For me it has to be an Arctic Blue Fox. Saw several on a trip to the Aleutian Islands. Not really rare or endangered, but as someone who lives well south of their territory it was certainly a rare thing for me.
I was at the old job, staring mournfully out the window at the world free of this drudgery, and - lo and behold - I see a black weasel-like animal galumph into view and disappear down a breezeway.
I couldn’t believe my eyes, as this was on Vancouver Island where we have no black weasels.
I looked it up, and apparently there were some mink farms in the area, and they shut down due to one or more problems, so now there’s a resilient invasive mink population up near Camosun and the old Insane Asylum.
When entering the Everglades NP my girlfriend and I were handed one of those folded maps with info on the park. Early 90’s BTW. We went to a campground and set up our tent then soon decided to drive out of the park to buy groceries. On the drive out we saw a convertible pulled over to the side of the road, it’s occupants looking at something. We looked and I saw the back end of a large cat walking away. My first impression was who could abandon a cat here? It will get eaten by alligators. Soon I realized it was no ordinary house cat. The brochure we were given stated there were nine known Florida panthers left in the million acre park.
Little blue heron. Not so much rare but very rarely seen here.
we have great blues and greens nesting here. The chugging while they’re brooding is like tommyknockers.
We have those nesting here too, and you’re right!
I remember seeing a Liger at the zoo when I was kid.
I got to see one of the last few white rhinos.
Polar Bear this year in Southern Greenland
Did you poop your pants and play dead?
I was on a boat, about 10 meters away. It’s actually illegal to be closer than 250m but try telling that to a Greenlandic skipper who wants to show you something that even locals have rarely seen.
I feel like the water and ten meters are not a large enough barrier for me, but that is a cool picture
Yeah, it really wasn’t. OK the skipper was experienced, but that could have gone sideways very quickly I feel.
He sure is a chonky boi.
He’s been eating tourists & paying off the boat owner
That really bad taxidermy lion that was / is a meme.
It’s been a lot of years since I’ve been anywhere with wild animals …. But I live in an urban area and am amazed by how regularly i see coyotes. I’m used to thinking of rats, pigeons, and squirrels as adjusted to city life, but I guess coyotes are becoming so too
Before that, maybe i saw a right whale on a long ago whale watch?
Endangered Monk seal when I was snorkeling in Hawaii. Dude was just suddenly there! Saw sea turtles and plenty of fish. Like some finding Nemo shit.
When I was a kid, on a trip to Paris, I went to the zoo, and the highlight of the whole trip was seeing an Aldabra giant tortoise (listed as vulnerable by IUCN). Now, even when this was 1990, I was still like “ooooooo cool turt”. I didn’t expect the buddy to jump around and munch pizza. Just a tortoise doing tortoise things slowly.
(The other highlight of the trip was seeing a public Minitel terminal. Holy shit guys, we were only mildly approaching that level in Finland.)
Minitel was, apparently, the shit.
I once got to meet a Tasmanian Devil baby at a zoo. The zookeeper was carrying him around in a little pouch to keep him comfy while his mom was getting a vet checkup. (The picture is one I found on google because the picture I took is buried in some backup folder from about 6 phones ago)
When I saw them in the wild their faces were covered in tumours. Sure would have been cute without those though. I think our tour guide might have said it was due to intra floral/fauna contamination between species like these who were historically isolated.
A lot of “tumors” seen on wild animals are fungal infections from invasive fungal species brought by humans. It really sucks because fungal infections are very hard for mammalian immune systems to fight without help from antifungal medications.
In this case it is a form of Transmissible Cancer.
Tasmanian devils are unique in that they have a cancer that can be transmitted from host to host.
No idea. But if I were to randomly guess, I’d say it was a bison during their endangered days.
In the wild? Bald Eagle.
I was watching a bald eagle fishing yesterday from my window. They must have moved in to the area, bay of quinte in Ontario, which is good news for their numbers.
I see them a few times a year in Michigan. They are more common these days.
They’re pretty common in the rural areas of Florida.
Had one perch in my yard last summer.
Yeah that’s probably mine too. I didn’t think about them at first because they’re pretty common around here.
I once saw five different bald eagles on the same day. before that day I’d only ever seen one in my whole life, and I’ve never seen any since despite being in the area all the time.
If you like eagles, visit Sitka Alaska. They’re as common as pigeons up there.
(Just bigger, and scarier. Have you seen their claws?)
I’m going next summer!
A bobcat. It casually sauntered through the neigborhood and hung out at a local park. I watched it for about five minutes from about 30 feet away.
