Wild animal encounters?


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LG and I went to the park last week and we saw one of our kind-an alligator about twenty feet in front of us! The park has signs all over the place warning visitors about alligators, but we've been several times and haven't seen any. Living in Florida, we've seen alligators before in the wild but never one this big or this up close! 

We backed off slowly after taking some pictures of it. 

Does anyone else have any wild animal encounter stories? 

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The first time I ever saw wild buffalo was pretty neat. We were at Yellowstone for a family reunion and a herd of them cut off traffic as they slowly crossed the road. I never thought I would get that close to so many of them, I'd only ever read about buffalo herds before. Later we saw one up close outside the car (well as close as someone who is sane and understands you don't want to tick off a half ton wild animal will get). I really enjoyed that trip.

Edited by Midwest LDS
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40 minutes ago, Midwest LDS said:

The first time I ever saw wild buffalo was pretty neat. We were at Yellowstone for a family reunion and a herd of them cut off traffic as they slowly crossed the road. I never thought I would get that close to so many of them, I'd only ever read about buffalo herds before. Later we saw one up close outside the car (well as close as someone who is sane and understands you don't want to tick off a half ton wild animal will get). I really enjoyed that trip.

My first time seeing one was great too... however having been to Yellowstone 3 times now... they are like annoying rodents that get in the way of the cooler animals you want to see x)

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1 hour ago, Midwest LDS said:

you don't want to tick off a half ton wild animal

A cow, maybe. A fully grown bull that weighed only half a ton would be small. Bison can weigh in excess of a ton. You do not want to mess around with them. Nothing does. Even the big cats leave them alone. Adult bison in good health have no natural predators, except perhaps humans*. They are top of the heap. Bison are actually not the largest bovines in the world—that would be the gaur—but they are plenty large.

*And maybe wolves.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Fether said:

My first time seeing one was great too... however having been to Yellowstone 3 times now... they are like annoying rodents that get in the way of the cooler animals you want to see x)

I've only been once so far (it's not exactly close to the...Midwest...😃) but I will be going again, the landscape and animals are just too cool not to. I really loved all the geysers going off.

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Do mice count?

Last night our cat* caught a mouse. She put it down on the doorstep and kept looking at us and then looking at the mouse. I think she considered it her "contribution" to the household larder, and expected us to take it away and put it with the other food. She was most put out when we didn't, and went off to sulk.

The mouse, we soon discovered, was not quite dead. It kept trying to get up, but one of its legs was broken and it could only stagger around in circles. I got the browser up on my phone and looked up how to euthanize a wounded mouse: the suggestions included sealing it in a bag or a jam jar so that it suffocated - but that sounded just a cruel as leaving it to die. A more sensible idea was to decapitate it with a knife - but I didn't much like the sound of that either.

In the end I thought brute force would probably be the most humane but (have you ever noticed this?) you can rarely find a discarded house brick when you need one. So I "borrowed" a stone from our neighbour's rockery and used it cave the mouse's head in. So the poor beast is now on his way to mousey-heaven; his spirit that is - his body went in the trash.

*Her name's Pixie, though I call her "Pixinald-Wixinald-Wallaby-Wombat" - except when she gets feisty and starts biting my hand, at which times I call her "Mungo-Muggins-Boggy-Buggins". 

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I saw a herd of Buffalo on the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon...probably around 50 Buffalo crossing the road.

I've tracked a Mountain lion by it's tracks, it had two cubs with it (so most likely a mother Lion).

Went to Okeefenokee and have camped near the Alligators there (the platform we camped on was basically just a shelter by the shore where several alligators lay about on) and ran over one or two of them. (by ran over, I mean they swam under our boat, almost making it tip over, or we ran into them in the boat...the boat probably took more damage than the alligators did, which no damage was done to either one...except my nerves occasionally).

Ran over a Water Moccasin (and then reran over it just to be sure...I suppose that might make me evil on that account). 

Several encounters with Bear and Deer in various points (though not sure people want to talk about Hunting and such here).

