No, no, not coffee drinkers deprived of their morning cuppa! (Hmm, well maybe, but that’s another story.) I’m talking about actual wild animals and the risk they bring to preppers.
The most dangerous animals on the planet
It’s no contest. The kind of animals that have killed the most people is:
Biting insects and arachnids (ticks) are nasty disease carriers. And annoying.
Runners-up include the TseTse fly and ticks. Disease transmission isn’t as exciting as grizzly attacks, but it absolutely causes more death and disease. I expect that to get worse if community efforts at pest control fail due to a crisis. We’ve got some tips on managing that here, so moving on…
Rats and mice and mice are more than just food spoilers, too. They’re disease carriers. I’m not just holding a grudge from the Middle Ages about the whole Black Death thing; we still have plague in the U.S. and it’s transmitted by mice, mostly. There’s also things like Hanta virus. Where garbage isn’t being collected, these pests will be more of a problem.
Salty and I talk it over in this podcast:
Feral animals are likely to be more dangerous than wild ones
The ‘animals that will eat you’ category of a post-crisis world will, I expect, be headed up not by the wild species but feral former pets. Cycling along rural roads, I already have to carry pepper spray and have been bitten several times by poorly trained and controlled dog packs.
Loose, uncared for dogs naturally form packs of their own. They’re not only far more abundant than wild species, but they live in the same places people do and they’re not afraid of people. Heck, some of them are even accustomed to bullying the humans they live with. That’s a recipe for major problems.
If the number of uncared for dogs goes up, I’m not going to want to go anywhere without Mr. Glock; and I wouldn’t let small children out of my sight either.
What’s the difference between a pet and a pack predator? Regular feeding.
Cities are not immune to wild animal problems
While hiking in Yellowstone this fall, my friend Doc and I were able to point out the sounds of a nearby coyote pack to some other visitors. They were entranced. Doc and I, not so much. We’ve got two packs of coyotes within howling distance at The Place. Doc lives in a big city in the desert southwest. She has an entire pack of coyotes going about their business in the big dry runoff ditch they call a river right behind her house. The wild animals are already among us.
Cut their food supply, and what do you foresee? Coyotes have a reputation for scavenging sure; but they also hunt big prey like antelope in the areas where they’re not out-competed by the wolves.
There are many kinds of wild animals in the cities now. Most, like the raptors that live among high-rises and feed on rats, would be a positive addition. Some, such as coyotes and the occasional bear or panther, would not be. If cougars are showing up on people’s couches now, do you think they’ll be less shy when there’s more food to be had? Many Florida animal control officers are kept busy removing troublesome alligators and pythons today.
Lauren Taylor of Ashland, OR claims she found this guy on her couch one afternoon.
There’s also the question of what might happen to animals in zoos and preserves, and exotic animals kept as pets, should there be a crisis. Did you know the nation with the most tigers is … the United States? Tigers like the habitat of America just fine too, so I’d expect them to thrive if a breeding population were to get loose.
People invading wild animal territory need to be prepared
The biggest predators, the ones most likely to eat you, have always been out in the wilder places — just where more people are likely to be if grocery stores aren’t being stocked. I don’t worry about alligators, but I sure would if I were fishing in Florida. Bears, cougars, and wolves don’t habitually prey on people, but they will make an exception from time to time.
I’ve been hissed at by an unseen alligator when near a Florida stream. It really gets your attention*
Right now, predators that show an inclination for human flesh are removed somewhere even more remote or killed, even in our national parks. These predators were much more abundant before we started persecuting them. Being armed may become about more than two-legged predators.
If you keep stock, predators are problem even today
It’s very rare now for humans to be attacked by wild animals. I expect it to still be pretty rare under any circumstances I could foresee (worth being prepared for, but rare). Predators attack stock animals all the danged time, though. A few years ago a picture was taken in my own home county of a cougar jumping a fence with a piglet in its mouth. I myself have lost rabbits to canines (feral dogs or coyotes) and chickens to all sorts of predators.
If your food production plans incorporate domestic animals, you’re going to need a predator control strategy. Having your own dogs help (but they can become prey themselves), good fencing helps, closing them up in good buildings at night helps, hunting the predator species helps. None of it is perfect. That’s the real reason we almost exterminated a lot of predatory species historically; they compete for our domesticated food.
At any rate, you’ll need to be prepared for the problem and put the protections up before the fox gets in the chicken coop. Those cute little murderers will kill every bird in the coop; apparently they’ve got quite the bloodlust once they get going. Yes, there may come a time when the we have a vivid reminder of why we have expressions like ‘fox in the henhouse’.
* Photo by Adriaan Greyling from Pexels