Your Most Amazing Animal Experience!

Blackduiker

1. At the age of 13, while on a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park, viewing wild Grizzlies at a dump site just outside the park, in the state of Montana. Well after sunset, many cars filled with tourists would wait for these extremely large bears to come up the hillside, to feed at the dump site. We witnessed maybe 5 or 6. The closest coming within maybe 25 feet of our car. Massive, impressive, and a bit frightening.

2. My first elephant ride, which took place around a department store, at about the age of 14.

3. Seeing Giant Pandas for the first time, while they were on loan to the Los Angeles Zoo during the 1984 Summer Olympics held here.

4. Having over one dozen Cape Penguins affectionately rubbing up against me, while I gently stroked their heads. I was assisting a keeper with feeding them, during the Los Angeles Zoo's Keepers Training Class of 1985.

5. Assisting a keeper in the feeding and cleaning up after rare Mountain Tapirs. Another extremely gentle and affectionate species. Just don't stand directly behind them due to the spray effect!
 
A cold, dark, rainy beach watching a kiwi forage for sandhoppers.

Any encounter with albatrosses.

Zoowise - Seeing an Amur tiger up close for the first time, particularly a large, grumbly male!

Hearing an Amur leopard purr.

Having a lemur on each shoulder and a long queue of them vying for grapes during keeper day at Chester.

Meeting Tuan the Bornean orangutan at Chester - who had a lot to say for himself. If they weren't potentially dangerous and very strong-willed I think orangutans could have the same 'magic' as dolphin encounters.
 
During an internship at a zoo I got to do a little work with the training of the program raptors. Having a peregrine falcon step onto my hand and look me straight in the eyes with no fear, and knowing I was holding the fastest animal on the planet, was a truly flooring experience.
As a visitor to a zoo, I think my best experience was wandering through the National Zoo's bird house and stumbling upon a Bali starling. I knew how incredibly endangered they were in the wild and they'd always interested me as one of the most desperate cases of endangerment, rather like whooping cranes were. Seeing a live one, and so unexpectedly, was humbling.
 
Some more memories at random:-

-Feeding a banana to a Black Rhino at Port Lympne

-Stroking an Aardvark at Banham Zoo.

-Seeing Torgamba and Meranti for the first time at Port Lympne, and being thrilled at seeing Sumatran Rhino for the first time.

-Hearing (and to a quite a large extent, feeling, so low-pitched is the noise) a Bittern boom for the first time at Minsmere.

-The look of awe on a friend's face on seeing a Boelen's Python at San Diego, a species he obviously hadn't expected to see!
 
IanRRobinson said:
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-Seeing Torgamba and Meranti for the first time at Port Lympne, and being thrilled at seeing Sumatran Rhino for the first time.
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I forgot that one too. A windy October day and he appeared, walking along the fenceline of the paddock- I had waited a very long time to see one of these! But I went one even better the fourth and last time I saw him-as I got to touch and feed him(with permission) and I have the photos too. ;)
 
Seeing 6 huge adult Humpback Whales, 7 Minke Whales (now my favorite animal) and over 100 Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins, who followed the boat and surfed the wake, on a Whale-watching boat in the north Atlantic off Massechusets.

Being on a fishing boat on the gulf coast of Florida and having a small group of Manatees, including a calf, approach the boat.
 
I have two that still give me goosebumps--laying on the beach in Costa Rica behind a Leatherback sea turtle, counting her eggs as she laid them. My zoo sent me there to work with a program haded by a local professor. The second would be seeing a few California Condors soaring over the Grand Canyon. I can still remember those moments as if they were yesterday and they still bring tears of joy to my eyes.
 
It'd be a toss-up between Sea World and Keepers of the Wild.

I know Sea World isn't a zoo, but it has animals so I will count it for this particular thread. I was at the Shamu Close-Up viewing window and had a small stuffed orca whale in my hand. The 3 year old female calf came up to the window and looked at the stuffed whale, bobbed her head and blew bubbles.

Keepers of the Wild: I was the only one there (it was near closing time) by this one large tiger exhibit. I was getting ready to leave when one of the female tigers came over and started chuffing at me. I then started to walk away and she followed me along the fence line. Every time I stopped, she would stop. When I walked back the opposite way, she followed. When I walked past the end of the exhibit, she jumped up on one of the den boxes and watched me leave. I walked back to the enclosure and there she was, chuffing away. This went on for about 10 minutes.
 
