Many domestic animals have diverged quite radically from their wild or ancestral counterparts. Let’s look at sheep, for instance.

While it’s true that sheep can grow to be quite large and sometimes physically powerful, they don’t hold a candle to their wild cousins.

In the United States and elsewhere in North America, bighorn sheep are the largest of the mountain-dwelling sheep species.

With huge, curled horns from which they derive their name and surprisingly muscular physiques, these aren’t the cuddly white lambs you think of when you hear the word sheep.

And chances are those horns aren’t for show: are bighorn sheep dangerous?

No, bighorn sheep aren’t considered to be dangerous to humans. Though they’re extremely powerful, very large and heavy and have impressive horns they are so rarely encountered at close range by people that attacks are almost unheard of.

This is one of those situations that, even though an animal has the capability to easily cause immense harm to a human, they aren’t really a problem.

That’s because these animals are almost never encountered at close range in the wild.

Bighorn sheep are so suited to their environment and so elusive it’s almost unthinkable that any human could get close enough in time for a bad encounter to happen before the sheep moved away.

Anyway, there is more to know, so keep reading and I’ll tell you all about them…

Bighorn sheep share many overall characteristics and social structures with their domesticated cousins you’ll find on farms around the world.

Bighorn sheep are heard animals, or flock animals I guess you would say, and in any given group you’ll find mostly females but also males.

Most of the time, there’s little in the way of true conflict until mating season, when sexually mature males will begin to jockey for position, and access, to females.

It is this mating behavior and competition that leads to some of the most well-known encounters that play out between these huge and impressive sheep: when two males square off, they size each other up, circle, back up and then charge before leaping and clashing horns.

In the mountains and hills where these sheep typically live, the resulting crash! can sound like gunshots!

Speaking of where these sheep live, that will give us a clue as to why actual confrontations with humans are so very rare: bighorn sheep tend to live on some of the steepest, rockiest and most impassable terrain in North America.

This gives them ample protection from people and other predators: that’s because bighorn sheep exploit this terrain thanks to their physical adaptations which gives them tremendous grip and sure-footedness when climbing.

Because most people are hard-pressed to even get close to sheep in this terrain, and combined with the excellent senses these animals have, most herds of bighorns will see a person approaching from a long way away. Then, they simply prance away across the mountainside to escape.

Accordingly, circumstances where a bighorn sheep and a human are close enough to actually touch each other, at any time and for any reason, are extremely rare.

No. Although they are generally skittish when they detect any animal that might be a threat, bighorns are not territorial.

There are far more likely to simply move away when they spot trouble, and in any case whole flocks will move from place to place to find food and also engage in migratory behavior and some areas to avoid the worst weather.

Yes, particularly during mating season. Outside of mating season, clashes are generally only social affairs where individual members of the flock that don’t like each other have to work out some aggression and re-establish the pecking order, as it were.

During mating season, sexually mature males will clash with each other to establish dominance and secure access to eligible females.

As a rule, no. This is simply because it’s almost impossible to get close enough to them for the sheep to get aggressive with people.

Chances are extremely high that they will see you coming from a long way away and then just leave, gaining considerable ground since they are so well adapted to the terrain you find yourself in.

But, on the offhand chance that you do, somehow, get close enough to one of these large and powerful sheep, they could prove to be dangerous.

Yes, there have been, though as I mentioned, these attacks are incredibly rare. Among all wild animal species in total, there are so few Bighorn sheep attacks on people in the wild that they can hardly be said to happen at all.

A bighorn sheep is only likely to become aggressive if you get close to it, particularly during mating season or if you come upon a ewe that has lambs.

Once again, the circumstances under which such an encounter might happen are vanishingly rare.

If, for whatever reason, you do see bighorn sheep in the wild and you could get close to them, hold that intrusive thought at bay and just keep away.

Incredibly strong, especially compared to other mammals. These sheep have to be strong and downright athletic to live and thrive in the environments that they inhabit.

Bighorn sheep can commonly be seen leaping across chasms, clambering up and down seemingly vertical and impassable rock faces and maintaining a trot or canter across vast distances that would make most cross-country runners green with envy.

Even looking at their fights, ones that happened between males anyway, we see that their endurance really is legendary. Some clashes will go on for the better part of a day before one male submits!

Bighorn sheep do have teeth and can bite, but it is highly unlikely that they would try to bite you when they could just lead with their huge and incredibly hard horns instead.

A bighorn sheep attack looks exactly how you are imagining it: they charge and ram, utilizing their immense horns combined with their speed and body weight to deliver immense impacts on opponents.

