Have You Ever Had A Run-in With A Wild Animal?

I didn't have the encounter but my in-laws did. They were camping in Lake Tahoe on the North Shore and one of the grandkids went running to another camp where my in-laws were visiting and he was yelling there are bears in the motorhome! The went over to their motorhome and sure enough  there were to bear cubs sitting at the dinnette eating. She said they were yelling at them with no response, they turned and looked and there was the Momma bear and they were standing between her and her cubs. The ranger showed up about that time with a bull horn and starting shouting bears go home! The cubs came out and ran off with their Momma, The had gotten the frig open with several scratches, but for the most part damage was minimal!!

Actually, it was not a real wild animal....it was actually my sister and her friend....See two of my friends and I were camping on their hill, and our two rediculous sisters tried to scare us. They tried to pretend to be coyotes. Well, one of them were convinsed that an actual coyote answer back. They were the ones who were scared..They sat in our tent for such a long time, until they finally went away.....Now we always joke about how much their "joke" backfired!

I was walking home from school last year in january/ February. When I got home there was a moose in our back yard, with her babies. she walked out, probably heard myu keys. I hid behind our trailer, she back into our yard and i ran inside the house. up here in AK Moose are around all year, and bears in the summer. a few years ago when I was 12, a moose gave birth in our neighbor's backyard. I love AK and don't be afraid to visit because of the wild animals, it is so beautiful! I love camping by the way.

my friend and i went on a two week hiking and climbing trip in yosemite, and had jsut given our lives to jesus and had brought our bibles with us to read on the way.  one night about 8 miles out from tuolumne meadows we heard a pop, i got out of the tent and turned on my flashlight and a huge bear was right next to the tent, chewing on the backpack.  I scared it off and looked to see what it had bitten into and when i opened the pouch, the bear had bitten right into the bible!

     Ok, so we live in Louisiana, right? Well me and my mom went up to New York(not NY,NY just the state)to see some family. We go up to our family's camp and we have a great time with our aunt and uncle and each other! We went to the lake and EVERYTHING! It was awesome! After that excitement(remember this is in the woods) we were starting to drive back to our aunt and uncle's house, and on the trail back we saw a big black bear standing on it's hind legs! Nobody expects that! To make that even better, we keep driving and the bear runs into the woods and we keep on driving! We go by where the bear was standing, and look into the woods. We see the bear just a little bit away! We were so excited! It was awesome! We didn't spend the night thank gosh!!!

I can't blame you Kelli!!!

Encounters with wild animals:
I like the great outdoors, but I shudder for people who say things like "Black bears are afraid of you!"  Animals are as individual as people are. The black bear you see today may run from you and the next day that same one may rip your head off! Please! Do not ever give the impression that bears are safe. They are not. Every year, hikers are killed by bears. They are very dangerous.
You survived your encounter. Be grateful. But, please, please don't make it sound like fun.

yes i have it was last year camping trip and i was sitting by the fire and this big grizzly bear came through the campsite.i could take 2 steps and touch it.

2 years ago we were camping along the Truckee River over 4th of July weekend. Another camper told us a bear with cubs was on the other side of the river. My husband got some great pics, then said, "She'll be by later tonight" To which an imaculatly REI clad camper said,"No, she likes nature. She'll just fish in the river." HA! That night I was in the tent with my boys, while hubby and daughter were by the fire. He said he looked up, and the bear looked back at him over my daughter's shoulder. They were able to move away from the bear, and I started shouting at her to leave my cubs alone. My kids thought that was hilarious! The bear moved on....to the REI lady's campsite.   

Wow!!

I love camping!  I once convinced my entire family to join me and my family for camping at Garner State Park in Texas.  Beautiful grand oak trees, crystal clear water!  Well right about bed time, we all settled into our tents when we heard rustling around our camp site.  No biggy for the experienced campers, but what an ordeal for the city folks!  Turns out it was a skunk!  Well the zippers on the tents shutdown tighter than Fort Knox!  Mind you this was in the middle of a HOT Texas summer night.  I have no doubt the yells awoke the entire country side.  The family promptly packed up first thing in the morning and headed back to the city!  Too funny!  Now they camp in RV's.......boring.

