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Animals have both positive and negative effects on human mood. Let's start with the negative effects. Many people have deep-seated, almost irrational fears of certain types of animals, especially snakes and spiders. This may have an evolutionary connection to days when we lived much closer to nature and where medical care was not available to treat poisonous bites. Whatever the case, there are many people who suffer from animal phobias which cause the person's heart rate to rise, mouth to go dry, adrenalin to be released and a fright response to kick in, such as running away, or jumping up in the air. Even people who do not suffer such phobias can react this way when the encounter is sudden and unexpected.

I have known people who could not even look at pictures of snakes or spiders without reacting with a severe negative mood change. I have known other people who are not normally afraid of snakes, for instance, but who have 'walked on water' when confronted suddenly with a poisonous species. I carried out a scientific study of spiders once and tried my hardest to overcome fear responses to these mostly harmless animals. But there was one big, hairy spider with large eyes and jaws that came leaping out at me whenever I uncovered its burrow and my response was always the same: scream and jump backwards, with heart racing and adrenalin pumping. It was a mood change I simply could not control under those circumstances and it was very unpleasant, leaving me shaking and upset.

I think most of us have that natural fear of large predatory animals as well. My mother grew up in Oregon lumber camps and when she was six or seven, she was stalked by a mountain lion on her way home from school one day. It frightened the life out of her at the time and deservedly so. She also remembers her mother feeding the wild deer and one day having a rutting male attack them both and chase them into the house. The mood went from the joy of contact with nature to one of great fear, very quickly.

One of the effects of living in cities and only seeing wild animals in zoos, is that many people have lost this natural fear. It is great to go to the zoo and enjoy the bears. The effect on one's mood is generally good in this situation. But city people who then journey to places where wild bears still live, often are so eager to be close to wild animals that they put themselves and their children at risk. I suspect most Yellowstone and Yosemite Park Rangers have horror stories to tell. I once

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