(Not a swimmer) but
We have trained Shark Spotters on duty in summer.
Fish Hoek beach has a shark net - which is put out during the (swimming) days, and brought in at night. Between the spotters and the net, the sharks are protected and swimmers are okay.
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My neighbors have big, scary dogs and Iāve started carrying a pocket of dog treats. I toss a handful in front of the dogs and it distracts them. I have a dog, so I just use her kibble, so itās cheap and easy.
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Of course! Itās just that not everyone is as safe and privileged as @inspector_crow , and we all need to be aware of our surroundings and mindful of dangers, human or otherwise.
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And cisgendered men do need to understand that even if they are gentle souls who wouldnāt hurt a fly, someone who encounters them doesnāt know that.
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This being New England, I am now visualizing some of them as being actual muskets, taken down once a year from the mantlepiece - where they have hung since Ye Olde Family Ancestor fought in the Revolutionary War - and used to bag a Thanksgiving turkeyā¦
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I agree with this - itās a privilege to have the option to worry less about yourself/personal safety.
The flip side of this coin is that other people are more likely to consider large guys to be threatening (and even moreso if they have long hair/facial hair/tattoos/etc). In my experience, males that look like this are more likely to have the police called on them. When police/security do respond, theyāre more likely to be aggressive with males with this kind of appearance, which is its own safety issue.
Being in the field in a diverse group has almost always lead to better encounters with the public/authorities in my experience. But it isnāt always possible to go out in a diverse group, and I do enjoy being by myself as well. When I am alone and I encounter other people that Iām not sure about, I try to work from the position of assuming good but being vigilant (kind of like ātrust but verifyā). Most people do mean well, but even if that is most likely, I try to still be very aware as the cost of a rare bad interaction can be very high.
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Being a big scruffy guy who lugs around a big camera maybe neutralizes some of the potential threat when I run into a lone hiker on a trail. Seems unlikely I could assault someone and protect my expensive camera at the same time. My gray hair probably helps also. But I am aware that I could be viewed as potentially a threat in such situations. Iāve unintentionally alarmed lone hikers on a few occasions in my younger days just by stepping back on a trail from the brush.
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Looking at the posts above, I am lucky to live in a relatively safe place of South Australia.
The main causes of death and serious injury in nature are
- Falls
- Shark attacks
- Falling Eucalyptus branches
Some 2m tall kangaroos can be intimidating, especially when running towards me full speed on a narrow path. They are not known to attack people in the wild.
We have some of the most poisonous snakes in the world but most of them are shy. Make stomping sounds on overgrown dry paths. Do not step into muddy puddles at water crossings, thatās where the red bellied black snake hides. Donāt turn over loose rocks with bare hands.
Red back spiders are common, donāt reach into dark spaces with bare hands.
There are blue ring octopuses in the water near rocky seashores.
There are no leaches nor crocodiles. Dropbears are not real, I promise.
The rest is nuisance. Flies, mosquitoes, swooping magpie larks, thorny shrubs.
I donāt know of people being robbed, but if leave something valuable behind, it will grow legs.
Overall very safe, with basic precautions.
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One thing I want to point out for those who get hungry or low blood sugar during their inatting trips, long or short ones and everything in between, is to know where the edible plants are located. I always know my local blackberry bushes are for my local walks around the neighborhood and town during blackberry season. Do any PNW people know other edible plants for other seasons or for year around snacking on the road, trails, and suburban/urban areas?
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This can be a problem where I frequently iNat. I have not experienced it myself (yet), but hear from others about having to use pepper spray, walking sticks, or folding chairs to ward off aggressive dogs. There is no animal control here and apparently the cops wonāt do anything unless someone is actually bit.
I hope this doesnāt encourage them to approach other people looking for hand outs
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Not year round, but serviceberries (Amelanchier alnifolia) are a great snacking berry in this area! Very few people seem to know about them (that theyāre edible, or that they even exist). The season just ended last month, though.
You can also eat Indian Plum, aka Osoberry, leaves and fruits. They donāt taste very good, though. The leaves taste sort of like cucumber at first, but then get really bitter.
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I donāt want to disparage prudence or common sense, but this attitude is based on a slew of problematic assumptions. Since when is someone dangerous just because we havenāt met them before? Since when is someone in danger just because they are on their own for 60+ minutes? Since when do we learn, explore, or grow as human beings without ever taking a risk? Thousands of people do things like long-distance solo hiking every year, and the vast majority do them safely. If someone in my life expected me to check in with them hourly, Iād consider that controlling. Itās much riskier to drive to and from a park or preserve than to be in one. I mostly observe in an urban environment; there are always strangers around.
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Praying they make an iNat hoodie some dayā¦ especially a pullover with the logo on the back. Iād gladly shell out for one 
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And if youād stopped right there, Iād have given you a huge thumbs up!
