Wild Animals in the Wild!

nanoboy said:
Were these behind-the-scenes encounters, or did you just stuck your hand through the bars?

(PS folks, this is a top thread but I can't really contribute because all I have seen are a few seals and a fox. Not even a dingo for me!)
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Na, they were just exhibits you could get pretty close to the animals. The polar bear had a stand-off barrier maybe 1.5m from the wide bars, so I probably could have reached its nose, but I wasn't going to try that! The Indian Rhino came right up to the poles and stuck its nose through so I gave that a pat, which was awesome :D
 
@Dicerorhinus, Last year I did a 3,5 week trip from Zambia (Vic Falls) via Chobe, Okavango, Etosha, Namibian coast, Namib desert to Cape of good hope. So all in one trip. It was quite succefull with 190 bird species and at least 49 mammal species in winter/ dry season.

We saw I believe 4 or 5 hyeana during a night drive (on which 5 black rhino's were also present). I forgot to mention that we also saw small spotted and large spotted genets in Etosha. And I forgot my highlight, an AARDWOLF crossing the road in front of the truck in the Namib desert just after sunset.
 
Wild carnivores - not much too remarkable:

European Red Fox
Coyote
European Otter
European Stoat
Least Weasel
Grey Seal
Common Seal
California Sea Lion
Common Palm Civet
And a very tentative Binturong - it was very dark!

I think that's all. Bound to remember something I've forgotten later. Always the way with lists.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
In terms of having seen carnivores in the wild - I have, through a little luck and a lot of patience, seen every single UK native carnivore with the exception of the pine marten and wildcat in the wild. So this means:

Weasel
Badger
Stoat
Polecat-Ferret
Polecat
Otter
Red Fox
Feral Cat
Grey Seal
Common Seal

Curiously, I have never seen an American Mink, despite how common they are said to be.
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I have seen all the above in the wild too (plus a wildcat), including a otter living in a marine environment (Scottish Highlands). However your reminder of mink got me thinking that it is at least 10 years since I saw one. I used to see them around lakes and ponds quite regularly in the mid 1990's and a tell tale sign of mink (if you could not see them) was half eaten dead fish dragged onto the land. They seem to have vanished from at least 3 places where I used to regularly see them, they where really cheeky and not afraid of 'grab and run' attacks on my fishing bait. Otter numbers however are increasing very well, too well in some areas of the UK where they are wiping out numbers of large old native fish. Like a fox and a mink an otter will kill and maybe eat only a tenth of the fish and then kill again.
For those wanting too view wild badgers, find a set, put up a hide about 20metres away, leave it there for a week or so, come back on a dry evening armed with some cooked sausages, put them down on the ground about 5-6 metres away from the set. Just after dusk they will be out (I'm pretty confident about this) eating the sausages -they love sausages. To view them get a night vision camera set up or night vision binoculars, if you don’t have either, then the crude way is to wait until they are eating, carefully and silently stand up, flash a torch on them and watch for 2 or 3 seconds as they run away! :p
 
Pootle said:
I used to see them around lakes and ponds quite regularly in the mid 1990's and a tell tale sign of mink (if you could not see them) was half eaten dead fish dragged onto the land. They seem to have vanished from at least 3 places where I used to regularly see them,
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Its believed Otters will kill Mink(or at least the kits) and with Otters increasing, so Mink are declining. However, as Mink replaced Otters in the vacant niche when Otters were at a very low ebb, its a form of natural justice if otters are now instrumental in reducing their numbers, its too much too hope they might eradicate them altogether perhaps.
 
Pertinax said:
Its believed Otters will kill Mink(or at least the kits) and with Otters increasing, so Mink are declining. However, as Mink replaced Otters in the vacant niche when Otters were at a very low ebb, its a form of natural justice if otters are now instrumental in reducing their numbers, its too much too hope they might eradicate them altogether perhaps.
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Go otters!

I nearly converted a mink into roadkill about 10 years ago, late at night on slip road off the M62, but I missed! Come to think of it, I have never seen a roadkill mink, although have seen twice seen roadkill pine martens in Scotland, which are roughly the same size.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
Go otters!

Come to think of it, I have never seen a roadkill mink, although have seen twice seen roadkill pine martens in Scotland, which are roughly the same size.
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I travelled on a main road in Hampshire a couple of days after 600 Mink escaped/were released from a nearby Mink farm some years ago- the road was littered with dead ones. But I haven't seen dead 'wild' ones anywhere.

I have more than once see a dead Otter on the road. Also probable 'pure' Polecat (in Wales). Have seen Pine Martens alive in Scotland, but fortunately not dead. Beautiful creatures.

Other notable roadkills seen;
Fallow Buck(on central reservation, A12 Essex)
Sika Hind(Dorset)
Roe Deer- several.
Chinese Water Deer(Norfolk) Muntjac(several places).
New Forest Pony.
Mute Swan.


Thats not to mention the ubiquitous Pheasants, Rabbits, Hares, Stoats, Foxes and Badgers. On some journeys I count the number of dead badgers I can see in a day- I think 8 is the record.
 
