Recently had a conversation with a coworker about wildlife and communicable diseases. They were surprised to hear about both the variety and degree of overlap out there and they thought "Wow. It's amazing people don't get sick from animals more often." It kind of is, but also it's not? Just don't handle wildlife unless there's a need to and you know what you're doing, especially if the animal looks sick or injured. I mean, that's not so hard. Also, vaccinate your pets and wash your hands. That's a super easy standard to meet.
...yes and no. If city-mouse you is out visiting country-mouse cousin and y'all decide to check out Bandelier National Monument, you might not know that a squirrel coming up to you isn't habituated to treats, it's sick and out of its mind with bubonic plague. That racoon that comes up to you cooing? Maybe it's because the neighbor feeds it leftover hamburgers after his barbecues. Maybe it's because it's got rabies. Hantavirus killed a couple dozen people in 1993 not because they didn't have the sense to stay away from wildlife, but because they were getting firewood off the woodpile. It took a while for the doctors to keep my sister from being one because in their minds, "didn't go near a woodpile" meant "couldn't possibly be hantavirus." You don't need to pick up the plague rat to get plague. You don't even need to get bitten by one. Kid in my town died in sixth grade because he was trying to find where they lived. If you're willing to pretend that every critter you see on your walk has Ebola you're probably safe. But if you're just living your life you're going to deal with a risk of exposure every time you're around critters in a compromised area.
Attempt to be humorous and pedantic at the same time, learn about a new case of a disease and its spread. Kind of a plus, I'll take it. Thank you. In my defense, I know it's not completely black and white, but I also know there's more risk of getting sick from everyday living and being around people than being out in nature, especially if you're careful.
The periphery of nature is a scary place for critters and people alike. Thing of it is, every time we expand out we create a new frontier. A bear ate my friend's dogs when I was in 8th grade and that house had been there since 1951; my sister spent two weeks in intensive care and she didn't so much as have Vibram-soled shoes.
A little post about a chipmunk has kind of taken a dark turn, huh? Indeed. I have a few friends who live in an area where mountain lion encounters are a common occurrence. Me, I've had three run ins with nature this year, nothing major, the most intense being trapped in my car by a wild turkey who cut me off in the middle of the road just would not let me go anywhere and didn't appreciate the size of the machine it was squaring off against. All three times, I was in the fortunate situation where I was less concerned about my safety and more concerned about hurting the animal. A bear or a buck or something gets near me though? Then I got a different kind of concern. Either way, I carry rocks with me for hazing whenever I go out now. That said, we're starting to look at role reversals where what we once considered more exotic wildlife is starting to come closer to us, like coyotes and gators and deer and such ending up in cities. There's tons of reasons why, but one of the compelling parts of the conversation is that they're kind of running out of places to hide, what with urban sprawl and all, and cities offer plenty of opportunities for easy food and places to hide.every time we expand out we create a new frontier
"Whoa, careful - you should never approach squirrels because the nicer they are the more likely they are to kill you. Plague is a horrible way to die, here let me show you pictures of bubos from my medical textbooks when we get home." - my mother, to me, ages 3-17 (and yes - looking at medical textbook pictures of plague victims at the age of four will forever change your relationship with squirrels) When they ran the river homeless off, the new breed that moved in were less clean. They brought rats. Rats that would freak out when I rode by, and jump and try to scramble up my leg. One of them made it into my shorts. The rats brought coyotes, though, because coyotes are good at eating rats. So pretty soon there weren't many rats but there were plenty of coyotes. And they were the brave coyotes. Within a couple months the coyotes were taking dogs out of back yards in broad daylight. And then we have to argue about whether or not we're going to shoot coyotes in urban Los Angeles. All because we chased off the guys who were good at living in the river and replaced them with guys who were bad. Circle of life.A little post about a chipmunk has kind of taken a dark turn, huh?
That said, we're starting to look at role reversals where what we once considered more exotic wildlife is starting to come closer to us, like coyotes and gators and deer and such ending up in cities.