by Les Stroud
wolves, coyotes, and other similar canine creatures
mountain lions, cougars, jaguars, pumas, panthers, and other similar small cats
black bears, grizzly bears, Kodiak bears, brown bears, and other similar bears
sharks (other than great white sharks)
Have a healthy respect for animals in the wild, but don’t let that evolve into an irrational fear of them. Once your respect becomes fear, you lose your ability to act rationally in a confrontation, and you may freeze, to your peril.
Say, for example, that you have no fresh water, the localized weather conditions are poor, and you have little fuel for fire. You know from your map that there’s a better spot a few miles away, but you’re too afraid to move because you believe you may encounter a bear along the way. Your fear of the bear is actually hindering your ability to survive.
Generally, accidental predators want nothing to do with humans. Problems occur when we present ourselves to them in a compromising position, whether it’s getting between them and their food, getting between a mother and her young, or simply getting too close and startling them. They are bigger and stronger than us, and when they react out of fear, the outcome usually is not in our favor.
Now, there have been instances where rogue animals have killed humans in a seemingly predatory fashion. Though exceedingly rare, rogue animals are dangerous, because they are unpredictable and don’t act the way the rest of their species does.
Habituated animals (bears, in particular) can also prove dangerous because they have become accustomed to humans and do not necessarily see us as a threat. Habituated animals are those that have learned to equate people with food, because people do things like leave garbage lying outside the house, or feed the animals in the backyard or park to get a nice photo.
In Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, there was a time when mothers were seen spreading peanut butter on their children’s faces so that a several-hundred-pound black bear would lick it off, all for a picture! The good news for the adventurer is that habituated animals are rarely found in remote areas.
You can prevent encounters with accidental predators by taking these steps:
Make your presence known.
When you’re traveling in an area where you know there are accidental predators, be as noisy as possible. Sing, yell, blow a whistle, wear a bear bell…anything that will inform animals of your presence. If they hear you, chances are they’ll take o?. Early in my days of survival training, I had to walk alone in a remote area of northern Ontario. I knew the area was thick with black bears (there was bear scat everywhere), so I simply played my harmonica as I walked along. It gave me comfort on a number of levels.
Keep your camp area clean and free of excessive food smells.
If you come upon a freshly killed animal in grizzly territory, give it a wide berth. Grizzlies will often wander some distance from their kill, but you can be sure they sense when something else is getting close to it.
Don’t travel alone through the territory of large predators if you don’t have to.
There are as many strategies for dealing with large animals as there are animals themselves. What works in an encounter with a puma may not work with a grizzly bear. However, in general terms, here’s what you should do if you happen upon an accidental predator:
1. Don’t panic! Turning and running may well incite an instinctive predatorial response in the animal, since you are telling it that you are prey. So if it wasn’t interested in you at first, it sure is now!
2. Calmly and deliberately move away from the animal. Do not make jerky movements, which may startle it. Keep facing it, but do not look it in the eye. Some animals may interpret eye contact as a challenge. (An exception to this rule is sharks, which will take much longer to attack if you keep your eyes on them.)
3. Make yourself seem as big and threatening as possible by waving your arms over your head, making lots of noise, or joining arms with your travel mates.
4. Remember that you are the visitor! No matter how intent you were on heading in a certain direction, taking a certain path, or making camp in a certain spot, move elsewhere!
Many years ago, I was writing an exam for a job as a river guide on the Nahanni River in northern Canada. One of the questions on the exam asked what you should do if a bear wandered into your camp and would not leave, even after you made as much noise as possible, banged pots, and threw rocks in an attempt to scare it away. My reply was to leave. The examiner told me I was the first applicant in three years to get the answer right. After all, it’s the animal’s home and territory, not ours. We are the visitors.
Years of research and thousands of anecdotal accounts of encounters have shown that the only animals worth fooling by “playing dead” are the North American grizzly and Kodiak bears. For all other accidental predators, human aggressive displays tend to win the day, because these accidental predators can’t afford to get injured. In one case, a woman thwarted a bear attack by reaching out and tweaking the bear’s nose. That’s all it took! The bear was so freaked out, it lumbered away. These animals don’t know if you have the ability to seriously injure them, so they spook easy. Only the grizzly has a good handle on just how much bigger it is than you.
As the character Bearclaw replied in my favorite movie, Jeremiah Johnson, when asked by Jeremiah why they were hiding behind their horses even though the elk could see their feet, “Elk don’t know how many feet a horse has!”
True Predators
Even the most intimidating and dangerous of animals do not come into the world programmed to kill humans, nor are they taught to hunt us. We’re not on the menu of the following creatures:
African lions
great white sharks
polar bears
saltwater crocodiles
tigers
Polar bears learn how to hunt seals; lions learn how to hunt gazelles and zebras. Predators are dependent on their physical health and strength to catch their next meal, so they have a great fear of getting injured. When they first encounter you, their instinct is not to attack you and eat you but rather to take off because you present an unknown. And in the wilderness, an unknown is usually a threat. You should be more scared when an animal’s curiosity overrides its fear of you.
