Wild animals where you wouldn't first expect them to be

[Benosaurus]

This thread is inspired by two of the discussions I have been interested in reading whilst on ZooChat today...

• @gentle lemur, during a discussion about Bruce the echidna at Paignton zoo being apparently unperturbed by winter weather, mentioning a recent BBC nature documentary about Australian wildlife he had seen, which featured an echidna walking through snow in the mountains in broad daylight.
• News of badgers making their home and thriving under a vintage chairlift, at the top of a hill, in the middle of Dudley zoo.

This led to me trying to think of occasions I'd seen animals in the wild in habitats/places I completely did not expect them to be.

I thought of a holiday I had to North Wales roughly 2 years ago. I stayed in a cottage in the tiny village of Llanfair just South of Harlech. On one of the days we decided to walk the entire 4 mile length of Harlech beach (imo one of the best beaches in the UK) South to North. After an hour or so we had reached the mouth of the River Dwyryd whereupon, after a quick packed-lunch break, we saw a long line of badger prints. They were heading back in the direction we came, which was the route we had wanted to take back anyway.

We followed them for about half a mile through the sand dunes and back out onto the beach, then back into the dunes, then back out onto the beach again several times. At one point the tracks ventured quite far out onto the beach towards the sea. It was low tide and the sea must have been 300 meters away from the dunes at that point, so there was a vast flat expanse of sand in front of us. We then realised the tracks were heading towards an old carcass of a huge grey seal, but they didn't quite make it that far before turning around again.

It was a surreal experience. I never expected a badger to be in such a place. I found it so weird being in such a harsh, arid, atmospheric, open, cold, windy environment with nothing in the way of food or fresh water and find myself following the tracks of an animal I'd always associated with dark, quiet, damp, muddy woodland.








So there we are, this is a thread to talk about all the times you've seen, read about, heard about, or watched on television instances of animals in the wild being in habitats/places that you completely did not expect them to be in.

(Pets, domestic animals, escaped animals, and non-native/invasive species don't count).

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Perhaps the most recent example in my experience was my slowly-dawning realisation that the Cattle Egrets dotted around many of the enclosures at Bioparc Valencia were wild animals and not part of the captive collection

 

[Kakapo]

One comes to my mind just now. I've tried several times to find the fabulous antlion Palpares libelluloides in the hot dry steppes near my hometown, in the months where they fly, and in the hottest hours of the day in a place where I was told to be relatively common. I never succeeded in any of the trips to this place. However, certain day in summer 2010 I went to a light trap for moths in a middle-elevation area of the Pyrenees mountains. And to the light, at full night and in a temperate, relatively cold place, cames a female of the dreamed Palpares libelluloides!!!!!!!! The only one that I've seen in my life...



I also found once a burying beetle Nicrophorus interruptus, under a dead fox in a cow stable in the Pyrenees. I've always heard that burying beetles comes only to small animal carcasses (mice, small birds, etc) so it was a surprise to find one under a huge fox carcass.


Another occasion involved the extremely interesting Cryptocephalus ingamma, a beetle endemic to a small spot around my region that feeds exclusively on Artemisia herba-alba and lives in steppary zones. I've found my first ones beating masses of this plant, and I've been told that actually this is the only way to find one, as they are also small, cryptic and secretive and stay partially hidden by the leaves of the plant. So imagine my surprise when I saw a third individual some years later, in a house wall in the middle of a village, and very far from any patch of Artemisia! (I don't have photos of it because I already had good photos of the previous ones found in normal habitat)


Oh, just now I remeber one more! I went to San Diego in 2016. The San Diego Zoo was my main objective but I tried to get more biodiversity-related experiences and finally I and my mother decided to board on a whale-watching tour. We saw no whales, tough common dolphins and a pod or Risso's dolphins appeared. We also paid attention to pelagic birds, that basically were two species, royal terns and sooty shearwaters. However, a bird that hovered over the ship during some seconds, at many miles from the coast and in full open ocean was... a HUMMINGBIRD!!

