Share your animal experiences.

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Noswad0208

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Sep 8, 2014
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Animals that are big for the species, animals that acted odd, anything you found interesting or funny from an experience seeing a wild animal.

One time a few years ago my cousins and I were in a camper next to a bunch of applebutter to protect it from bears if need be, they had seen a large pack of coyotes the night before so we rode up to where they had seen the coyotes to look around that night. We were in a small grassy area surrounded by forest, saw a set of eyes in the woods, and upon closer examination it was a massive bobcat that had killed a large fawn and was eating it on the side of a hill. It was absolutely the biggest bobcat I've ever seen, nothing like it even on the internet or in any book. We shot in the air a few times to scare it away, and the next morning we went up to where the fawn was to look around, and when I started to look at the bite marks, I noticed that the bobcat had completely smashed the fawn's skull in in several places.
 
Wildlife here is abundant but some, like the mountain lions are very rare to see in the wild. One lion has been spotted lately in the neighborhood and apparently the tracks have been positively identified. I haven't seen it yet.

I did see this while hiking a few miles out of town this weekend. The lens cap is about 2" diameter.

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Bears are so common, they're like squirrels in the city park. Still, I wasn't happy that our lab mix went running off the trail to chase a cub at the edge of a forest. The cub climbed a tree while the dog ran around the base barking and jumping. I was walking over to shoosh the dog away from the bear's tree, when mama bear walked out of the forest. The dog hauled ass and ran all the way back to the truck, leaving me standing there. Such a brave dog. :rolleyes:
 
Bob W said:
Wildlife here is abundant but some, like the mountain lions are very rare to see in the wild. One lion has been spotted lately in the neighborhood and apparently the tracks have been positively identified. I haven't seen it yet.

I did see this while hiking a few miles out of town this weekend. The lens cap is about 2" diameter.

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Click to expand...

That's a pretty cool picture. We don't have mountain lions here, but I'd like to see one sometime (from a distance :D).
 
I've only seen one ever in the wild. The big cats are secretive, stealthy, and nocturnal.

Bobcats, bears, elk, beavers, deer, coyotes... on the other hand are all relatively common to spot. The deer and bears are a nuisance in town.

The sightings of the mountain lion in town correspond to a noticeable deduction in stray cats and several reported missing loose 'house' cats. And here I thought animal control was finally doing their job. :D
 
In northern central Maryland, we've had coyotes for some time, bears usually pass through every year or so, sometimes young ones will end up in a residential area and cause problems, they get put down. Usually they go unnoticed by DNR. A mountain lion was spotted on a trail cam in the next county over, Baltimore county, off York RD for anyone that lives in MD, in the upper portion of the county. I walk a mile every night in the neighborhood. I used to go without a light, and kicked up a lot of deer, including some young bucks. I had a coyote eye me up like he got the early special at the buffet, but he took off. I had a walking stick with me after I saw the coyote, and scared the hell out of a young doe, looking at her with my headlamp, her heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour. Now, I hike with my headlamp, a reflector vest etc, because people can't see me walking at night. I also listen to podcasts and music on my ipod. Haven't seen anything either than a few critters cross the road lately.
 
I love walking at night. Not only does it make me feel like a ninja but you can see so much cool stuff. :D
 
My one closeup bobcat encounter was a brief glimpse of one looking at me over a log just a few feet from the trail. Was hiking in the dark by the 2.6 lumen setting on my Zebralight headlamp, so all I could really make out was its eyes and the shape of its head for a second, and it was gone.

I have "animal experiences" all the time, but here are a few of the more memorable ones that I got pics from.

