Post your wild animal encounters

[Mark]

Have you ever had an encounter with a wild animal? Post your story and pics here in this thread...

The Wallaby who loved BBQ shape biscuits

Over Xmas I was telling my Brother in-law a story about an encounter I had with a wild wallaby one night and the story sounded so far fetched (even to me) that I had this feeling he thought I was over exaggerating. Anyway, I was looking through some old pics today and came across this image (I had completely forgotten that my mate had taken a photo) so I scanned it in and sent my Brother in-law the evidence

The story went like this: I was once working up the Cape (Cape York, Queensland about 1995) and was camped next to the Lockhart River. That night we had a few rums and green ginger wine, everyone had gone to bed except for me and Mick but we thought it was getting late so we decided to got for a pee in the bush and then go to bed.

So off into the darkness we trudged about 10 metres apart for a wee, next thing I heard a muffled yell from Mick saying "Get away - Pis* off!" as he was walking backwards out of the bush, still holding his old fella, with this black shape bounding towards him - it was quite a funny sight, although we were both a little concerned because we couldn't immediately see what was coming out of the bush!

Cut a long story short, it was a wallaby and this wallaby was the most friendly wild marsupial I've ever come across and we were miles from civilization. I assumed it wanted some food, we had nothing to feed it except for a packet of BBQ shapes (savoury biscuits) which we happened to be eating at the time so I gave the wallaby one and it loved it!

After about 30 minutes, the wallaby hopped off back into the darkness never to be seen again...

 

[Tim C]

I was mustering in NW-NSW. Belting up the side of the creek to stop the sheep doubling back. Under the trees and put the front wheel of the motorbike straight up the middle of a big boars snout. Needless to say he wasn't happy. He ripped into the motorbike. I did the Mexican Hat-dance, keeping my legs out the way until he took off in disgust. Avoiding them tusks.

 

[Mark]

I saw a few small boars in the bush near our place (along our side fence) the other day - had no idea they were around here I couldn't get very close to them before they buggered off. I wouldn't like to come across a large one face to face though!

 

[Tim C]

They're near blind, so easy to startle if you are quiet and downwind. And they don't like being startled. And they will eat anything. Don't fall over when your feeding your pet ones. They will eat you. A mate of mine had 3 razorbacks he got as piglets in a pen. Any fox carcasses or stray town dogs he shot were eaten. Collars and all.

 

[bearded1]

A couple of weeks ago I was working on the new chookpen with the old man who is 82. We heard what sounded like a dog in distress about a hundred metres away in thick steep country. I tried to ignore it for a while, but being a dog lover, my conscience got the better of my and I went to investigate. I was going to take a gun, but I hadn't met that neighbour yet as his house is on another road and to drive it is about 5-6 k away. So here I am bashing my way through a steep, thick and wet gully, with only a stick as a weapon towards this sound. I can hear that I am getting pretty close as I come upon a clearer section. I look up to see a dog, that looks exactly like a dingo, but heavier set within 10 metres of me. I froze and it stared at me for about 20 seconds before taking off. I've since met the neighbour and have been given permission to shoot on his land and very strongly encouraged to shoot anything that looks like a dingo on his property. Of course I haven't heard it since. I'm pretty sure it was alone and was trying to call my dogs to join its crew. The big issue is for me is that we have goats and chickens and they don't play well with wild dogs.

 

[Mark]

That must have been a bit of a heart stopper to be eye to eye with a wild dog as you looked up! It might have been looking for the rest of it's pack?

The property behind us has several wild dogs and once I saw one big rotie Xed trotting down the road with a whole chicken in it's mouth - scary sight... (wasn't one of my chooks though thankfully). That's why I built another internal fence as special free ranging area for our birds so now we have our boundary fence with an internal dog proof fence around a fox proof pen - yes I'm paranoid but I've lost too many ducks and chickens to these mongrels!

 

[Steve]

I wish my encounter was a nice little wallaby but alas not.
The first story that comes to mind is when I was on a patrol during an Army exercise in North Queensland back in the 90's.
Because it was just an exercise we were carrying guns but only had blank rounds so they only make a large noise but no projectile comes out.
Anyway there was 10 of us patrolling/sneaking along this dry creek bed as we knew our 'pretend' enemy was very close. We were all in a line one behind the other when the first guy stops dead and just freezes.
The rest of us thought he had seen our 'pretend' enemy. We all hit the dirt except the first guy. He just started trembling and whispering to move back very slowly. Turns out it was the largest Taipan snake any of us had ever seen!
(Those who know me will know snakes and i aren't great friends)
The snake was curled up with his head straight up about a foot in the air watching us. He was a monster.....

Half of our guys were so tough they thought they'd just walk past it holding their rifle out and if it struck they would shoot at it (with blank rounds mind you), while the rest of us went 'stuff it, I'm not getting bitten for no pretend enemy' and we walked out of the creek bed and around the area and gave that snake as much room as he wanted.
I watched as 5 guys walked past this taipan and he watched every step they made and turned his head to track them.

Luckily he didn't strike as there is no way they would have got a round off quick enough to scare him away.
We were a long way from help with no way of communicating back to base if something went wrong. Mobile phones weren't heard of and even if they were we were hours from any civilisation.
It still gives me the shivers today when I think of how stupid these guys were but young blokes don't always make the right choices.

 

[Mark]

I think it was Diamond Dollar 87 (Army ex up north) in Augathella where an Army Reservist female soldier sadly died from a Taipan bite. Not a snake one should take any chances with!

I had to kill a large brown snake last week after my dog found it in the backyard - it was going Scooter but he kept jumping backwards as it was striking so I ran down and killed it before I had a dead dog... It's a shame because I quite like snakes and I often leave them slither off when I see them around but this one had to go.

