anyone ever encounter wild animals

wiggles

I ride a small woodsy trail to cut out part of the road on my way to work from school. There's normally 4-5 groundhogs, and occasionally a skunk along the path. I've seen a few deer as well, but I've been lucky enough so as to never get hit.

As for snakes, I've found a few ring neck and garter snakes. They're always good fun, since they're small and pretty meek. You can even pick them up and move them off the trail.

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Rockslayer

lot's of animals, snakes, echidnas, kangaroos, dogs, magpies, bull, goannas, Bunyip?? haha.. Not afraid of animals or ever felt like prey.
Only hostile animals that bother me are clueless people that are agro in their cars!!!

Brain

there is a race up here called the Great Deer Chase, which supposedly got a name because one of the trail builders hit a deer biking out on the course one day

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Aspergers

On my rides I have seen

Cockatoos
Galahs
Possums
Rabbits
Wallaby

Aspergers

The Wallby I saw at West Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Sydney, NSW, Australia

bikecoach

Saw a panther once whilst mountainbiking. Also got chased by a heard of cows and i get attcked by magpies and ravens every day at this time of the year. The joy of riding in Australia. Never seen a snake whilst riding though.

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brokenbikes

I'm in New Zealand, and I guess the only time I ever encounter anything other than cows/sheep/magpies on the trails would be during nightrides, when I startle possums and they go sprinting down the trail in front of me, and scoot up a tree... nothing too carnivorous in NZ

A friend whos travelling to asia for a biking mission soon, recently showed me a forum thread in a asian MTB forum where some riders were warning others of COBRAs on the local trails!

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CAMPYBOB

i don't know how 'wild' it was, but while riding on the road i did have a damned groundhog run under my front wheel and caused a crash that broke a bone in my hand.

i've surprised and been surprised by whitetail deer.

by far, loose dogs are the most dangerous animals i see.

everogere

I have come across the odd bunny and a few deers up here in yorkshire england, oh and the odd north sea ferry, not sure if they're wild though look quite happy to me !!!

daveryanwyoming

Coming across wild animals is pretty common around here. Bison are typical on one ride, Black Bears on another (one local bike path has bear warning signs up this time of year reminding folks that the bears like the paths for the same reasons we do, to get away from cars) and several rides go past marshy areas frequented by Moose (by far the most dangerous of the three). A couple of local mountain bikers had a run in with a Grizzly a couple of summers ago and managed to get away but not before dumping two cans of bear spray with no visible affect.

A great ride in the spring or fall(when there's a lot less tourist traffic and better odds of not getting mowed down by a 'bago) is the lower loop in Yellowstone. It's roughly 100 miles with a number of climbs including two passes over the continental divide with convenient food stops at Old Faithful and Canyon. Last time I rode that ride I was spinnin' little gears up over one of the divides when I saw a big bull Bison standing smack dab in the middle of the road. It was spring and the snowbanks were still a couple of feet high so there was no going around. It was either turn around or see what happens. He stared at me as I squeezed as far as I could to the side of the road but didn't flinch.

I've had the same thing happen with Bulls of the domestic variety while mountain biking in the Berkeley hills and have had wild boars, tusks and all come sprinting out of bushes and keep pace with our paceline in Arizona. Even saw my only wild Cougar sighting while on a road ride along Highway 1 in Norcal. We were climbing a steep hill (same climb used in the Marin road race after you leave highway 1. I don't remember the name and we were just out riding that day) going slow when my friend pointed at the "big yellow dog" well that big dog had a huge tail and was no dog but luckily didn't seem concerned with us one way or another.

Anyway, I've seen a lot of large and small and some potentially dangerous wildlife while riding but have never had any issues, just a few tense moments here and there. I still think the cars are a bigger threat!

-Dave

gt3413

Three deer the other night but nothing dangerous. Take care all, Greg

Rockslayer

I was riding on the local track yesterday in Sydney's Northwest and a large black cat darted across the track and disappeared into the bush.

Way too big to be a domestic cat. Thought I was seeing things. from head to tail it was over 4ft. I have never seen a feral cat that large and sleek looking. It was totally black all over and to me it looked like a panther. I have heard about sightings on the Blue mountains previously but not near Dural.

Archibald

westgate park in melbourne two weeks back - 2 snakes seen on the dirt crits course...

Halcyon1

The usual Aussie thing- snakes, kangaroos, snakes, wallabies, snakes...you get the picture.
Spinning up a hill near the end of a 54 km trip and go off the track to get around a fallen tree. As I come back onto the track (I'm concentrating where the front wheel is going at this stage) I look up to see a brown snake 1 meter in front of the wheel. Hit the brakes, but yikes!,forgot to unclip so over I go. The snake went left and I fell left, but fortunately it was faster than my fall.
Interesting chart to see how toxic these critters are at
http://www.barefootbushman.com/venoms.htm
My brown snake is no. 2 on the list. They deserve a lot of respect.
Halcyon