I was thinking about this from another about odd pets and some guy wanted a cassowary, which is arguably the world’s most dangerous bird.
So what’s the most dangerous animal you ever touched.
I haven’t touched many animals outside of a farm and I don’t think a cow is too dangerous. But I did touch a sting ray in the aquarium they have in the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Of course they remove the stingers so it’s not so dangerous.
Outside of that it’d have to be a horse or cow. Which ever one is the killer
It wasn’t dangerous at the time, but I once held a baby tiger. It was in what the trainer called a “playful mood” that day, which to me appeared that it was trying to claw my throat out. He assured me that in 6 months or so it would have no trouble doing so.
A few months ago I was trying to get my canoe under a log. I put my hand right on a big water moccasin snake that was apparently sunning himself on the log. After that he was trying hard to drop into the canoe with me. It was an exciting 30 seconds or so.
And years ago scuba diving I did manage to grab a barracuda tail a time or two.
First one that jumps to mind is petting a crocodile in The Gambia.
Though after hearing about a bunch of possible tick-borne diseases you can get in central asia, I’m going to add having a tick running up my chest under my shirt a month or two back…eek.
A Florida panther, a bobcat (baby), a large boa constrictor (they’re really hard to xray when awake), an elephant and horses and cows. The cows scared me the most. You ever been chased by a Brahma cow? Oh they look sweet, but they’re not.
I’ve also handled several birds of prey including the bald eagle and they could do some damage with their beaks and talons but I don’t think they’re as dangerous as the others mentioned.
Probably elephants. It’s quite an experience to stand on the ground next to a grand old lady by the river and look up at her flapping her ears happily while you feed her pineapples, and know that if she got irritated she could turn you into a grease spot in short order.
(Although I did used to keep Campbell’s dwarf hamsters, and hoo boy those things can be vicious when riled up. Mine were really sweet, though.)
An 8 foot boa that my biology professor draped over my shoulders. It squeezed the nape of my neck so hard that I momentarily panicked. I realized that it could kill me in a flash and not even break into a snake sweat.
I had 8 dwarf hamsters a few years ago (we bought one, but she came with extras). The 7 babies were sweet and gentle, but their mother was the most evil creature I’ve ever known. It took two of us to feed her: one to distract her into running over to try to bite off as many fingers as she could reach, and the other to actually toss the food in and lock the cage before she realized what we were doing. I had hoped that once the babies were weaned that she would settle down but she never did. Her official name was Vampire, but that’s not what we called her.
I’ve also pet/played with a black bear, a lion cub, a tiger cub, a badger, an elephant, a tranquilized moose, and a couple different constrictors, but none have ever frightened me as much as that teeny tiny hamster.
It depends on exactly what were considering. The elephant I rode at the circus when I was seven could have easily killed me if she wanted to. She was clearly very used to this treatment and was well handled so there was minimal actual danger.
The full grown, male bison that tried to run me down is another issue entirely
