Hugging predators is not my idea of a good time. I'll stick with watching videos of other dudes making out with large predators, hoping that every once in a while one of them gets eaten, to help improve the overall genetic inventory of the earth. Hell, making out with the wife is enough of a risk as it is.

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Originally posted by wrightd:
Hugging predators is not my idea of a good time. I'll stick with watching videos of other dudes making out with large predators, hoping that every once in a while one of them gets eaten, to help improve the overall genetic inventory of the earth. Hell, making out with the wife is enough of a risk as it is.

Cougar?

Yeah, its all fun and games until someone gets dismembered.

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Originally posted by heisrizn:

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
Hugging predators is not my idea of a good time. I'll stick with watching videos of other dudes making out with large predators, hoping that every once in a while one of them gets eaten, to help improve the overall genetic inventory of the earth. Hell, making out with the wife is enough of a risk as it is.

Cougar?

Lol

Want to see folks who live with a big kitteh? Look up Messi the Puma (mountain lion). Walking it around on a harness and all huggy with it.

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Originally posted by Sig2340:
I don't think that guy weighs 1,500 pounds.

I don’t either. If he was a grizzly, he wouldn’t be anywhere near 1,500#. I’ll accept that he’s a brown, which darn sure could mean a 1,000# or more. If 1,500, he would be well over the norm for an adult male.

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Originally posted by BBMW:
AFAIK, they've raised them all from cubs. I think they handlers will be fine.

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Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Me thinks the Orphaned Wildlife Center is going to be in the news for a different reason one day.

Sigfrued and Roy thought the same.

Bears don't really need teeth to get uppity with anything, short of dealing with another bear.

I recall watching a movie made a while back in Arctic Canada where a polar bear was just lying at the edge of an ice flow, watching the water, when, without moving anything more than the one left paw, sort of reached down into the water and flipped a 50/60 pound seal about twenty yards onto the ice.

The sheer amount of unconscious muscle power in a bear is unbelievable.

tac

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Originally posted by wildheartedson0105:

Want to see folks who live with a big kitteh? Look up Messi the Puma (mountain lion). Walking it around on a harness and all huggy with it.

Those people are cruel.

They sent Messi the Puma to dog obedience school. Messi should eat them in response.



Here is Messi at home.

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Originally posted by asonie:
Raised from cubs or not, snuggling up to an un-tameable apex predator is not on my bucket list.

Well, as long as it's the LAST thing on your bucket list...

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Originally posted by TMats:

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Originally posted by Sig2340:
I don't think that guy weighs 1,500 pounds.

I don’t either. If he was a grizzly, he wouldn’t be anywhere near 1,500#. I’ll accept that he’s a brown, which darn sure could mean a 1,000# or more. If 1,500, he would be well over the norm for an adult male.

Fat and lazy? They are in captivity...don't have to forage or hunt for food...

I'm not going to lie, I'd hop in there in a heartbeat! I'd probably want to pet that Wolverine from the other post too!

Same with the puma.
(BT/DT with the Cougar, MAN! That was a fun time!)


I've been fortunate enough to have done some "dumb" and "not-so-dumb" things in my time and survived, I've played with lion cubs, and was able to pet a full grown lion, and a cheetah, a kinkajou (I'll save you the Google search- https://www.google.com/search?...0i46k1.0.zUEaZeKGdl4 ) , an ocelot, handled a few smaller alligators. I was dumb enough to pet a cobra (Someone else was holding the business end, and I couldn't be shown up by the Thai Royal Marines). Raccoons / trash-pandas and sugar gliders as well (pets). I owned a Burmese Python for about 3 years before it died, it was about 12ft.


However, I was told by one of my friends a long time ago that playing with these types of "exotic" animals, or animals that aren't bred for captivity / interactions with humans is a lot like playing with a hand grenade.... sooner or later, it's gonna go off.

With a raccoon, sugar glider, kinkajou, ocelot... Ok, if it goes off, you're going to get messed up, but probably come out of it OK.
Now if that lion, bear, cougar (4 leg... hell, even the 2 legged ones!), wolverine decide to go off... How much chance does a 200, 225, 250+ Lb. human (sans weapon) have against it? Prime example is Siegfried and Roy, how many years have they been playing around with those kitties? And look what happened. (Insert the "Big cats are dangerous but a little pussy never hurt anyone" joke here)

I love animals and wildlife probably more than I like humans and the city life, (I'd like to say) I'm smart enough to respect it. I'm not one of those assholes who are going to put the buffalo calf in the back of the minivan because it's cold out, nor am I the nit-wit who's going to jump out of the station wagon and pet the bear cub on the family trip to Yosemite. However, I would ask the guy if I could hop in the cage with him and pet that bear.

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Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by wildheartedson0105:

Want to see folks who live with a big kitteh? Look up Messi the Puma (mountain lion). Walking it around on a harness and all huggy with it.

Those people are cruel.

They sent Messi the Puma to dog obedience school. Messi should eat them in response.

Might happen. I've read cats like to plot their revenge. Slow game.

I remember this story from when I was a kid in Alaska. A lot of people thought the couple earned their Darwin Award and even the local radio stations made jokes about it. A lot of people had this “well no shit” attitude about the whole thing. If I’m not mistaken there was some pretty horrific video of it going down, that or it was some other hippy who was one with the bears got eaten and had their camera going. Either way not only no but hell no for me.

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Originally posted by BBMW:
And those were wild bears. Also he did that for years until he rolled the dice one too many times. And the time he did seven out was not when he was trying to socialize with the bear. He was in his tent with his GF and the bear (old sick and starving) just attacked.

In point of fact, regardless that it turned out badly, what Treadwell did was pretty amazing.

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Originally posted by 1s1k:

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Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
Reminds me of that guy who spent a ton of time with the bears in some national park in Alaska. He was convinced that he had a special relationship with the bears and that they accepted him as part of their surroundings. And they tolerated him and his interactions...until they didn't...then they ate him.

That was the Timothy Treadwell that they talk about in the article posted above.