Carnivores:

Australia
Dingo
Red fox
Feral Cat
Australian Fur Seal
New Zealand Fur Seal
Australian Sealion

USA
Coyote
Sea Otter
Northern Elephant Seals

Zimbabwe
African Wild Dog
Banded Mongoose
Bat-eared Fox
Ratel

:p

Hix
 
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Dicerorhinus said:
Thats an impressive list of species, am I right in thinking you were in Tanzania? I'm curious if it which species of Hyeana was sniffing around your door and if it was a particularly urban area?
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Yes, I was lucky enough to work in rural Tanzania for a couple of years, so wildlife sightings were both more frequent and more exciting than they are in the wonderful city of Brighton and Hove, where I now live. I lived in a very small village just south of the Selous Game Reserve. The hyenas that visited were spotted - our guard, who dozed outside our front door through the night, was woken up by their chewing at his blankets.
 
Wild animals in the wild

There was a time when I couldn't 'see' a roadkill without evaluating its edibility; quite a lot of Roe Deer & the occasional Sika, plus the inevitable Grey Squirrels, Pheasants & Bunnies, ended up on our table. I also have a stuffed Little Owl which was picked up injured & died of post-operative shock at the vets after having a broken leg pinned. Only thing left to do with it was have it stuffed. A 'roadkill' hen Pheasant came round in the car; it had an irreparable wing injury, but lived happily in an aviary for years, and laid lots of eggs. On the downside, it was caught eating Diamond Doves & Zebra Finches in the aviary & ended up living loose with the watefowl, which were too big to swallow......
 
FBBird said:
On the downside, it was caught eating Diamond Doves & Zebra Finches in the aviary & ended up living loose with the watefowl, which were too big to swallow......
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Brief aside from this thread;
Do Diamond Doves spend a lot of time on the Aviary floor and eat up spilt seed? I'm looking for a 'cleaner-up' species but Quail don't appeal to me much.
 
FBBird said:
There was a time when I couldn't 'see' a roadkill without evaluating its edibility; quite a lot of Roe Deer & the occasional Sika, plus the inevitable Grey Squirrels, Pheasants & Bunnies, ended up on our table. I also have a stuffed Little Owl which was picked up injured & died of post-operative shock at the vets after having a broken leg pinned. Only thing left to do with it was have it stuffed. A 'roadkill' hen Pheasant came round in the car; it had an irreparable wing injury, but lived happily in an aviary for years, and laid lots of eggs. On the downside, it was caught eating Diamond Doves & Zebra Finches in the aviary & ended up living loose with the watefowl, which were too big to swallow......
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I like collecting interesting dead animals I find in the countryside, and rotting them down or mummifying them for study of their anatomy - currently I have a pygmy shrew, common shrew, bank vole and fieldmouse chugging along nicely. The pygmy shrew has been perfectly mummified, the rest are being rotted for their skulls.

In the past, I've obtained through these means a complete brown hare skeleton, an almost complete siskin skeleton, a sheep skull and - albeit temporarily - a fox. The latter got stolen for some reason, presumably by someone walking the Pennine Way, which passes through my girlfriend's garden. I say stolen because there is no way a predator or scavenger could have got through the wood and chickenwire box I constructed to hold the remains!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
I like collecting interesting dead animals I find in the countryside, and rotting them down or mummifying them for study of their anatomy - currently I have a pygmy shrew, common shrew, bank vole and fieldmouse chugging along nicely. The pygmy shrew has been perfectly mummified, the rest are being rotted for their skulls.

In the past, I've obtained through these means a complete brown hare skeleton, an almost complete siskin skeleton, a sheep skull and - albeit temporarily - a fox. The latter got stolen for some reason, presumably by someone walking the Pennine Way, which passes through my girlfriend's garden. I say stolen because there is no way a predator or scavenger could have got through the wood and chickenwire box I constructed to hold the remains!
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If I didn't live in a small apartment, I would totally be doing this too.
 
Nothing can be expected to live on spilt seed off the aviary floor, and countless quail are lost because people think they will. Depending on the size of the aviary, and what else is in there, you might consider Golden Pheasants [even a single cock if you don't want to breed them] or one of the smaller breeds of bantam. These will clean up small seed in addition to eating their staple ration of bigger grain and pellets. Unlike my misbehaving common Pheasant hen, I have never had any trouble between Goldens and other aviary inhabitants. They are the only pheasant I regard as 100% safe. Even bantams can get some funny ideas about other birds, and should really be in a mixed aviary quite younbg if they are expected to live there.
Don't let me put you off Diamond Doves -- you should probably have them anyway.
 
Living as close to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks as I do I have had the opportunity to see several species in the wild. I've seen mule deer, pronghorn (in town as well as national parks), moose, black bears, grizzly bears, a bobcat, bison, bighorn sheep, a mountain goat, elk, wolves, coyotes, and birds like sage grouse, and bald and golden eagles. I have yet to see a mountain lion.

In Costa Rica I saw quetzals, a motmot bird, toucans (can't remember the species) a coati, white-faced Capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, three-toed sloths, American crocodiles, a big variety of hummingbirds and butterflies, and boat-billed herons. We didn't see scarlet macaws or spider monkeys and I missed the boa constrictor and armadillo the other group saw.
 
Are we allowed to talk about cetaceans yet? I once saw a bottle-nosed dolphin doing something rather cool (there's a clue up there ^ :p).

EDIT: Just realised it might still count, as Canis lupus familiaris is a carnivore, albeit not a wild one. :p

So anyway, when I was on Tory island (off the coast of Donegal, Ireland) a few years ago, I saw the amazing sight of a wild dolphin swimming around the harbour with a labrador, and I took the above photo.

Later, I found out the pair (the dog is called Ben, and people have taken to calling the dolphin Dougie) are quite famous: they've been in the Independent newspaper and on
.
 
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I'm all for discussing cetaceans, I have a few to discuss!
 
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