Unless you have had time alone with wild animals away from civilization it is unlikely that you would experience what I'm going to talk about here first hand. Because where you will see this the most is in the wilds where people don't go that much.
I think a lot of what I learned about what human was I learned from being around animals too in the wilds but also with animals like dogs and cats and birds as pets. But then, there is another level of this that comes from being alone in the wilds with them with no other humans around at all. A lot of city type of people and especially people addicted to media (cellphones, smartphones, Ipads, laptop computers etc.) might have a lot of difficulty doing this.
But what actually happens over time is that your senses change and you start to become more a part of the wild world and less apart of the so called (civilized world of human beings) (at least in your perceptions).
Interestingly enough, I experienced this through my job as a fire lookout in California when I worked for CDF then about 6 months a year usually from about April to November depending upon the wetness and dryness of the year.
During this time in the mid 1980s I was alone by myself about 10 miles from the nearest human being on top of a 4000 foot mountain that overlooked the Sacramento Valley and in the spring I could see all the way across the valley on a clear day and see the line of snow all along the Sierras until it began to melt in may and june and July.
So, I was alone here 3 to 4 24 hour days at a time sending in weather reports which included wind, temperature dryness etc. as well as reporting any fires I saw in direction and distance from my lookout tower. So, I was on duty 12 hours and off duty 12 hours each day. So, I saw many animals and birds also during this time that almost no one sees like I did because of my remoteness from any people at all.
I noticed as the springs and summer wore on that I could experience the different types of consciousness of animals. Deer are sort of saying, "You can't see me I'm not here." This is what they project to the subconscious of predator animals. Whereas predator animals like hawks, raccoons, Wild Boar and other predators try to hypnotize their prey into submission like all predators do with, "Just stay still and it will all be over soon. Just let me eat you."
So, projecting this kind of consciousness works for herbivores "You can't see me because I'm not here." and then predators, "Just stay still it will all be over soon. Let me eat you." So, these two psychic projections are the two you see in the wilds all the time. So, then when I would go back into society I would realize that people are just like this too. There are the people who sort of say, "You can't see me I'm not here" and there are the people who are, "Just stay still it will all be over soon." But also because we are omnivores (vegetables, fruits and meats) many people say both or one or the other in their demeanor or whatever suits them in the moment.
So, by going back to where animals are coming from in the wilds one then better understands where people are coming from too even though people are often very complicated and often have no idea at all what they are thinking or feeling. But animals aren't troubled by this kind of thing at all in the wilds because any confusion is soon met with death and someone else eating them.
There really were only two animals that I had to be really careful of while I was there: Mountain Lions and Wild Boar. I might have had a near experience with a Mountain Lion while I was sleeping on my cot next to the window of my lookout. Though I was about 40 feet high in the air in my lookout tower it likely was possible for mountain lions or raccoons to find a way up there through the fire escape built on the side of the tower. My 4 wheel drive was parked in the garage at the bottom of the tower and there were stairs leading up inside the hollow tower from the garage up into the lookout and then it had sort of a 360 degree veranda outside of the tower room of the lookout. And inside was a directional in the center of the room to report direction and distance of fires from the tower. But it also had a refrigerator, sink, faucets and stove top for cooking and an electric pump to pump up water to the sink. But if you had to use the john you had to walk down three stories to the outhouse outside.
One night I was asleep and it was sometime between midnight and 4 am because I had to be on duty from 7 am to 7pm every day while I was there. I woke up screaming at some primal level and rolled out of bed across the floor. My animal senses went off and I never had heard myself make a sound like that ever. The only thing that makes much sense to me is that a Mountain lion came right up next to the window a foot or two from my head for me to have such an animal reaction such as that.
Another time it was very dry and I had just closed one of the gates to the cattle ranches as I slowly went through the multiple gates one by one. I usually drove my then 1974 International Harvester Scout II which was the most formidable 4 wheel drive I have ever owned in regard to driving ANYWHERE you might need to anytime. But, that day I drove my little VW Rabbit because it was fast an inexpensive to drive and because the roads were not slick and dangerous from rain at that time during the summer. As soon as I started up (it was getting pretty dark by then at night) something hit my VW Rabbit and pushed it into a ditch. Fire lookouts in CDF were Not allowed to have a weapon to kill whatever it was and thereby protect my own life I just kept driving even though I knew it might scratch my car a little because I wanted to survive whatever was going on. So, I bounced my Rabbit out of the ditch (It was a 1976 Gasoline powered VW Rabbit) and just kept going. I really didn't want to meet something (whatever it was that was angry enough to be able to push my Rabbit off the dirt road and into a ditch.
4 days later I came off duty and found out what it was. It was the largest female mama boar I have ever seen which seemed almost as large as my car and probably weighed about the same as my car without me in it. She had torn her lower jaw off when she bit and hit my car with the full weight of her body. But then she had died nearby with her lower jaw ripped lose and her babies stood nearby waiting for her to get up so she had died while I was on duty at the lookout. But what was amazing was her babies were already about 200 to 300 pounds so you can imagine just how big the mama was.
In the remote wilds on or near california ranches in the foothills only the biggest boars survive and when they mate they make bigger and bigger boars. If you meet one of these on foot without a good gun or other effective weapon it is time to climb a tree if you want to live and keep your legs and arms attached to your body. So, if you are in California I would say the single most dangerous animal in the wilds in most places is not the Mountain Lion it would be the wild boars which are plentiful and often run in herds throughout the foothills in California.
But, if you encounter a mountain lion be sure that you see it before it sees you. Look for them sitting on limbs of oak trees above your head or in bushes. But usually you will never see them until it is too late. For example, I have heard one scream nearby me but even though I'm 64 I have never seen a Mountain lion in the wilds but I have seen many many bears in California. But, we don't have Grizzly bears here since the 1800s just the small black bears like we have in Yosemite. But don't underestimate California bears because they will tear a car door off or rip a truck camper in half in a few seconds. I have heard the screams of people in Yosemite and seen the unhappy aftermath after they rip the doors off of cars or tear Truck campers in half to steal food. But usually, they just want food and don't usually attack people unless the people are really annoying the bears.
One of the interesting things one deals with as a fire lookout is lightning storms. A fire lookout has to be on duty especially during lightning storms because the lightning strikes often start fires. So, if a lightning storm was happening it was important to be awake day or night while reporting lightning strikes (their direction and distance) by 2 way radio or phone or both as long as the strikes continued. But during one incredible storm I heard something difficult over my 2 way radio. They couldn't raise the lady Fire Lookout at Chalone peak and finally sent a fire truck up to investigate if she was all right. They found her unconscious from her fire lookout being struck with lightning. My lookout often was struck with lightning with me in it as well but we were supposed to sit on a special 4 by 4 foot square device that had glass insulators on the bottom like you might see on high voltage power line towers which I always did as the tower was often struck with lightning. It would really light up the tower when this happened because towers were always at the highest points of the nearby Mountains and where I was it meant between 4000 and 5000 feet in elevation. So, lightning strikes would really liven up the day or night if you were on duty. Though the lady fire lookout didn't die I don't think she came back on duty or worked as a fire lookout after that experience.
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