Share your animal experiences.

[Bob W]

Some random Aussie animals from past hikes:

 

[upnorth]

I remember walking home on the rail road tracks when I was about 16 years old. It was dusk turning to dark. The hills going up the banks on each side had very tall grass on them. I could just make out the grass parting and something coming down toward me in the dark. I let fly with my Marlin bolt 12 gauge and I heard a growling? /gnashing sound. I took off like the devil was behind me. I went back the next day and there was a huge raccoon half way down the hill with a hole in it that could take your fist. I am infinitely more safety conscious these days in regard to firearms, but I was a kid then. I used to shoot near anything that moved back in the day.

 

[SouthEast]

does this count?

met her when I go fishing. She swam beneath us and I took the chance to grab my mask and go down. It is first time in my life meeting a bigger underwater animal , and even touch it and swam by it.

Btw there was 2 whale sharks, about 6 meters long and 4 meters long. these photos were taken by my boat operator (and sadly he only took these 2 pics that are decent).

Cendrawasih Bay National Park - Indonesia

 

[taldesta]

Some random Aussie animals from past hikes:

Since I read The Far Country as a kid, I have wanted to visit this planet. Thanks for the pics.

Susan

 

[taldesta]

does this count?

Counts in a big way!

 

[22-rimfire]

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.

That is some cool stuff! The FWC biologist reaction was typical. They don't provide information very readily but I would bet they know a whole lot more than you do on populations and distribution.

 

[Swampdog]

22-rimfire, I agree with you... and do see FWC's point of view, also.
What I am surprised about mostly is that there are eight other members of our hunt club that have seen jaguarundis on our hunt lease, BUT (and this is a big BUT) nobody has a picture of one on their game cameras.
A lot of our members (75 members on 13,000 acres) use game/trail cameras and nobody has a picture of a jaguarundi.
The jaguarundi is a protected species here in Florida so they can not be hunted, even though they do not exist.

 

[22-rimfire]

Be kind of like seeing a Sasquatch (mating pair) and reporting to Fish & Wildlife. The same kind of thing goes on in the Southern Appalachians with regard to mountain lions. They don't exist.

 

[Bob W]

Be kind of like seeing a Sasquatch (mating pair) and reporting to Fish & Wildlife. The same kind of thing goes on in the Southern Appalachians with regard to mountain lions. They don't exist.

You can't blame them for being skeptical. How many times each month do you figure they gotta listen to some story about a chubacabra, bigfoot, grizzly bear, king cobra, rabid garden gnome...
Sometimes the stories might be true, other times not, but sheesh I bet they get sick of it. What do people expect them to do about a swamp ape/jaguaro/werewolf/other "does not exist" animal anyway?

So how to convince them a sighting is legit? That's easy, prove it.

 

[AntCaps]

Hey guys,
During the winter I do snow removal for a property just west of Toronto, iv been doing for 3 years now and every year I see a pair of what appear to be wolves. They like to follow me around when I'm in my machine one usually stays infront of me and one behind.
No one believed me until I snapped a picture of one relieving itself. I had no idea we had wolves where I live but they are both a lot bigger than any coyote iv ever seen.
If I get a chance I'll try and take a better picture next time I'm out there.

 

[Noswad0208]

Be kind of like seeing a Sasquatch (mating pair) and reporting to Fish & Wildlife. The same kind of thing goes on in the Southern Appalachians with regard to mountain lions. They don't exist.

Here in VA we hear about a "mountain lion" sighting just about every month, sometimes accompanied by a picture of an orange house cat 300 yards away in a field. Not saying we don't have them, but with all the sightings of the darned things it looks like a halfway decent picture or a track would show up sometime.

I've seen Hellbenders that supposedly aren't around here before but didn't have time for a picture, so I know that a picture isn't feasible oftentimes, but to me it seems an animal as large as a mountain lion would be easier to get a picture or track of than a quickly moving underwater lizard, especially since there are about 3 people in the community that seem to report their sighting to facebook every other week.

 

[leghog]

 

[Thomas Linton]

Hey guys,
During the winter I do snow removal for a property just west of Toronto, iv been doing for 3 years now and every year I see a pair of what appear to be wolves. They like to follow me around when I'm in my machine one usually stays infront of me and one behind.
No one believed me until I snapped a picture of one relieving itself. I had no idea we had wolves where I live but they are both a lot bigger than any coyote iv ever seen.
If I get a chance I'll try and take a better picture next time I'm out there.

A local biologist was on TV last Winter, talking about the "Eastern Coyote."

The Coyotes I saw out west were solitary and scrawny - maybe 30 pounds for a big one. Very shy.

He believes coyotes have cross-bred with wolves - and perhaps wild dogs. That would help explain why they are much larger (German Shepard size) and hunt in packs. We have three packs in our part of the xurbs of Cleveland. Very vocal. Howl back and forth. Come up close to the house at night. We hear the young ones yipping. Tracks very common. Since they first appeared here in 1995, they have about totally eliminated Ground Hogs and feral cats (Except for a monster male cat who makes the rounds howling and begging for food for the last two Winters.). Many notices for "missing" small dogs in our area. ("Have you seen Fluffy? She is a very friendly Miniature Poodle missing since he let her out one night last week.")

