My favorite "danger in the wild" story was related to me by a friend
who is a respected wildlife researcher and bird song recordist.
My friend was walking with a colleague along a rainforest trail one
morning in Brasil a few years ago. As they walked, they passed a huge
Bushmaster (Lachesis muta), hidden by the side of the trail. The
snake, a deadly ambush hunter, probably sat near the trail through the
previous night, waiting for an Agouti or other small mammal to come by.
The snake must have been startled, because it struck out at my friend
as the researchers passed. The snake hit my friend squarely on his
fanny pack! The Bushmaster's fangs are easily long enough to
penetrate through several layers of clothing. My friend was saved by a
couple of cassette tapes of bird sounds he was carrying.
The incident was over in a second, and the snake disappeared, but my
friend says it took hours before he stopped shaking from the excitement.
--oryoki
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