Edited by JohnsonJones
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9 hours ago, Midwest LDS said:

I've only been once so far (it's not exactly close to the...Midwest...😃) but I will be going again, the landscape and animals are just too cool not to. I really loved all the geysers going off.

You should visit Glacier National Park. It is immensely more beautiful with its massive sheer cliffed mountains, beautiful glacier valleys, turquoise lakes, AND wild life. we saw a massive grizzly, stopped my wife from excitedly charging a moose, a herd of big horn sheep, and tons of mountain goats. I’ve been to a ton of parks, and It is my all time favorite national park, my wife and I actually went there on our honeymoon.

 

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Edited by Fether
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3 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

Do mice count?

Last night our cat* caught a mouse. She put it down on the doorstep and kept looking at us and then looking at the mouse. I think she considered it her "contribution" to the household larder, and expected us to take it away and put it with the other food. She was most put out when we didn't, and went off to sulk.

The mouse, we soon discovered, was not quite dead. It kept trying to get up, but one of its legs was broken and it could only stagger around in circles. I got the browser up on my phone and looked up how to euthanize a wounded mouse: the suggestions included sealing it in a bag or a jam jar so that it suffocated - but that sounded just a cruel as leaving it to die. A more sensible idea was to decapitate it with a knife - but I didn't much like the sound of that either.

In the end I thought brute force would probably be the most humane but (have you ever noticed this?) you can rarely find a discarded house brick when you need one. So I "borrowed" a stone from our neighbour's rockery and used it cave the mouse's head in. So the poor beast is now on his way to mousey-heaven; his spirit that is - his body went in the trash.

*Her name's Pixie, though I call her "Pixinald-Wixinald-Wallaby-Wombat" - except when she gets feisty and starts biting my hand, at which times I call her "Mungo-Muggins-Boggy-Buggins". 

A few years back, we had a pet hognose and watching the guy eat was torture.  Our other pet snakes were constrictors so it was pretty quick for the rat to go to rat heaven getting bit, held, and suffocated.  The hognose on the other hand bites the rat and chews it alive to get the hognose' venom fangs to inject as the fangs are situated to the back of its mouth.  The venom is weak so the mouse squirms for soooo long before it dies.  A hognose is actually an opportunistic feeder so it has no problem eating dead things so I decided I'd do the deed for mercy.  So I put the rat in a ziploc baggie, spray computer cleaner air duster into the bag, and the rat falls alseep and dies.  Seemingly non-violently.  Fed the thing to the hognose and that's when I realized they add a bitter taste to the compressed air on those computer cleaner things because some idiots would get high on them.  So the hognose will not touch them.

My kids would tell me - you are making it more difficult mom.  Give the rat to the hognose and let it do what nature intended instead of inserting yourself where you're not needed.  The kids were not even 10 years old at this time.

So now I got adopted by a feral cat - Florida seems to have a lot of them.  Just showed up one day and refused to leave.  So he would give me presents - mostly anoles.  He'd catch rats for his food - he's fleecing us on housing but at least he feeds himself and keeps the rodents out of the chicken feed.  So it's a good trade off.

My backyard is a wild zoo adventure.  We have a lot of birds visiting our backyard - hummingbirds, cardinals, bluejays, bluebirds, mockingbirds, mourning doves, finches, wrens, titmouse, chickadees, vireos, flycatchers, woodpeckers, hawks, herons, egrets, different colored and sized ducks, and some nightowls that sounded like some guy tried to open the door with a drill.  Then there's the squirrels that I have to chase off the bird feeders.  These squirrels must have PhDs I can't seem to figure out a way to keep them off the things!  And we even have wild turkeys that, if the car is waxed shiny, would attack it relentlessly sometimes causing dents as it sees its reflection on it - so we don't wax our cars.  Then we have the snakes - water mocassins, banded water snakes, racers, garters, corn and king snakes, etc.  Then there's the slider turtles that we sometimes have to stop for causing traffic in the neighborhood as it slowly crosses the road to go to the other pond.  Then there's the family of deer that occasionally passes by the woods in the back in a row.  Then there's the dreaded raccoons and opposums that would get in your trash if you don't close it properly.  Then there's the armadillos who show up when there are anthills nearby.  Then there's the gators that occasionally end up in our pond.  The HOA calls Florida Wildlife to pick those guys up when we see them.  And then there's the black bear that we've only had once walking through the woods behind us headed to the creek. 

