What's the most unusual animal you've actually seen in the wild?

[wickerwoman]

Not super weird, but I was thrilled to see a wild seal on a beach last week. I didn't know what to do because he looked old and tired and there was only one so I thought maybe he was sick. There was no one around to report it to though and I didn't want to look like an idiot if he wasn't actually in distress. Anyway, it just highlighted how sheltered I've been in terms of seeing wild animals. My second would be grey cranes and my third magpies. Not very unusual at all...

[Heidi]

1. Probably not the most unusual, but certainly beautiful: sandhill crane migration

along the Platte River in Nebraska: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFf-QWPKwhI&feature=related

[wickerwoman]

3. Wow. That's a great video.

Is that whirling sound coming from the wind or is that the sound the birds make?

Really nice timing for their entrance too... just at sunset. :-)

[Heidi]

4. That's the birds' voices.

It's really a majestic thing to witness. :hi:

[elshiva]

2. I've seen seals in the wild when I was on a ferry boat in

Maine. I think they are a lot like the muskrats that I saw back in Maryland

[Guava Jelly]

5. I saw dolphins off the coast of Tybee Island, Georgia

And a herd of mustangs in Missouri.

[hobbit709]

6. Once when I was at Big Bend in the late 70's

There had been a rain shower right about dawn. As we were hiking down a trail in this canyon, there were literally hundreds of large tarantulas on the walls of the canyon. Later on in the day we spotted 4 of these babies along the river.

The ones we saw had more of a greenish hue than this picture.

[wickerwoman]

9. Whoa! Where's Big Bend?

So I can avoid it like the plague! Tarantulas! Are you kidding?

[jeff30997]

12. OMG!

No Big Bend for me either! :scared:

[hobbit709]

15. Big hairy HARMLESS spiders.

Big Bend is here and it's a beautiful place.
http://www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvisit/directions.htm

[Kali]

45. I get these in my yard.

too often! there was a small one in the driveway a couple of nights ago

[XemaSab]

7. I've seen a LOT of wild animals

and probably the oddest was a mountain goat standing in the middle of a highway in British Columbia. We drove right up to it, stopped, gawked, and drove away.

Let's see: my one and only mountain lion sighting was EPIC and my long-tailed weasel sighting was bizarre.

I've seen most of the north American birds, so "unusual" there means something a little different. Probably the rarest birds I've seen were Greater Sandplover, Ross' Gull, Red-legged Kittiwakes, and Common Greenshank. That's off the top of my head though. :shrug:

[XemaSab]

67. I got three more:

Bachman's Warbler, Califonia Condor, and a tarantula hawk dragging off a tarantula. :thumbsup:

[amyrose2712]

8. Dolphins off the coast of Wildwood, NJ

They were close to the shoreline and i was on the beach. I didn't remember it until now. Thanks for helping me recall the memory

[amyrose2712]

11. Oh and stickbugs are my favorite

they just look "unusual"

[wickerwoman]

13. Dolphins in New Jersey?

I went to college there and the most wild thing I ever saw was river rats. Guess I should have taken a closer look at the Garden State. :toast:

[LostinVA]

16. Yep -- NJ has dolphins and other whales

Bears, deer, bobcats...all sorts of wild stuff. Just depends on where you are in NJ.

[amyrose2712]

17. Shoot! We have tons of wild life

I can't drive to work without seeing deer or wild turkeys!

[NJmaverick]

22. It's sort of new

back in the 70s and 80s I would go to Wildwood and never anything more than a horseshoe crab. Went back a couple of years ago, and saw them out there a few times a day.

[jeff30997]

10. I was lucky enough to see...

Humpback whales.It was a long time ago on a family vacation in Saguenay,Quebec.You can go on a

small boat for a short cruise and if you're lucky you can see them.There's also beluga whales in the

Saguenay fjord but I never saw one.That was truly amazing!

[wickerwoman]

14. You are lucky!

I went on one of those cruises in Hawaii. We could see the spray(?) a little bit in the distance but the captain said it was a mother with some young 'uns and they're not allowed to get very close. We did get to see some crazy dolphins at the end of the trip though which kind of made up for it.

[WinkyDink]

18. Blue herons/P.E.I.; moose and lobsters, ME; wild turkeys, PA.

[mainegreen]

19. Fin Whale. n/t

[EstimatedProphet]

20. Franklin's 13 lined ground squirrel

[XemaSab]

66. Nice!

:D

[Trailrider1951]

21. On my first trip to Yellowstone, one of these wandered into our camp

God, what a magnificent beast!