If you were to be attacked by a bighorn sheep and then knocked to the ground, it would either continue head-butting you or perhaps stomp and kick you for good measure.

And again, these are not common domestic sheep: adult bighorns can weigh more than 400 pounds (180 kilos), and some impressive male specimens can clear 500 pounds (226 kilos). The horns alone on a male weigh around 25 pounds and can weigh a lot more.

Now consider that males and females alike can dash on flat ground, flatout, at faster than 20 miles an hour and you can do the math if you want to figure out how bad the impact would be.

Put bluntly: if you get rammed by one of these huge sheep, you’re going to be all broken up because of it.

If you, somehow, put yourself in a position to be attacked by a bighorn sheep you’re going to have two major problems.

The first is that you can easily be knocked over an edge or down a steep slope by a ram and that could prove fatal all by itself.

The second problem is that, considering where bighorns live, you will be unlikely to put distance between yourself and the sheep quickly enough once it has become aggressive.

If you have weapons, by all means defend yourself. If you don’t, try to put anything between yourself and the sheep to block a charge, but it had better be something like a boulder, a tree or something else that can actually prevent the impact.

Your flimsy backpack is not going to do much good as a shield.

If this is not an option, lie down on the ground, cover your head and neck and protect yourself as best as you can. Hopefully, when the sheep sees you’re no longer a threat, it will give up and move on.

No. Bighorn sheep, like all sheep, are strictly herbivorous and do not eat meat. That means they won’t eat you.

No, or at least none that are commonly known. Aside from your typical blood-sucking parasites like fleas, ticks and the like, bighorn sheep don’t carry much in the way of germs or other diseases that can be transmitted to people.

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If you’ve ever gotten a good look at those needle-sharp teeth, I don’t blame you for thinking possums are dangerous.

I think everybody, especially people living in the South, have been surprised by them in the night: hanging out near the deck or popping out of the trash can.

Those beady black eyes, the loud hiss, the flashing white fangs. Sheesh, it is enough to give anyone the willies!

But plenty of experts tell us that possums are truly not aggressive and really not dangerous. What’s the truth? Are possums actually dangerous?

No, possums are not dangerous to people. Even though possums have sharp teeth and may sometimes bite if cornered or handled, they’re far more likely to run for it or feign death.

And there you have it. Possums really are the definition of all bark and no bite, and it’s not to say that they can’t bite but these animals are genuinely non-aggressive and will typically try other survival strategies when confronted or threatened rather than attacking.

Nonetheless, possums are common, and it’s all but certain you’ll run into one at one point in your life, and maybe even at close range.

Keep reading, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know about human interactions with possums…

Possums are marsupials, and the largest marsupials in North America. In fact, the common Virginia Possum is the only true opossum found in the United States.

Unlike other mammals, possums are almost entirely unique, and they’re regularly referred to as living fossils. It isn’t entirely true, but there aren’t any other animals quite like them.

Predominantly nocturnal, possums are nomadic and they move from place to place foraging for easy access to food and water.

They will hang around as long as it’s safe and as long as they have plenty to eat and drink for them and they’re young.

Speaking of eating, possums are acute omnivores, and they can eat just about anything they find.

They’re notorious for breaking into trash cans, like raccoons, for food scraps, and also climbing up to bird feeders to empty them of seeds.

All sorts of other creatures, including insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, worms, mollusks and more. And they eat roadkill!

Also like raccoons, possums have highly dexterous paws which make them excellent climbers, an ability which is further assisted by their prehensile tails.

Possums are predominantly solitary, but it’s not out of the question to see multiple family groups consisting of mothers and young congregating in a safe space with lots of food to go around.

When confronted or cornered, possums exhibit frightening threat displays consisting of hissing, clicking, and baring of the teeth.

A bite from a possum, even if approached, is quite rare: what isn’t rare is their most famous behavior, playing dead, commonly referred to as playing possum!

A possum that is playing dead is actually engaging in an involuntary behavior where the animal sort of blacks out, curls its lips, starts to foam at the mouth and expels a nasty stench from its anal glands.

It is possible that they stay this way for many minutes up to several hours before recovering, no worse for the wear.

Hopefully, whatever was bothering the poor thing thinks it is too nasty and pitiful to deal with during that time!

But while you should never assume that any given possum is going to play dead instead of bite you, bites from possums are in fact quite rare.

No, not from people or larger animals. Possums know they are very low on the food chain and act accordingly, but sometimes they get territorial and grouchy if another possum invades their personal space or tries to take over a limited food source.

Rarely. Aside from the aforementioned territorial problems or food possessiveness, possums generally ignore each other or cohabitate peacefully.