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Many encounters but this was my favorit.  I was backpacking in the high Unitas in an area called Elk meadows.  I was with others but I like to set up my tent off by myself.  It was early in the morning and I had gotten up early to watch the sunrise and fix my breakfast (oatmeal, and hot chocolate) on my little camp stove.  I was sitting in front of my tent almost ready to eat when a cow moose and her calf wandered into my camp.  Realizing it is best to remain seated and not to startle either mother or calf I just sat there and remained quiet.  The calf walked right up to me and the mom came to make sure it was alright.  Partly to keep the calf from getting burned on the camp stove I placed my hand above the stove and the calf nuzzled my hand with its nose.  The mom came over and sniffed me and my breakfast.   Way cool

 

The Traveler

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13 hours ago, Vort said:

I saw part of HMS Pinafore once, when watching Pirates of Penzance.

Are you thinking of the version of Penzance with Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Angela Lansbury as Ruth? I love that movie. And it does have a crossover scene with Pinafore.

I used to sing the "Englishman" song to one of my old cats - Ginger - whom I used to call "Gingy-Boy". He's now long gone, but fondly remembered. My words were a little different:

Quote

 

He is a Gingy-Boy

For he himself has said it

And it's greatly to his credit

That he is a Gingy-Boy

For he might have been a Tab-Tab (Tab-Tab, or Tabitha was my other cat - Ginger's sister)

Or a Minnie or a Kitty (my parents' two cats)

Or a Ha-a-a-ham-let (Hamlet was my brother's cat)

But in spite of all temptation

To be a different pussy-cat

He remains a Gingy -Boy

He re-me-he-he-he he-he-he he-he-he-heins a Gingy-Boy!

 

Ginger would meanwhile look at me like I was mad.

I haven't got a picture of him to hand, but he looked somewhat like this: h3qotthpmylr5x6b6kc0.jpg

Edited by Jamie123
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In the wild I have run into tigers, lions, elephants, leopards, orangutans, baboons, crocodiles, giant monitor lizards, bears, etc, etc.  No time for individual stories right now though.

Edited by Scott
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Banff National park. In a teeny tiny car - early November. Sudden cold snap. The park was deserted. Me and hubby drove to the bison paddock. Drove around. Not a single bison. Typical! Probably removed the bison in the stupid paddock area! Authorities must have left the sign up and sold the bison to some meat packing plant in the States! Sad! Useless park. Useless country.

Heat did not work in the car. Cold and miserable, I pulled into a wooded area. We ate our sandwiches while my english hubby listed all the things he hated about Canada, the weather, the politics but most of all Banff and the rotten lack of bison. 

And then. I heard this low rumbling. The ground began to shake. Suddenly there were bison! How many? Fifty? Most bigger than the tiny car. Some little bison but mainly large, furry, and not very gentle looking! Milling about and just surging through the area. If any of them had begun to move towards the car, I do not know what I would have done.

Drove back to hotel in silence.

And then there was the time that I attending a conference for a week in the park. There was a shuttle from the hotel to the conference Center. I walked though and skipped the shuttle after all it was a nice walk through the woods mornings and evenings.

Last day, I was informed that the shuttle was for the protection of guests due to bears. I had spent a week walking through the most dangerous route at the most dangerous times of day. Why? Because I am an idiot. I have had had warnings about bears and talks about bear safety since I was a toddler. I know personally several people who have lost limbs to bears. When I entered the park, I was warned about bears and given a pamphlet about bears which I read on the last day in fear and trembling. I do not deserve to live! 

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Another story:  I was working to automate a jet engine factory in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  It was morning, but that far north it was still dark.  I had parked my car and was walking into the factory all by myself.  There was no one else in the parking lot at the time.  I was walking between a row a parked cars when a cougar came running past me, within about 10 feet.  He came from behind me and was running at full tilt.  I never heard or noticed a thing until he was passed me.  It took a second for me to realize that I could have been in danger and by time I had a near heart attack - he was gone.