So why is it, then, that we hear stories of man-eating lions or polar bears stalking Inuit across the tundra? Because in addition to being predators of other animals, true predators are also opportunistic eaters. If something comes into their world that is soft, smelly, and fleshy (like you and me), these creatures may recognize us as a potential meal.
Here’s what you can do to protect yourself in true predator country:
Avoid detection: Humans tend to be loud, bumbling creatures in the wild. If you’re in true predator terrain, move as stealthily as possible. To avoid giving the predator an opportunity, try not to attract any attention to yourself.
Make as much noise as possible: (You’re going to hate me for this contradiction!) Noise can scare animals away. This alternative is likely better attempted when you’re with a group of people, as there’s safety in numbers. (These completely opposite methods indicate just how difficult it is to predict what an animal will do, or how you should behave, during an encounter.)
Create obstacles: When you’re stationary for any length of time, try to use natural materials to create a buffer between you and the animal. This is particularly important for your shelter. In Africa, I built a corral from acacia thorns around my shelter. It wouldn’t have stopped a lion that was intent on getting me, but it would have deterred one long enough to buy me time to plan my escape.
Plan an escape route: Even with protection, sometimes the best route to safety is an escape route. In Africa, even with a fence of thorn bushes for protection, I made sure my shelter was built against a tree in case the pride of lions wandering the area decided to pay a visit. I hung a rope from the tree into my shelter so that I had the option of climbing the tree to get out of range
.
African lions, polar bears, tigers, sharks, and saltwater crocodiles—they’re all big and can kill us with little effort. It may seem that you have little chance against a 500- to 2,000-pound (227-to 907-kg) animal, but remember that perhaps more than any other wild creatures, true predators (just like accidental predators) cannot afford to get injured. Unlike benign creatures such as rabbits (which can sustain an injury but continue to forage for food), if a predator is seriously hurt, its ability to hunt—and therefore to eat—is impaired. For instance, a wolf that suffers a broken jaw from a tangle with a moose is as good as dead. Animals such as these will often retreat rather than fight.
* * *
STROUD’S TIP
Your fire may not be as effective as you thought in keeping you safe from animals. A small fire will provide warmth, light to see what is going on around the shelter, and burning logs that can be used as “weapons” to scare off animals. But big fires can attract curious predators, and also insects and scorpions. Build your fire using heavy, hard wood that will burn slowly through the night, provide long-lasting coals, and offer strong “missiles” as weapons in case of an attack.
* * *
But if a true predator attacks you, your only chance may be to fight back. If you end up in a body of salt water during a survival situation, don’t create a lot of turbulence by thrashing about, as sharks are attracted to this type of behavior. While filming a TV special on sharks in the Caribbean, I was treading water with a number of lemon sharks beneath me and two tiger sharks close by (accidental and true predators). We posed the question whether it was better to swim as fast as possible to the boat or lie still and let the boat come to get me. When I made my move by swimming quickly and splashing a lot, a huge shark darted straight for me, excited by my movements.
Never enter the water if you are bleeding, as a shark can detect even the smallest amount of blood in the water. Finally, do not throw entrails or garbage into the water, as this, too, may attract sharks. Look behind any cruise ship that throws its food refuse overboard and you will see hundreds of sharks.
If you do encounter a shark, your only option is to defend yourself. A shark’s most sensitive place is its nose; direct your blows there. Remember that sharks like to attack from behind, so try to face the shark at all times. Keep your back against a coral reef or wreckage, if there is any. Go back-to-back with your dive buddy and put any object you have, your underwater video camera, for example, between yourself and the shark. Oh…and get out of the water!
Swimming with Caribbean reef sharks in the Bahamas was thrilling, though intimidating.
Secure Your Shelter from Predator Attack
In making my survival films in the African plains and the Kalahari Desert, I had the wonderful opportunity to learn from Koos Moorecroft, Raphael Gunduza, and Douw Kruger, three of the most knowledgeable survival experts in Africa. I asked Douw to give me his thoughts on dealing with the wild animals of Africa:
Surviving in the African wilderness means that you must take precautions to limit encounters with animals like lions, leopards, and hyenas, especially at night when a survivor in a shelter is nothing more than a sitting duck.
This is not to say these predators will come after you like man-eaters, but they are curious animals and might investigate for an easy meal. Their senses are extremely well developed and they will smell your presence from a distance and see your movements easily at night.
These animals all move very quietly, so it’s not easy to hear them. The best you can (and must) do is secure your shelter or sleeping place, and plan an escape route for an emergency situation. You can also install an early-warning system to wake you up when something is moving around the shelter.