Honourable mention goes to the juvenile preserved specimen of small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) in exhibition at my local natural history museum and that maybe is the most famous piece of this collection. It was fished by two kid brothers in 1923 at the Huerva river, at 2000 kilometers of the sea!!! (in straight line, much more considering the curvatures of the Ebro river!) It swam upstream the Ebro river until arrive to this place

 

[ThylacineAlive]

Perhaps the most recent example in my experience was my slowly-dawning realisation that the Cattle Egrets dotted around many of the enclosures at Bioparc Valencia were wild animals and not part of the captive collection

I had a similar experience with Black-Bellied Whistling-Ducks in the Southwest US in 2018.

I suppose the most surprising place I've ever found a wild animal would have to have been a wren that I found in my garage one time. I have no idea how it got there or why it would want to be in such a damp, dark space. Other than that the main one that comes to mind is when my friend and I stumbled across a group of Northern Dusky Salamanders, Desmognathus fuscus, while hiking. This species normally inhabits the land surrounding natural springs and small tributaries. These animals, however, were found in the middle of a dry woodland, hanging out in a tiny mud puddle created by rain a few days before. These animals were particularly memorable due to them being the most aggressive amphibians both of us had ever encountered (and we used to go searching for wild amphibians, particularly salamanders, quite a lot at the time). A couple of them even bit me a number of times! Not that their tiny mouths and teeth could any damage.

~Thylo

 

[Jurek7]

A small but very loud Madagascar frog, which lived under the floor of our house, exactly below my bed.

 

[WhistlingKite24]

I once found a brushtail possum in my living room, we looked at each other for a spilt second and he immediately scampered back outside. Throughout my schooling years there were always a few sulphur-crested cockatoos, galahs or noisy miners that managed to fly into a classroom or hit one of the windows. Poor things...
In Brisbane’s CBD I have also seen darters, cormorants and terns along the banks of the river.
Green tree frogs are usually quite common in damp areas especially public toilets. I have also seen a green tree snake or two lurking around public toilets.

 

[birdsandbats]

The school I used to go to was in a surprisingly good spot for wildlife, my best sighting was a Golden-Winged Warbler.

 

[lintworm]

We used to have a Madagacar boa in the toilet from time to time when I was doing field work there.

In Ethiopia we found a Leopard tortoise in the toilet...

 

[birdsandbats]

We used to have a Madagacar boa in the toilet from time to time when I was doing field work there.

In Ethiopia we found a Leopard tortoise in the toilet...

Any idea how the second one got there?

 

[Daktari JG]

One of my best sightings in Costa Rica was of a tayra.
Not in any of the jungles I spent days traipsing around in, but crossing the runway of a small airport.

 

[Pertinax]

I once came across a Grey Squirrel on open moorland near the highest point of Dartmoor, and with no trees apparently in any direction for some miles around. It was lurking amongst tussock grass and made off down a track at my approach.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

In Ethiopia we found a Leopard tortoise in the toilet...

Better than a Leopard in the toilet!

I once came across a Grey Squirrel on open moorland near the highest point of Dartmoor, and with no trees apparently in any direction for some miles around. It was lurking amongst tussock grass and made off down a track at my approach.

Once I saw a grey squirrel climbing the side of a mall in New York City.

~Thylo

 

[lintworm]

Any idea how the second one got there?

It was probably looking for some shade...

 

[Chlidonias]

It was probably looking for some shade...

I think "toilet" may need a little more translation for @birdsandbats, as an American. He probably thinks the tortoise was actually in the toilet bowl.

 

[Daktari JG]

LOL yeah in America toilet =toilet bowl, not bathroom

 

[ThylacineAlive]

I think "toilet" may need a little more translation for @birdsandbats, as an American. He probably thinks the tortoise was actually in the toilet bowl.

That's definitely not what I, an intellectual, believed...

~Thylo

 

[Anniella]

Tricolored heron in a reservoir in the middle of a desert many hundreds of miles from the closest known sightings.

Northern hawk owl on a fence post in the winter.

 

[ChaffeeZooFan]

I was working on my Eagle Scout project in spring of 2015 at a when a couple of gray foxes darted along the fence line and under an old church building. While the park is closer to the edge of town, it is still a very urban area with the freeway running right next too it so I was surprised to see them there. Next thing I know a bunch of kits come out from under the church and starts climbing and playing in a tree behind the church. I counted 5 kits plus the parents. Note the three kits up in the tree. They were super playful and so fun to watch. Also note the freeway in the background.
This little guy popped his head out when I was super close probably 15 to 20 feet away. The whole family lived under the church.