No. Aside from a threat display, it is extremely rare for possums to display genuine aggression towards people.

Any possum that is hissing or showing its teeth is actually desperately hoping that you’ll get frightened and leave it alone. Given half a chance, a possum will retreat from you or, if it thinks you are going to attack it, play dead.

Yes, but actual negative interactions with humans are extremely rare. Bites from possums usually only occur when some foolish person is trying to handle the animal, or in cases where something goes wrong after they have been trapped.

Possums look downright frightening when they are giving you that awful threat display, but triggering an attack from one is rare and difficult.

The only thing that will reliably get a possum to attack you is prolonged handling assuming they are conscious and not playing dead.

Any possum that is stressed from capture or after being cornered might bite in an effort to escape, and it’s hardly out of the question that a mother possum will bite to protect her babies.

But even in all these cases, possums are just not very aggressive even in extremis, and will always prefer to run away and hide or feign death rather than go on the offensive.

For their size, and considering the category of creature that they are, possums are surprisingly strong.

They are very able climbers, and mother possums can be seen scaling trees and fences all the time with eight or nine babies clinging for dear life to their backs. Doesn’t seem to slow them down in the least!

That being said, compared to any human being possums are not strong: we have immense size and strength advantages over them that will certainly prove telling in a scuffle.

Yes, they can! A possum’s teeth are not just for show! Possums can and will bite, and they’re more than capable of inflicting a nasty bite if it comes down to it.

They have multiple long, needle-like teeth that will give you a seriously nasty puncture wound.

Possums don’t really attack people, not in a truly offensive manner and if they do there’s probably something wrong with it, like rabies.

A possum might hold its ground and give you a good threat display before finally biting if you close in, but it’s highly unlikely that they will close the distance with you to deliver a bite.

Accordingly, if you see a possum, make a point to give it plenty of room and there shouldn’t be any problem.

On the other hand, if a possum is closing the distance with you that is definitely an indicator that something is very wrong and you need to get away from it as quickly as possible.

Assuming you’re actively being attacked by a possum, your best course of action is to do anything that you can to prevent the possum from closing with you and biting you.

The very best thing you can do is simply to run away, as you should easily be able to outpace a possum on flat ground.

If that fails or it isn’t an option, use absolutely any object that you can to keep it away from you. If you don’t have anything to use as a shield, try to stomp the possum one good time and that should put it out of action for good.

Remember, you need to avoid being bitten at all costs! If a possum can’t bite you, it can’t hurt you.

Yes. Though a possum would never attack you with the intention of eating you (they aren’t predators like that) it is entirely conceivable that should a possum find your dead body they would start to eat you.

Remember that possums are scavengers and have a tendency to eat carrion, and that would include you.

Potentially, yes. Possums are known vectors of various diseases, parasites and other nasty, gribbly things you don’t want to get infected with. Salmonella, spotted fever, leptospirosis and toxoplasmosis are all potential infections.

But, luckily, possums are only very, very rare vectors of the rabies virus. Contrary to popular belief, they aren’t the primary vector of rabies, but neither are they immune to rabies as some other people assert.

For this reason, you always want to keep your distance from possum and avoid handling them even when they are dead.

Likewise, any possum that is acting very strangely is cause for concern and you should call animal control.

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It is hard to imagine any animal being less dangerous than a chipmunk. From their beautiful, striped fur to those adorably chubby cheeks that carry food back to their burrows, chipmunks are among the most charismatic rodents on Earth.

Arguably it is only squirrels that have better publicity.

They are so tiny and delicate, it’s hard to imagine them being a threat to anything bigger than a sunflower seed, but looks can be deceiving. Are chipmunks actually dangerous?

No, chipmunks aren’t dangerous. A chipmunk that is trapped or grabbed may bite, but aside from that and the possible transmission of infectious diseases, chipmunks are completely harmless to people.

Chipmunks, like most of their rodent brethren, have impressively sharp and capable teeth that can definitely injure you, but barring the risk of infection this bite is not going to inflict any serious harm.

Chipmunks are well-known pest animals in some places, and they can transmit diseases, so you want to know how to deal with them and more importantly how they can try to deal with you if it comes down to it. Keep reading and I’ll tell you a lot more about chipmunks…

Chipmunks are a small species of terrestrial or semi-arboreal rodent.

Instantly recognizable from their small size, rarely measuring longer than half a foot from end to end, they have distinctive longitudinal, light-colored stripes running across their tan or brown fur, and usually have darker, speckled contrast markings along this length.

Chipmunks tend to be active during the daytime, sleeping at night in an underground burrow with multiple exits, a larder for food, and a main sleeping chamber.