I came home one afternoon and let my dog out of his outside lot. He went straight to the front of the house and started barking.  There was a ground hog under the steps so I draged my dog back to his lot and locked him up so he would not get bitten.  I then took a leaf rake and went to scare the thing back into the woods.
No such luck.  I stood in one place with my flimsey leaf rake extended out while the ground hog completely circled me. Once I had done a complete turn around, I then realized all I had was a leaf rake. I threw the rake down and ran inside the houde and called my neighbor.  Bless his heart, he came over and eliminated my source of horror.

I was camping at Lake Jacomo with girl scouts and these raccoons came from up from the lake and started to fight over one fish and some goldfish crackers inbetween the counciler's tent and some cadett's ten and almost slash it open.  There was also one tent with water bottles and pop cans outside and the racoons stared to hit the tent and the girls started to hit from the inside of the tent. Those racoons also made a huge mess all over the camp and knocked over one trash can.

I have camped all of my life in the mountains of western Pa, and have had run numerous runins with bears, raccoon among other animals.  But what I will never forget are when the bears end up in the town I live in and you look in the back yard or street and see a bear walking down the road.  

A couple years ago my mom was walking up by our old house by highway 285. This was a memorial day weekend at about 6:30am. She was rounding a bend by this huge rock. On this rock was a huge male mountain lion. It never saw her. I am acctually quite suprised that it didn't hear her heart beating. Anyway mom backed up slowly like you are told to. She only did this for about 30 feet before she turned aroud and sprinted back towards the highway. Later mom said that she did this so that "if i got caught someone driving by would see me getting mauled."    Despite all this my parents, my sister and I still love camping and hiking. So sorry Kelli  but I'm gonna side with Scott on this one!!

When my grandma was growing up she used to go camping with her family, and while her mother was cooking dinner the kids used to sneak in the tent and grab a snack. One night, while she was cooking, she heard sounds from the tent so she called for the kids to get out and stop sneaking the food, but it wasn't kids in the tent- it was a bear, enjoying a snack.

I used to go camping with a bunch of friends from work. Near Tahoe one weekend, the ranger dropped by to warn us to secure our food, because there was a "maverick" bear in the area who had been raiding campsites.

I had a pickup truck with a shell on the bed, and I slept in there. But all my friends were in tents. As we were all drifting off to sleep, I could not stop myself from making some grunting sounds as if I were a bear. I could hear the ladies amongst my friends making little afraid noises. I'm such a stinker. I can't believe Jesus forgives even me!

The next morning the camp was of course abuzz with news of the bear noises many had heard the night before.

Blessings

Wild Animals don't just appear in the wild.  In fact the close encounter that scared me the most happened right after I moved to the suburbs of a metropolotin area from a rural area.  I heard a sound as I was getting ready for work one morning.  I stepped into the bathroom, where the sound had originated, only to see the ceiling giving way and a racoon in mid-air.  Needless to say, I moved immediately.

kelly i have a idea 4 u move all the beds in the super 8 and pitch a tent in the middle of the room  that would considered camping right!

Kelli, you are missing the whole point of camping.  There are many places to camp that don't have bears.  The point of camping is to build memories for your children and special time spent with friends and family.  No computers, phones, TV, that alone should entice you. I can remember all the times of camping when I was young with my family and all the FUN we had. Don't worry about the mosquitos....it only itches for a little while.   Love your children with a camping trip..

I was in the middle of this big field and I saw a Lion on one end and a Bear on the other but then I realized I was just watching an NFL game between Detroit and Chicago!

