# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/81 "2014-09-23T13:35:21Z")
There was a recent report of a rabid fox attacking a child in a schoolyard this morning. It happened in a neighboring state. We have a fox in our neighborhood but it must be making sure it doesn’t piss off anybody…a couple of my neighbors have seen it while walking their dogs in the very early morning. The fox scurried away each time. We’ve got coyotes too, and they’re a ghostly lot. Last time I saw one was back in the spring. It was standing in the middle of the intersection near my house and it dashed into a backyard when I pulled up to the intersection. It’s the coyote thing to do! Our mailman was attacked by a turkey last spring. The horseflies were horrible this summer 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/82 "2014-09-23T13:51:01Z")
Please accept my apology for this hijack, but I have to insert a reference to an old _Playboy_ story from the 60’s when the James Bond craze was just getting underway. I forget the author and haven’t even tried to Google for his name, but one of their regulars of the period had the character **Israel Bond** in a situation similar to the one in _Dr. No_ where Bond is asleep and feels something moving on his bedcovers. In the movie it was a tarantula (or at least a big-ass spider) that Bond (at the very last second) swatted to the floor and pulverized with a shoe. In the story in _Playboy_ it turned out to be a **polar bear**! I laughed for hours at the audacity of that writer. Anybody else read that story? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/83 "2014-09-23T13:55:35Z")
Here in DC, there have some rabid racoons caught in the past few months, so rabid racoons. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/84 "2014-09-23T14:04:22Z")
Jellyfish. I was bumped by them a couple times while swimming just yesterday. Either I got lucky & didn’t get stung or I’m not sensitive to that specie’s venom. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/85 "2014-09-23T14:05:46Z")
Rabid fox. We have rabid raccoons when their population climbs, but while they tend to be scary they are also uncoordinated and easy to kill with a shovel. Compare that with the rabid fox in our yard last year. When I approached it with my shovel it began to calmly stalk me, maintaining eye contact all the while. I ran back to the house and got my shotgun. Western PA. ---
**Author:** ![Tiktaalik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@Tiktaalik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiktaalik)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/86 "2014-09-23T14:32:44Z")
Gator or shark (lots of bulls, hammerheads, and some tigers around her). ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/87 "2014-09-23T14:37:44Z")
Reminds me…I haven’t seen a raccoon in a very long time. Ditto skunks, although I do get a whiff of them every once in a great while. Must be because of the coyotes? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/88 "2014-09-23T14:49:02Z")
We have a local mountain lion, as well as coyote, fox, raccoon, bobcat, possum, skunk, and others. There are lots of deer. The chances of any of these attacking me without me attacking it first are a lot like zero. They all run like hell when they see humans (except coyotes, they trot nonchalantly away). Feral pigs can be dangerous here, mostly mommas who think you are threatening their piggy children. By far the most likely are yellow jacket wasps. Those scare me. The rest, not at all. Well, I feel some natural caution around skunks. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/89 "2014-09-23T14:54:34Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Either a snake (puffadder, cape cobra, boomslang…I have my pick, yay) or a Great White Shark. The odds are _very_ slim on either of those, though. A few years ago, I would much more likely be attacked by baboons (we narrowly avoided one such by locking ourselves in our server room), but I don’t work in that suburb anymore. > > My regular birdwatching locales do carry with them a non-zero chance of attack by either [hippo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondevlei_Nature_Reserve) or [penguins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulders_Beach) but again, odds are miniscule. I also live in Cape Town. Personally I would rate chacma baboons as the most likely. I work at the University of Cape Town, which is kind of perched on the side of the mountain, and baboons do occasionally come onto campus. Next in likelihood one of those snakes, and after that the sharks (I don’t swim a lot). ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/90 "2014-09-23T15:00:03Z")
