The Most Impressive Animal You've Seen in Real-Life (not in a zoo)

[BJJscion]

Me? I'd have to say a copper head snake in my backyard. Dad and I were doing yard work, and he was about to pick up our black hose that we were using until he noticed that it had stripes, which it wasn't supposed to have. We corralled it into a tin trash can and let it go in a nearby national park, because we're awesome like that!

Or, since my family lives in a beach town, I've seen dolphins playing with dolphin-cruise boats right off the beach. But, they were yards away, so I doubt that counts. :icon_neut

Anybody here got a cool animal story?

 

[Will Collazo]

A fox! The way they move and look is pretty amazing.

 

[BJJscion]

A fox! The way they move and look is pretty amazing.

Oh, yeah! I've seen foxes, too! Not as up-close as the copper head, though.

 

[Cazadores]

Mule deer with a huge rack is pretty impressive if you get close enough. which is pretty hard.

Ive been within a few feet of a live cougar. Only thing separating me was my two big dogs. It jumped down a 40ft cliff in like seconds when it finally took off.

 

[QTdd**]

My girlfriend.

A couple of kangaroos live about half a mile away from my parents' house. They're awesome.

 

[NoSmilez]

i never went to strip club in nyc but in california they do the pole thing and i was quite impressed

 

[seatea]

A badger.

 

[Zookeeper Gabe]

Size wise, shittons of humpbacks when whale watching. Handling wise a coral snake in the jungle in Honduras, hours from any medical care (was an awesome way to punch my venomous cherry). Got chased by a fisher in 4' of snow, which was mildly terrifying he didn't get to close but close enough to get me to almost shit myself. Saw one wolf in 3.5 years of wolf tracking in college was awesome. My best endangered animal experience is finding a timber rattlesnake in MA where the whole state population is under 200, very much a needle in a haystack.

 

[Ralph Wiggum]

Most I been impressed was by this huge mountain sheep that walked straight to us while hiking at the grand canyon. its boldness shocked me, I thought maybe it had rabies and was gonna head butt me off the slope. but it just walked up to us, stared us down with those big blank eyes and walked away. we figure people must have been feeding him in the past.

oh, also, a fucken tarantula crawled into our house last winter. definitely not what you want to see first thing in the morning.

 

[kidnic]

Too close.

 

[BrutalBoy]

 

[ShogunTBone]

I saw an albino deer once.

 

[MMA04]

Pod of humpback whales swam underneath my tour boat. I saw 2 breach and about 14 of them did a bubble net feeding less than 100 feet from the boat. Its insane that animals that large exist and that they can just disappear in the water right under our noses.

 

[IAC]

A lobster, big as a corgi. And a moth, big as a bat.

I know pretty lame.

 

[mikecello]

I fell out of a boat once with an alligator in the river. I also got a good look at a shark while snorkeling.

 

[Zookeeper Gabe]

@shoguntbone-I forgot I actually saw one as well when I was out looking for wolves. I didn't think it would last too long.
@brutal-that gif is terrifying. Way to flimsy of a fence for any bear.
@mma-I would love to see that, only seen them breaching an swimming.

 

[Henry Swanson]

 

[Troublesome10]

I've seen a moose (if I'm not mistaken it's the most deadly animal in NA), but I was in a car and it was at the side of the road, so that's not that impressive I suppose.

Camping a few years back at a spot in Ontario called Killarney, a giant owl (don't know which kind) swooped right into our campsite and appeared to be attacking something, a squirrel perhaps. Afterward it just sat on the branch and chilled for a while, allowing us to snap a couple photos, which I still have somewhere.

On that same trip, one of the biggest foxes I've ever seen (they are not big generally) was occupying our camp site, and scurried away as we approached.

 

[surf fu]

Saw a black bear with the old man once.

 

[MGLucas]

Probably the bear I saw when visiting some friends in Newfoundland. We were sitting out on the back deck when the bear lumbered up to about 12' from us, sniffed around a little bit then kept on his merry way. I have a very terrifying memory of seeing a huge whale tail sticking up out of the water when I was a kid. I was 8 or 9 at the time and I went out in a small boat with my buddy and his father. I remember my friend saying "look at that" and turning my head I saw this giant dark tail about 20' away and I absolutely freaked out. Took me years to be able to get into a boat after that.