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About This Quiz
Unless you're starring in yet another sequel to "Planet of the Apes," it's very likely that you will go your entire life without being in an encounter with a dangerous animal - without a thick wall of glass, some bars, or the chassis of your car between you, anyway. Sure, you might see a few on safari or at the zoo, but generally speaking, dangerous creatures want to void us just as much as we want to avoid them. That's a win-win situation for everyone.
Still, sometimes things go awry. You might be out on a hike in Colorado's Estes Park and find yourself nose to nose with a mountain lion, cycle around Jackson Hole and stumble upon a family of coyotes, or simply go for a walk in Pasadena of all places and suddenly there's a bear on the path and it's between you and your car - and just when you thought it was the biggest darn bear anyone ever saw, one twice the size pops up behind it and you realize that it's not even fully grown. Then there are the hazards of smaller creatures, from spiders to snakes to jellyfish, who might get you without you even realizing it. Knowing what to do in such situations could save your life, or someone else's. So, let's see how well prepared you really are!
What would you do to survive an encounter with a black bear?
Run toward it
Run away
Wave your hands over your head and bang pots and pans
“Some days you go bear hunting and you get eaten. Some days you come home with a nice rug to roll around on, and bear steaks. What they don't tell you as a kid is that sometimes you get the rug and steaks, but you also get some nice scars to go with them.†–Laurell K. Hamilton, American writer
Throw things at it
What would you do to survive an encounter with a cougar?
Lay down and play dead
Run away
Crouch on the ground in a ball
Stand tall and slowly back away
Cougars will attack if you run or show them your back. It is best to back away slowly, avoiding any quick movements, but it is also important to remain upright.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a bison?
Throw sticks at it.
Climb a nearby tree.
“To use the power of the bison, I had to perform that part of my vision for the people to see.†–Black Elk, American Indian leader
Out run it, keeping open space between you and the bison so you can keep an eye on it.
Keep your hands open, palms up, and out in front of you.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a moose?
Pet its baby.
Run to the nearest tree and climb it.
Moose are, like most animals, extremely protective of their offspring. They also tend to kick with their front legs.
Throw rocks at it.
Stay as close to its front end as you can so it won’t kick you.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a wolf?
Run.
Act submissive and don’t look them in the eye.
Curl in a ball on the ground.
Take out as many as you can with rocks, sticks, or a gun while shouting and yelling.
“Liberty for wolves is death to lambs.†–Isaiah Berlin
What would you do to survive an encounter with a shark?
Swim to open water because they only like hiding places.
Attack its nose, eyes, and gills and keep fighting.
Only about 10 people die from a shark attack each year. If a shark comes toward you, you should prepare to fight and keep fighting. Your first hits might not be enough to get it to leave you alone.
Chop off a finger and while the shark is distracted with it swim away.
Wait until the shark realizes you are human and lets go—don’t fight or you will make the wound worse.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with bees?
Make loud noises and jump around.
Knock down their nest to scare them away.
Dive into the nearest water you can find.
Calmly run away until they stop following you (up to a mile sometimes).
“When you go in search of honey, you must expect to be stung by bees.†–Joseph Joubert, French essayist
What would you do to survive an encounter with a leopard?
Make noise and make yourself look bigger.
Leopards are only found in a few habitats throughout the world and are generally more shy of people than any of the other big cats. Still, they manage to kill about 15 people each year.
Run away as fast as you can and hide under the nearest bush.
Grab one of her babies and hold it hostage.
Lay down and play dead.
What would you do to survive an encounter with an elk?
Avoid eye contact and turn your back to it.
Raise your jacket over your head and swing it around as you make your way to a tree you can quickly climb and climb it.
“If you take away the predators in the prairies and the national parks, you suddenly have an explosion of elk, and then you have a lack of the food source for the elk. So, they strip all the ground bare and that takes away the cover on and on and on and on. The whole food chain is disrupted.†–Peter Benchley, American author and screenwriter best known for Jaws
Lay on the ground and play dead.
Throw stones at it.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with fire ants?
Stand still- they have poor vision and won’t see you.
Coat your shoes in insect repellant.
Run to a safe location, brushing off ants you see, remove constricting clothing looking for more ants, and use ice packs and antihistamine.
Fire ants are not deterred by chemical repellents, but socks can prevent painful bites. Although ants may seem harmless because of their size, they kill about 30 people every year. Many people die from an allergic reaction to the bite.
