I came across this thread while doing a search.
I have encountered many predators in the wild. Panthers, bear, bobcat, wild boar and coyotes have all taken a precursory glance and usually make their exit. No problems.
When I was a kid I had a couple of scary encounters with alligators. Once they were building a housing community near my home and they had dug a pond for grading dirt and dredged a small channel to the canal. Since we knew the canal had a big gator, we decided to swim in the new pond. I was half swimming and half walking when I bumped a log and stood on it. The gator quickly put me on my ear as it took off from out from under me. Turned out to be a huge gator.
The other time we were building a tree fort on an island and I was swimming a sheet of plywood across a wide canal. I saw the gator when I was smack in the middle of the canal and he was coming straight at me at a good clip. I tried to stand on the plywood, but, it would just sink deeper in the water. Finally, the gator must have just realized what I was and he kinda put on the breaks and then carefully skirted around me and on down the canal. I made it to the island and crossed the shallow creek and walked the long way home.
I jumped off of a 5' high bank onto a small gator 5 or 6 footer. Well, gators are quick and bellyflops in a few inches of water are painful.
We fished the banks a lot and it wasn't uncommon for you to walk up on a gator on the bank and that pitch black ground would errupt in a flash of white mouth and hissing followed by the gator sliding into the water with a tremendous splash.
Had a huge gator go down as we approached it in the everglades. It must have just went down and we stopped and fished where it was. Well, it drifted up next to the Tracker Pro 17 and I swear when I saw it it looked as big as that boat. It saw us around the time we saw it and it exploded on the surface trying to get away. Scared the shift right out of me and I took a knee in the boat. My brother-in-law said he almost jumped out of the boat.
I have many more gator encounters. Including stumbling upon a 9 footer in the middle of a field of grass.
I go in the water and drag big gators out all the time. But, when you haven't yet established who is the predator yet. A surprising encounter can get both of your blood pumping.
I also was free diving a reef once and had a school of bait fish come straight at me. At first I thought it was cool. A school of fish in perfect synchronicity swimming around me leaving the space of my aura between me and them. Then I realized that something had to be chasing these fish into me. I raced to the surface, my heart beating the theme to Jaws. Boogied my but to the shore. I never saw what it was and am grateful for that.
I have swam with small sharks. I have caught and eaten many sharks and an eel (I caught and released).
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