[AngryAmish]

23. Porpoises, dolphins, moose

[livetohike]

24. A platypus! While camping in Australia

It was amazing. The park ranger told us where to go to see it and that we had to be there early in the morning. He was right :-).

This is not my picture.

[hobbit709]

26. Just don't ever pick up a male platypus.

[Shell Beau]

28. Those strange but cute creatures can be deadly!!!

[Lisa]

51. lucky you!

I've always wanted to see one of those. I did get to go to Australia, but nowhere more wild than the area around Brisbane ... though I did see flocks of cockatoos (a bird that I had only seen as individual pets until then!). And in the city park, instead of pigeons and squirrels begging for scraps, I was accosted by ibises and water dragons (a scary-looking kind of lizard, quite harmless but startling at first because I wasn't expecting them to come right up to me!).

[Tommy_Carcetti]

25. Manatees.

I came across a mother and a calf in the water in Blue Springs in Florida. She rolled over and let me pet her belly. Her skin was sort of like vinyl covered in moss.

Then the park ranger told me to stop because it was an endangered species and I wasn't supposed to be interacting with it. Which made good sense, but still, it was an incredible experience.

[Runcible Spoon]

65. I also got to pet the manatees outside of Orlando.

It was so sad to see where the rudders had chewed some of them up :cry:

[loveable liberal]

27. I once saw a camel running down county road 4....

A bit odd for minnesota, pretty sure it was domesticated but escaped. None-the-less, odd for this part of the country.

[Shell Beau]

29. Not so much weird because it was a deer, but the fact that it was

an albino deer made it very unique. There aren't a whole lot of those out there. It was gorgeous too!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

30. I covered the 1980 GOP convention for a radio station

so I would have to say, the birth of modern conservatism and all its various sub-species were the most unusual animals I have ever seen.

[MountainLaurel]

31. A yellow-eyed penguin

Hanging out on the coast of New Zealand. We were lucky, because generally everyone goes out to fish during the day so we didn't expect to see anyone. Maybe he had a cold and was staying home to chill.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

32. I've seen

manatee's in Florida.

Many wild dolphins in several locations around the globe.

Killer whales - Mexico, while migrating

We have harbor seals here in San Diego and they have taken over The Children's Pool in La Jolla - http://www.lajollaseals.com/

Great Horned Owls in Canada

Alligators in LA, MS & FL

Moose, Elk & Grizzly bears in Canada

Parrots of different varieties - Mexico and S. America

[cwydro]

33. these run around everywhere down here

[Tommy_Carcetti]

36. We've got about a dozen in our parking lot alone.

The biggest one looks to be a good 3 1/2 feet, maybe even 4 feet long head to tail.

[cwydro]

38. I like them.

They are so cool and I love the colors...from bright orange to lime green.

[cemaphonic]

34. not too exotic, but

bears, reef sharks, and dolphins were probably about the most memorable. Oh and turning a corner on a trail at Yellowstone and finding myself staring at a bison about 10 yards away. That got my pulse going.

[bicentennial_baby]

35. A wild Mink in my backyard...

And, the Moose that made me stop my car until it felt like crossing the road, in broad daylight, in July, in Massachusetts, in a small city of 20,000.

[suninvited]

37. A pushme pullyou

okay, I didn't see one of those.

But, I I DID see an albino skunk once. And a little pink baby armadillo wandering around lost in my backyard.

[Parche]

39. Fishing In Virginia It Was A Wild Midlo

[cwydro]

40. Here is a not uncommon sight in the Everglades,

but still not usual I suppose:

[RadiationTherapy]

41. An unleashed dog. nt

[Kali]

42. depends on what you mean by unusual

I have seen a lot of critters as that is one of my interests in life, but here is a kind of unique guy I found yesterday.

Rhinoceros beetle - Strategus julianus

My camera batteries died and I let him go before I realized there wasn't anything for scale, although that is a 6 inch clay pot in the "going away" shot.