Like many rodents, chipmunks tend to be solitary although occasionally you’ll see one or two living together or close by.

Like their close cousins, squirrels, chipmunks have a varied diet consisting of various plant matter but particularly seeds and nuts, and also fruit, grains, small insects, bird eggs and occasionally newborn chicks.

They have sharp, stout incisors that they use to gnaw through obstacles and also process their food, and they’ve been known to climb trees readily in search of nuts or eggs.

This tendency to gnaw and climb has also made them a perennial pest around human habitation, where they demolish seedlings, songbird eggs and occasionally infiltrate homes to make their dens in out-of-the-way places.

A surefire indicator that a chipmunk has set up residence in the area is when you see it with large, puffy cheeks.

Those chubby cheeks aren’t fat, and they are actually oversized pouches that chipmunks use to store and haul food from the environment back to their burrow.

Chipmunks subsist on their stored food during the winter time, and if you see a chipmunk making multiple trips back and forth you can be sure that a burrow is nearby.

Chipmunks tend to be surprisingly territorial towards others of their own kind, most of the time, and also other rodent species but they are not territorial towards larger animals or human beings.

This is because chipmunks no instinctively that they’re very low on the totem pole and have no real chance of running off or fending off larger animals.

Yes, often. So long as they’re not living too close together and there is not much food pressure, chipmunks will generally get along with one another, and every now and then you’ll see a couple of chipmunks living together.

However, territorial disputes are far from uncommon, and food shortages will lead to chipmunks fighting amongst themselves and even fighting other rodents like squirrels or rats.

No, not directly. A chipmunk’s only concern when a person is around is to get away as quickly as possible.

It is possible for a chipmunk to injure you by biting or, maybe, by scratching but aside from the aggravation they cause in and around homes they are not a threat.

Yes, surprisingly enough. Don’t worry though; chipmunk attacks on people are extremely rare. It is actually very difficult to find documented cases of attacks.

Most are simply a case of people reporting incidents on the internet, and there are a few humorous videos of chipmunks jumping on people or “charging” them after being refused food once they’ve become acclimated to human presence and particularly to people that feed them often.

That being said, chipmunks are rodents and rodents have been known to sometimes attack people under peculiar circumstances, so you should never assume that a chipmunk won’t attack you.

Pretty much the only reason that a chipmunk would it ever attack a person is if you grabbed it, trapped it or cornered it.

Rodents, including chipmunks, invariably prefer to escape and run and hide, rather than fight, but fight they will if they think they have no other option.

Even a chipmunk that you somehow managed to surprise at close range is going to run for the hills.

It might run past you if it thinks that is its best chance of escape, but an unprovoked chipmunk attack on a person is almost unheard of.

Not strong at all. Now, for their size, chipmunks have well-developed jaw muscles and teeth capable of impressive chewing, and their overall athleticism and endurance makes them capable diggers, climbers and foragers.

But chipmunks at the end of the day are teeny, tiny little creatures compared to human beings, not strong at all.

Yes, they can and they will! Like pretty much all rodents chipmunks have large and impressively well-developed incisors that they use for gnawing and eating.

In fact, a chipmunk’s teeth will grow continuously throughout their life, and so they gnaw on things constantly in order to shorten them.

These sharp teeth have a chisel-like profile, perfect for puncturing, and a chipmunk bite is definitely going to hurt and draw blood.

A chipmunk attack is going to look pretty comedic at the end of the day- unless it happens to you.

Assuming you aren’t holding the chipmunk, an event that will lead it to bite any part of you that it can reach, a chipmunk is likely to jump on you and just start biting.

That’s the only recourse they have because their claws are far too tiny to inflict anything but the most superficial damage.

If, for whatever reason, a chipmunk starts charging you, react quickly and try to get away from it. You should be faster than the chipmunk over open ground.

But assuming you only noticed that you are under attack by a chipmunk when the chipmunk is climbing on you, do what you can to swat it away and then get away from it.

Ultimately, if you are forced to defend yourself, chipmunks are so small and delicate that any solid strike should kill it more or less immediately.

Remember: Chipmunks should invariably try to run away from you, so if you notice one acting aggressively it might be because there’s something wrong with it, it is sick or it is defending a burrow with young inside.

No. Chipmunks are omnivores, and that means they eat both plants and meat, but no chipmunk is going to attack you with the intention of eating you.

That said, chipmunks are rodents, and most rodents are opportunistic; if you were to die it isn’t unthinkable that a chipmunk might take a bite or two out of you- protein is protein after all!

Yes, they can. Chipmunks, like most rodents, carry a wide assortment of communicable diseases and parasites that can infect people.

