What are your top three animals you hope to see sometimes in the future?

[illabelle]

Back in the summer of 1994 my cat brought me what I thought was a young chipmunk or squirrel - surprisingly uninjured so far as we could tell. We put it in a cage with some food, expecting that it would die. Soon discovered that it was a flying squirrel. We kept it for a few days to recover from the trauma of being captured by the cat, then released on a mountain in a nearby state park. It's the only one I've ever seen.

Other creature encounters:
We were camped right beside the trail in the HMW last fall. Heard some breathing, grabbed the camera, unzipped the tent. 30 feet away - Moose! Footprints on the trail showed he'd been much closer.

Took off my shoes at one of the GSM shelters. Was standing in the sun enjoying the weather and a little grass under my feet. Was surprised by rattlesnake right in front of me. It touched my foot!

[imscotty]

"Took off my shoes at one of the GSM shelters. Was standing in the sun enjoying the weather and a little grass under my feet. Was surprised by rattlesnake right in front of me. It touched my foot!"

Touched by a rattlesnake, you are lucky indeed Illabelle. Somehow I am envisioning the "Little Prince" here...

“Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence they came,” the snake spoke again. “But you are innocent and true, and you come from a star…”

[devoidapop]

And if I may hijack your tread a bit KooKirk, I think it would also be interesting to have people list their favorite wildlife encounters that they have actually experienced.

Mine would be...

Resplendent Quetzal
A Fer-de-lance who would not give me the path
Young Whale Shark
Seeing about 10% of the entire population of the North Atlantic Right Whale at once (over 30 whales)
American Pika (I love those guys)
Jabiru Stork
Harlequin Beetle
Ptarmigam

I miss seeing beaver. I grew up fishing and playing in the creeks of southern maryland. We used to see them all the time. Land development really hurt that population.

Still lots of heron and bald eagles to be seen there and that's always cool.

[GoldenBear]

I presume you mean, "In the wild"

Wolf
Mountain lion (but not TOO close!)
Any major animal of the African savannah

[ScareBear]

i would like to see a honey badger and a scarebear get into a fight. it does not matter that the fat bear weighs many more pounds. i think the honey badger would win.

Fat? You've met me? I think not...

Dude, I've seen your video. Thunder thighs should be your trail name...

[Tipi Walter]

My long-time dream is to be living outdoors in the next North American ice age and seeing a woolly mammoth in the snow. Until then . . . I wait.

[imscotty]

My long-time dream is to be living outdoors in the next North American ice age and seeing a woolly mammoth in the snow. Until then . . . I wait.

There are stories from deep within the South American rainforest that the Giant Sloth still exists. I want to be the guy who finds one

[Traillium]

I'd also put a wolverine on my wishlist. I'd love to see a cougar in my southern part of Ontario.
A Wooly Mammoth or a Mastodon would be incredible. A scant 11,000 years ago they lived in my area. I swear I can still feel them in the periglacial hills and ponds near my home. I'd also love to happen upon a wandering band of the first humans to live here after the last retreat of the glaciers. They'd have been hunting those great elephantine beasts!

[Francis Sawyer]

Kate Upton,Jennifer Anniston, Gisele Bundchen

[illabelle]

"Took off my shoes at one of the GSM shelters. Was standing in the sun enjoying the weather and a little grass under my feet. Was surprised by rattlesnake right in front of me. It touched my foot!"

Touched by a rattlesnake, you are lucky indeed Illabelle. Somehow I am envisioning the "Little Prince" here...

“Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence they came,” the snake spoke again. “But you are innocent and true, and you come from a star…”

I'm not familiar with the reference ... but I feel more special.

[DuneElliot]

US Animals that I haven't seen in the wild but would like to (tough to pick three): Cougar, Wolf, Grizzly, Wolverine, Caribou, Musk Ox, river and sea otters, lynx

US Animals I've had the pleasure of seeing: Black bear, moose (cow and bull), elk (cow and bull), white tail and mule deer (doe and buck), beaver, pine martin, ermine (weasel), badger, bald and golden eagles, pika, marmot, rainbow/cutthroat/brown/brook trout, fox, raccoon, skunk...and something the size of a badger that wasn't a badger (I've no idea what it actually was)

Non-US Animals I've seen: English badger, fox, red deer, fallow deer

Non-US Animals I want to see: Any of the big cat species, Harpy eagle

[gpburdelljr]

My long-time dream is to be living outdoors in the next North American ice age and seeing a woolly mammoth in the snow. Until then . . . I wait.

You may not have to wait for the next ice age.

http://www.livescience.com/51424-woo...sequenced.html

[saltysack]

Kate Upton,Jennifer Anniston, Gisele Bundchen

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[Tipi Walter]

You may not have to wait for the next ice age.

http://www.livescience.com/51424-woo...sequenced.html

Thanks for the link; something to copy and read on my next trip. I got tired of waiting to see my own special woolly mammoth so I took a close look at the coat of my pet mammoth (the mighty Shunka dog) and could discern no difference between his fur and mammoth fur---

Trip 82 053.jpg

Once he grew Tusks I had my own pygmy woolly mammoth!!!
Trip 82 155.jpg

[burger]

A Wooly Mammoth or a Mastodon would be incredible. A scant 11,000 years ago they lived in my area. I swear I can still feel them in the periglacial hills and ponds near my home. I'd also love to happen upon a wandering band of the first humans to live here after the last retreat of the glaciers. They'd have been hunting those great elephantine beasts!

In a similar vein: passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker.

Born in the wrong damned century.

[full conditions]

I got to see one of my big three last summer in the Whites - we had a Fisher Cat come slinking past our tent as we were camped at the edge of the Pemi. Also got a Northern Goshawk soaring over the Great Gulf Wilderness a few days later along with a small flock of boreal chickadees at Galehead Hut during the same hike. Besides the Fisher Cat, my other two mammals (for the AT) would be the Pine Martin (northern Maine) and Canada Lynx.

[Venchka]

Wolverine
Wolf
Grizz
I would be happy with the easy critters. Marmots, badgers, moose, coyotes, elk, etc.
Wayne


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[evyck da fleet]

So far this year I've seen a yellow eyed penguin, platypus, wallaby, wombat, pademelon, water dragon and I would have been fine without seeing a tiger snake

[Venchka]

So far this year I've seen a yellow eyed penguin, platypus, wallaby, wombat, pademelon, water dragon and I would have been fine without seeing a tiger snake

You're in the other hemisphere. Lol.
Wayne


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[saltysack]

With the way things are looking for any critical, threatened or endangered species you better hike often and fast!! Washington needs a good natural disaster! I'm not into politics but the arsehole in charge not helping the natural world........


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