[arcadian]

43. I've swam with wild Spinner Dolphins, they were only 6 inches away.

Whole pod of them about thirty in all. I've seen Humpback Whales, Minke Whales(I think, whatever it was, it was a large toothless whale, bigger than dolphin). I've held exotic birds in my hands, wild ones that we were banding and cataloging. All sorts of sea life, Green Sea Turtles, Hawksbill Sea Turtles, Nurse sharks, Black tip Reef sharks, was in the water with them too(harmless). In the South Pacific, Giant Clams are definitely among the weirdest creatures. Also, i've been in the water with Spotted Eagle Rays, those are weird as well.

[hunter]

44. I saw a California Condor in the late 'seventies.

It was on the ground in the Las Padres National Forest eating something dead, a deer or a small calf maybe, I couldn't tell because it was in the grass.

BIG!

This was before they rounded up all the surviving birds for captive breeding. I haven't seen one in the wild since, probably because I don't wander through the forest like a feral person anymore, and haven't gone out of my way to look for one.

[Lisa]

52. wow!

I spoke with one of the scientists working on the condor project a while ago. He told me that one of the juveniles at the breeding facility had come over and sat on his foot ... by then it already weighed as much as a full-grown turkey vulture, 6 lbs or so. Huge for a flying bird. A couple of friends of mine have a photo of an adult condor in the wild, from about the same time as you describe, hunter -- it was so large that it showed up easily even with a crappy little point-and-shoot camera. Impressive!

[grace0418]

46. Hmm... blue whale. It's certainly not a creature you're going to see in a zoo that

is for sure. We went whale watching in Monterey Bay and the captain told us not to expect much because they'd only spotted blue whales that day, not humpback. He told us "While everyone gets excited because blue whales are the largest, the humpbacks are more fun to watch because they jump out of the water. You'll really only see plumes from the blue whales."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a blue whale surfaced near the boat, spouted, showed us a good portion of his whole back (not fully out of the water but almost), then slapped his giant fluke on the way down. It was AMAZING.

The captain turned back to us and said "Seriously, that *never* happens. I swear!"

[dropkickpa]

47. Armadillo's

I used to live in TX. They're pretty neat looking animals.

[kwassa]

48. one of these parrot fish

Hanauma Bay, Hawaii, full of tame, huge tropical fish, because it is a protected environment. I snorkled along behing the fish all the way across the bay. Lots of other amazing fish as well.

[Patiod]

61. I would say fish, too

Although I don't know any of their names, except the little garabaldis off the coast of Avalon, CA.

Some of the stuff you see down real deep - like 100 feet -- is strange and wonderful....

[applegrove]

49. I saw a juvenile black bear one time. Also saw a minke whale.

I've seen lots of deer over the years. Blue herons & loons & ducks.

[Lisa]

50. a juvenile caribou, up near Hudson's Bay

It was all leggy and gawky (typical adolescent!), and its coat was shedding so it was coming off in patches. My first impression was that it had been assembled from bits of other animals! When it saw me, it hightailed it off in the opposite direction, leaping over the tundra. That same summer, I also saw a flock of what I think were sandhill cranes -- a group of them together, and for a second I thought the hummocks in the marsh had come alive and were moving around! Very weird.

By the way -- great thread!

[underpants]

53. Its...its hard to describe it (but many people tried)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=624815

[sinkingfeeling]

54. Polar bears at Churchill, Canada and penguins off of South America.

[wickerwoman]

81. Polar bears? Holy crap!

How far away were you? I heard they're like the most dangerous land animal on earth! Was it part of a tour or did you just turn a corner and boom, there's a polar bear?

[sinkingfeeling]

83. We took a 'tundra buggy' out of Churchill to a research station. The bears were about 8 to 10 feet

below us on the ground. If they would have stood on their hind legs, they would have been looking at us almost eye to eye! I have an old 35mm film of one approaching us from about 200 yards until it got to the 'buggy' and circled all around. They just wanted to check us out!

[JCMach1]

55. Dinoflagellates... swimming at night in Florida

One time in northern Florida during the late 1980's. There so many that they lit up with luminescence with every step you took on the waters edge. It was strange and incredible... like a movie special effect.

Some dinoflagellates glow in the dark at night! Next time you swim in the ocean at night, look for small, blue, glowing organisms bouncing off your waving arms. Those are dinoflagellates! This picture is not actually a glowing dinoflagellate. It is a phase contrast picture of a dinoflagellate of the genus Ceratium. Divers out for a night dive can sometimes see each other just by the ghostly glowing outline of the bioluminescent phytoplankton. Bioluminescent dinoflagellates have even made boats visible against the darkness!... http://www.mbari.org/staff/conn/botany/dinos/biolum.htm

I have seen them since, but never in the same quantities. It was a once in a lifetime thing.