I have a friend in Washington State who goes camping with the "guys" every year in the Cascade Mountains.  They really rough it and camp around the fire, in the open without tents.  One year while they were sleeping he said he was having a dream about walking through a waste dump and the smell was terrible, it was humid and hot.  He said it just got worse and worse in his dream and it actually woke him up.  When he opened his eyes he was face to face with a bear that was standing over him breathing in his face, just looking at him..  He said it scared him so bad he just passed out.  When he woke up, the other guys didn't believe him until they started looking around camp and found a mass of paw prints.

HI : we had a bear encounter in Yosemite. Came to our campsite and stole our food sack in afternoon. I Sent it email.
But a really funny part was weeks later in Indiana when my husband had terrible neck pain at midnight. In Indianapolis, downtown city at the ER he tried to explain to the secretary checking us in...that he hurt his neck when he ran/fell/then hit his head on a log because he was chased by a bear... She almost fell over laughing and did not believe a word.

My Dad, brother, and I were fishing off of Vancouver Island in our 12 foot boat when a killer whale swam directly under us.  My Dad had that little 15hp motor going as fast as it could go to get away.

For those who want to go camping but are afraid of the bears, here is a safety tip...bring pepper spray.  It works very well on bears.  It only burns them for lil while and it does wear off after a few minutes.

My run in was an example of how God protects us from our own stupidity...
I had gone hiking in the Smoky Mountains and had my camera with me...I came around a bend in the trail and there was a 20 to 25 foot boulder on the side of the trail with a full-grown black bear perched on top.  I swung the camera up to get a shot and realized the lens cap was still on.  So I took the lens cap off and found that the bear was now about 15 feet in front of me on the trail, as I moved the camera up to take the photo he ran off into the woods on the side of the trail.
  In a moment of "not the smartest thing I've ever done" I chased him through the woods...until he disappeared from in front of me...I cautiously made my way back to the trail.
  On the positive side.... I got several shots of the bear's posterior for posterity...

My family and I went camping last year and a mom and two babies bears came into our campsite. My mom hates camping but we finally got her to go. We sent up our campsite and that night mom could not go to sleep. She heard a noise and woke up my dad. He look out and it was a mom and two babies. We had left the cooler out and the mom bear got our candy,hot dogs,and open our egg beaters but it spilled on the groud and could not eat it. After the bears left javalinas came and ate the eggs beaters the bear spilled. In the morning we found mountain lion poop.

Our family was piled into our mini van for a trip to a lake retreat with some of the people from our church. We had just started driving when I turned around and saw a skunk chasing after our car tail up.

"Camping"  no other way to go. Some of my favorite memories are going on vaction camping with my family. Three kids and my husband. Its your own bed,sheets floor with the sand from the beach. My kids make so many more friends camping. My husband loves to cook when we camp. The kids and I play card games. I usually always ban the TV from coming just so we can have more of a family time together. Nothing like it in the world

I'm with Scott. The best experiences with family are around a campfire and cuddled into a cozy tent, experiencing all sorts of dangers: wind, rain and buffalo.
PLUS, when best to spend some quality QT time than early early in the morning just my Lord and me, looking at amazing sights and  listening to a sleepy family. Camping 100%.

I live in a rural setting just east of Seattle.  I frequently see elk, deer, bears, coyotes and even the occasional bobcat in my yard or in the neighborhood.  I see mountain goats from my livingroom, and have had one-to-one encounters with bears in the back yard at around 30 feet.  Cougar sightings are fairly common as well.  It's not unusual to see 60 or more elk across the street from the church.  The critters are a constant reminder to me of how vast and marvelous God's creation is.  

My husband and I love to camp.  We've had two encounters with wild animals on our camping trips.  Once there was a raccoon washing his hands in a dish we left out to soak and another time we were a campsite away from a skunk house!  We came across two of them and thankfully they never bothered us.  We did leave everything in the car overnight though...just to be safe!

