@snowbunny made a comment I thought might give us some interesting dialogue. What wild critters that might be dangerous do you have to watch out for? I mentionned coyotes in another thread. They will snatch small animals right off of decks but I never worried about them with a full grown dog the size of a Lab. When they were puppies I did. I have seen sign and neighbours have seen the actual animal, we do have black bears. I do put a bear bell on Oban but only in turkey and deer hunting season for the hunters, not the bears. We don't have a bear season. Once I saw large and small tracks in the bush, moose cow and calf. Or else someone's hereford cow and calf escaped. I took photos home to show the great, white hunter, the OH, and he confirmed they were moose. I do Not want to meet a cow moose ready to defend her calf and I don't want anyone to go in and shoot them either. So we were very careful who we told about this. Turned out I'm about the only dog walker in my village who didn't see the actual critters in the flesh. Ontario has only one poisonous snake, the Massassauga Rattlesnake. They are not supposed to live around here but one day we saw a hand lettered sign on a trail saying there had been a sighting. I doubted it, but better safe than sorry so we went a different way. We did see one further north right on the portage trail while on a canoe trip, no dog with us that time, thank heavens. That one was not in the usual habitat range and we reported it. WE have members from around the world on this forum, what possibly dangerous critters might be where you walk?
We have quite a lot of adders here, which can give a person or dog a nasty bite but are rarely fatal. I've seen sign of bear before, and I know that they are sometimes in the general vicinity, but they are few and far between, so not something to really worry about. Our main cause for concern would be wild boar, which can be very dangerous when they have their young; but, seeing as they are nocturnal, we're generally not at risk.
All relatively harmless around here , unless we factor in the Beast of Bodmin of course We do have lots of adders on the moors , I tend to keep away if possible as one of my dogs , a young terrier, came close to death after being bitten by one in France , despite the anti venom being administered fairly quickly .
We have LOTS of wild boar living in the woods just behind our house, but they are very shy and very clever and are seldom seen. There was a dead one on the side of the road on my way to work this morning. Poppy pretends she can't see, smell or hear them, as she is frightened of them!
Our greatest risk in France was from farmers in the shooting season , but no wild critters worth mentioning in North Lincolnshire apart from the huge wood pigeons that come into the garden flying low
We have the UK's largest colony of wild boar just over the river in the Forest of Dean. I've seen signs of them on our side of the river in the last 12 months so they might be spreading. I've only seen two live ones. Our vet has dealt with a few dogs that have been gored by a boar, mainly in the springtime when groups of females are guarding the young.
Nothing dangerous at all in the Isle of Man. No snakes. No boar. No deer. No badgers. No foxes. No squirrels. Probably the worst thing I could come across would be livestock cattle, who are mostly just nosey. We do have a wild colony of wallabies, but they're very shy, so not likely to come across them and be kicked to death.
Our main problem is snakes of various kinds. Unfortunately doggie deaths from snakebite are not a rare event.... Other than that it is good to be careful around kangaroos. The adults, especially males, are large and they can badly injure or kill a dog if cornered. Or they can lure a dog into a dam and then drown it. Fortunately they are very fast and neither of my two Labradors (past and present) has had any chance at all of getting close to a departing kangaroo. Still, if we see them it's back on lead straight away!
I met the wombles once at a school fete back in the day We have adders but I've never seen one, other than that the dangers are more the human variety and what they leave lying around
I nearly trod on an Adder, we both looked at each other in surprise and then both made a hasty retreat! One of my GSPs was bitten by an adder, she also pointed one and frightened me to death when I discovered what she was pointing! Otherwise, not nasty critters, except mankind!
Wild boar, now those I would find terrifying. There are some wild boar farms around and I find it amazing none have ever escaped. Or maybe we were not told about them. I forgot one, apparently we have cougars. I am extremely doubtful of some of the claims they have been seen in our county but if they have, well, I'd sure rather meet a bear, who I think is much more likely to run away from me. Oh my, those marmots are so cute. We have Groundhogs, not sure if they are the same thing or just a close relative. Whisper got herself a good hole put in her upper lip when she tackled one and it fought back. Soft mouthed English Springer Spaniels just aren't any good at such things, at least she wasn't. Ontario has a very famous ALBINO groundhog, Wiarton Willy, who predicts when spring will start each Groundhog Day, which is Feb. 2. http://www.visitwiarton.ca/profile/wiarton-willie-festival/959/
as much as I moan about deer That sounds a little.....boring? No squirrels is just sad.... The people who used to own our house were in tthe local paper for seeing one of the "big black cats" puma like cats that supposedly roam around the countryside. I've seen the neighbours ginger tom. That's as dangerous as I have been. Although I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him!!
I have most of the creatures that snowshoe has, minus any venomous snake. our town is on the edge of the forest reserve that stretches all the way to the Rockies so along with the black bears we can also have a grizzly here and there but thankfully they are much rarer. We definitely have cougars around, people in the acerages around town often report sightings. We also have wolves, moose, elk, and of course coyotes. Badgers can be dangerous, but they aren't too common around here. I worry more about the skunks and porcupines as they are much more common and while not hugely dangerous per se can do quite a lot of damage to a dog...seeing a dog with a face full of porcupine quills is a terrible sight. And I can't imagine trying to wash a dog who has been sprayed by a skunk, it would be absolutely awful Thankfully, although these creatures are around it is very rare for a human or dog to encounter one (except for the skunks and porcupines, that is).
We have a spring-predicting groundhog here in Alberta, too, named Balzac Billy, although, strangely enough, he is actually a human in a groundhog costume.....
Like Rachael said, our main concern is a snake bite (various types but brown snakes and tiger snakes tend to be the most aggressive), especially at the time of year. You could also put kangaroos, spiders (we have an unusually high population of spiders this year. Especially redbacks) and paralysis ticks on the list. Obviously there are a huge amount of deadly creatures in Australia but thankfully we don't tend to come across them too often. Although I think someone found a blue ringed octopus at a popular Melbourne beach this summer so that would be one to watch out for too..