[LSK]

56. sting ray or black bear or alligator

[Throd]

57. A giant mola mola the size of a Volkswagen

[no name no slogan]

58. I saw a henweigh

[chromotone]

59. All right...Okay..."What's a henweigh?"

Hmmmm...???

[pokerfan]

60. shark

A friend of mine caught a four foot Blue Shark once while we were salmon fishing. We cut it loose rather than bring it into the boat. :)

I've seen caribou, elk, bear, moose, and a cougar once.

I would love to see Africa sometime. Battle at Kruger is an amateur wildlife video that depicts an unfolding confrontation between a herd of Cape Buffalo, a small pride of lions, and a pair of crocodiles.

http://www.youtube.com/v/LU8DDYz68kM

Watch to the end (it has a happy ending).

[flvegan]

62. The Loch Ness Monstah

Right outside my door talkin' 'bout, "I need about tree fitty."

[mokawanis]

63. Humpbacks, orcas, grizzlies, badgers, martens, rattlesnakes

In Yellowstone two years ago I was standing on a lake shore watching the sunset and when I turned around there was a Grizzly standing about 2oo feet away, just looking at me. I looked away and watched her in my peripheral vision and after maybe 20 seconds she just slowly walked across the field and then turned and went into the forest. Very exciting experience I'll always treasure.

[mikeytherat]

64. Hibernating bears

Caving in winter, Utah, late-70s. We only saw them from a distance, but we smelled them LONG before we were anywhere near (my God, the smell).

mikey_the_rat

[Taverner]

68. This may sound bizarre, but a sea lion swimming by

Not because sea lions are so rare, but the circumstances surrounding it.

Back in college my gf and I would head to Santa Cruz for some fun. We were making out on the rocks in-between the beach and the harbor and this one sea lion kept swimming by, each time taking a look at what we were doing.

I just remember that. Much more than my (now Republican) ex-gf.

[backwoodsbob]

69. a badger

[wickerwoman]

82. Oh yeah! I saw one of those in Scotland.

It absolutely scared the piss out of me. I was hiking by myself and I found this little tumbledown stone tower in the middle of nowhere and I wanted to climb to the top to get a better view but as I approached the base of the tower I heard this growling noise coming out of a hole in the wall and saw those freaky white flashes in the shadows. I ran my ass off down the hill and never looked back.

Also just remembered that I saw a coyote driving through eastern Washington. That was another WTF is that! moment. It looked like a fox-dog hybrid with huge ears standing up on a hill over the highway. If I hadn't been in the car at the time I would have freaked out.

[Crabby Appleton]

70. Elephant, water buffalo, really big python.

[Xipe Totec]

71. A real siren

I'm not kidding.

[Nikia]

72. Bald Eagle

On two separate occaisions in totally different places.

[LostInAnomie]

73. Dragons!!!!

I might have just been high though.

I have seen a moose, buffalo, elk, rattlesnake, dolphins, man of war, wolves, and a bald eagle.

[Arugula Latte]

74. Quetzal birds Costa Rica.

I saw about five of them in a tree. We had to get up dang early to see them.

They look like this (gorgeous!)

[WinkyDink]

76. FABULOUS!

[TheCentepedeShoes]

75. Otters

While canoing on the river that goes into Lake Pannasoffkee in FL.
I love to watch otters on the teevee, that was the only time I've seen any in person.
Also saw ospreys.

[Jade Fox]

77. A muskrat on the beach......

It looked like a very large rat, but it had gorgeous fur. When it swam it's vertically flat tail moved like a snake, propelling it through the water.

[MissMillie]

78. mountain goat

Stopped at a place in Glacier National Park to go hiking, took a minute to tie my shoes, stood up, and was 6 feet from the mountain goat.

[MicaelS]

79. A Greater Roadrunner

But, It had bright BLUE eyes. Amazing, this brown and white bird with blue eyes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Roadrunner

[kwassa]

80. I also saw Bigfoot

got this great picture of him, too.

[Orsino]

84. Sea lions on the Oregon coast.

Moose next to the highway near Yellowstone. Eagles in Vancouver.