Re: Swans

Quoted message said:

Sniper8052(L96A1) said:

itrigued as to why you think they should understand your ringing of a
bell, they are not human you know.

Many animals back off from loud noises. I'm told that if you stand up
to a lion and yell at it, it will back down. Though I'm not going to
try that experiment.

About the arm-breaking urban legend, I found this:

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=001436;p=1

While you should never run from a predator animal (it places you firmly
in the 'prey' category), it is not clear how effective yelling, and
waving your arms about is if the lion/mountain lion/bear/velociraptor
is hungry or seriously annoyed. Opening your overcoat to make yourself
seem larger (what - cyclist with no overcoat?) and *avoiding* looking
the
animal in the eye is also often recommended, as this can be interpreted
as aggression.

It is worth adding that some animals appear to be very irritated by
some of the sounds (possibly high frequency) that a cycle makes. I
recommend fixed-wheel, or fit the rare Shimano silent clutch freehub,
and hope that you've got your pads toed-in absolutely right. The
advantage of a fixie is that with practice you can perform the
recommended retreat by pedalling backwards away from your swan/lion
while swirling your arms over your head.

Apologies to all u.r.c. for earlier multiple posting - Google Groups
server tends to promote that mistake.

O.

No one's interested in which frames and groupsets I have, and I accept
that.

grannyhalfstep said:

While you should never run from a predator animal (it places you firmly
in the 'prey' category), it is not clear how effective yelling, and
waving your arms about is if the lion/mountain lion/bear/velociraptor
is hungry or seriously annoyed. Opening your overcoat to make yourself
seem larger (what - cyclist with no overcoat?) and *avoiding* looking
the
animal in the eye is also often recommended, as this can be interpreted
as aggression.

I certainly wasn't mentioning shouting as a piece of serious advice,
merely hearsay. A quick look online shows that most "lion" advice is
for mountain lions. This page suggests noise. But that there is a page
saying this on the net does not prove that it's the best strategy.

http://www.lwwf.org/Recreating%20in%20wild%20areas.htm

I quote

"#

you see a lion, leave the area, but DO NOT RUN. If you run, the lion
could view you as prey and may pursue you.
#

If the lion attacks, stand your ground. Try to make yourself look as
big and threatening as possible by shouting, waving your arms, waving
sticks in the air, throwing sticks and rocks in the lion's direction,
etc. "

Quoted message said:

It is worth adding that some animals appear to be very irritated by
some of the sounds (possibly high frequency) that a cycle makes. I
recommend fixed-wheel, or fit the rare Shimano silent clutch freehub,
and hope that you've got your pads toed-in absolutely right. The
advantage of a fixie is that with practice you can perform the
recommended retreat by pedalling backwards away from your swan/lion
while swirling your arms over your head.

The swans are pretty blase if I just cycle past. It was only when I
rang my bell that they threatened and hissed. When cycling past
normally they don't move, which gave me a bit of a scare the first time
as I assumed that they would move slowly away as they do when I'm
walking. They only ever hissed if I took more notice of them, such as
stopping and ringing the bell. The latter to see what would happen.