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This Week's Meaningless Topic (#156)(Sept. 1)


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Hi all. In flight sim, we sometimes see interesting animals. In real life over the years, I've seen deer, elk, mooses, porcupines, eagles and hawks, sharks, and barracudas in their natural habitats. The well-traveled readers of this thread must have seen a whole zoo in the wild. And that leads to this week's topic.

 

THIS WEEK'S MEANINGLESS TOPIC:  What interesting animals have you seen in the wild? 

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Let me start with some southern hemisphere countries...

New Zealand: Kea, pukeko, blue duck, weka, takahe, seal, opossum (doesn´t really count, does it?), white heron

Australia: Koala, wallaby, parrot, saltwater croc, freshwater croc, turtle, unknown little sharks & snakes, huntsman spiders (and some unknown), the lovely outback flies (there is no singular for them), reef fishs (e. g. clown fish), australian blue penguin, pelican, cassowary, unidentified lizards, kookaburra, dolphin, humpback whale, dingo

South Africa: Giraffe, elephant, wildebeest, black & white rhino, leopard, vultures, baboon, impala, springbok, sable, zebra, hippo, fish eagle, african penguin, ostrich, african seal

I am sure I have forgotten some. And, yes, I have taken photos of all of them.

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What a wonderful question.

 

Off the top of my head seals off the coast of Scotland.

 

I used to do some Sea Kayaking.

 

Seals are inquisitive and don't know quite what to make of you. They do, however, have a warning sign if one of them gets spooked.

A flipper splashed on the surface - copied by the rest then down they go.

 

One by one they resurface and look at you.

 

Splash a paddle on the surface, they splash flippers and down they go.

 

Then up they come.

 

A wonderful memory of, however briefly and disruptively, becoming part of their world.

 

All the best,

 

John

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This takes some thought.

 

In Saudi Arabia, camels. I don't know if they were indeed wild, or feral, or merely free range.  But they were out in the desert wandering about.

 

In Italy, there are little lizards everywhere, climbing the walls.

 

Closer to home we're seeing a lot of native fauna reestablishing itself after many years of absence.  Rabbits had been scarce until  a few years ago; now they are everywhere.  Also raccoons and 'possums. (A number  of years ago we let our cat out on the porch, only to find her encountering two baby 'possums that had somehow managed to find a way through the screen). Varieties of birds have become common again in our neighborhood, especially titmice and nuthatches. 

 

At work at the museum, where we have a couple hundred acres of meadow, wood lot and farmland, there is more variety.  Mammals: foxes and deer.  Among birds, we had great blue herons and egrets, but alas, our pond dried up, so they're gone. But we do have hawks, both red tail and coopers.  Just this past year ravens have made an appearance.  I especially love watching the barn swallows put on their airshow. Loops, barrel rolls and himmelmans, six inches from the ground! And they never crash!

 

Ken

Edited by Ken Q
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Probably all that stillwater quoted for Australia but one memory always stays with me

 

That many times during my 2 year Solo Pacific sailing odyssey - in my 70s

 

Dolphins quite often stayed with me for hours - maybe they were mermaids:D

IMGP2489.JPG

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some great posts above, most of my wildish animals seen were during my military travels, I saw some dolphins off the coast of Gibraltar swimming next to our small boat, we also saw the very spiteful but famous Gibraltar monkeys.  whilst stationed in Kenya for 3 months I saw the usual variety of snakes, monkeys (some stole our tinned foods), something like a buffalo, zebras etc....the most memorable though was when playing a football match at one of the watering hole resort we had a pitch invasion by a small herd of elephants.....oh and we went out on a boat where you could see sharks swimming under us.....in the UK I have seen various types of Deer, saw one the other week just running up the side of a major road in the country, was really strange as being such a small place we don't see that many proper wild ones...

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We're a blessed bunch on this forum! Having spent my growing up years in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) I was fortunate enough to see all manor of African wildlife. One trip stands out which was to the massive Lake Kariba where my uncle held a high position within the local government. He had access to his own government motorboat and lodges around the lake. The road trip up to the Lake in our trusty Ford Cortina was punctuated by my Dad slamming on the brakes to avoid a lioness and her three cubs crossing the "highway" - first and last time I saw wild lions. Same trip - we were having sundowner drinks (I was about 14yo) above the Lake at the government lodges and there was a small herd of elephants on the lake shore, one bull was getting rather amorous and my Granny (no joke) exclaimed "one of those elephants has five legs!" She never let that one down. Later in life in Australia she was bitten by a goanna. Bless her!

Cheers

Graeme :)

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On my many trips to Norway I once saw
on the Lofoten Islands a huge moonfish right under our rowboat while fishing.
On a fishing trawler trip I saw some sperm whales.
On various hikes I often saw reindeers and some mooses 
as well as a group of musk oxens.
At the coast I could see puffins, gannets and a sea eagle.

 

In germany as a little child I once fortuitously saw a
beluga whale, which had obviously got lost in the river Rhine.

 

 

 

 

 

And of course some "ex misses" as well :D

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17 hours ago, John Heaton said:

Dolphins quite often stayed with me for hours - maybe they were mermaids:D

Great, but have you ever seen a Canadian Dolphin? Here is one:D.

All kidding aside I've been super lucky to meet with an Octopus while diving around our Gulf Islands here in the Salish Sea. Magnificent animal. We looked at each other and he pulled off my mask then let go of it and I perched the water out and we kept up our "meeting" and gentle play for several minutes. One of the true highlights of my Life. Other than that was lucky to see Bears and deer in our backwoods when I worked in exploration for Utah Mines in Port Hardy, BC on Northern Vancouver Island. Have a great weekend guys and I'll have a beer for you.:P Cheers k.

bottlenose-buck.jpeg

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