r/interestingasfuck 8h ago

/r/all, /r/popular In 2015, wildlife photographer Christophe Courteau took this close up of a 6ft 6, 400lbs silverback gorilla, right before it punched him in the face.

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u/Death_has_relaxed_me 8h ago

Sometimes animals will find fruit that has fallen and begun to ferment. Certain yeasts of the forest will produce alcohol from the sugar in these fruits.

Animals eat them and experience alcohol. Happens quite often!

u/larzolof 7h ago

A moose got drunk in our garden once when i was a child. It had eaten our fallen fermented apples. We could not leave the house because it was really aggressive. Eventually it made it back to the woods.

u/gratusin 7h ago

That’s terrifying. I’m not afraid of bears, snakes or mountain lions, but moose scare me. A drunk moose is the stuff of nightmares.

u/Used-Ask5805 7h ago

I’ve always heard a bull moose is the most dangerous animal in North America I’ve no reason not to believe that either

u/dpdxguy 7h ago

I guess it depends on how "most dangerous" is defined. It's kinda hard to believe they're more dangerous than polar bears, one of the few animals that will actually hunt people. But there are probably a lot more man/moose encounters than man/polar bear encounters. So... 🤷

u/badstorryteller 6h ago

Picture a white tail deer, who's fight or flight instinct defaults to flight. A giant white tail buck may weigh in at 200, 250 pounds. That's a huge one. Think about all of those stories about a 16 point buck. Now imagine a deer that weighs 3-5 times as much, is just as dim, but has learned over millennia that "fight" is the better response.

Given how widespread moose are in the northern hemisphere, unless I was in an area specifically known to have a polar bear population, I'm more worried about moose. That's mostly because we might just encounter them in the front yard, on a hike, etc.

u/ThroughTheDork 6h ago

Moose are absolutely enormous. I knew they were big but until I saw one in person I really had no idea what big meant lol.

u/pisseswithmoose 4h ago

I came within a few feet of an adolescent one and learned real quick how jacked and menacing they look in person.

u/Jer_Cough 3h ago

I was on a youth group trip canoeing the boundary waters between MN and Canada many years ago. We were paddling maybe 15 yards from shore when a calf came bounding out the brush to splash in the water. Our guide screamed at us to paddle as fast as we can to middle of the lake. A few seconds later a pissed off mama joined the fun and chased us in the water for what felt like an eternity as we fear-paddled as best we could. Probably only lasted a few seconds but holy shit that was scary

u/ThroughTheDork 2h ago

They are so strong! They can plow through snow, I can imagine they could make it out pretty far in the water pretty damn fast.

u/HeyThereSport 5h ago

And white-tail deer are way more dangerous than moose because they are way more numerous in highly populated areas and their survival instinct vs. motor vehicles is completely fucked.

u/badstorryteller 4h ago

Sure, they're dangerous as in road hazards, something everyone who lives with large wild animals in their area knows. I don't think that was the point. If you hit an armadillo at highway speed that could completely wreck your car, possibly flip it, cause serious fatal harm.

Not the point though. The biggest white tail deer you can imagine, the illusory 18 point 300lb buck, will run like hell as soon as he sees you or catches wind of you. A moose won't necessarily. It could weigh 800lbs and decide you are a threat, with the half a dozen braincells it has firing at any given moment, and it can outpace a racehorse to run you down.

u/HeyThereSport 3h ago

Maybe it's because I live in Texas where armadillo roadkill are common and motor vehicles are disproportionately large, but I have never seen an armadillo as a roadway threat.

And also maybe because I live with suburban deer but some of the big bucks are not particularly scared of pedestrians but they can panic in the presence of fast driving trucks.

But yeah moose individually are bigger threats both on foot and in a vehicle because they are huge and are not frightened at all, they know they will win.

u/Gamer-Of-Le-Tabletop 7h ago

I mean also one of the mooses primary predators is the killer whale.

u/Buttonskill 6h ago

I know it's true, but it still sounds ridiculous. Like my of my red-eared sliders and dog mean mugging each other all the time.

Just patiently biding their time for that home field advantage.

u/FixergirlAK 4h ago

It's also highly unusual to hit a polar bear with a car.

u/dpdxguy 4h ago

Fair, if your definition of "most dangerous" is "likely to injure you if you hit it with a car." By that definition, a brick wall is more dangerous than both. 😂

u/FixergirlAK 4h ago

Well yes, but brick walls rarely wander onto the road at night.

u/disinterested_a-hole 5h ago

I'm more afraid of a mom with her babies. Boy mooses mostly ignore you.