Shake the body part, slapping the ants until you can rinse them off with water.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a gorilla?
Beat on your chest with your hands.
Slowly crouch down and avert your eyes.
“It never gets easier, you just go faster. To put it another way, training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired; you stop when the gorilla is tired.†–Greg Henderson, professional track and road racing cyclist
Run.
Climb a tree.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a black (grizzly) bear?
Run away as fast as you can.
Pepper spray it or play dead by laying on your stomach and covering the back of your neck.
A little more than two people die each year from a black or brown bear attack. Although black bears attack aggressively and intend to kill you, brown bears usually only attack when food is involved or when they feel threatened.
Stand still and don’t make any noise.
Split up from the rest of the group and climb a tree.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a crocodile?
Stand still and don’t move—you are safe as long as you are on land.
Throw stones at it.
Jump in the nearest body of water and swim away as fast as possible.
Climb a tree or gouge its eyes if it bites you.
“My favorite animal is steak.†–Fran Lebowitz
What would you do to survive an encounter with a tiger?
Run away as fast as you can.
Swim across the nearest river.
Face it, stand still, and make loud noises, hitting it with a large stick if it attacks.
Tigers kill about 85 people each year. Most attacks are unexpected and survivors were saved because someone else hit the tiger over the head with a big stick.
Try to hide from it by crouching on the ground and making yourself as small as possible.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a rattlesnake?
Slowly back away until you are at least five times its length away from it.
“After a hard day of Basic Training, you could eat a rattlesnake.†–Elvis Presley, musician
Weave back and forth until it is charmed and grab it by the neck.
Use a stick to pick it up and throw it as far away as you can.
Use a stick to poke it and push it away from you.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with an elephant?
Climb a tree.
Jump into the nearest body of water because elephants can’t swim.
Make yourself small or play dead.
Every year about 500 people are trampled to death by elephants. Although elephants can’t climb trees, they have been known to easily pluck humans out of them.
Throw stones at it and yell.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a jellyfish?
Douse the wounds in saltwater and use a towel to rub the tentacles off.
Apply an ice pack until you can get medical treatment.
Rinse the area with vinegar and use tweezers to pluck away tentacles.
“I’ve never been hurt by a sea creature—except for jellyfish and sea urchins.†–Peter Benchley
Stay in the water and remain calm until help arrives.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a Komodo dragon?
Play dead.
Hit it with a stick or throw rocks at it.
Walter Auffenberg was the first to study Komodo dragons beginning in 1969 and popularized the myth that bacteria in the Komodo dragon’s mouth takes down its prey. More recently, Brian Fry performed an MRI on the animal’s head and discovered venom glands. Since the venom prevents blood from clotting, 90 percent of the animals bitten die within four hours of the attack.
Stand perfectly still.
Cut your hand- they hate the smell of blood.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a leopard seal?
Play dead.
Jump in the water and splash around.
Hit or kick the leopard seal’s head with whatever heavy thing you can.
“The penguin doesn’t know it’s cute, and the leopard seal doesn’t know it’s kind of big and monstrous.†–Paul Nicklen, biologist and photographer
Run.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a Cape buffalo?
Play dead.
Hide.
Climb a tree.
Cape buffalo kill more hunters than any other safari animal. Not only will they stalk hunters and follow them, but they can also remember injuries for years and attack the person who inflicted them.
Charge toward it.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a hippopotamus?
Play dead because it only eats fresh meat.
Throw stones at it.
Run to the water and swim away because it won’t attack when it is in the water.
Run away from the water and climb the nearest tree.
“I found in one of the tombs an inscription saying, ‘If you touch my tomb, you will be eaten by a crocodile and a hippopotamus.’ It doesn’t mean that the hippo will eat you. It means the person really wanted his tomb to be protected.†–Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a dog?
Run as fast as you can.
Lay on the ground and whimper.
Stand still with your arms over your head and shout, give it something like a purse or umbrella to bite, and kick or punch it in the ribs or face.
Dogs kill 25,000 people each year worldwide. Although many of these deaths occur because the dogs were infected with rabies, 4.7 million people are bitten in the U. S. each year by non-infected dogs and 30 die.
Climb on top of your car.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a polar bear?
Use bear spray or grab a weapon and prepare to fight.
