When you have an angry elk running towards you through the river, hungry coyotes behind you and condors circling above, life can get worrying!
Thankfully, most of the amazing creatures of North America tend to mind their own business, as long as you do likewise.
A new TV series focuses on this incredibly- rich part of the animal kingdom and from Arizona to Wyoming, Death Valley to Crystal River, it’s nature’s biggest natural zoo.
A TV crew travelled this vast continent for over three years, enduring the chill of the Yukon Territory, scything through the Belize forests and sweating it out on the barren deserts of the American Southwest.
What they encountered along the way was so inspiring, they didn’t really notice the cold or the heat.
Grizzly bears taking a skinnydip, massive bison going head-to-head in ferocious battles over girlfriends, otter, beavers, stunning birds they saw it all.
North America, in fact, has one of the most diverse environments on Earth, and when they managed to film desert jaguars in Mexico and bears diving 50 feet to catch salmon, it was the first time such events had been recorded so vividly.
Leaving some cameras to shoot for many days, the “timelapse” results were sensational, as skies and terrain change to be completely unrecognisable.
Mountain goats in the wilderness of Canada, a giant whale and her calf seeing off countless predators as they edge their way along the Pacific, one thing stood out in the animal kingdom, it really is Survival Of The Fittest.
The lucky crew also got to follow the incredibly hard, intense journey of sea turtles, on the beaches of Costa Rica, who have to dodge ravenous jaguars and other predators while attempting to safely lay their eggs.
Next time somebody says life’s a bit tough, remind them of what our animals endure!
There is also, of course, plenty of fun in these parts watching the otters stick their heads above water, just to irritate an inquisitive coyote, will have you laughing.
You’ll also feel you’re being laughed at, as the mustang horses whinny and chortle as though they reckon it’s the humans with cameras, not the animals around them, who are hilarious.
The prairie dogs are a sight to see they’re cute little squirrels, who got the name from their distinctive call, which sounds spookily like a dog’s bark.
It can be quite a relief, to hear that bark, but be met with little critters more scared of you than you are of them!
Most of us will never have the money to head off to these wonderful parts.
But these creatures are always a welcome sight, and help make our planet the wonderful place it is.
North America is on the Discovery Channel, Thursday evening at 9pm.
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