And another.  I was with my wife in Yellowstone when we came upon a traffic jam.  Since we were parked in traffic, I decided to get out of the car and walk a couple blocks up to see what was going on.  There were park rangers and emergency medical that was blocking the road.  A bull moose was about 100 feet off the road behind a fence.  Being Yellowstone and tourists; many cars had stopped to see the wildlife.  One, not so brilliant fellow decided to get a picture of the moose.  He had climbed the fence walked up to about 12 feet in front of the moose and taken a flash photograph.  The moose immediately charged and killed the photographer and then injured about 6 others that attempted to come to the aid of the photographer.  The park rangers were in the process of putting down the moose when I walked up.   

 

The Traveler

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Guest MormonGator
4 hours ago, Grunt said:

I don't know which story to tell.  Growing up in the woods, doing stupid things in water, fighting forest fires out west, and general buffoonery have left me with a plethora of animal stories.  We did catch a raccoon and let it go in the fraternity house once to keep it as a pet.  Bad idea.  Lasted a few months, though.

 I'm 99% sure you and I grew up in very similar places (Maine for you, NH for me. Please correct me if I'm wrong). When hiking the 4000s in NH I'm always amazed by how few wild animals I've seen on the mountains. In fact, I've seen more wild animals driving to the trails than actually on the trails. I remember one time on Mt. Eisenhower someone warned a friend and I that there was a bear on the trails. I said thank you, then after the guy left I thought "Wait a minute, this trail is packed with hikers. There is no way a bear would be around this many people." and guess what? We didn't see a bear. 

While driving up north I've seen a few bears, a couple moose and shockingly, not many deer. 

Edited by MormonGator
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2 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

 I'm 99% sure you and I grew up in very similar places (Maine for you, NH for me. Please correct me if I'm wrong). When hiking the 4000s in NH I'm always amazed by how few wild animals I've seen on the mountains. In fact, I've seen more wild animals driving to the trails than actually on the trails. I remember one time on Mt. Eisenhower someone warned a friend and I that there was a bear on the trails. I said thank you, then after the guy left I thought "Wait a minute, this trail is packed with hikers. There is no way a bear would be around this many people." and guess what? We didn't see a bear. 

Yeah.  I hunt, trap, and fish, so spend a lot of time away from travel routes.  My father was the same, so we spent much time off the beaten path.  Fighting forest fires in the western US led to many encounters as frightened animals tried to escape the fires.

My house now has bear, moose, deer, and about anything else you could think of.  Last week the boys and I had to release a porcupine that was stuck in the electric fence around the turkeys.

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Guest MormonGator
2 minutes ago, Grunt said:

Yeah.  I hunt, trap, and fish, so spend a lot of time away from travel routes.  My father was the same, so we spent much time off the beaten path.  Fighting forest fires in the western US led to many encounters as frightened animals tried to escape the fires.

My house now has bear, moose, deer, and about anything else you could think of.  Last week the boys and I had to release a porcupine that was stuck in the electric fence around the turkeys.

I did some backwoods hiking but not too much (actually, very little. Maybe five times at most).  I was just a ham and egg weekend peak bagger. 

Edited by MormonGator
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5 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

While driving up north I've seen a few bears, a couple moose and shockingly, not many deer.

We have deer living in the green spaces right here in town. They're pretty, but sometimes a nuisance. When we lived in Pennsylvania, you couldn't get away from the deer. My brother-in-law was killed a few years back when he hit one on a Pennsylvania highway.

Don't know if it's true, but I've been told that there are more deer (and more forested area) in the US today than there were in 1776.

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Guest MormonGator
Just now, Vort said:

. They're pretty, but sometimes a nuisance.

Agree totally. They are pretty to look at, but carry deer ticks that I don't want my dogs to get. They also cause vehicle collisions that can kill people. Moose do too. In NH there are road signs all over the place that warn you about them. Bears I think (and @Grunt can correct me again if I'm wrong) are of course, a danger to cars but I don't read about many bear-car collisions. 

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