(The Large Ant) short story, science fiction, man kills large (dog size) "ant" that has a tool belt [s]

[Bryan457]

A short story.
science fiction.
the man wakes, I'm thinking he had been fishing and fallen asleep.
When he wakes up this large (maybe dog size) "ant" is watching him.
He whacks it with something and kills it.
After it is dead, he notices that it is wearing a tool belt with tools.
He takes it into town and shows it to the town doctor.
The doctor shows him several more that people have reflexively killed.
The point of the story seemed to be that we humans have an instinct that leads us to kill things that surprise us or that we don't understand or that we fear, and that this is how we would treat a newly evolved or harmless alien race.

[Bryan457]

bump

[Andria]

The Large Ant by Howard Fast
http://www.trussel.com/hf/editions/ed...

[Andria]

Here's a blog post about the story, with illustrations. Sounds very cool! I want to find a copy of it now.

http://endless-swarm.com/?p=414

[Bryan457]

Thank you Andria. That is indeed the story I was thinking of. I have no idea what anthology I might have read it in, but it obviously made an impression on me as I remember the story so many years later.

[Bryan457]

I think I'll go with The Best Animal Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
I remember at least one other short story from this book, and the cover on Amazon looks very familiar.