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I am currently reading this book about the five large carnivores of Scandinavia and I am absolutely humbled, both by finding out how little I knew about them, what prejudice I had against them and how people that live in close proximity to them can both love, respect and be angry with them at the same time. I am reading the original release in Swedish.

  • What have you encountered in the wild?
  • When, where, how?
  • What were your initial thoughts, feelings and reactions (physical, psychological, etc.)?
  • What do think of them in general? <--- this last question applies to everybody, regardless of whether you have seen or met one of these large carnivores or not.

Personally, without having met any one of them, I am humbled, scared, amazed and intrigued by them. I feel for those whose - for instance - livestock are threatened by them, especially if it directly damages business. I also strongly believe that the matter should not be dumbed down to the dichotmy of "ignore those that suffer from them" or "eradicate them". We are far too intelligent and developed a race to degrade ourselves so.

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[–] TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca 23 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I encountered a large carnivore in the civilized before but not in the wild. Canadian here for what it's worth. Ran across a black bear on night shift bang in the middle of a massive oil refinery complex. Paved for a kilometre in every direction.

Black bears are very low risk to humans and I had an F350 between me and it, even still it's just not something you mess with. It changed the whole course of my day instantly as I had to start reporting to site safety etc, I spent the next 3 hours on the radio.

Other than that I've seen the occasional lynx or mountain lion, but at great distance. Generally these things aren't seen by humans unless they want to be or don't care. You see them because they're chasing prey or you get lucky and their out sunning themselves or something and you're far enough away they aren't threatened.

Large carnivores are pretty rare and not necessarily the largest wild animal threats to humans or livestock. Something like racoons or foxes taking chickens is a much larger nuisance to many more people than something like a mountain lion taking sheep. And something like a moose or a goose is a lot more likely to fuck you up because people don't perceive these animals as threats and take way larger risks than they do around predators.