What was an animal that took your breath away?

To name just a few:

As a child:
A lion at Löwenpark Westerholt Gelsenkirchen (Germany) right at the window of our car and fokusing at me.
A herd of young African Elephants at Ruhrzoo Gelsenkirchen (now Zoom), where one of them get in contact with me with its trunk ever and ever again.

As an adult:
Seeing my second (!) killer whale on my first visit (and shamu presentation) at Seaworld San Diego.
Touching a free ranging Florida Manatee on a kajak tour, while this animal came along and begged for cuddles.
Seeing the whale sharks at Georgia Aquarium.
 
For me it was multiple animals but if I were to pick one... it would be seeing Musk Ox for the very first time at the Berlin Tierpark last year.
Seeing them up close was a magnificent sight and I never realised how big they were!
 
There are so many to choose from; the first time I saw a pangolin, marbled cat, golden takin, proboscis monkey, Amazon river dolphin, shoebill.....but the two most exciting were:

  1. The first time I saw an aye-aye (Vincennes, Paris)
  2. The first time I saw a Sumatran rhinoceros (Port Lympne)
 
Palawan Peacock Pheasant at the Norfolk Wildlife Park, late 1960s. My first intimation that there was any other kind of Peacock Pheasant than the Grey. Stunning animal, then and now
 
This is quite recent, but I can't think of any encounter I have enjoyed more than seeing the Shoebills at Pairi Dazia. Genuinely felt honoured to spend a few minutes observing them before they went back to their shelter.
 
In captivity: orcas. Without a doubt.
In the wild: as I haven't seen orcas in the wild yet... Bearded vultures, it felt like seeing dragons flying.
 
Back when I was a kid, seeing several wild white-bellied sea eagles just soaring high above you is one of a core memory of mine. These were birds that I never though to see in the wild. That was around 9-8 years ago, I hope they're still present in that area.
 
Mine would have to be swimming with a Dwarf Minke Whale off the outward edge of Jupiter Reef (one of the outer reefs on the northern GBR). At first, the whale seemed cautious of approaching the snorkelling group, giving only a few tantalising glimpses of itself as it appeared put of the gloom and disappeared just as quickly, but with time it's confidence grew and began making closer and closer passes to investigate the strange new creatures floating at the surface. Certainly not an experience I shall soon forget.
Dwarf Minke Whale - ZooChat
 
A few instances spring to mind. Probably my most "magical" feeling encounter was getting to see Brookfield's pangolin. Another was Knoxville's lar gibbon absolutely flying across every inch of its massive enclosure. And to whatever extent it counts, seeing the taxidermied thylacine at the Smithsonian nearly brought me to tears.

For wild encounters, I had an unforgettable encounter with a coyote alongside the side of a service road in Orlando. I stopped my car and just marveled at it standing there as it just stared back at me for several minutes. Just a surreal experience. I hope it stayed safe.
 
For me, it felt very strange last year to see the mountain anoa at Krefeld Zoo. Seeing what was possibly the last individual of a species in a zoo enclosure felt very sad...
 
Below are animals I wasn't expecting to see but which impressed me.
White-necked rockfowl, long-wattled umbrellabird - Blijdorp (1982)
Monk, white-nosed and Uta Hick's bearded sakis; red, white and Neblina uakaris, proboscis monkey - Cologne (1982)
Commerson's dolphin, Amazon river dolphin, beluga - Duisburg (1985)
Philippine tarsier - Bristol (1987)
Fork-marked dwarf lemur -Paris Vincennes (1988)
Superb lyrebird - Taronga (1991)
Gordian worms - Queensland Museum (1991)
Tonkean macaque - Strassbourg (2001)
Rufous spiny bandicoot, naked mole-rat, gelada, red-shanked douc langur, American paddlefish - London (can't remember year)
 
Touch-me-not walking stick, I had gone to Utica zoo at a time when I felt low, I had wanted to see them, a year before I didn’t even know they existed in the United States, so when I saw that a zoo (close to me no less) had some I knew I had to go, you could only see them if you booked an encounter and I did just that, I drove 2 hours to see a bug, when I got there they had said the stick bugs had just had offspring and that they die shortly after they do so… when I heard that my heart sank, but the handler said he’d see if there were any left… and sure enough there was still a living female and I genuinely think in an alternate reality I could have died of happiness, that’s how glad I was, I thanked the keeper profusely and to this day I remember the experience vividly. I learned a few months back that Long Island Aquarium and San Diego Zoo have them, but that doesn’t change anything to me it still is such a special moment to me. Also seeing gaur at Bronx nearly killed me as well.
 
The Golden Possums. When I finally saw one, the color is just stunning.

Blue Eyed Black Lemur, mainly the female. The eye color in combination with the fur color, I can look at it forever, it's just too pretty.
 
Ranchipur from San Diego zoo. He was the first bull elephant I had ever seen and his size and his tusks were so impressive to me as a kid.
 
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