Respect Nature - Tumblr Posts

Vindurinn hefur sínar ástæður fyrir því að hann skilur eftir sig ummerki í sandinum. Hann veit um mátt sinn - í gegnum hann stækkar andinn og hann getur fært uppljómun. Það er mikilvægt að njóta sjónarinnar núna, því á morgun er allt horfið - Haraldur Unason Diego

Extremely important to increase awareness that often large herbivores are even MORE dangerous to you than the majority of carnivores. We don’t have natural predators anymore. We actually look very inherently intimidating and unnerving to most animals because of our body language and build. There are incredibly few species, few and far between, that may opportunistically try and see if we are a potential food source, usually desperate and exotic predators our most vulnerable are severely unlikely to ever encounter.

If something that eats meat is attacking you, incredible odds are that it is defending itself, its resources, or its young against you as a last resort. If they come out of a fight with a disabling injury, they are practically already dead. Their ability to fight starvation is so determined on keeping themselves in fit shape. They might not be able to go without food long enough for a broken leg to heal or at all if their sight is damaged enough. Even if they are trying to test out if you are good prey, most predators will somewhat reliably give up the attempt as soon as you can prove you are more more trouble than you are worth the calories spent trying to subdue.

To prey animals, you are the predator they have to dissuade or terminate in order to save their own lives if they have decided you are threatening them. The options they have to survive you in their mind are fight or flight. And if they did not evolve to primarily flee, watch out. Any scuffle they start with you they have started with the full expectation that either you or them may not make it out alive. Megafauna like moose are literally evolved to stomp opportunistic wolves to death (why they attack sled dogs) and beat grizzly bears back just to earn another day of browsing greenery. Hippos are 3,000 pounds of fresh meat surrounded by half a dozen infamous large predators. Do the math and it will be obvious why they are the most aggressive beasts in Africa. Why they have to be to stay alive.

The nutshell at the end of the day, and what I think is a much more bumper sticker worthy piece of wildlife advice we all would love to beam into the heads of average people is this:

If it does not fear humans, humans SHOULD fear it.

Any entirely wild animal that doesn’t react to your presence by trying to leave the area is not something laymen should want to interact with. Ever ever. If it is approaching you, back away. If it is holding its ground, back away. If it is in fact trying to get away from you, ffs, don’t chase after and corner it. Not adhering to this one idea I really really feel is the number one reason preventable wild animal attacks happen at all. We need less of whatever everybody calls the Disney princess mentality and more immediate suspicion when animals don’t treat you like they treat any other unpredictable predator. Because when it comes to something like foxes or skunks, this is literally a potential red flag for rabies. When it comes to black bears, you might be about to become a victim of some idiot who’s been feeding them. And when it comes to moose, and it’s too late to get away from them, you need to be ready to respect some very hard boundaries, put the animal down, or play dead and pray to whatever higher authority may or may not be.

There is a ton to enjoy about wildlife, and it is unironically really majestic and wonderous and all that jazz. This is never meant as encouragement to lose that awe and wonder for the world, only as another reminder that it serves everyone in the long run when you channel that into loving and respecting the wild for what it actually is. 

If there was one animal literacy thing I could change with a wave of a wand, it would be increasing people's understanding of how dangerous megafauna are. I think that in the US (and probably other Western countries too), we're so removed from wildlife and even large domesticated animals that people really have no perspective on how much a big animal can fuck you up. Even if they're "gentle."

This is a discussion going on on Twitter, too, the last few days: there was a thing where an Iditarod musher shot a moose to protect their team, and a lot of people are confused as to why that needed to happen. Apparently this moose had been hanging around the course for quite a while and was becoming quite dangerous to the sled dog teams. Moose are territorial and not to be fucked with. Everyone from Alaska or areas with moose are like "yup, that's just reality."

Same thing with the bison birth I watched last year. Folk really thought the staff should be in the habitat on the ground with the bison herd, helping with the birth. Sure, that's what we do with cows if we have to, but... bison are definitely not cows and, again, will squish you.

People tend to get it more with the predators. Few people will argue that a cougar or an alligator or a bear isn't dangerous. I think people kinda go both ways on wild pigs / boars depending on their experience. But herbivores or things that don't look traditionally pointy... it just kinda doesn't click.

Any large animal is probably stronger than you think and more likely to hurt you than you realize. Be it a dolphin, an elk, a sea lion, or even an emperor penguin... just don't go near them, buds.