A lot of people, myself included, have mentioned bears a lot on this post, but
not much has been said about the cats.
Andy makes a good point (pun intended...<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ) when he talks about making a
spear using his bushman.
Any way that you could attack or respond to an attack while staying outside of
the range of the "weapons" that the animal/human has, is a big PLUS.

I live about 20 minutes outside of town (population about 90,000), and we
regularly see evidence of bear, and have on one occasion seen a bobcat right in
our yard.

There have been 2 or 3 cat attacks this year in our area, and in all cases, the
people attacked didn't even know they were being stalked. In all the attacks,
the cat struck from behind and outside of the person's peripheral vision range.
I'm not sure that a spear would be of much advantage in the initial attack.
Provided that the person was able to survive the initial attack, I think it
would depend on if the cat was on them, or if it had backed off.

I wonder if bear spray would be of any benefit in a close quarter attack.

I could definitely see a longer stick being of benefit against a snake or such.

And on that cheery note....
Cheers <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />