SummitPost.org

This guy was out catching some rays in Arizona. I think it had just eaten a squirrel or something.

I have random Grizzly encounters on my way to work about once a week.

On Hotoven and I we saw millions of cows, bison, pronghorn, prarie dogs, marmots, pikas, magpies, horned toads, either saw a big roadrunner or it was a huge woodpecker

Our highpoint trip. Also saw a lil lizard and some deer, lots of deer!

I saw a wild Doogie running around trying to mate!

Outside of the usual animals I see (deer, black bear, squirrels, snakes, etc.) Mt Rogers, Virginia has some wild ponies that roam the area and really make the area special. My first time there I was woken up in the middle of the night and was a little un-nerved until I saw ponies instead of bears or..zombies!!! Seriously, if you're in the area, check it out. Oh, and does anyone out there ever really get used to the birds scaring them on the sides of trails ? Maybe I just have a fear of birds that I'm not aware of, hahaha.

Hotoven wrote:I saw a wild Doogie running around trying to mate!

hot park employees watch out

Here’s a recent sighting:

http://www.summitpost.org/image/648552/442727/bobcat.html

2 weeks climbing and hiking in the Tetons I saw:
Griz, black bear, deer, pronghorn, elk, moose, osprey, golden eagle, marmotts, pikas, bever, bison, Chip and Dale, AND I saw a timber wolf in Yellowstone!

More cougar sightings in the San Gabriels
http://www.cougarmagic.com

This summer climbing- garter snake, toads, wood cock (which everyone walked by first then when I almost stepped on it it took off and nearly gave me a heart attack), squirrels and their like, not to mention probably 100 deer and other birds I can't id.
other areas we've been in the middle of a herd of caribou, had a squirrel get in our car after some marshmallows, chipmunks that sat with us begging for food, numerous birds and fish.
Growing up I lived in the woods outside of town though so bear, moose, deer, foxes, coyotes, rabbits, hawks, eagles and the usual other assortment were all very common. Not to mention the lynx which I never saw but my grandfather found staring down at him from a tree once....creepy. One morning when I was in elementary school a mother black bear and her cubs crossed the road maybe 60 feet away while I was waiting for the bus. Freaked me out! And I discovered an eagles nest (bald eagle) close by my house this summer. It was on private property so I couldn't get to close but they had their young there and you could hear them. The nest was the biggest eagles nest I've ever seen. I swear it's the size of a compact car sitting up in the tree.The picture really is bad (we had been out hanging hammocks in trees and I forgot to change the exposure settings on the camera) but you can see both parents. An d then there's this paper wasp nest we found. It was literally the size of a beach ball and just full of wasps.

Not much really, mainly elk, coyote once or twice, but seen plenty of wild animals in Africa in game reserves while driving. Most incredible thing ever experienced

Yesterday while walking on Monte del Pardo I saw a quick big wild boar's image while it went away through the forest. Then it emited a loud noise

Scientists capture rare video of elusive African Cat
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/29/sc ... rican-cat/

http://www.cougarmagic.com -- Cougarmagic -- Californias San Gabriel Mountains -- Updated

We had 4 black bears visit our camp after dark at Garnet Lake 2 weeks ago in the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area (Sierra).

We heard that a bear had "trashed" another camp just a few days before. Thus, five of us tried to chase the mama bear away - but she just wouldn't leave. Normally a black bear will run away when you make noise. Not this one. She'd walk 50 feet, then just turn around and "wait". If we retreated, she'd come back. We finally chased her about 200 yards from our camp but she still came back. We then realized that there were 2 cubs in a tree above our campsite!

Once we saw that we gave her a lot of space. She came back, collected her cubs, and went on her way. Sometime during this 3 hour ordeal, a cinnamon colored adolescent bear came to see what was going on. He took one look at the mama bear and didn't stay long though.

There's a good lesson here. In the future, I'll take a closer look at the trees if/when we chase off a bear. We're lucky the mother wasn't more aggressive towards us in protecting her cubs. I suppose if we started going up the tree, she would have been.

No doubt the mother was teaching her cubs how to score an easy meal from some campers. Fortunately, they never learned that lesson. Our food was stored in bear cannisters so they wouldn't have gotten it anyway, but hopefully the frightening experience will deter the cubs from trying it when they grow up.