Last September I got to see mountain goats for the first time. I had to go right by a group of them(there's a couple more not in the pic, plus a female with baby bedded down to the side). They were all staring, and when I got closer, one approached me aggressively, which hit the "do not push" button. I came after him and basically roared at him to "BACK OFF".
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Kinda funny. They all froze for a second, then turned away and wouldn't look at me.
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This pic's 5yrs old, and I've got better and more recent pics of a few copperheads and a rattlesnake right in the trail, but this is the one I bonded with.
If you consider running over him and getting dry struck "bonding"...
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Last summer I got charged by a baby deer.
When momma took off, this one did too, just in the wrong direction! Sucks my camera was in manual with the settings jacked from taking a waterfall pic, because it ran up to <10ft from me.
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Oh, and here's proof that the government meddles in everything, including my bighorn sheep sightings. Kind of bizarre. I'd been disappointed by not getting to see any bighorn sheep in SW UT last November, but one showed up at Valley of Fire, where I stopped on the way back to Las Vegas.
As it started walking down the ridge, a Blackhawk appeared and started circling until the sheep ran away :(
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Just about exactly two years ago I was hiking the Florida National Scenic Trail.
I had just come out of three days through Big Cypress Swamp in the Everglades.
It was only a mile farther to where I planned to camp.
I was walking north down this two track jeep road and this large Florida panther was walking south when he came around a curve in the road.
I quickly took a cell phone photo because I figured he would be gone fast, but we stood there for about a minute looking at each other.



This is when he finally turned to his left and walked into the woods.

 
I always suggest to people that want to see more wildlife they should: hike alone, walk quickly, and walk quietly. :thumbup:
 
When I was around 13-14 years old, visiting relatives in rural Minnesota, I did a lot of walking on game trails and along the shores of a couple of lakes where nobody else really ever seemed to go. One particular day, while heading back to the main road near the shoreline, I heard some rustling around in the underbrush and stopped walking. A long, sort of slinky brown animal poked its head out of the grass, looked at me for a few seconds, and then ran up to me. Not knowing what else to do, I sat down on the trail. The little critter climbed up onto my shoulder, sniffed around a bit, and then climbed back down. I walked back to the road and looked back to see it following me. It wasn't until I started getting close to a residential area that it stopped and went back toward the lake.

When I described it, my family concluded that it was a weasel, mink or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it was very friendly and/or brave and/or stupid.
 
I guess one of the coolest things I have ever seen in the woods was a baby bobcat (kitten). I was driving on a mountain dirt road and saw a cat... first thought was what is a cat doing all the way up here? I got out and proceeded to look closer and saw no tail. I was going to try to catch it in a burlap sack and after than I had no idea.... no way. That was the wildest little cat I have ever seen. It was probably about a foot long at most. Never saw the mother Bobcat, but I suspect she was nearby.

Hunting I had a large bobcat wander slowly to my treestand. I was watching it for some time as it wandered closer and closer to me until it got just below my stand and sniffed the ground where I had placed my stuff and roped it up into the tree. Then it looked up directly into my eyes up in the tree. We stared at each other for a few seconds and then it quietly headed in the same direction it was going slowly and not frightened. But it knew what I was.

I have seen many rattlesnakes and copperheads in the woods. I pretty much leave them alone. Had a rattlesnake strike at me a few times where I had just stood before I saw him when I hadn't messed with him. Yeah, I was pretty close.

Have had a few black bear encounters up close in the woods. False charge one time while I was taking pictures. Have had closer encounters with them where we surprised each other and just sort of starred at distances under 15 feet. I don't worry about black bears. I just don't get too close to mothers with young cubs.

As a kid, I had a weasel walk over my foot when I was on a railroad track. He was running down the rail and my foot just happened to be there.

Had a water moccasin slither up to me on the ground and appeared it mostly just wanted to bite me. They are the only poisonous snake that I hate. Mostly have seen them on logs sunning themselves.

On one canoe trip, I saw two mink. One was going down muskrat holes looking for something to eat. You don't see mink very often.
 
