Coyotes and Bears...

I've had my fair share of close encounters with potentially dangerous wildlife while growing up in Maine and living in Vermont as well.  I wouldn't say that I'm terrified of wildlife but I have seen animals gang up and attack other animals first hand.  The most prevalent types of attacks I've seen, or heard were done by rabid coyotes. Whenever I go home during the summer months I lay in bed at night and can hear them howl right in front of my house, sometimes outside my own window.  Their presence is actually pretty intimidating, especially when they travel in packs.  I remember one time I was walking home late at night and heard something running through the woods surrounding my house. I went inside and then heard pack of coyotes howl repeatedly and also the screams of another animal getting attacked.  I looked out the window of my living room and saw probably ten frail, rabid looking coyotes circling a small possum.  They were literally 25 feet from where I was standing inside. I was just outside probably fifteen minutes before they came through the woods and onto my dead end street.  That was definitely a scary experience just to see that many coyotes THAT close to my own home, brutally killing another animal. I've had other encounters when I've been outside in a friend's backyard and one ran up toward us and growled.  All I could see were its eyes and that was enough for me to believe that it was definitely not a dog.

An animal that I'm afraid of that I haven't actually seen in the wild, I'd have to say that brown bears are absolutely terrifying.  Not only are they massive killing machines but they can run faster than the average human, and climb trees effortlessly.  I've always had nightmares where I'm in the woods with people and we run into a brown bear.  Part of me wants to see one just so I can see how big they actually are, but another part doesn't because for some reason I've always been so afraid of them.  I love the concept of bears and I think they're really cool animals but if I ever met one by myself I'd probably freak out. I'm not a hunter or anything like that so I couldn't see myself trying to kill one at any point in my life.  My uncle has actually killed a black bear before and that thing was pretty big too.  It really puts into perspective how small humans are in comparison with animals.