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A huge humpback whale and it's calf breaching just off the coast of NSW in Oz - saw more the next day too.
Also saw sperm whales and dusky dolphins off S NZ but that was off a boat so not quite the same.
Seen many basking sharks, dolphins and seals when surfing.
King brown snake in Oz (nearly trod on it) and funnel web spiders were the scariest.
A mate of mine got badly bitten by a Great White in SA - almost took his leg off - ouch.
Oh yeah an Eagle flew right over our car in Scotland - nearly hit the windscreen!
Also saw some dolphins playing in Tobermory harbour - pretty cool.
I was lucky enough to see 2 wallabys whilst out walking the Roaches nr Leek.
Was about 15 years ago, not sure if there are any still up there.
On Sunday morning saw a bigish bird of pray perched on one of the monkey trail signs (not sure what kind it was) - took off as I came round the corner - looked brill.
Tiger shark Diving on Holmes reef in the coral sea it followed us about 20 ft away for about 15 minutes felt safe enough under water as long as I could see it. I got back on the boat in record time when I surfaced.
Did one of those dolphin watch things off Cromarty. It was excellent and actually worth the extortionate amount of cash they charged for the pleasure.
Saw a cheeky little otter swimming in the sea when I was climbing at Reiff. Also saw another while I was waiting for a ferry to Mid Yell.
Also a golden eagle when walking in the 'Gorms. Absolutely massive so no chance of mistaking it for anything else! Also they reindeer on top of Macdhui.
Some assorted wildlife in Colorado but forget exactly what... 🙄
The Doog - Member
Nearly squashed a stoat or weasel, never know which is which
Stoats are much bigger than Weasels - Stoats are about the size of a Ferret and Weasels are about the height of a mouse but much longer.
Killer whales, bald eagles and sea otters in Alaska, moose in Sweden, some large "girls" in Pontypool.
Always get a buzz from seeing wild animals when out and about.Special ones so far...
UK - Sea otters, sea eagles and London's parrots and parakeets.
Egypt - Amazing coral dwelling fish.
NZ - Pod of killer whales about 150 metres from the beach.
Nepal - Rhino, was very close too.
Best "missed" wild animal - when camping high in the mountains in Nepal woke up in the morning and a set of snow leopard footprints (allegedly) in the snow around our tents.
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A wildcat up in the Highlands a few years ago. Not the most spectacular animal, but very rare these days.
Local trail south of glasgow, commonly see -
Roe Deer
Pair of Buzzards
Kestrel
Fox
Rabbits
Hare
Heron
and a pair of Lamas !( not going to get close enough to find out how wild they are !)
One overnight on the Knapdale coast -
Dolphin
Porpoise
Common Seal ( got to within 20 ft)
Pair of otters ( my fave bit)(10 ft away, brilliant moment)
Too may birds to remember.
I used to spend a whole dive with these guys.....
Amazing shape and colour shifters!
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Same Guy....
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My Pictures!
In the last three weeks:
Deer (x red, many)
Tawny owl (x2) and three chicks.
Golden Eagle (x1) and Sea Eagle (x1) (both on same day)
Jays, Crossbill, Grouse etc etc
Osprey (daily, on nest, flying and chicks)
Pine Marten (x1)
Wild Cat (x1) whooop!
Dragon Fly today - yellow n black and huuuge.
came across some giraffes whilst out on a ride
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Most deadly (didn't look like they could be arsed to kill you TBH)
Komodo Dragon, quite afew of them on Rinca island ,komodo park ,indo 2004,
most frightnening,
a pair of lion fish the size of medicine balls, nearly bumped into one while spearfishing on the reef off seraya cercil island, flores ,indo, that would have been the last thing i did as the hospital was an hour away and the boat could not have left the island because it was low tide,
best,
huge sea turtle just popped up next to us few miles off shore of seraya
when we were out on the dugout boat, massive and scared the crap out of me,
about a dozen Killer Whales.... 9 hours ago!
thats just the best today....
Wild? I was absolutely livid!
Classic! Still makes me cry laughing now.