Rookeyper said:
I have two that still give me goosebumps--laying on the beach in Costa Rica behind a Leatherback sea turtle, counting her eggs as she laid them. My zoo sent me there to work with a program haded by a local professor. The second would be seeing a few California Condors soaring over the Grand Canyon. I can still remember those moments as if they were yesterday and they still bring tears of joy to my eyes.
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The return of native species, especially raptors, is always something very evocative in overcrowded SE England. I remember my whoops of delight when I saw my first Red Kite lazily floating over the M40. My passenger, who is also keen on birds, seemed strangely pre-occupied by my having just wandered into the centre lane, so absorbed was I for a few seconds...:o

Twelve years later, I was returning to Essex for almost the last time to supervise the emptying out of my parents' home. I had just crossed the county boundary on the M25 when a large brown raptor flew off a lighting gantry. My Dad had always enjoyed seeing Common Buzzards on holiday in Scotland and the West Country. He would have been so pleased to have seen them back in our native county, no matter how numerous they now are..:)
 
IanRRobinson said:
I remember my whoops of delight when I saw my first Red Kite lazily floating over the M40.
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Nowadays if you're driving in that that area you can easily count them up into double figures- last time I was in the Chilterns for a day or two I gave up after about forty...you can also see them in the towns too-flying around over Council House and Industrial Estates too- scavenging?

They are spreading further afield too- I nearly hit one in Wiltshire, it flew up from a bend on the road, presumably from a roadkill, and just managed to get safely airborn before I almost collided with it.
 
Nothing as spectacular as most experiences on this thread, but I am privileged to spend most of my waking hours surrounded by unreleasable British birds, and I've just experienced what wild garden robin feet feel like as they bounce of your hand while their owner collects a mealworm :)
 
Couple of special moments for me, I haven't had a chance to get hands on with many animals though...

Watching the penguin parade at Phillip Island

Standing in a roadside picnic spot in the Dandenong ranges in Victoria, Australia with three wild (but used to humans feeding them) crimson rosellas on my arms and head. Shortly after that a cockatoo bit my thumb!

Going backstage at Seaworld Orlando and meating Cole the King Penguin. The feathers are amazingly soft... Their keepers told us that the Rockhoppers were the most aggressive and liked to grab their wellingtons and 'give them a good flippering'

On our last visit to South Lakes WAP we realised they now had two Jaguars, but didn't know where they were keeping them we approached the Amur tiger house (which they were sharing in rotation with Nina) to be greated by two young playful Jaguars who immediately jumped up and pawed the window in front of us. I also enjoyed feeding a giraffe at the same zoo.
 
Getting my head licked by the same Red-Ruffed Lemur every Saturday when i was a volunteer at Shaldon.
 
Outside of zoos:

My first wildlife vacation, an Earthwatch project studying the lemurs in Berenty Reserve, Madagascar. Having my hand investigated by one particularly friendly young sifaka (photo).

Another Earthwatch project, studying meerkats in South Africa. Meeting the Whiskers before they appeared on Meerkat Manor (meerkat photos).

At zoos:

The lemurs at Jersey Zoo, where the ruffed lemurs would come and hang on the fence to get their bellies scritched.

Watching the otter pups growing up at Oakland Zoo this past summer.

--
My photos: dailyanimals.net
 
I went for a Rhino spotting trek on an elephant in the Nepal jungle - first we went across the hugely wide river in a dug out canoe - with the tattooed locals - it was their normal transport! They gave us dirty looks and were not impressed at our lack of ability to sit stock still (there were alligators). The other side of the river we had to walk past the elephant grass into the trees, and eventually came across a big Rhino. The guide said that we had to be really quiet and that if the rhino smelt us and gave chase we were to take off our clothes piece by piece - dropping them behind us so the rhino stopped briefly for a sniff - giving us a head start to run away REALLY FAST!
 
A rellie of mine was working in Madagascar and once while he was in his tent a baby lemur appeared above him! He put his arm up and held the little lemurs hand for quite some time until the lemur eventually realised that it wasn't its mama's paw and scurried away!!
 
I am fortunate enough to have witnessed several birds hatching but the absolute highlight was assisting a King Penguin chick out who had become stuck in the membrane. She is now of breeding age :)

Swimming with Sand Tiger Sharks @ Blue Planet Aquarium was also very special as was hand feeding Whipsnades Rhinos.......I love my job!
 
amazing experience

The most frightening experience i ever had was back in the late 70's while i was a keeper with the big cats.
I was cleaning out the Tiger enclosure, brush in hand sweeping chlorus around in the empty pond, brushing away the green algae, when i heard the metal screeching of the gate opening.....
Looking around i saw one of the adult Tigers almost head and shoulders through the gate he had somehow lifted with his claws.
I acted instinctively rushing over hitting him on the nose with the brush.
I'm not sure wether it was the shock of being hit with the brush or the fact that the brush head still had some chlorus on it, but he backed away and the Gate slammed down shut.
I always double checked all the gates from then on.
 
urbantiger said:
The most frightening experience i ever had was back in the late 70's while i was a keeper with the big cats.
I was cleaning out the Tiger enclosure, brush in hand sweeping chlorus around in the empty pond, brushing away the green algae, when i heard the metal screeching of the gate opening.....
Looking around i saw one of the adult Tigers almost head and shoulders through the gate he had somehow lifted with his claws.
I acted instinctively rushing over hitting him on the nose with the brush.
I'm not sure wether it was the shock of being hit with the brush or the fact that the brush head still had some chlorus on it, but he backed away and the Gate slammed down shut.
I always double checked all the gates from then on.
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Uhm, I think you win for most amazing animal experiences! Wow!
 
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