Dangerous Animal Encounters – Section 3: Animal Threat Assessment 101
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Paranoia as a means of survival
Almost all wild animals are paranoid, and rightly so. There aren’t many creatures on earth that don’t have to constantly look over their shoulders and worry about predators. This paranoia has kept them alive for their entire lives. Had they been devoid of this emotion they would certainly have perished when they were young.
The moment they see, hear, or smell another creature they are instantly assessing threat. Their initial threat assessment may be accurate or maybe not, it depends largely on the circumstances surrounding the encounter, their life experience, and to some degree the life experience of their fore bearers.
Circumstance:
First and foremost most creatures are going to make assumptions about threat and intent based on the circumstances of the encounter.
Many deadly or dangerous animal encounters happen when a human sneaks up on an animal. This can happen accidently through unawareness and/or lack of knowledge, or through intentional sneaking, i.e. hunting.
Since most creatures live in a constant state of awareness, often the general assumption by most animals during chance encounters is that as soon as they become aware of your presence you are also aware of theirs. Most humans are not as aware as most wild animals and therefore, the animals we encounter most often detect us before we detect them. When encounters happen suddenly, the animal does not have the time, nor distance, to slowly move out of the path of the approaching human as it would generally prefer.
A startling encounter with a human often leads to a misunderstanding regarding intent because once the encounter has begun (i.e. at least one animal detects the presence of another) a continued advance by the human (who very well is likely still unaware) is most often read as aggression. This is due to the fact that in nature, when two animals that are non-threatening to each other come into the same general space, etiquette is to stop to acknowledge each other’s presence and gauge threat and intent. If one of those animals continues to advance, knowingly or unknowingly, that puts the other animal immediately on the defensive. The animal then faces a choice, run, fight, or hold ground and assess further.
