ThatOneZooGuy
Well-Known Member
Very cool! I’m so jealous, I was never able to visit the cloud forests haha, but there is seriously nothing like waking up to that amazing call!
Wild animal sighting you felt the luckiest to experience?
- Thread starter elefante
- Start date
Very cool! I’m so jealous, I was never able to visit the cloud forests haha, but there is seriously nothing like waking up to that amazing call!
Last year in the Philippines I swam with Dugongs which was without doubt the best wild animal viewing of my life so far. The place you have to get to is quite remote and for the last few years has been infested with huge jelly fish which made it a very stressful swim but all the more worth it when the dugong emerged from them and hung around peacefully at the surface for 15 minutes or so.
I stayed in a lodge that was actually in the cloud forest so every morning I was treated by frogs and Aracaris. It really is quite a nice place to visit eve if you don't see that many animals.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Capybara are now invasive in Florida ?
It doesn't come as a suprise to me, but are these in large numbers and are they widespread ?
When I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, I saw a wild gray Fox while camping with cub scouts. It walked right across the back of our campsite, maybe 15 or 20 feet away from us. I've camped at the same camp dozens of times since, yet have never seen any other wildlife there (besides some of your standard passerines).
I can tell you one wild animal experience that I (and even more so my parents) find unlucky. Over the past few years, a large flock of wild turkeys, at times counting up into the 80s, have roosted in the trees behind my house. They can be an incredible bird to watch and are surprisingly good flyers... but they've spent so much time on our roof that we've started having shingles fall off... and now need roof repair (which includes removing and reinstalling two dozen solar panels from the roof).
I can tell you one wild animal experience that I (and even more so my parents) find unlucky. Over the past few years, a large flock of wild turkeys, at times counting up into the 80s, have roosted in the trees behind my house. They can be an incredible bird to watch and are surprisingly good flyers... but they've spent so much time on our roof that we've started having shingles fall off... and now need roof repair (which includes removing and reinstalling two dozen solar panels from the roof).
I don't know that you can call them invasive, the population is super small.
I had heard they were there but I thought they were extinct. I'm slightly shocked they aren't doing better. I would think they would spread quite fast considering their experience with predators in the Amazons and Pampas. They're basically made for the swamps of the Everglades.
They aren't found in the Everglades, they wouldn't be able to survive there anyway due to the pythons.
They are not that widespread that I am aware of. I have only seen them once, back around 2011 or so. The pair I saw was in this general area: 27.665669, -82.408237
The population is estimated at under 100, somewhere between 50-75 known individuals descended from 5 that escaped near Gainsville FL in 1995. That said, they aren't supposed to be anywhere near where I saw them...but I know what I saw. I was rouding a bend on a canoe and there was a pair of them standing in the shallow water. They took off when they saw us.
Yes, it is still very small.
It does seem there would be more of them that there are, but such as it is...
Just out of interest, how often do you see introduced species in Florida and what species are most common there? Anyone else who lives in or has travelled to Florida feel free to answer as well.
It kind of depends. I see Muscovy ducks, various parakeets and small parrots daily, the agouti in my neighborhood are seen regularly, brown anole are everywhere. I have never seen the pythons, but I know people that have, but not living in South Florida those are less common. In certain areas of the state species of iguana are very common.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
They are probably all either former pets or the offspring of former pets right ?
Very depressing, they definitely shouldn't be there and should be erradicated.
The University of Florida has a good page on them here:
WEC393/UW438: Status of Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris Rodentia: Hydrochaeridae) and Potential for Establishment in Florida
Basically, they don't really know where they all came from or how many there are. But almost certainly they are descended from escaped animals.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
The thing is they are not the most demanding species in terms of what they need and they are quite happy with browsing on grass, the stalks of reeds and water plants and are not very demanding in terms of water quality either so quite large herds of these can be seen living in very polluted inner city streams and rivers here in Brazil.
I imagine that the university are monitoring their population as it grows and I hope that there are long-term plans to control the population or perhaps entirely erradicate it before it gets more complicated to do so.
I once saw a Hawksbill Sea Turtle (not good on my turtle ID but I believe it was a Hawksbill) while snorkelling. It was a pretty small one but still cool nonetheless. Also saw some wild dolphins, too far away to see clearly enough to get a positive ID but I think they may have been Spinner Dolphins.
A Scottish wildcat, whilst walking in the Cairngorm mountains.
Animallover360
Well-Known Member
One time, I saw an opossum in my yard. I also sometimes see skunks in my neighborhood.
Animallover360
Well-Known Member
Also, I saw a red fox outside.
A reef manta ray on a Hawaiian helicopter tour.