I have seen:

Lion: RMNP on Deer Mountain and just beyond Lawn Lake
Black Bear: RMNP on McGregor Mountain(probably 10 times) and Fern Lake Trail
Bobcat: Longs Peak trail, and on some trail just outside of Ouray.
and of course elk, moose,bighorn, mule deer, marmot, pika, fox, martin,etc....

I think some of the only animals I have yet to see are beavers and mountain goats.

rhinos, tigers, elephants, etc. seen in wildlife preserves like chitwan or corbett never seemed as exciting as seeing, say, an andean condor or herds of bharal rushing down the mountainside. that's truly wild!

"Henning, Scott: Lucky you to see the tiger. That was another where I saw tracks (very fresh from the night before) but no cat. Scott, was your sighting in Chitwan?"

No, we didn't see any tigers in Chitwan, but fresh tracks. But we did see rhinos, crocidiles, etc. in Chitwan. Tigers are very elusive and hard to spot, so we were very lucky indeed.

We saw the tiger while hiking up to the ancient mountaintop ruins in Bandagarv National Park, India. Badagarv is said to have the highest density tiger population in the world, so if you want to see a tiger in the wild, this is your best chance. You still have to be lucky to see one, even here, because they are so elusive. When we were there in Jan. 2002, we were told there are only about 1,000 tigers left in the wild in the entire world, so I consider myself very lucky indeed.

speaking of bandhavgarh what's really difficult and as elusive as the snow leopard is the white tiger.

Once saw a Jackalope, and a woolly trout.

That would be Jackalope. Saw one on a post card. Other than that, i've seen bears and deer ( in the Sierra Nevada ), and a herd of alpaca and condors ( in Chilean Patagonia )

I swear I saw a sasquatch in the Cascades.

"I swear I saw a sasquatch in the Cascades."

That was just me after I didn't shave a few weeks. Some tabloidist tried to chase me, but I got away because they didn't bring climbing gear.

I ran into a Craig Peer. Vicious devil! : )

I haven't seen too many animals in the wild but have managed to run into: black bear, roosevelt elk, moose, bison, deer, loon, blad eagles, coyotes, bobcats, marmots, and umm... cattle.

While hiking in Africa (no cars) I've run into elepants and water buffalo. Hiking into an elephant herd when your group doesn't have a radio or guns (to frighten them off) turned out to be pretty exciting as we ended up climbing some trees and hoping the elephants wouldn't attack us while others tried to scare them off the trail with sticks and yelling. These weren't domesticated elephants and can kill you easily if they're upset (why we were in the trees). If you go to Africa, visit some some places on your feet instead of in SUVs

I still want to visit Yellowstone in the winter sometime and see the bison then.

>If you go to Africa, visit some some places on your feet >instead of SUVs

Yes, I agree. I would highly recommend climbing Mt. Meru if visiting Africa. You are likely to see elephant, zebra, and cape buffelo on the trail, as well as many others. Other "must see's" in Africa for wildlife viewing: Trekking through the Virunga to see the gorillas. On a climb to Mt. Elgon, we saw lots of Colobus and blue monkeys. I havn't been to but have heard that visiting the Rwenzories is a great experience for seeing wildlife. Unfortunatly the area was closed when we visited Africa.

Scott, John: where would you recommend doing a hiking trip in Africa? Kenya, Tanz, Zimbabwe, Botswana? Specific parks? My wife and I want to go to Africa some day, but the thought of getting shuttled around in SUVs is more than we can bear.

I saw a fat chick at 9,000 ft on Rainier once. Does that count as an animal?

Don't know.

But some of the best birds I've seen have been double-breasted hip-twitchers.

marc, that's a very rare and unusual siting that high up on the mountain, I haveonly seen that species as high up as Paradise Lodge.

I did hear that USF&W were planning on introducing them in the higher elevation areas to see how they would respond.

Did you happen to get any photos?