At the right time of year, there’re a couple of squirrels who live in a tree right outside who seem to entertain themselves by throwing nut shells at moving objects. Apart from them, once or twice I’ve heard coyotes at night, but they’re not a serious threat.
What can I say, I don’t live in the outback.
Oh, honey. You should move.
I think the animal most likely to attack and cause real damage here would be an escaped bull. We live in cow country (Missouri); they’re everywhere. They seem well-contained, but I’m guessing there are occasional strays.
A friend’s horse got killed by a mountain lion a few months ago, so there’s that. You hear coyotes, but I think they’re unlikely to attack people.
I listened to a podcast a while back which told the story of a woman who was attacked by a rabid raccoon on her driveway. It was quite harrowing, although the story of how hard it was to procure rabies vaccinations afterwords was scarier.
Did I miss it or am I the only one running from moose? NH, I laugh at your fisher cat.
(Portland, OR) I wasn’t aware of the grave danger until last week, but evidently a bat.
Wild turkeys maybe, but careful with those domestic birds. I don’t*** think*** they can fly.
Southern New Hampshire. Coyotes or Coy Dogs. Not sure which they are but I hear them every night in the months the windows are open at night.
I live in Nashville, Tennessee – there is a non-zero chance that I might be attacked by stray dogs, coyotes, opossums, squirrels, chipmunks, pigeons, racoons, cougars, tigers or elephants. I live near the zoo…
I was reading through to see if anyone mentioned something that was likely. I was thinking wasps, but I haven’t seen any in the area. Then MacTech mentioned mosquitoes. Yeah, those turn up at least once a year.
The neighbors have claimed that possums can come through the alley, but they’ve never seen any themselves, just heard stories. We get hawks and woodpeckers and feral parrots flying through, but they’ve always kept to themselves.
So I’m stuck with mosquitoes.
No drop bears in suburbia. Like 99% of our wildlife, you need to get beyond the civilized bits and into the bush before there’s any threat.
Oh, so many choices here in Alberia. In order of most likely to get me; Moose, Black bear, cougars, (two and four footed), coyotes, wolves, wolverine, rabid grey squirrels, ravens, other corvids,and the ever vicious Black capped chickadee, rapists of the woodland, they are. Don’t let their innocent eyes fool you; Vicious!
I was attacked by a cardinal, 10 ft from my house.
One of its babies fell out of nest, and I got too close to it. Got dive bombed twice before I realized what was happening.
That is the only wild animal that has attacked me around here. Aside from bugs and/or insects.
Sprayed by a skunk, most likely. I have seen coyotes near my house but I don’t worry about them attacking me. In theory there are rattlesnakes around here but I’ve never seen one or known of anyone seeing one.
Brown Recluse spiders! They are around and they will definitely mess you up but again, I’ve never known anyone that got bitten by one.
Melbourne, would be a spider or snake but if I go for a swim a ray (not a shark, they are rare).
Funnel web spider.
There are a LOT of wild animals in the Austin city limits that COULD attack, bite, kick or injure people. I’ve never been worried about any of them, but I’m sure that ALL of the following animals have sent people to Austin’s ERs many times:
Coyotes; they’re more likely to attack pets than people, but still…
Deer; don’t let the big, beautiful eyes fool you- those things can give you a VERY painful kick!
Assorted snakes; Not necessarily poisonous ones (though there ARE rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and coral snakes around), but there are numerous snakes here that can and will bite- Texas rat snakes are pretty harmless but they’re quite aggressive and will bite if you get too close.
Raccoons; more likely to run up a tree or down a sewer than to bite, but they WILL scratch and bite if you try to shoo them away from your garbage can.
Opossums (See “Raccoons”)
Bats; there are loads of them around Austin, and while they’re q popular tourist attraction, several people each year get bitten by grounded bats and have to get rabies shots.
Finally, the one and only Austin animal that HAS attacked me several times:
MOCKINGBIRDS!
Seriously, these guys are extremely territorial and protective of their young in the Springtime. Any dog, cat or person that comes close to a tree with a mockingbird nest in it will get dive-bombed repeatedly by Mommy and Daddy mockingbird!
Skunks (vicious AND stinky little buggers)
Birds. It’s always birds.
Magpies, already been attacked a couple of times this month. Some just swoop in and click their beaks, but others will rip in if they can.