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Saw an otter while touring in nortern France , swam with a loggerhead turtle in Greece.
In the UK , see red kites/sparrowhawks regularly flying around the sky above the house. When we stopped at a bunk barn years ago in Ravenscar it was red hot and we couldn't sleep so went for a walk and while we were stood in a clearing a dog fox walked towards us and only turned away (on a forest trail) when about 3 feet away from us. It was like we weren't even there and I've never seen such a healthy looking fox it was immaculate.
Me and the mrs were badger watching last evening in the meadows behind our house. We sat watching a group of 5-7 badgers (I counted 5, she counted 7) as they snuffled through the long grass, pounding their front paws, hunting insects I guess. We'd been there, very still, for about 20 minutes - when a fox, who was also watching the badgers, slunk by us in stealth mode. It didn't see us at all - and passed within 2 feet, it was definitely very wary of the badgers. Absolutely magical.
Honey Badger
it came out of nowhere, bit my mate on the todger and scarpered
Hammerheads in Indonesia, Mantas in the Maldives.
Here's a video of me in the middle of the mantas
baby robin
[i]Nearly squashed a stoat or weasel, never know which is which,[/i]
You can weasily tell them apart cos theyr'e stoatally different.
Anyway, I've seen..
A baby robin
Otter, (Kielder Burn, Loch Linnhe & on the Tweed)
Pine Marten, (near Bunavullin & down Loch Shiel}
A Mink (I think) in Grewelthorpe.
A school of some kind of Porpoise off Steetleys Pier at Hartlepool while fishing.
Badger during the day, next to the roadworks at Wetherby.
2 big Red Deer stags roaring at each other near Meanach Bothy last September.
Lots of Red Kites near here, (Boroughbridge)
Some unknown exotic birds in Goa.
But my fave was a Great Spotted Woodpecker & a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the same tree, at the same time, on the old railway line between Thorpe Arch & Wetherby. Unusual apparently.
Regularly see deer, fox and badger when out on bike or in car so for rarity value
Otter, west coast of Scotland 20 years back, never seen one before or since
Water Vole - looks lovely, vicious little blighters, now on their way back after being ravaged by mink released by the self styled animal welfare brigade.
And no, I don't believe mink should be farmed for their fur but letting them go into our countryside in the name of animal welfare was not an intelligent solution. Our Victorian ancestors tried similar relocation programmes of UK fauna in New Zealand and caused no end of trouble. Do we learn nothing from experience?
swimming in the red sea with a pod of about 20 odd wild dolphins, including playing 'my turn to blow bubbles' a couple of times with one of them!
I saw a Snow Leopard in ****stan, right after a film team who had been hiding out for about 6 months left having seen nuffink.
The border guards had trapped the little thing in a cage and it was very upset about the matter.
A huge Rat in the Gambia...bloody thing was as long as yer arm!
badger.
for some reason i stopped to look at a badger that was in the middle of the road presumably having been hit by a car. it's eyes were open and it was breathing, traffic had stopped so i picked it up (bloody heavy, funny shaped things) and carried it to the side of the road. while i was sat next to it wondering what to do it got up and ran off, right as rain!
when i got home mrs mcgroo told me how vicious they are! 🙂
Forgot to mention wild boar in FOD.
According to my mother there are wild highland cattle up on the doward which I have yet to actually see.
I see the occassional yeti at trail centres......(wine is kicking in)
Orcas are cool - saw them in the Antarctic.
If we're talking about riding, and local riding at that:
* Brown Snake (just under 2m) - last ride!
* Monitor lizards.
* Turtles
* Echidna - think rare(ish) hedgehog thing.
* Ants, bloomin millions of ants - i.e. don't get a flat, stop, then look down...
Best- White Rhino and calf in Kenya.