Most seriously, chipmunks are potential vectors of rabies although the chances of chipmunks infecting a person with it are very small. Nonetheless, any obvious strange behavior or aggression from a chipmunk is a warning sign.

Other than that, chipmunks are significant vectors of nasty germs like hantavirus and also the usual assortment of mammalian parasites like fleas and ticks.

Ticks are an especially serious concern because they’re the most likely vector of Lyme disease and other debilitating tick fevers.

Be very careful, and make sure you wash up and disinfect if you’re forced to handle chipmunks for any reason!

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For most folks who live anywhere in the United States, the blue jay is a common sight in your yard.

From the loud, screeching calls to their bully-like behavior at the bird feeder, these corvids are definitely unique and ubiquitous in their typical range.

But these birds are also known to cause quite a commotion, and plenty of people report that blue jays have even attacked them before for seemingly no reason.

Could this be true? And more importantly, are blue jays dangerous?

No. Blue jays are not dangerous, although they’re known to attack people that get too close to their nests, or to food sources that they frequent. A peck from a blue jay will hurt, but will not cause any significant injury.

The worst thing a blue jay can do to you is give you a sharp peck on the head. And make no mistake, they’re a lot more likely to do that than many other bird species!

But aside from that, the only real risk they pose to you is to your mental health thanks to their loud, squealing calls.

Keep reading and I’ll tell you a lot more about blue jays and their sometimes aggressive behavior below…

Blue jays are among the largest, most common and most instantly recognizable songbirds in North America.

They also happen to be among the most intelligent, as befits any bird belonging to the family Corvidae. Blue jays count among their cousins crows and ravens, and like those birds Blue jays are extremely crafty.

But with that intellect also comes a tendency to bully, or if you wanted to be kind, you might say that blue jays are very assertive.

Blue jays are known to remember many different locations of food which they will service day in and day out, and much of the time they will work hard to keep other birds, and even other animals like squirrels, away from their food!

It isn’t out of the question that blue jays will even try to run you away from their food sources!

Aside from being food aggressive blue jays are also known to vigorously defend their nesting areas, whether or not they are nested in a tree.

Blue jays are notorious for dive-bombing people and other animals that get too close to their nest site.

The beak of a blue jay is strong and optimized for breaking into all sorts of tougher foods, so they can give you a pretty mean peck, certainly enough to break your skin.

Blue jays are also known as nest raiders; taking eggs, chicks and even whole parts of a nest away from other birds, and that means they typically don’t get along with most other species.

Although the diet of a blue jay rarely contains more than the occasional egg or chick, it is still sufficient enough to make them significant nest predators of other songbirds.

The aggressiveness and intelligence of the blue jay, combined with its tendency to dominate food sources and run off other birds has led to them being classified as pests by some folks.

Yes! Blue jays are among the most territorial songbirds, and are infamous for defending their preferred food sources, nesting areas, or even their preferred roosting trees from other birds and even much larger animals, people included.

Listen for the shrill, whining warning call of a blue jay that is nearby and you’ll know it is getting irritated and preparing to do something about it.

Sometimes. Blue jays tend to get along with others of their own kind, as is easily evidenced by the crest on their head.

Any blue jay that is calm and comfortable will have its crest lying down, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the feathers on its head and neck.

But blue jays that are alerted or aggravated will have a crest standing up proud, and the greater the agitation the more frazzled the crest will look.

If you ever see two blue jays fighting, it’s probably males getting into it over access to females during the mating season or due to crowding considerations when it comes to nesting.

Otherwise it is common to see blue jays eating or congregating in small groups peaceably.

Blue jays will threaten people, yes, but people have little to fear from blue jays in general.

Many blue jays will readily start to swoop and peck at humans that get too close to their nesting site, or ones that linger too long near their preferred food source.

Blue jays will even strike at people persistently in an effort to drive them off!

However, people really don’t have much to worry about from blue jays because the chances of any kind of significant injury are very low.

Yes, plenty, and all the time. There are mountains of anecdotal stories about blue jays attacking people in their own yards or as they walk down the sidewalk.

Blue jays have a definite and distinct idea of what constitutes “their territory” and they generally won’t put up with people being in it.

Also, every once in a blue moon, pardon the pun, you’ll hear a news story about a particularly aggressive blue jay that turns into a veritable local terror, attacking people and pets indiscriminately. Many times, these birds have to be relocated…

The #1 thing you can do to prompt a blue jay to attack you is to come too close to its nesting site.

Blue jays rarely hesitate to alert and then attack any interloper coming near their nest, be it another bird, a mammal or even a person.

