In a survey which would have done that most excellent lover of all things gnosiological The Croydonian proud (now renamed The Chiwickite), we learn that the University of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, SLU) has done a study of what people are afraid of in the woods.


At the same time as numbers of wild animals in Sweden have been increasing in recent decades, fewer Swedes are venturing out into the wild, thereby increasing their fear of the unknown. The numbers of wild animals, which are protected in Sweden by strict hunting quotas, has risen steadily in recent decades to an estimated 3,000 bears, 150,000 wlld boar and 300,000 elk.

When surveys began in the 1980s most Swedes feared encountering an elk but the latest report reveals that almost a half of Swedes are most afraid of bears while a third worry about stumbling across a wild boar. About a quarter think snakes and wolves pose the greatest threat to ramblers.


They are all wrong. The greatest danger to people in the countryside is of course Dick Cheney, followed by any other slightly older bloke with dodgy eyesight and an itchy trigger finger.


Happy hunting, folks!