Animal Encounters On The Trail

Snakes (some very large), deer, herons, cranes, pelicans, skunks, one mountain lion, several bears, moose, badger, wild hogs, and far too many wolves. Seriously... why do I keep running into freakin' wolves?! I'd honestly prefer coyotes - they tend to be cowards.

 

Spent 4 days hiking the Wild Rogue Wilderness Loop Trail in Oregon a couple weeks ago. Along the way, we encountered this critter. I apologize for the focus - I was shooting flowers and my depth of field was too small. Anyway, it's a California Mountain King Snake - a non-poisonous constrictor that has been known to eat rattlesnakes. Some of our group spotted a rattlesnake - but I was too far behind to get a pic of it. The trail is shown on the attached PDF. It's on the Rogue River
between Agness, Oregon, USA and Galice, Oregon USA.

 

The only dangerous animals here are the wild boar which is rare now. When in the wilderness, snakes are the most dangerous but they are not predators of humans. When walking in a trail, a walking stick can prevent an encounter with snakes. It's ironic that my encounter with a big snake occurred in our backyard. Fortunately for me, I had seen it at once.

 

...the most dangerous animal in the world are humans.

 

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I met this guy on my path. What do you think? Stand my ground or move over?



No contest with this guy!​

 

We don't have moose down here, but we did have them when I lived in North Idaho. If a moose was crossing the road, all traffic coming and going stopped and waited until the moose finished crossing the road !
Moose seem not to be afraid of humans for the most part, nor cars either; and if they are in your path they are not going to move until they are ready to move.
I remember coming home late one night, barely awake enough to drive since it had been an hours long trip back home from the west coast, and sometime around 3 in the morning, I came upon an enormous moose standing in the middle of the highway.
My car was small, and my first perception was just of very long legs right in front of me, and then when I looked higher, I could see the rest of the moose towering over the little car. I had to stop and wait for him to finish looking around and then he strolled on down the road and off into the woods.
I was very alert the rest of the way home after that encounter !