Note that even if their nest is high up in a tree, just coming too close to the tree itself might be enough to trigger an attack, and the chances of an attack go up proportionally with your proximity to the nest.

This can be especially likely if the blue jays been forced to nest closer to the ground.

With a lack of taller trees, blue jays will quickly and easily nest in larger mailboxes, bushes, and any other locations of opportunity. This means you might wind up a whole lot closer to a blue jays nest than anticipated.

Other than nesting site concerns, blue jays will sometimes get very possessive over their chosen feeding location.

Well-stocked bird feeders and any other areas where people scatter seeds or other food will become frequent hangouts for blue jays.

Blue jays are not strong, not compared to humans at any rate!

These birds are intelligent problem-solvers, and ones with particularly stout beaks that are suitable for cracking open nuts, but their strength will count for nothing next to yours.

No, not really. It’s unlikely that a blue jay can open its beak wide enough to properly bite you, and even if they do you aren’t really worried about the bite, per se.

A blue jay’s best form of defense using its beak is to actually peck you, a task they are well suited for since their beak is so strong and sharp.

A blue jay attack will start out with a shrill, screaming alarm call, followed by repeated close dives past you.

If you are lucky, that is all they will do, but after a dive or two, they tend to start pecking at your head while flogging you with their wings and screaming the entire time.

This, naturally, is very stressful and can be painful. A sharp crack from a blue jay’s beak is likely to pierce the skin and give you a small wound, although serious injuries are almost unheard of.

The best thing you can do if attacked by a blue jay is just to get away from it, or rather get away from wherever you suspect its nest actually is.

As soon as you put enough distance between you and the bird’s territory, it should leave you alone.

There’s not much more you can do except to protect your head; getting pecked in the eye will definitely ruin your day and might be medically significant.

However, if for whatever reason the blue jay won’t leave you alone or is terrorizing a child or something you can easily dispatch the bird with one solid blow; they are as tiny, frail and fragile as any other songbird.

No. Blue jays are omnivorous, but they aren’t going to eat people. Aside from the occasional bird egg, chick and every now and then another tiny mammal or other animal, blue jays really aren’t capable of eating any meat taken from larger creatures. We are just too big.

Generally not. Even when handling a blue jay for whatever reason, the only thing you need to worry about are common bird parasites like fleas, ticks, mites, and the like.

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Badgers are virtually synonymous with tenacity, but are they dangerous? Most folks don’t know too much about badgers.

These are interesting animals that are noteworthy for their intricate social and family units that form in the wild, and they’re also important game and fur animals that are harvested for their hair and for their meat.

Chances are you won’t encounter a badger in the wild unless you head out into deep country, because they tend to keep to themselves.

But should you be worried if you run into one? Are badgers dangerous?

No, not really. Badgers as a rule would rather avoid contact with people than fight, but if they are cornered, grabbed or if you are threatening their young they are capable of putting up quite a fight, and badgers do have a powerful bite.

Most North American badgers are not particularly big, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that they won’t fight if they have to.

Badgers will do everything they can to get away from you if you come too close, but if you corner them or threaten their family unit, they may attack with ferocity out of all proportion with their size.

Even so, badgers are not typically considered to be dangerous to people. Keep reading, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know about these interesting animals.

Badgers really are one of the most interesting animals on Earth. Not just because they have been historically important for the products they can provide when trapped or hunted.

It’s because of the surprisingly intricate, nuanced connections that badgers make among their own kind, sometimes even with other species!

Badger species can be found all over the world, predominantly in North America, the United Kingdom, and throughout much of Europe though some can be found all across Asia and much of Africa.

Badgers belong to the Mustelidae family, making them relatives to wolverines, weasels, ferrets and otters, and they look quite similar to these animals though they are notable for having a much larger and stockier body, a shorter neck and large, prominent front claws that are used for digging.

In the wild, badgers exhibit a tendency towards living in family units, with extended families generally getting along peaceably inside a larger shared territory. These larger social units are referred to as clans.

Some badgers, though, individually show a marked tendency towards being loners, though they may or may not temporarily rejoin a family unit for various reasons.

In any case, all badgers, whether solitary or in a family unit, can rapidly excavate large, deep and intricate subterranean burrows called setts where they will live and sometimes store food.

Badgers are remarkably good diggers, among the fastest found in nature, and they use these skills to track down similarly subterranean food in the form of various rodents, reptiles and other underground critters.

Near areas of human habitation, badgers are also marked predators of small livestock, particularly poultry and eggs, and sometimes vulnerable individuals of smaller species like goats and sheep.

But something that is even more remarkable is the fact that badgers, in the wild, can form a sort of pact or you might even say friendship with other species, usually coyotes and wolves.

