Comments on: 12 Steps To Healing Our Relationship With Wild Animals

By: Manu Stanley

Manu Stanley — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:24:47 +0000

Nice thoughts. I too am quite an animal lover, and has quite a long term relations not just with the long range of domestic pets we had but also the variety of animals one don’t usually get to meet in everyday life. My understanding of wild animals is that they attack if (1) they are hungry [as in need of food] or (2) they feel a sense of danger when they face us.My encounters with snakes and elephants have been quite positive, and there is somehow a connect where I think they seem to understand what I wanted to say. My view is that an eye contact for a single second will tell you if the animal is approaching you in a friendly mood or not. By nature we are scared by the size of the animal (as in elephants) or the idea of common notion in a negative sense (a tiger walking towards me!). A quick look into the animal’s eyes usually reveals what it wants from me. Well my experience has been good so far. I’d like to hear from others as well.

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By: Carolyn Hopper

Carolyn Hopper — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:30:01 +0000

Great article!
I’ve had a couple of encounters with animals that I value. One was with a hummingbird – while I was on a Vision Quest in Colorado, a broad-tailed hummingbird flew around my head several times a day – flew up to my face – and flew in and out of my tent. A truly astonishing gift!

I’ve also had a wonder filled eye to eye connection with a black bear and coyote.

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By: Carla Young

Carla Young — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:44:44 +0000

As a huge animal lover, my favorite part about traveling is meeting animals in their natural habitat. I’ve always followed the steps that you described (although you describe in much more succinctly than I could have) and have never had a negative encounter with any animal.

My favorite encounters are wild ponies..both on asseteague island in Maryland and in the New Forest.

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By: Marc Latham

Marc Latham — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:36:10 +0000

Great article and I agree with your feelings. Some of my best experiences on the road were when meeting wild animals, including a monkey that just came out of the jungle at Copan in Honduras and shook my hand, a wolf hybrid that treated me like a long-lost friend and an iguana that ok, just wanted food (see photos on http://www.greenygrey.co.uk).

As the North Rockies wolves face a massacre in Idaho and Montana (see video below (hopefully) and http://www.defendersofwildlife.org) I think back to that hybrid wolf, and feel ashamed that my species is about to kill hundreds of its species for fun and ego.

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By: Ekaterina

Ekaterina — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:44:49 +0000

wow, what a nice article!

Thank you for sharing this! It seems that you are on a shamanic path without mentioning it though. The deer means gentlensess and teaches us to be humble and graceful with gifts of nature, – which you are doing!
I am also exploring the world through the animals:)
http://robbiewilliamsandme.blogspot.com

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By: Candice

Candice — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:19:51 +0000

Love the encounter with the elephant, I’d love to hear about the others.

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By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:07:41 +0000

Fascinating article. I love the elephant kiss photo!

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