I was driving down the highway here in alaska and noticed something in a tree.  I stopped adn discovered that it was a large porcupine at teh top of an alder tree.  As God as my wittness I did not know that Porcupines could climb trees.  It was a fairly small tree so I held on to a tree next to the one that the porcupine was in adn started to walk up the tree he was in.  Well the tree he was in was caught on adnother tree next to it adn the one I was walking my feet up in an attempt to lower the porcupine to teh ground broke in the middle springing the top of his tree toward my face stopping about 2 feet from my face.  I jumped from the tree and as I tuned to see what was happing the porcupine calmly climbed down the trunk adn wandered off into the forest.

My husband and I love to camp.  We've had two encounters with wild animals on our camping trips.  Once there was a raccoon washing his hands in a dish we left out to soak and another time we were a campsite away from a skunk house!  We came across two of them and thankfully they never bothered us.  We did leave everything in the car overnight though...just to be safe!

We went camping when my middle daughter was only a few months old. We took a playpen for her to sleep in because we were camping in a tent. My oldest earlier in the day had been eating Lay's barbecue chips and had spilled the bag right at the opening of the tent. We brushed most of them out, but didn't worry much about getting them all. Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up to crunching. I couldn't figure out what was going on and I started looking around in the very dim light. Pretty soon, the crunching stopped and much to my surprise, a skunk came wandering up between my sleeping bag and the playpen where my baby daughter slept! Her empty bottle had fallen over and the skunk was standing there smelling it. Somehow, I kept my wits about me and all the while praying my baby, my other daughter and my husband would remain quiet and still... so it wouldn't spray! Pretty quick, it meandered out of the tent and I zipped the tent all the way down and woke my husband to tell him of our close encounter I made sure from that point on anytime we went camping to sweep out any spills and make sure the tent was zipped so it was completely shut!

When my husband and I were first married, in the early 80's  we were camping and heard noise out side our tent. I unzipped the door to see a raccoon run off with a bag of my Home Made Banana Bread. The brat throw away a Hershey bar in favor of my B Bread.  I did throw a shoe at him and he left one loaf untouched. Yes we dusted it off and ate the B. Bread. The next night and every night after that when we camped the cooler and all food was locked in the car at night.  For years my husband good heartedly teased that my  B. Bread Raccoon tested and approved.

Another time we had a close call with about 3 or 4 skunks. WE were sitting out by the fire and heard animal noises in the woods behind our tent. My husband aimed the flash light  into the woods and we spotted to skunks. WE sat very still for about 10 minutes until they moved deeper into the woods.

yes with a wolf i was camping down in MN. I was awken with a growl and sniffing around our tent. I woke up the guy next to me and asked him if he heard it to and he did. So what did i do i grabed my pocket knife that was 10 inches long and a flash light. And climed out of the tent slowly and shined the light to the trees and their i saw a wolf glazzing at me about 40 feet away. I frozed and staired down at it for 1 min or 2 and it started to move when an adult came out. And ran it off it was an close encounter but i think it was worth it cause their my favorite animal. I would do it over if i get another chance.

Okay, Kelli--I'm with you on the camping thing so I insist on staying in a cabin or rental home of some sort when in the "wilderness".  However, this has backfired no not once but TWICE!!  Once we were in the hot tub and the bear came right up to the tub.  The other time, (seperate trip), he walked right on the deck and started licking the gas grill and it wasn't even open!  The moral, sometimes without the tent you get a run in with the wildlife! I enjoyed listening to you while running my errands this evening!

I was once camping with my family and while we were sleeping a raccoon raided our cooler (which we left outside our camper for some reason).  Among other things it ate a 5 pound package of Sabrett hotdogs.  We also had 2 packages of oreos in the cooler, one reduced fat, the other regular.  The raccoon ate the entire package of regular oreos but didn't touch the reduced fat ones

