Your experiences must be very different than mine. Apart from startling a bear, or encountering a mother with cubs, I don't worry that much about wild animals. Attacks do happen, but very rarely. Human beings and their animals (dogs especially) are way more dangerous. Most of the people I've encountered over the years in the woods have been fine, but certainly not all of them. "Friendly" dogs off leash have caused me far more scares than wilder critters and people though.

Apparently different. I thought through all my years of my years camping and backpacking and honestly I do not remember even 1 case where I have encounted an beligerient, aggressive or threatening person in the backcountry. A noisy or boisterous personality perhaps but not one that possed any danger to myself. And very few threatening dogs. I usually am in the backcountry by myself too. My trips have been to my fellow Canadian provinces of BC,AB,SK,MB,ON,NWT and the northern US states of MN,WI,ND,SD,WY,MT,ID,WA

Urban areas and front country campsites - that now thats a different kettle altogether!

I have never felt uncomfortable with humans or animals when hiking/camping save once when, on Cumberland Island, I was walking back from the beach to my camp. A snake lying on the trail, trail on a ridge between 2 swamps full of alligators. trail was about 3 feet above the water level and about a foot wide. I pushed at the snake with a walking pole and he struck at the pole. So I gently prodded until he went into the water.
Two friends told me on another occasion of walking along the same ridge and spotting some baby gators in the water on their right. Then spotting Momma Gator on their left. They departed gratefully posthaste.

my walking stick has become my favorite peice of equipment somehow. Its always with me and on so many excursions. Its a piece of maple about 5 ft long and 1 in dia. I wrapped 1/3 of it with emergency duct tape and taped a small throwing knife to it, in case I needed a spear. Next I wrapped 550 cord around it in various lenghts. Ive adorned it with small bells, saint Michael charms and some other little do dads that you'd hang from a mirror. Finished it with a rubber cane foot cap.

For protection from bears and cougars, Icarry a very slow poodle that can be deployed "thrown at" any wild animal that goes for me

I switched to a shovel handle I got at a local lumber yard after breaking my 3 piece screw together stick.

I drilled a hole near the top for a piece of paracord used as a lanyard and put a rubber cane tip on the bottom.

I have so far only used it to help my old and fat self get up and down the trail. But it is pretty stout and would serve as a good beating stick if needed in that role.

Busted stick

Shovel handle

I ended up gluing on the cane tip as it kept loosening up and made funny noises as it would move up and down against the bottom of the stick making funny noises as I move down the trail.

LesSnyder has picked a good one. I have a custom staff from Crawford, not quite the same as the one shown, that is the most rugged take down staff I have encountered. While I do not think it would withstand repeated blows from my ipe staff, it is very well built and would probably take several hits to a soft target. I did not buy it for that reason, however. Travel to and from the wilderness is NOT the place for a six foot staff. In the high country you sometimes need both hands for climbing or rescue work. Yet I do not like to walk the wild without my third leg. I far prefer the staff to ski poles. Mine breaks down into three 22 inch lengths, plus the "grip" and tip. Fits easily into a day bag, pack or suitcase. The only thing I will change the next time is to try to get him to use slightly larger tube, since I have very large hands. I do not have any of the items he puts inside, but can use the inside of the tube ( o ring sealed) for normal survival stuff.

Respectfully,

Jerry

The Crawford staff is just a tad on the pricey side. Somewhat cheaper was the mop handle I found on the beach of San Miguel Island a few years ago. Although besmirched with blobs of tar, it was a wonderful find because i had tweaked my wrist in a recent tumble from my bicycle and I definitely didn't want to slip on the wet and slippery trails (it was winter). I scraped off the tar, drilled a hole for a cord loop, and that was my "on island" hiking staff for several years. The money saved went for all sorts of high minded endeavors, as you can well imagine.

For a little more money, I really like the collapsible three section poles. Properly tightened, they work quite well and go nicely into or on the pack when the going gets steep. But this is all just details - Any staff is better than no staff, any day...

Hikermore,

I have used pickup staff's many times but since much of my work has been in the High Arctic and above timberline, the availability of anything to use is poor. Thankfully a project budget helped buy the staff (I did pay well under the current price). I also have several non-collapsing staffs. My favorite is one made from Hickory from the Andrew Jackson Plantation. It has a very good feel and was improved with a stainless spike tip. It is just a pain to carry in a Super Cub. Poles don't work well for me because I almost always have something in one hand (Brunton, g pick, sampling tools, etc.) and it is inconvinient to always have to find a place for one of them. I also like the instant ability to change the length of my staff. If they work for you, they are lots easier to use, make you a quadraped, and are easier to store. I wish I could like them better. The good ones are fairly pricey themselves though.

Respectfully,

Jerry

I have used several fiberglass and aluminum poles that will take the full blow, usually from surveying and instrument support companies. I used a particularly sturdy fiberglass staff to hold up the magnatometer head on a system from Geometrics. The blow will not be as strong because of the weight of the staff. Similar to a PR-24 and a Tonfa, the sting is there but the damage is limited.

Respectfully,

Jerry

Sorry, I have nothing much to offer in the way of collapsible walking sticks for defense, except that personally I would never use one.

What I did make once, just as kind of an experiment for ocean kayaking, was a wooden pole with a long spike driven lengthwise into one end and the head of the nail ground off and then sharpened. It extended out the end of the pole about 6 inches. The spike itself was covered by a section of the pole that I had previously cut off to make the pole the length I wanted, and then I had drilled a hole slightly smaller in diameter lengthwise down through that section so that it would friction fit fairly tightly over the spike. This made the pole look pretty much like just a regular wooden pole except for a thin joint between the spike cover and the rest of the pole. If I wanted the spike exposed, all I had to do was slide the wooden section off the spike end.

This pole somehow got lost during a garage remodel, and I'm thinking of making another one. This "spear" wasn't nearly as light as the hard-drawn aluminum tubing with rubber cane tips on both ends that I typically use as a hiking staff, but that was no big deal because it was bungied to the top of my sea kayak. I'd definitely like to have a spiked hiking staff tho so will look into finding a narrower hardwood dowel soon.

BTW, the nail I used for the original spike was a very long galvanized nail used for fastening rain gutters on the eaves of a house. That's the longest "nail" I have ever run across and hopefully can locate a couple more of those.