I had a cat run into my rear wheel once, it was just sitting in the middle of the road, as I went to pass him on the right, he decided to run to the right. I think it bothered him a lot more than it did me. It didn't harm either of us.

Never swerve for squirrels. They can change their mind 3 times in your reaction time. Just ride straight, maintain your course and let them decide whether to commit suicide or not.

Have encountered racoons, cats, geese, ducks and squirrels on my daytime commute - the squirrels are the only unpredictable ones. Riding after dark is a different story and those little black cats with racing stripes are the main reason I opted for wide coverage headlights.

But the 'animals' that are most likely to cause damage from a collision are those two legged ones riding bikes. Day or night, a headon collision with a few hundred pounds of flesh and steel at a speed of 40 to 60km/hr would go badly for both parties. And some squirrels are more predictable.

A buck chasing a doe during rut could be a concern. Not much stops them when at full gallop.

This one changed his mind and jumped into the wheels.

rabbits, squirrels and birds. I make a noise. Either yell or click my shifters. That seems to get them to move away rather than to at that last second. Not always tho.

There were 5 deer on the paths this morning in different places. Three of them were smaller fawns. They all moved away when I can up to them so it wasn't a problem. When deer season starts, there will be more moving into town and they'll be spooked.

The rabits are everywhere and only occasionally decide to race. The very rarely cut across.

What is the necessary airspeed for those deer-alerting whistles you can mount on your car?

Skunks and rabbits are my main worries, the wide angle lens on my magicshine illuminates enough of the sides of the path to give me plenty of notice when they're around. I saw a skunk in someones yard on my way home a few weeks ago, and mentioned it to a pedestrian walking towards the skunk. He thanked me for shining my lights on it so he could see it too.

Agreed. Worse is if they have goslings, then they might actually get aggressive if you end up a little too close for them.

The deer that I've seen may be around the path, but never actually on the MUP themselves.

I almost got taken out 3x by deer, scary as hell, when I see them I slow down or stop.
I really hate the geese, they stand on the bike trails in groups of 30+ and won't move.
Hate the geese poop thats why I run fenders.
When I see geese or dogs I just pedal fast and aim towards them, start screeching and they freak out and always move.
I don't understand squirrels, I think some of them are suicidal and wait until you are near and try to end it all...lol
Glad I wasn't this guy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_A1WoUMcqg

Lots of animals on today's commute. Squirrel, turkey, snake, deer, and a very shy coyote.

https://vimeo.com/72243141

I see deer and rabbits all the time on the towpath, but all of them tend to hear me coming and take off running before I get to them. I've never heard of a cyclist hitting a deer, but I've seen lots of car accidents involving them and seeing the damage they do to the cars I wouldn't want to be involved in a deer-bike accident.

I ran over a possum once, damn thing blended into the tall, overgrown weeds in the middle of the path (playing dead I presume), it just felt like a really big speed bump. Looked back and it was still sitting there, the following day I rode the same path and it wasn't there so I assume it survived.

Besides the possum, I must be a magnet for black cats, they tend to run into me.

I swerved around a large rattle snake once, at 18mph, nearly running over a pedestrian walking on the wrong side of the path.

Ugh. This is not the kind of animal I was talking about when I started this thread. But, this morning, I nearly mowed over someone's pet dog. At 6 am it's fairly dark here. Neither the owner nor the dog had a light on and the dog was not on a leash! I barely missed the owner, who was walking on the right side of the path, then when passing him, I quickly realized his dog was wandering around on the left side of the path. This is making me want to replace my battery light with a dynamo setup.