Two years ago, I came around the bend in our drive, and one was sitting in the drive, At first I thought it was the neighbors' dog, but quickly saw it was Coyote. I stopped. It sat. After a couple of minutes, I hit the horn, and off he (?) went at a slow trot.

We see them crossing the roads regularly.

These would be the type of coyotes who killed and were eating on a small female hiker in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia in 2009.

 

[Noswad0208]

A local biologist was on TV last Winter, talking about the "Eastern Coyote."

The Coyotes I saw out west were solitary and scrawny - maybe 30 pounds for a big one. Very shy.

He believes coyotes have cross-bred with wolves - and perhaps wild dogs. That would help explain why they are much larger (German Shepard size) and hunt in packs. We have three packs in our part of the xurbs of Cleveland. Very vocal. Howl back and forth. Come up close to the house at night. We hear the young ones yipping. Tracks very common. Since they first appeared here in 1995, they have about totally eliminated Ground Hogs and feral cats (Except for a monster male cat who makes the rounds howling and begging for food for the last two Winters.). Many notices for "missing" small dogs in our area. ("Have you seen Fluffy? She is a very friendly Miniature Poodle missing since he let her out one night last week.")

Two years ago, I came around the bend in our drive, and one was sitting in the drive, At first I thought it was the neighbors' dog, but quickly saw it was Coyote. I stopped. It sat. After a couple of minutes, I hit the horn, and off he (?) went at a slow trot.

We see them crossing the roads regularly.

These would be the type of coyotes who killed and were eating on a small female hiker in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia in 2009.

Yep, "eastern" coyotes are just coyotes that have bred with wolves or dogs, sometimes evidenced by a dew claw (a pure coyote has no dew claw, wolves and dogs do). My family traps coyotes because they kill our sheep, and some resemble red wolves to the point that you could toss a red wolf into a pen with some of these coyotes and it would take a very sharp eye to see the difference.

When you see one crossing the road do the universe a favor and speed up.

 

[taldesta]

Clear it, they will come.

No sooner is the snowblower silent, than the wild turkeys seek ground scraped closest to the earth. My morning visitors.

I did not post the pic of moose footprints through early snow on the property this winter ... having watched his 'tallness' cover ground with accustomed calm ... footprints alone fell short of what I saw. Always, my eyes seem to be at knee level with moose I encounter.

In learning to enjoy the presence of wildlife ... and use the camera if possible, but not to interrupt the moment just to capture it, I find some relief and enjoyment and some freedom to say, "just watch - take it in, no proof, no 4x6." And, yes, I do love to re-visit pics!

Susan

 

[druid189]

Hopefully not this close, right?

dude....there would be bullet holes in my glass door......a lot of em. just sayin'......


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ON the AT for several hours and about 80 yards ahead I saw this...."thing"...do a "badoop...badoop" from right to left across the Trail and I was like...." 0.o eh?" I shook my head thinking I was tired and my eyes playing tricks on me, took a few more steps to see two smaller "badoop...badoop....badoop's" right behind the bigger "badoop badoop".....I stopped dead in my tracks and was like "Oh Hell no" and did a 180 for 5 minutes at a fast pace.

Ain't no way I'm running into Yogi, Boo-Boo and mean-ole mommy with little more than a girlie scream to help me.

 

[David Stifle]

Not as cool as the stories you guys have, and I don't have pictures. But, two summers ago when I was working in my shop, with the door open, a full grown black bear walked right into the shop. We were six feet apart. He looked right at me, sniffed the air, walked around a bit, and then went out the door. I could finally breathe, and I had to change my underwear.

 

[Richbat]

Funniest thing that happened to me was when I was out bow hunting back at my old stomping grounds where I grew up.I was way on top of the ridge and working myself slowly across,just stalking,thought I heard something tracking me,turned to look and seen nothing,so I continued on but kept hearing foot steps behind me,so finally I said enough is enough and slowly angled downwind and found a spot where I could see on my back trail,anyways here what it was,was someones goat following me through the woods,well I tried to shoe the thing away with no success only to have it come at me wanting to butt me,finally did get it to go but I sure hope nobody seen that fiasco.

 

[DWK2]

This is more of a cute/amusing story. A friend and I backpacked off-trail into the Domelands wilderness. We had a camp fire near an old game trail. One evening a kit fox casually trotted down the trail and sat on the opposite side of our fire. Checked us out for several minutes before moving on. There were no signs of human visitation anywhere near us, so I don't think the fox had become accustomed to humans.

DancesWithKnives

 

[upnorth]

I used to wrestle grizzlies, give them head noogies/Indian wrist burns and such. But I was told that it was kind of abusive so I cut it out.