These interactions have been caught on video multiple times, so if you see a badger following a coyote or wolf, they might be working together!

Whether you find a badger with its family or alone, you can generally depend on them retreating from any contact with a human being unless they feel cornered or feel like their young is threatened.

Badgers will typically protect their territory from certain animals and from other badgers that aren’t part of the clan unit. Individual badgers might also have beef with individuals of other clans, and this can lead to scuffles.

However, it’s rare for a badger to act territorial towards a human or any other large animal in their territory as long as they aren’t getting too close to their burrow.

That might provoke a defensive response to run off the intruder!

Yes, sometimes. Territorial pressures as described above can lead to fights between badgers, and mating season pressures can cause horny males to turn downright belligerent towards other males.

But aside from these instances as long as there is peace between neighboring clans and lone individuals badgers tend to get along.

Badgers generally do not threaten people except when they feel cornered, are restrained directly or if they feel like they must protect their young. In these cases, a badger will usually go on the attack directly.

It is encounters like this that have given rise to the badger’s well-deserved reputation for tenacity and ferocity, however! So stay alert!

Yes, indeed there have been. There are quite a few well-known historical instances of badger attacks on humans.

Generally, though, this is a direct result of human impingement on their immediate territory or due to a botched attempt to trap or kill them. Badgers greatly prefer to run and hide from humans and other larger animals rather than fight if they are able.

Even so, compared to other wild animals and wild mammals in particular badger attacks are rare.

Coming too close to a badger’s burrow, pursuing it when it is trying to get away, coming too close to a badger with young or trying to trap, restrain or handle a badger will definitely provoke an attack.

Badgers are actually quite strong, much stronger than you would think for an animal that usually is no bigger than a medium-sized dog.

Like most animals in their category, badgers have very strong jaws with great flexibility, and also impressive stamina that they use to dig quickly and for a long time.

A badger bite is a serious medical event, and can inflict lasting injuries, so don’t underestimate them.

Yes, absolutely: badgers can and will bite. The bite of a badger is quite severe, and their immense jaw strength and sharp, stout teeth means they can easily inflict significant puncture wounds or even break bones.

Worse yet, badgers have a tendency to bite and lock on as they thrashed to inflict even more damage, so it isn’t out of the question they could very literally bite a chunk out of you.

When badgers attack they go all out. They will charge immediately and try to bite, but they will also swipe with their claws. But it is the bite you have to worry about as discussed above.

A badger that is provoked to violence might chase you for some distance, so be prepared for a lengthy retreat if you don’t want to engage the badger.

The very best thing you can do to respond to a badger attack is simply to get away. If you’re able, run away as quickly as you can.

Badgers are surprisingly quick and nimble, but they have very short limbs so you should be able to outmaneuver them in most types of terrain.

If you cannot outrun the badger or if that just isn’t an option, defend yourself using whatever you have at hand and prioritize using any tool that can keep the badger from reaching you or put it down at a distance. Do everything that you can to avoid being bitten.

However, use great care if you’re going to try to restrain the badger when you come into contact with it…

They are surprisingly wiry, agile animals, and they have a tendency to twist inside their loose-fitting skin to bite from unexpected angles, so don’t assume you are safe just because you have a hold of its neck.

Not really. Unlike a bear or a mountain lion, a badger is not going to attack you with the intention of making dinner out of you. But, badgers are carnivores, or at least carnivorous, and that means they eat meat.

Badgers have also been known to scavenge meat from fresh and relatively intact corpses, so if for whatever reason something were to happen to you and badger territory it is possible that badgers might nibble on your body.

To be perfectly clear, a badger is not going to try to kill and eat you.

Badgers do carry a few diseases of note that you might want to worry about, although badgers are very low on the list of concerns when it comes to animal-to-human transmission.

The most significant disease that badgers are known to carry is bovine tuberculosis, more of a concern for anyone who owns cattle or other livestock.

It is possible for badgers to transmit this disease to cows through the environment, and then cows can transmit the disease to people through milk, although pasteurization typically takes care of it.

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Everyone understands instinctively how precious water is to survival. Going even a single day without a drink of water can leave you crippled or dead when the chips are down.

Precious few people can survive outside in the elements for more than a few days, at most, without it.

And that’s the paradox of the sea when it comes to survival: surrounded by limitless water, and none of it safe to drink!

But there’s got to be something we can do to make use of it: Is it possible that you can drink boiled salt water in an emergency situation?

No, boiled salt water is not safe to drink. Boiling doesn’t eliminate the salt content of salt water, though it can reduce harmful microorganisms as usual.

