They always startle me by bursting out of cover, and then flap around pathetically, barely getting off the ground, to lure you away from their nest.

Never had an issue with a dog owned by another hiker, but I’ve had a number of sketchy situations with unsupervised livestock protection dogs in the wilderness. No actual attacks, though.

As for wildlife encounters, I think I’ll save them for private discussions. People can get weird about this topic. I fully support defending yourself if attacked.

I saw the couple of posts in another thread about using an umbrella to defend yourself against wildlife

Yep, that was me and that did happen.  Food-motivated seagulls are no joke, even with a proper parasol at hand.

As for wildlife encounters, I think I’ll save them for private discussions. People can get weird about this topic. I fully support defending yourself if attacked.

Let them; if they want to be weird, that’s a reflection on them, not on you.  I’ve mostly had to defend myself against dogs that were off-leash and aggressive, but there have been a few incidents with rodents and birds that decided they wanted my food and needed to be shooed away, and a couple of bears that got entirely too close for reasonable comfort.  I also had a fox charge me when it was interrupted in the act of stealing chickens.  Out of all of those incidents, the dogs have been the worst and they’re not even wildlife.

Let them; if they want to be weird, that’s a reflection on them, not on you.

Well, maybe “weird” was the wrong word. Everyone has a different opinion about what may be an appropriate response to wildlife behavior, and I’m hoping the thread doesn’t become adversarial. But if you don’t mind, have at it.

You should definitely avoid mentioning anything that might violate regulations for protected species; everything on the internet is monitored these days.

1. A fat marmot that wouldn’t leave me alone to eat my breakfast.  He’d apparently won those debates too often.  Just walking around as I ate and “bluff kicking” at him now and then was sufficient.
2. Habituated goats that kept coming right up to me in camp, apparently wanting to chew my sweaty shirt.  I had to keep a trekking pole or, better, a bushy limb in hand to dissuade them.

You should definitely avoid mentioning anything that might violate regulations for protected species; everything on the internet is monitored these days.

Warning: opinions occur imminently.  They’re backed up by  facts, but they’re still opinions.

In cases of legitimate self-defense, species protection means absolutely nothing: if you are utilizing the force necessary to deter or end a thread to your person – no more and no less – species protection goes out the window.  I do not know of a single jurisdiction that would ask a person to willingly allow harm on the basis of species protection.  Sure, you may still have to deal with the consequences of – by way of example – shooting a grizzly, but there’s a lot of difference between dropping one  that’s charged someone through a cloud of bear spray and shooting one in the back from 100 yards away.  You’ll have all kinds of legal headaches from that happening, no argument…but if it was legitimate self-defense, that fact usually comes out.  Naturally, we don’t want that kind of thing to ever happen, but the fact is that it does…and honestly, we should be free to discuss such things without fear of reprisal.  In the US, this discussion is protected at the highest level.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Opinion concluded: no offense intended.  I’m pretty sure that none of the gulls I dissuaded with my parasol were protected.</p>
Also, that is a seriously fat marmot in that picture, Todd. 😮

Those goats look downright scary. I think they do head butt people now and then! I had marmots almost crawling on me at the top of Donahue Pass. And in Denali on a popular trail, the ground squirrels will literally crawl up your back! No fear. Very habituated.

mostly defending my food rather than myself from aggressive birds and chipmunks.  Holding the food near my body made them give up.

Never had to defend myself against dogs backpacking… cycling in the country in another story.  Speed, water bottle, and a frame mounted pump kept them at bay.

An occational raccoon or black bear who wanted my food.  Some combination of bright flashlight, yelling, and throwing rocks, and a either a good hang or bear can eventually discouraged them

In my teens we encountered a grizzly.  I (unwisely) dropped my pack and backed away trying to look big.  He investigated my pack by ripping it open and then wandered off.

The most amusing was we were walking near a male turkey and his harem.  He objected to my eying his women and gave chase.  I laughed and spend up thinking he would give up.  As he gained on me I started to run full out.  Took almost a minute before he gave up and got pretty close.  Didn’t realize they could move that quickly.

The most amusing was we were walking near a male turkey and his harem…

Being from some prime turkey country, I have heard numerous stories of big toms deciding that they didn’t like an innocent bystander.  Haven’t had it happen myself, but I’ve seen the marks from someone getting pecked and/or flogged.

Oh, on that note: one of our roosters once put a spur through my partner’s cheek and knocked two of her teeth loose.  She bent over to shoo a hen out from under a shrub, her ponytail flipped sideways across her head, and that must’ve been all the provocation that said rooster needed.  He slammed that spur straight through in about a quarter of a second; it was fun trying to explain that in the emergency room, later that night.

And that reminds of a shorter story: late one night, a friend of mine and his wife were leaving from our house, and an owl came out of a tree and raked her head as she crossed the driveway.  One ER trip and many stitches later, she was okay…but the moral of both stories is this: don’t f*** with big birds.

I hope the rooster ended up as Coq au Vin. Yikes. Yeah, don’t mess with Big Bird.

I hope the rooster ended up as Coq au Vin.

Hell no he didn’t.  Cheeks grow back; good roosters are hard to find.

My son woke up at 3am to watch a porcupine inside his vestibule eating his pack’s chest strap for the salt.  It wasn’t dissuaded despite his calling out.  Luckily he was day or two hike away from Golden and could get it fixed and carry on

I now always rinse and wash my pack to get the salt out after a trip.  Sometimes the best defense is avoidance.