>>35833433A man. It's such an absurd question, the man could be friendly or hostile but I'll probably at least be able to get warning signs and if I see him first I can easily hide and just try to evaluate if idfk i'd somehow be likely to get shot first. And he's PROBABLY alright, especially just out randomly in the woods, everyone I've ever just randomly met hiking like that tends to either be cool or seem a bit like a skinwalker but keep their distance so both parties are happy.
Meanwhile I've encountered bears twice, and they never hurt me, but it was sure fucking scarier than even an encounter I've had where some people tried to rob me and I had to pull out my pistol.
Why?
Because I'm not staring at a random retard who isn't guaranteed to be very bright, tends to telegraph exactly what he's thinking/planning if you're attentive, and would probably give up if threatened or severely hurt -- I'm staring at a 1200 pound MONSTER that could totally maul or kill me before it dies of a collapsed hung if i miss the heart, just because i looked at it the wrong way or something or it was just cranky.
Seriously just look at bears in person they're HUGE, you just viscerally know that this thing can totally just toss you around like a doll, where a man would probably have to be really muscular to do that even just to me and i weigh like 120 lbs.
Also, c'mon, if the human male is some torturer psycho he probably isn't going to kill me on sight so I'm pretty much on even terms if we're armed. And idk I highly doubt some random man is just going to try to rape me in the woods, I think most women are too obsessed about that sort of story (then again maybe i'm just too ugly, but that's still bonus points for the man over the bear :D) just because it's a more realistic concern in boring romantic-life encounters.