Charleston, SC. By far the likeliest is some form of insect. Hornets or fire ants especially. Scariest? Alligators. Once protected now the damn things are nuisances. I was walking down a suburban development path once and came across one that was at least 8 feet sunning himself on the path next to a drainage ditch. I also took a picture once of a metal post with two signs: Top: Children at Play Below: Alligator Warning God help us all. They’re speed bumps with armor and teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/91 "2014-09-23T15:37:03Z")
Central Texas Fire ants Yellow Jacket/Red Wasps Africanised Bees I saw Bobcat tracks down in the park beside the Colorado River Skeeters carrying everything from West Nile to Sleeping Sickness Humans ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/92 "2014-09-23T15:39:07Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Please accept my apology for this hijack, but I have to insert a reference to an old _Playboy_ story from the 60’s when the James Bond craze was just getting underway. I forget the author and haven’t even tried to Google for his name, but one of their regulars of the period had the character **Israel Bond** in a situation similar to the one in _Dr. No_ where Bond is asleep and feels something moving on his bedcovers. In the movie it was a tarantula (or at least a big-ass spider) that Bond (at the very last second) swatted to the floor and pulverized with a shoe. > > In the story in _Playboy_ it turned out to be a **polar bear**! I laughed for hours at the audacity of that writer. > > Anybody else read that story? > > [/hijack] Sol Weinstein was the author’s name. I read [all of them](http://www.amazon.com/The-Israel-Bond-Omnibus-Weinstein/dp/1936404141) except _You Only Live Until You Die_. Back to the OP - US, Upper Midwest. Probably those dang Canada geese who charge at me and hiss (if I am not accompanied by Leet the Wonder Dog[sup]TM[/sup]). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/93 "2014-09-23T16:05:11Z")
We have lots of ching-chings, aka West Indian Grackles, aka rats with wings. And they fly inside the house and try to make away with the cats’ food. Damn cats let them do it. Or I could go a few feet out the back door and hammerhead sharks would be the predator of choice. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/94 "2014-09-23T16:55:37Z")
Suburban Detroit. Probably a rabid skunk (I’ve only seen a skunk around here 2 or 3 times, but every time the skunk was pretty obviously rabid). But I’ll concurr that Canadian geese can be nasty sumbitches. ---
**Author:** ![MrsTime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@MrsTime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrsTime)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/95 "2014-09-23T17:06:01Z")
Deer (they kill more people than one would think), or bear. They are plentiful here in the interior of BC , Canada. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/96 "2014-09-23T17:17:48Z")
Deer or skunk. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/97 "2014-09-23T17:23:21Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > Let’s leave domestic dogs and cats out of this, because that’s too easy and dull. > > So, what’ll it be? Rabid raccoon? Pack of wolves? Escaped lab monkey? I was out doing my 6 mile-walk last Saturday when a trio of ballsier-than-expected raccoons emerged from the woods in front of me and started coming toward me. They scattered when I struck the pavement with my walking stick, but it took three hard raps. Their intent was clearly murderous, but everybody knows that raccoons are evil so I shouldn’t be surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/98 "2014-09-23T18:05:42Z")
Just a few weeks ago I had four strong men drag a huge snake (easily 3-4 meters long) out of a tree in front of my house. Next possibility would be a centipede. And not your pansy-ass house centipede, but one of those space alien type centipedes as long as your forearm with the huge pincers. After that, possibly a monitor lizard. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/99 "2014-09-23T19:17:07Z")
My first answer was raccoon, I had forgotten about the eight stitches I got in my thumb from a rat in my woodpile several years ago. I was my fault for hand feeding him but he did indeed attack me. ---
**Author:** ![Wednesday\_Evening](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wednesday\_Evening](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wednesday_Evening)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wild-animal-are-you-most-likely-to-be-attacked-by-in-your-current-location/699281/100 "2014-09-23T20:46:06Z")
Central coast of California: mountain lions or bears. [Also sharks](http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Shark-kills-woman-in-Central-Coast-attack-2560673.php). [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=4) [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=6)