“We were working under very harsh conditions on ‘Zero Kelvin.’ We were up there in the Arctic, closer to the North Pole than to a hospital. Sometimes you had to sleep in small Arctic tents with guns to protect yourself from the polar bears and stuff.†–Stellan Skarsgard, Swedish actor
Lay down on your stomach.
Run away as fast as you can.
Bang pots and pans and make yourself look as big as possible.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a lion?
Run and don’t look back.
Play dead.
Grab them by the mane and stick your head in their mouth.
Stand tall and shout.
Lions are the only felines to live and hunt in groups. They are responsible for about 250 deaths each year.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a deer and its baby?
Deer aren’t dangerous, just ignore it.
Approach it with your hands out palms up, speaking calmly so it knows you won’t hurt it.
Climb the nearest tree.
“A wounded deer leaps the highest.†–Emily Dickenson
Turn your back to it so it can run away.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a python?
Wait until it begins to consume you before hitting it and gouging its eyes.
Attack it with a knife or large rock, never giving up.
It can take over 30 minutes to fight off a python or anaconda. People who keep pythons as pets are frequently warned to never handle them alone if the python is more than 8 feet long, but in some cases, it has taken five men to pull a python off its victim.
Play dead- it only eats living animals.
Jump in the water with them to drown them.
What would you do to survive an encounter with an alligator?
Throw stones at it.
Run away as fast as you can, shouting and fighting if it bites you.
“Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river.†–Cordell Hull, American politician from Tennessee
Get it to bite a stick because once it bites it doesn’t let up for hours.
Play dead.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a coyote?
Curl into a ball on the ground.
Yell and shout and throw sticks and stones at it.
Coyotes rarely attack humans and only two deaths have been directly caused by the animals because they are generally shy. As with bats, you should be treated at a hospital for rabies if you are bitten by a coyote. With prompt treatment, rabies is 100 percent curable, but once symptoms begin, 99 percent of patients die unless treated with the Milwaukee protocol—then only 88 percent die.
Run.
Act submissive.
What would you do to survive an encounter with an ostrich or cassowary?
Offer it food.
Curl into a ball.
Quickly back away, trying to put a tree or other large objects between you and it.
“If I were a cassowary on the plains of Timbuctoo, I would eat a missionary, Cassock, band, and hymn-book, too.†–Samuel Wilberforce
Lay down on your stomach.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a rhinoceros?
Run as fast as you can on a diagonal away from it and climb the nearest tree.
When a rhinoceros charges, it can only run in a straight line. Running on a diagonal to it will require it to get reoriented between charges and slow its pursuit down.
Play dead.
Stand still upwind of the animal so it smells you are not prey.
Keep your back to it and act submissive.
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a hyena?
Run away but do not make eye contact.
Play dead.
Make noise and act confident and throw rocks at it.
“A fly is untamable as a hyena.†–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Crouch down and act submissive.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a yellow jacket?
Run as fast and far as you can with your shirt over your face to protect it.
Yellow jacket nests can have around 5,000 workers and more than one queen inside. If you hit one, it will release a pheromone that will bring the others running to its aid. It is best to deal with nests at night when most of them are inside.
Stomp on as many of them as you can.
Stand still covering your eyes and mouth.
Throw stones at them and take out as many as you can.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a wild boar?
Run.
Lay down and play dead.
Make eye contact and stomp the ground.
Climb a tree, getting at least six feet off the ground.
“I was terrified that the wild boar might be attacking my father, and so I prayed to God (if He existed) to protect him and to direct the boar against my uncle instead, who believed in heaven and therefore was more willing to die.†–Marcel Pagnol, French author
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What would you do to survive an encounter with a chimpanzee?
Shoot it.
Chimpanzees are about five times stronger than men of the same size and seem to single out elderly and young children to attack. Aggressive actions, such as throwing objects at the chimps, or submissive actions, such as running away, can trigger attacks. Chimpanzees have been known to break car windows to get at the people inside.
Run away.
Beat on your chest.
Crouch down submissively.
What would you do to survive an encounter with a piranha?
Splash around a lot while you are swimming in piranha infested waters.
Avoid swimming in piranha-infested waters when the water level is low, you have an open cut, and other fish are scarce.
“People eat fish, Grogan. Fish don’t eat people.†–Dumont, Piranha (1978)
Toss some injured fish into the water before swimming so the piranha will attack that instead of you.
Dig around in the riverbed with your feet while wading in piranha infested waters to prevent injuring piranha eggs.
You Got:
/35
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