I am a "Bear Enthusiast."

The type of Mr. Treadwell is an old one, going back at least as far as Rousseau if not to the Roman poets who wrote pastoral poems from the comfort of their well-furnished villas. I have been reading about Theodore Roosevelt lately. Probably no American president knew the outdoors and wild animals as well as he did. He loved both and did his best to preserve them, but he had no illusions about them and he had an unkind phrase for those who did have such illusions. He called the Treadwells of his time "nature fakers." https://www.americanheritage.com/tr-and-nature-fakers

 

teddy bear
Teddy bear - Wikipedia

 

We got the footage here in Australia...tossed her sky high and her parents ran and left her!

 

the bison took my baby!

 

Night of the Grizzly – A True Story Of Love And Death In The Wilderness

 

Big animals will sometimes attack you no matter what you do, and for no reason that is within our comprehension. Many years ago a bear in SE Alaska mauled and killed a number of people over a span of several years. He acquired a name that I no longer recall, 'Old Vengeance' or something like that. Supposedly he had a grudge against human beings. Anyway, when finally killed he was found to have a small caliber bullet lodged in his lower jaw and all the teeth on that side were abscessed, which would have been agonizing. He was simply out of his mind with pain. You can't know why a large animal is aggressive, pain, a fight with another animal (like the bison above) that has the animal highly adrenalized at that moment, or other reasons we'll never know. Stay well back from any large animal...

.

 

or Rosie O'Donnell

 

"Stay well back from any large animal"
The same goes for our cuddly Kangaroos...

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

aarghnold busting some chops

 

Yes, I had heard stories about them doing people damage before I encountered them, so I was forewarned and duly cautious when I ran into that male on the trail in Canberra. And that's it, isn't it? If people warn you about wild animals, you must take those warnings seriously. The locals know what to do and not to do around the critters in their neighborhood, visitors, tourists, and nature fakers don't and too often fail to listen.

 

Every animal will defend itself. I'm fascinated with desert tortoises. They're herbivores that live on mesquite beans and can live to be eighty years old. Anyway, I can't resist picking them up and introducing myself, wondering how old this particular specimen is before letting them go on their way. I've never seen the slightest bit of aggression from one, until the day I picked up a baby the size of a half dollar and it latched onto my finger with far more force than an animal that size should have. Owww!

 

Love bite...

 

Still using KC BBQ sauce as after shave again?

 

I've taken to rolling into a fetal position and playing dead every time I see a tortoise. So far, so good!

.

 

I sense another book on the way!

 

You might think you can outrun them, but their pursuit is dogged. A month later they show up at your front door ... and now they know where you live!

.

 

I'm thinking of an expensive coffee table book bound in leather with brass accents and a with gold leaf title at about $300, to exploit anyone with a tortoise phobia.

.

 

What about the all important title of said book?

 

' The Tortoise Terror'?