Yes I have had many encounters with bears and all kinds of other animals. I have been a cameraman in the outdoor industry for nearly 10 years so it's kind of my job to go looking for trouble so to speak. On numerous occasions up in the Yukon Territory, I was awoken by bears snorting on the outside of the tent I was sleeping in. Once the guides stuck us in the cook shack (canvas tent)... i woke up to a bear grunting and I was sleeping 3 feet from the stove and food cache... not the brightest thing in the world but what are you gonna do... it's a job! I have also had to stare down a 10 1/2 foot brown bear while "getting the shot" on Kodiak Island, AK... I've got video of a black bear going from the ground up to about 40ft up in a pine tree in three bounds, he ran up that tree like he was on flat ground. I have seen bears act just like a dog, playing with buckets and such but at the same time I have a great respect because they can and will snatch you up in the blink of an eye for no other reason than a whim. Most people think Grizzly bears are the dangerous ones... not true. A Grizzly is more likely to maul you while your run of the mill black bear is more likely to kill you outright. Neither are pleasant to be around in the wrong situation. I could keep going and add plenty of gory details but I won't... Suffice to say climbing a tree or whacking them with a stick won't do you much good.  

Kelly, I don't want to burst your balloon, but bears don't only show up when you are camping - your motel may not be safe!  Last year my niece was walking her dog in New Britain (a relatively large city), Connecticut when she came face to face with a bear.  Thankfully some neighbors had already seen it and the police were on the scene quickly.  We live and camp in the wilderness of Maine and my kids would love to see a bear up close!

One summer I flew to Wyoming to work on a ranch and had many encounters with wild life. The funniest story was a black bear really liked my cabin and he also liked the office because one night he broke in, raided the fridge and ate all the jolly ranchers on the counter. A ranger came to try and trap the bear to relocate else where, apparently he found out I was a jokester. At about 6:00 am he came banging on my door to yell out me because the bear went into the trap that he sent up outside my cabin but escaped and he thought it was me. I assured him it wasn't me but he didn't believe me and told the Rancher owner on me. She confronted me yelling at me and and said she would send me home if I pulled something like that again. Well the next morning the bear made it into the cage once again, ate all the strawberries and then escaped. So once again I got yelled out and this time was not only accused of letting the bear go but eating the strawberries ... lol. I would try so hard not to laugh when they yelled cause I found it so ridiculous that they actually thought I would risk my life letting a bear out of a trap and that I was stupid enough to climb into that trap and eat the strawberries. At this point they where not going to believe me so I said what the heck I might as well play along ... I made a sign and hung it on my cabin door that said "Will work for Strawberries". The Ranger ended up camping out outside my cabin to keep an eye on me and the bear ... lol. At the end of the summer, the ranch staff actually gave me an award that said "Most likely to release Bears back into the wild while eating strawberries". I got some good pics of the bear, he was cute and harmless ... he was more scared then we were. It finally came out that the Ranger had no idea how to set the trap  ... but it makes for a good story now.

My wife's sisters and their cousin went to Colorado for a vacation. They were camping in Rocky Mountain National Park. My Sister-in-Law had to go to the restroom in the middle of the night, so she went to the facilities in the campground. While she was in the restroom she "thought" she heard a bear outside of the restroom. She is the type that has chicken feathers under her arms! So she spent the rest of the night in the restroom! I'm sure the next night was spent in a hotel.

My husband and I were on our honeymoon in Gatlenburg/pigeon forge Tenn.  We decided to go hiking and ran upon a baby bear, needless to say we got back in the car!

A stray dog chased after me. my mom freakedout!lol

One time me and my family were on a trip to the beach. So we went on a walk on a trail and we saw a gator IT WAS HUGE so my mom said stay back but no my brother would not listen ha ha he started throwing rocks at it. started to come toward us so my bro stoped throwing rocks and we all ran as fast as we could OUTTA THERE

One day I was kayaking with my great aunt, and it was a really hot day.  We were hoping to see some manatees or dolphins, maybe even sharks .  But as the day went on we didn't see any, and I was starting to give up.  I prayed and prayed, but still nothing happened.

Even though nothing happened when I prayed all day, I knew that if God wanted me to see something he would have shown me.  So, my great aunt and I were heading back to shore when all of the sudden there were two dolphins swimming right between me and my great aunt's kayaks.  It was an unbelievable day, and I'm happy that God answered my prayer...even though I know that he won't answer "Yes" all the time.