Securing your shelter should be planned and done properly, as you are dealing with powerful and clever predators. If not, you will have nothing more than a false sense of security, which may end up as a nasty surprise. Spending a little extra energy securing your shelter properly will provide a safe place, which will reward you with a good night’s sleep.
Create an Early-Warning System
When alone at night in a survival situation, you’ll have better peace of mind if you’ve put up something that will warn you in advance of a predator’s approach. Use a long, thin piece of string or fishing line as a trip line around the perimeter of your shelter, about a foot and a half (0.5 meter) off the ground. Connect the line to anything that will make noise when moved or banged together.
Even a small rock balanced on a piece of wood over a larger rock will wake you if it’s knocked over in the quiet of the night. You can also use any number of trapping trigger mechanisms to get a big log to fall on a dry, thinner log to create a loud cracking sound.
Tips on Dealing with Dangerous Animals
There are numerous theories as to the best way to deal with dangerous animals, but here are a few tips:
Prepare properly, as if you are expecting an unwelcome visitor.
Do not keep meat or other smelly stuff in or near your shelter. Suspend food by a rope from a tree branch 50 yards (46 m) or more away.
Do not leave anything outside your shelter, as it will be chewed up and carried away by lions and hyenas.
Do not build a large fire, as it will attract some animals and insects.
Urinate on the bushes around the outside of the shelter during the day. It can be smelled from a greater distance than if you urinate on the ground, and the odor may help to keep animals away.
Do not leave your shelter at night!
Angry Ungulates
Despite the bad press animals such as bears, cougars, and lions get, there’s another group that’s rarely written about or discussed in this vein, and yet they can be some of the most dangerous creatures you’ll ever cross paths with in the wilderness (even if they won’t eat you): ungulates, or hoofed mammals.
In the rutting (mating) season, a bull moose can turn into 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of testosterone-driven rage. They’ve been known to attack vehicles. Get too close to one during this time and you may never live to tell the tale. For that matter, all ungulates—even the seemingly gentle elk—pose a significant danger during the rut.
The females of these species can also be formidable foes when they’re with their young and can kill a person with one kick of their hooves.
Other Dangerous Animals
elephants: Need I say more?
buffalo, musk oxen, water buffalo: Powerful and very smart, those in Africa are considered to be the most aggressive animals you will encounter.
hippopotamuses: Surprisingly, hippopotamuses are responsible for more deaths every year than lions.
rhinoceroses: Nervous and defensive, each of these animals has an oh-so-big horn.
ostriches: An ostrich protecting its nest can slice open your rib cage with one swipe of its claws.
Creepy Crawlies
CREEPY CRAWLIES ARE ALL THOSE STINGING and biting creatures that give most of us the shivers. This group includes snakes, lizards, spiders, scorpions, ants, bees, ticks, and leeches. It is important to know something about these creatures and how to travel safely through their world.
As nasty as creatures like the tarantula may seem, creepy crawlies abide by the same guidelines as their kin in the animal world: except in the case of rare exceptions like leeches and ticks, they want nothing to do with you and are not on the lookout for you. Solid pre-trip research will tell you what you need to watch out for.
The only ways you will get bitten or stung by creepy crawlies is if you abruptly enter their space and scare them, if they enter your space and get scared (usually in camp or at night), or if you provoke them. For that reason, slow, deliberate movement is essential at all times.
You are at much greater risk from creepy crawlies than from predators and other dangerous animals, due to their numbers. I once spent seven days alone in the jungle and although I encountered no snakes, I saw lots of monster-sized poisonous ants, a couple of spiders, and a poisonous fr
og.
The rule of thumb when it comes to creepy crawlies is to minimize your exposure to them. In the desert, for example, where there are lots of scorpions around, I build my bed up off the ground so that I won’t find one in with me when I wake up.
Most creepy crawly encounters occur during the night when creatures such as scorpions, snakes, and spiders seek out warmth, and you represent nothing more to them than a large mass of radiant energy. So as ridiculous as it may seem, they really just want to snuggle up with you. It’s only when you move quickly, accidentally or out of panic, that you get bitten. You could literally sleep through the night and not even realize that a number of poisonous creatures had crossed your skin.
A man in Africa once had a black mamba (arguably the most aggressive and dangerous snake in the world) slither down into his sleeping bag to get warm for the night. The man was nearly hysterical when he realized this and was convinced the snake would bite him. His camping mates decided that in one swift motion two of them would yank him out by his shoulders while two others whipped the sleeping bag off his feet. They did just that, and in the few seconds it took to complete the task, the snake bit the man 13 times, killing him. Chances are the snake eventually would have left if the man had lain still and waited it out.
When it comes to avoiding creepy crawlies, a little local knowledge goes a long way. Learn before you head out what you need to watch for and where it lives. Generally, you should follow these rules to minimize contact with creepy crawlies:
