# What wild animal are you most likely to be attacked by in your current location? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281 "2014-09-22T22:47:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/41 "2014-09-23T01:30:45Z")
Rabid Bruins fans. Or possibly Canada geese, turkeys, raccoon, fox, or coyote. Possibly black bear, which have been seen in all sorts of areas where I wouldn’t expect them – neither woods nor pickinick baskets. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/42 "2014-09-23T01:35:15Z")
I’m currently on the 29th floor of a hotel in downtown Houston. Animal attack unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/43 "2014-09-23T01:35:38Z")
I always heard it was the grizzly bears you had to watch out for, supposedly black bears only attack very rarely, I still get nervous join to shenandoah though. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/44 "2014-09-23T01:39:17Z")
Wasps or skeeters, if those count. Lots of wildlife around here, so I suppose rabid or sick raccoons or bats would be a possibility, although a remote one. [Statistics confirm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer%E2%80%93vehicle_collisions) that deer are indirectly responsible for the most deaths in the US caused by wild animals. Tons of deer where I live, so hitting a deer with my vehicle - or having a deer attack my vehicle - is probably most likely. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/45 "2014-09-23T02:59:09Z")
We have deer around here all the time. This is really freakish to the Brooklyn person inside of me. I saw five them walking right past the local library the other night. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/46 "2014-09-23T03:11:10Z")
Orca perhaps. I’m on a ferry crossing Puget Sound. At home, probably raccoon. Tons around, but they seem nice enough. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/47 "2014-09-23T03:42:41Z")
In order of probability, most to least; Mosquitoes/deer flies/ green heads/ black flies/ ticks Coyotes or coy dog hybrids Skunks (spraying counts as an attack, right?) Foxes (rabid) Opossums Raccoons Black bears White tail deer Møøse\* \*obligatory Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference here 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/48 "2014-09-23T03:45:15Z")
Seagulls. They hammer you if you try to picnic on the beach here. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/49 "2014-09-23T03:47:13Z")
Raccoon Opossum Black bear ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/50 "2014-09-23T03:47:43Z")
There are foxes in my back garden, but they are not scary. I suppose I might get stung by a wasp or bee (though it hasn’t happened since I was a little kid), or bitten by a gnat. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/51 "2014-09-23T04:06:19Z")
Fire Ants ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/52 "2014-09-23T04:19:16Z")
[Bullet ant.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraponera_clavata) ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/53 "2014-09-23T04:53:28Z")
> [@PaulParkhead](#): > > In Scotland. Midges, wasps, geese, swans maybe. > > I suppose I could get bitten by an adder if I really tried, but I’d have to expend considerable time and effort looking for one, and then I’d have to stand on it or something like that. I’m in a big city in the English Midlands: as above, “wasps, geese, swans maybe”. (Midges are a pest which Scotland renownedly specialises in; they’re much less in evidence down here.) I doubt whether there are adders, at all near where I am; in England they’re rare and thinly distributed. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/54 "2014-09-23T05:04:00Z")
Vancouver Island; I like walking in the woods. So, cougar. Puma, mountain lion, by other names. Apparently, if you’re like me and like wandering around in the woods on Vancouver Island, you may never have seen a cougar, but _they’ve seen you_. I’m terrified of them, and I’ve had recurring nightmares about them (grew up in small town BC). But the joy of being in “the woods” tends to outweigh fear. Not really worried about the raccoons, squirrels, rabbits or suchlike. I don’t go far enough in the water to risk orcas. Once a slug made its way up my leg (ugh!) There just may have been a bear in our back yard a few years ago (scratched and tore up a tree something fierce) but bears, oddly enough, don’t scare me. Cougars do. And still I can’t keep away from the forest… ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/55 "2014-09-23T05:11:25Z")
Hummingbirds. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/56 "2014-09-23T05:17:25Z")
A rat. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/57 "2014-09-23T05:22:35Z")
Raccoon or squirrel are most likely, with coyote running a distant third. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/58 "2014-09-23T05:24:23Z")
Here a territorial, nesting magpie, or maybe a brush-tail or ring-tail possum at a long stretch. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/59 "2014-09-23T05:27:51Z")
Utah: Mountain lion or black bear. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/60 "2014-09-23T05:29:03Z")
Wild turkey. Mountain lions, and once a bear, have been known to show up in town, but very rarely. Wild turkeys, OTOH, have shown up in my neighborhood and make regular appearances at my parents’ house. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281.md?page=4)