I was running a bush paintball game one time, between games one of the guys says "anyone see that wolverine down in the valley?" My heart probably stuttered a couple of times, considering the size of some of the kids around. Then I asked him how big it was, remembering that I'd watched a weasel run around a bit during the game. When he put his hands about a foot apart I knew we were talking about the same animal. still pretty funny to everyone else when I told him what it really was... then what kind of evil on legs a wolverine is. City kids! For the rest of the day I think everyone kept telling him "That would be a weasel."

Quite a while back when I was a kid at camp a black bear decided to have a nap in front of the door to the boys bathroom. Doorway was in a bit of a lean-to, or alcove kind of thing, so it must have been thinking it would be a good nap spot. If memory serves, a couple boys were actually inside when the bear laid down, so they had to wait it out until the director was able to chase it off.
 
I had a friend lone me a live trap. It was 36X36X50. Huge trap! It was very heavy duty to, like 8 Gauge wire. Well I set it next to our creek, about 10 feet from Divide Creek Co. Where I was the Divide was about 60 Feet across. I came to check it one day and the ground around the trap was completely shredded by claws, and the trap was frozen in the middle of the creek, 40' from where I set it, with rips and bends in the 5/32" wire! probably a bear....
 
From this week's nature walk in the nearby reserve:

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I also had a close encounter with a red-bellied black snake while poking around an abandoned train depot. I didn't get a picture of it though. :(
 
Have no idea how to start. Have been monitored the Javan Eagle for couple years. Then worked for Wildlife Conservation Society in their research station at Bukit Barisan Selatan National for 6 years. Mainly on primates but help their other projects on tiger and elephant as well.
Every month we are doing the wildlife monitoring, counting them by line transect method. Have been chased by elephants many times, several time saw rhinos. Seeing Malay Weasel playing around me since i sit for hours in silent.
Also worked for The Nature Conservancy for about 1.5 years, and 4 years with local conservation NGO.
In the last 6 years working for orangutan conservation, release them back to the forest. Behind my office is a natural peatland forest, you can see proboscis monkey, red langur, wild orangutan, sunbear etc.
Did my undergrad research in the middle of the forest for 6 months without any single day went out from the forest, every week the porter bring us food.
Completed my masters on primate population and distribution.
At the moment working on a research for my dissertation in taxonomy.
 
When I went to basic in fort Jackson South Carolina, we had what we called cow ants. I don't know the real name, but they were huge red and black fuzzy ants. I saw two drag a dead sparrow onto the nest so all of them could eat. They were about to my second knuckle on my pinkie finger long and just as wide. We tried to kill the when they got in our tents but you could stomp on it about four times before it finally left. Not died, just left. Hated those things
 
Stumps, That is totally awesome you got that close to a Florida panther in the wild and got a photo of it!!
I have worked and hunted all over Florida for about 40 years and have never seen one.
Now one animal I have seen on two separate occasions in North Florida is a jaguarundi. The first one I saw was from about 130 yards away in bright sunlight and it appeared to be black in color, the first thing I thought of was a black panther. I was able to observe him for about a minute while he was walking down a two-trail road through my 3.5x10 rifle scope set on 10 power.
About three weeks later and a few miles from the first sighting, I was riding my ATV out to my hunting area and came around a corner and a jaguarundi (don't know if it was the same one) was in the sand road in front of me. It took off and I followed it for a few seconds before it jumped off of the road into the dense underbrush. What I observed up close to the animal was that he had a dark brown color coat with black highlights at the end of its hairs, so from a distance he appeared black.
I spoke with a Florida Wildlife Commission biologist about my sighting, the lady basically told me if I didn't have a plaster cast of the jaguarundi's track or a photograph of one, then it did not exist.
The animal was about three feet long and it's tail was about as long as it's body, not very tall, and I believe it's hind legs were longer than it's front legs. When the jaguarundi was running it sort of loped, like the way a otter runs.
It was pretty neat to see these animals in the wild and I'm glad I did, even if they don't "really exist" in Florida according to the experts. :rolleyes:
 
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