But then, as the song goes, you had to go and spoil it all by saying something ā¦ like
Which is ā¦ how do I say this nicely ā¦
Significant Fall injuries are almost entirely dominated by the elderly and infirm falling over in and around their own homes. Youāre about as likely to stub your toe and die from the infection as you are to die from āa fallā somewhere āin natureā.
Sharks have got a whole lot of killing to do to even come close to catching up with cows and horses and bees and dogs. Youāre going to need a much bigger leader board to find them a place on it. Perhaps you missed the fact I noted above about how the sharks in South Australia are even so polite that
I have it on the word of a diving medical examiner that the sea creature which kills more people here each year than any other is in fact scallops. Because thereās a class of people who would rather drown than let go of their catch bag to safely surfaceā¦ but Iām not sure first-hand where that stat comes from either.
Youāre far more likely to die in a boat accident than be killed by a shark - or if youāre a middle aged man, by drowning after entering the water to try and save someone else (who much more often than the supposed rescuer ends up surviving the ordeal).
And even though fall deaths from healthy people are rare, youāre still more likely to die from falling out of a tree than having one fall on you ā¦
They absolutely are known to attack people, and to viciously gang up on and attack each other. They are well known for killing dogs that have tried to harass them. And not just in the wild. There was a recent direct fatality where a man was killed by one he had kept as a pet. And thatās not even starting to count the fatalities and serious injuries when people collide with them on the road.
Youāre far more likely to be seriously injured in a road traffic accident on a country road, than by any of the things you listed.
Your next most probable cause of death, depending on your age group, is either a āmedical incidentā you couldnāt be resuscitated from, or deliberate self-harm.
After that, accidental poisoning. And so on, and so on.
Theyāre comfortable in water - they donāt lie in wait to ambush people in muddy puddles.
As a general rule, donāt turn them over full stop. How would you feel if I came and tore the roof off your house?
Good advice everywhere, but Because Spiders is only a small subset of the reasons not to do that.
I was going to link to the photos of the cute little one that swam down and crawled all over my camera lens in deeper water well offshore - but apparently I havenāt uploaded that set of obs here yet.
Bites from these are extremely rare even though the species is quite common.
cf. ādonāt reach into dark spaces with bare hands.ā.
Their venom is extremely toxic, the main component being tetrodotoxin as also found in pufferfish, Dendrobatidae frogs, and as we now know, probably all cephalopods.
It seems we didnāt learn that sooner, because most cephalopods are not aggressive and would rather posture then flee instead of attack and bite.
The dropbearās greatest trick is making you believe that ā¦
Serious mosquito borne diseases continue to arrive and persist here. There have been fatalities from magpie swooping - though Iāve personally never met a magpie I couldnāt have a sensible and polite conversation with.
We still have other excess mortality from preventable disease, because people have already forgotten the dramatic effect that self-isolating and wearing protective gear while communicably ill, and diligently washing your hands, had on that.
Oh, and the fruit bats carry lyssavirus - but fortunately they rarely infect humans with it because in us itās almost invariably and quickly fatal.
But hey, at least we donāt get Irukandji and Gympie-Gympie, yet ā¦
But really, if you want an over simplified top 3 dangerous things list, it probably looks more like:
- Other people.
- Yourself.
- Other people who are trying to help you.
Maybe not exactly in that order.
Because not that many other people are out to deliberately hurt you (even if it is more than the number of wild creatures out to deliberately hurt you), but thereās a lot of them out there either doing things which might accidentally do so, or totally misunderstanding which of the things around them are actually the most likely to hurt themselves or others.
On a forum encouraging people to get out among Nature, and where possible nurture it, we shouldnāt be spreading misunderstanding of the actual dangers involved with that. So sorry if some of this sounds a bit ā¦ disagreeable ā¦ but putting up more fences, killing more sharks, and cutting down more beautiful old trees are not going to make you safer. Those are not the misadventures that are most likely to be your last, let alone something you will ever witness first hand.
They sure do sell Exclusive Breaking news reports though! So itās easy to see how this kind of thing spreads if it goes unchecked.
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There are caps and T shirts
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/i-would-like-an-inat-hat/1186
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Thistle leafstalks (best from the spring rosette) can be peeled and eaten.
From what I hear, salmonberry is a common edible bramble in your area, but you already mentioned blackberries.
These next ones arenāt PNW plants butā¦
swamp saxifrage has edible and delicious shoots,
Carolina and Virginia spring beauty have edible greens,
violets have edible greens and flowers,
and autumn-olive has edible berries.
All nuts are excellent āsurvival foodā.
Remember, of course, to use common sense.
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My neighborhood! EVERYONE walking carries a stick, a pole, a golf club, a baseball bat, etc.
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They already did that!! https://inaturalist.threadless.com/mens/pullover-hoody/french-terry
Itās still hot in TX so, I just ordered a T-shirt and mug.
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hooray!!!
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I forgot about this one! You can find some giant patches of it. The berries vary in flavor, generally being less tasty than blackberries in my opinion, but theyāre common and juicy. The stems are less thorny than blackberries too, so theyāre more fun to pick.
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