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.
On a night hike when I was a schoolkid, our teacher was using a handheld spotlight to show us some nocturnal birds when the light fell on an adult cougar, lounging on a tree branch not far away and examining us. It didn’t move or react. We turned around and went back to our classroom/cabin and that was the end of hiking for a while. I’m sure the cougar had been watching us for a long time. I have no idea how big it was. Our teacher seemed very calm and matter of fact, so the danger didn’t occur to me or the other kids at the time. Southwest Oklahoma doesn’t see many predators bigger than a coyote, so I imagine there were many phone calls while little students were distracted.