That was a nice tiger. I only saw one in the wild--it was on the border between Thailand and Burma. Our group was midway up along a long ridge line and watching a rather narrow valley running across both sides of the border when the tiger came out of the far wood-line about 6-700 meters away. It was kinda sickly looking--bare patches of fur, thin, kinda drunken gait. Moved along the valley for about 100 meters or so and then went back into the jungle on the far side. Kind of a let-down to see a tiger and then get to see a sickly one...but it kept us alert 'cause we knew at least one was out there somewhere...and he was sick, tired and hungry. Never saw him again, though.
Most of our encounters were with 'no-shoulder' types--kraits, vipers, pythons and cobras. Wasn't afraid of them but didn't like any of them...although cobras do make pretty good eating if roasted--raw or boiled, not so good.
Kraits were night problems, vipers just about any time, cobras always seemed to be in pairs, and pythons could be around anywhere...especially if there was any water around.
SGM Buddha Grant ran over a huge Burmese Python when driving the road (a misnomer if there ever was one) from Ban Pak Chong to Nong Takoo. The snake was mortally injured but still alive, so he threw it in the vehicle and brought it with him to our camp. We were in the club watching a movie when the door opened and Grant walked in holding the nearly dead 20+' snake. Cal was sitting next to the door running the projector and Buddha draped the snake over his shoulders. There was a scream like I've never heard before or since, the projector was sent flying, and Cal hit the back door in a dead run for his hooch. Buddha thought it was hilarious until we saw Cal heading back to the club wearing his harness and carrying his s..t. Buddha thought he was going to shoot the snake until it became obvious to us that he was after the SGM. We gang tackled Cal and kept him under close watch at the camp for a week, and Buddha left mo-ricky and never came back to our camp. Cal never forgave Buddha for draping that python over his shoulders and we were leery of joking around with anyone after that when it came to snakes. Gibbons, otters, dogs, honey bears and the like remained fair game, however.
One of my favorite animal stories is from a good friend who was the 1-0 of RT Maryland. His team found a small NVA unit using an elephant for transporting heavy supplies. One of the Yards was spotted and the shooting began--wounding the elephant. It turned out to be a very short fight as the wounded elephant went berserk and started stomping around, going after the only people he could see that might have caused the hurt he was feeling...the NVA troops. The NVA were so involved in avoiding the mad elephant that they weren't able to fight and Maryland was able to withdraw unnoticed. I always thought that would make a great movie scene!
Richard's $.02
