| haxxiy said: How do you miss something this large for so long? |
The news over here (not in English) reported that it lives high up in trees, and really, really doesn't want to come down, if I recall correctly, so it's just really hard to run into it. I guess it doesn't help it lives in remote locations.
| curl-6 said: We actually have no large land predators bigger than a dingo, so you can camp without having to worry about being eaten. As an Aussie, stuff like bears in America/Asia/Europe seems way scarier than just big bugs haha |
Wow. I'm sure North Americans would, at least somewhat, disagree, but as a Finn, bears aren't actually that scary. At least the ones in Finland generally tend to avoid humans, so the biggest risk is running into one without it noticing, or getting between one and its cub somehow. A common advise is making enough noise well in advance so bears know you're close, so they know to get away. No, I don't think we generally make noise all the time while in nature. Sometimes people do get hurt though, but it's rare.
If you ask me, the scariest animals in Finland are the moose (because crashing into one with a car can be fatal, and it's not terribly uncommon) and ticks (because of the diseases they carry). Our predators just aren't all that dangerous. I don't think the predator situation differs much elsewhere in Europe either, but I'm also not that familiar with it, so I could be wrong. Much of the rest of the world probably contains actually dangerous predators though, so I guess we're pretty lucky in this regard in Europe (or have killed them off a long time ago perhaps?).
