Spot on Clay..
If you challenge a coyote, he's gonna run away 99.99% of the time.
Challenge a Grizzly bear, and he's likely to take you up on it and kick
your arse.
I've seen a couple coyotes while I was out prospecting, and what I felt was
the complete opposite of fear...more like... "Cool!"
He was only about 30 yds. away, and when he finally saw me I just
calmly said.."Yo Dude...what's up?". His eyes got about the size of
Peace Dollars, and then there was just a bit of vapor trail left right
where he was standing.
Aside from bears, critters that I would fear if they came up on me? First
would be a cougar, and after that would be a badger. A cougar will usually
run off if you challenge them, but a badger? He don't take crap from anyone!
Caught a huge one in a coyote set up in N. Nevada, but there was just one
problem..I was only permitted for trapping coyotes, meaning I had to get
this extremely unhappy badger (read: pissed off) out of that #3 double
longspring that was securely attached to his back foot. All I had with me was
a snare pole, but getting that around the almost non-existent neck of a badger
was a battle. He kept his body square with mine, and I swear he had fire in his
eyes. I finally got the snare around his neck, and then I stood on the pole, pinning
him to the ground while he called me every name in the book. Took a minute to
get ahold of the trap, got the springs compressed and removed his foot. Took
a good enough look at it to see it was undamaged (offset jaws), but then I had
to turn him loose of the snare pole, meaning he was free and unfettered if he
decided to extract some retribution from me for ruining his evening.
He sat there for a second and got his breath back, gave me a look that came
straight from 'Ol Satan himself, and then he walked off in the other direction,
telling me he wasn't the least bit afraid of me.
Fear critters that'll kill ya..Grizzly Bears, Moose, Cougar, Hippo's, etc. I'm always
cautious and respectful of wild critters, but tend to look at them more like friends
I haven't met yet.