Worst -Hippo in kenya [seeing as it invaded safari lodge and chased us around swimming pool]
Picture this - lying in bed in an upmarket(ish) hut! on the edge of the jungle next to a coral sand beach in the Andaman sea.You get woken up by yer wife screaming her lungs out.Now shit!,I havn't even "woken up" yet and she is filled with the "passion" already? - er no!!!,a fugin monkey from said jungle is in the room,light fingerin an apple on the sideboard.What the ell do you do now? - oh yeah,shut the door you ****,the friggin monkey got a bigger fright than I did, an legged it.His big mate outside though jumped at the door an banged on the glass.And that was on the first morning - monkeys!,keep the buggers in a zoo and allow me to enjoy the jungle in peace!
some cool pics i've captured in BC
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10 feet from a mountain lion while riding in North Dakota.5 miles from the trailhead & safety.
STL
Whale Sharks, hammerheads and ocianic white tips(not reef sharks) and a spaninish dancer(supposed to be the holy grail of night dives)in the Red Sea.
Mantas in the Maldives.
sangobegger - Membermonkeys!,keep the buggers in a zoo and allow me to enjoy the jungle in peace!
Kind of missing the point entirely there, aren't you fella? 😆
A couple of metres from a 4 metre salt water croc while in a mangrove swamp. My mates thought my subsequent departure was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. Fell over several times and got covered with foul smelling mud, lost a thong (flipflop) and didn't go back to get it.
Bloody croc didn't even have a go, just slipped back into the water after a few minutes. 🙂
(I was laying out a few cables to secure my boat to the bank)
Albino Jaguar - about 10m away from me in the Amazon. What do I win?
A few non-albino Jaguar
Ocelot
Jaguarundi
Giant Ant Eater
Giant Sloth
Howler Monkey
Spider Monkey
Another type of monkey that I have forgotten the name of
Bushmaster
Ferdelance
Python
Black Caimen
Dwarf Caimen
Pirana
Amazonian River Dolphin
Amazonian River Turtle
Giant Otter
And a great many more things that could eat me or kill me with venom.
Do wolves in Yellowstone count as wild? Would have liked to see them a bit closer.
I've been pretty lucky, seen most of the animals that are around in the areas I've been to
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This little fellow wanted to steal my lunch
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Cool! A moose! The best mating ritual of any animal 🙂 (look it up)
Still no mole 🙁
Ooh, the famous FOD wild boar! I'd love to see them..
RS, what lens were those taken on, and how close were they?
RS, what lens were those taken on, and how close were they?
molgrips, all those pics were taken with an Olympus E500, I had the two kit lenses that came with it. They were taken a while ago but the whales, sealion and eagle were reasonably close but not very, think it was just the small lens I used can't remember, they have been cropped a bit. The really clear close-up of the grizzly was the ones in captivity at grouse mountain so less than 10m probably. the other two black bears were on the other side of the road driving back from whistler to vancouver so literally the road width apart, there was a big concrete barrier separating us so thats why you can't see the whole bear as i cropped the barrier out.
I've seen bears and whales but I was really stoked to see an owl in broad daylight a few weeks ago.
Seen bears and moose biking in BC, Adders and Pine martens in scotland.
Best however was Duck-billed platypus in Oz. Have a vast array of Loch Ness monster style photos as they mainly come out at dusk and light wasn't great.
Still remember being transfixed by 1 feeding right underneath me as I stood there gawping.
Whales, dingoes, koalas and Kangaroos were good but the Platypus in the wild were the best.
Ooh forgot abouth the turtles and stingrays on Barrier reef , they are second.
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Would love to see a platypus in the wild but top of my list is an echidna. Still, very pleased with my wombat.
Saw wombats in Steve Irwins place, my they are solid little fellas. As 1 bus driver said, roos you can hit but you wanna drive round wombats! Nice shot of him.
Eungella National Park near Mackay in Queensland is the place to see Platypus, miles from anywhere but still well worth the visit.
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Sorry they are pretty speedy and it was just after dawn!
Yes, I've seen platypus in captivity and they're hyperactive things! I went biking in forest where echidna are commonly seen but missed them - good excuse to go back though.
came face to face with a bear outside my tent in yosemite, as it stood on its hind legs and smashed our steel food box open, it was about 8 feet tall, shat myself big time.
came eye to eye with a Killer whale once too, pretty scary as well.