In fact, boiling your collected salt water is only going to make it even worse for you because it concentrates the salt present in the water.

That means if you boil and drink it in a desperate attempt to quench your thirst, it’s only going to dehydrate you even faster and trash your internal organs.

This is a survival problem that’s as old as time, so keep reading and I’ll tell you more about the issue…

If you drink salt water, whether it is from the ocean or it is fresh water simply contaminated with salt, the only thing you will do is speed up your own demise.

That is because your body simply cannot deal with the immense concentration of salt present in the water.

If you’re already dehydrated, this is a double whammy: you’ll dehydrate even faster because your body will end up releasing moisture that it has stored to flush even more urine from your body in an effort to eliminate the salt.

In no time at all, you’ll be facing hypernatremia, which is a higher-than-normal concentration of salt in the bloodstream.

This is a life-threatening condition, particularly in a survival situation…

A person that is suffering from hypernatremia will have an elevated heartbeat or irregular heart rhythm, intense nausea and vomiting, loss of equilibrium, and eventually, seizures as their organs start to shut down.

Death usually results from either cardiac arrest or swelling of the brain.

It’s easy to see how a person that is stuck with only salt water to drink could eventually go mad from desperation, drinking the salt water in an effort to quench their thirst and only accelerating their bad end.

Indeed, this has happened many, many times throughout history…

Not long, not very long at all, and in fact, drinking salt water is only going to accelerate your end versus going without water at all.

Dehydration is only ever made even worse by consuming salt water, and there is no injury, no ailment, no sickness that cannot be made even worse by consuming salt water.

When a person starts to drink salt water, the end is not far off…

No. Or rather, you cannot drink salt water after boiling it. Boiling salt water will help to kill other biological contaminants in it, however, and that does make salt water more suitable for various chores and other tasks, such as the washing of clothing or dishes and other equipment.

Even so, it is still just as dangerous to you after it has been boiled, or even more so!

No. Boiling salt water doesn’t do anything to remove salt from it. In fact, it just does the opposite.

When you boil salt water, the water turns to steam and leaves the rest of the water and the salt it contains behind. The salt does not evaporate!

So, considering you have the same amount of salt but less water, what you are left with is a smaller quantity of water that is even saltier than it was before you started boiling it!

Because of this, drinking boiled salt water is going to be even worse for you!

Boiling salt water will still kill microorganisms like viruses, bacteria, parasites, and more that might be hiding in it.

This is definitely a useful step toward purifying the water for whatever purpose, but it’s nowhere near enough to make it safe for you to consume.

And, as detailed above, the other thing that boiling salt water will remove from it is the water itself! It will turn to steam, float away on the air and then condense elsewhere, leaving you with less water.

Yes, strictly speaking, as I said above, boiling salt water does purify it but only in terms of eliminating germs, not rendering it safe for human consumption.

Even germ-free salt water is still way too dangerous for you to drink, and doing so will result in hypernatremia and your eventual end.

No. Sterilization tabs, iodide, and other chemicals that preppers typically use to purify water in the same way do nothing to eliminate the salt content which can bee lethal.

Although, once more, they might prove to be a useful step in rendering salt water completely safe via a multi-step process, they do nothing to overcome its inherent unsuitability as potable water.

Something else to keep in mind is that the presence of salt might interfere with the normal function of the chemicals.

If at all possible, you should remove the salt from the water through desalinization or some other procedure before moving on to chemical sterilization if it is still required.

Yes. You can make salt water drinkable, but this is usually very difficult and time-consuming without specialized technology.

That said, where there is a will there is a way, and if you have the will and a little bit of know how you can try distillation, using field expedient methods or a specialized appliance, or desalination, which relies upon an appliance.

As mentioned above, by using distillation or desalination.

Distillation you might already be familiar with: it is a process by which water is evaporated into steam, but the steam is captured and allowed to recondense in a separate container.

Through this process it leaves all other contaminants, including salt, behind.

In the field, this can be done with something as simple as a transparent piece of plastic, a shallow hole in the ground and some kind of a container that will catch the condensate from the plastic.

Desalination is much more involved, and is a process that is most commonly used above ocean-going ships and boats and sometimes at a much larger scale to supply fresh, drinkable water to coastal and other nearby settlements.

Although there are models available that are basically the size of a countertop appliance, this isn’t something that you’ll be able to carry with you as part of your survival kit, to say nothing of providing power to it.

If you’re concerned about making use of salt water in a survival scenario, you are strongly advised to learn as much as you can about different methods for distilling it.

This takes a long time, but it can provide you with a steady supply of safe, drinkable fresh water from salt water.

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