 

[Tim C]

Yeah I had to dong a 5 foot brown last week. I had been suspicious he was living under the cupboard on the verandah for a few months-the dogs told me. I hadn't seen a snake all summer here until then. It was only about 20C and just on dusk when the old girl bailed it up in the flower bed. My 2 girls are usually extremely wary of snake, but this one was on their turf, so they were having a crack at it. Pity I couldn't leave him there to get mice.

 

[Mark]

Pity I couldn't leave him there to get mice.

Exactly! I had a few pythons take care of a rat problem I had down at the chook pen this summer (but they don't kill people).

 

[Ken W.]

Last summer we had a large patch of Khaki weed that was beyond hand weeding so I resorted to glyphosate. As I worked my way through the patch my left boot bumped something - maybe a stick, maybe a rock or maybe a long lost kids toy I thought - and seconds later I felt movement around my ankle. I looked down to see a brown snake sliding across my boot, around my ankle and back between my legs. My left foot was fixed but the rest of me wanted to run - thankfully the brain kicked in and I stayed very still and watched it try to get through 2" chicken wire to safety along the fenceline about 5ft away - it was still circling my ankle. This fella was big and I didn't want him back so I thought to kill him. My only available weapon was a spray wand so I doused him with glyphosate. I felt some moral victory in taking this course of action but I suspect he's alive and well.

 

[Mark]

Lucky you bumped him and didn't actually step right on him!

 

[Ken W.]

Yep. I've relived that encounter and others many times and wondered "What if...".

 

[bearded1]

Yep. I've relived that encounter and others many times and wondered "What if...".

I carry a snake bite kit with me in warm weather around our property and insist that the rest of my family do as well and know how to use it. We have some big browns and I suspect taipans as well, even though some people say they are not here. We can be up to 600 metres from our house on our place. The thing is with snake bite it is very important to get the first aid on asap (within 2 mins). In my remote first aid, the trainer, a very experienced bushman told a story about a guy he was with that got bitten by a taipan and they got the first aid on immediately. It was six days before they got help and he was still alive. His body had actually dealt with the poison and he didn't need the anti-venin because it had been released so slowly. You should carry a 50mm crepe bandage in your pocket so you have immediate access to it. This bandage should be placed firmly around the site of the bite and about 50-75mm either side. Then two 100mm bandages to go on straight after this initial one, starting at the toes or fingertips and then up the limb as far as possible. If you do this it is extremely unlikely that you will die, even if you are hours away from help. Do not wash or suck the bite as the medical provider need the venom to identify the snake.

 

[Director]

The ones I encounter are mostly damaged.

A year or two back I noticed a large white owl caught in the barbed-wire fence. I thought he was dead but on closer inspection it turns out he wasn't. There was no way to extract the wire from his wing though so I had to chop out that bit of the fence, chuck a towel over his head and take him to the local vet. I checked with them a few weeks later and apparently he made a full recovery.

Then back in January I have the same thing happen with a Kookaburra... go figure.

 

[Mark]

I carry a snake bite kit with me in warm weather around our property and insist that the rest of my family do as well and know how to use it. We have some big browns and I suspect taipans as well, even though some people say they are not here. We can be up to 600 metres from our house on our place. The thing is with snake bite it is very important to get the first aid on asap (within 2 mins). In my remote first aid, the trainer, a very experienced bushman told a story about a guy he was with that got bitten by a taipan and they got the first aid on immediately. It was six days before they got help and he was still alive. His body had actually dealt with the poison and he didn't need the anti-venin because it had been released so slowly. You should carry a 50mm crepe bandage in your pocket so you have immediate access to it. This bandage should be placed firmly around the site of the bite and about 50-75mm either side. Then two 100mm bandages to go on straight after this initial one, starting at the toes or fingertips and then up the limb as far as possible. If you do this it is extremely unlikely that you will die, even if you are hours away from help. Do not wash or suck the bite as the medical provider need the venom to identify the snake.

Top advice for anyone working in the Australian bush! That's an amazing story about the guy surviving several days after a Taipan bite but the method of first aid you described is spot on and is similar to what the military currently teach. I think most snake venoms travel via the lymphatic system rather than the blood so slowing this down via compression is the way to go.

A year or two back I noticed a large white owl caught in the barbed-wire fence. I thought he was dead but on closer inspection it turns out he wasn't. There was no way to extract the wire from his wing though so I had to chop out that bit of the fence, chuck a towel over his head and take him to the local vet. I checked with them a few weeks later and apparently he made a full recovery.

Well done! Gotta save those owls because they keep the rodents down

 

[stevo]

We were in the farm workshed one day and I noticed a large carpet python in one of the cupboards, I called a friend over because I knew she hated snakes, it quickly disappeared down in behind the draws, and then my friend grabbed the tail, I couldn't believe it because she was petrified of snakes, she was trying to pull it out, but luckily it was pretty strong and got away, I don't know what she was going to do if she actually pulled it out!

 

[stevo]

....oh.. gees Mark, looks like an old INXS shirt in the first pic

 

[Mark]

....oh.. gees Mark, looks like an old INXS shirt in the first pic

Over 20 years ago now... I was working in a unit called Civilian Liaison it was a great job. We didn't even have to wear a proper uniform

That carpet snake must have given you a bit of a scare hehe... good in the moment picture!

 

[stevo]

I was out at Nanango over Easter, this Lace Monitor was wondering around, I snuck up closer for a photo, it was looking at me for a while but then wondered off. It was about 2 meters long and a little bit scary