Have you seen wild animals that are WAY outside of their natural range?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Have you seen wild animals that are WAY outside of their natural range?

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:11:02 AM EDT

A spin-off of this thread: ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=451323&page=1

Have you seen anything in the wild that was NOT supposed to be there?

I have heard stories about black bears, black panthers, mountain lions, and wolves in Mississippi. I have actually seen a black panther. I have seen HUGE tracks after my uncle saw a grey wolf on his property.

There are a lot of cases of animals popping up in areas that are hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away from their supposed natural range, I'm sure some of you have experienced it.
IBTBS (In Before The Bigfoot Stories)

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:13:24 AM EDT

[#1]

I've seen Elk on our ranch before. Not hundreds of thousands of miles off base but no self respecting Elk would choose to live on our ranch [darn it!]. I've seen Moose in the Blue Mountains before. Again not way off base but really odd.

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:22:55 AM EDT

[#2]

I believe that my father and I were the first ones to see the manatee come up in the Chesapeake. We were drift fishing off of Bloody Point and saw something floating around and diving every now and then. Got out the binoculars and saw him laying on his back eating oysters. We got back in and were asking some of the local watermen if they had ever seen anything like that and they just laughed and said we were crazy. Two weeks later a woman was knocked off of a small sailboat by the manatee rubbing its back on the hull. The Baltimore Aquarium folks captured it, tested to find he was from FLA and spent big $$ to fly him back down. Next year, guess where he was again

Here is an artical about "Chessie"

www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=510

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:27:00 AM EDT

[#3]

A black bear walking down the street in Ingram Texas at 0230hrs. He wouldn't get out of the way either.

Another time I answered a call of a "big cat" in some lady's backyard. Apparently she noticed it when her poodle tried to strain himself thru the patio screen door. She stated it took one look at her and then jumped her 6' privacy fence. Left mountain lion prints in her flower bed. This was WELL inside the city limits.

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:40:22 AM EDT

[#4]

There was an incident a few years ago where an animal, either a lion or a tiger (I can't remember) somehow escaped from the Portland Zoo and was roaming around the city.

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:44:36 AM EDT

[#5]

A bunch of people have seen black panthers around here...

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:55:00 AM EDT

[#6]

I called BS on the sightings of mountain lions in the area UNTIL I was in Manchester Mi on a job one day and one ran across the road in front of me. I had several seconds to watch it. It crossed the street in one leap, went into a yard, then changed direction and went about 40 yards til it went across another road and into the woods. Even looked up the local PD as it was by a school. He confirmed that several others had said they saw one also in the preceeding weeks. This was a full grown one and was certainly not a big "cat" or a dog. Not was it any other type of animal

PD said that it was probably a drug dealers pet at one time and it was let loose after it got to be a handful. I can believe that is possible. Plenty of road kill deer around for it to feed on.

Heck, the other night I saw a yote in the middle of town. Don't see them much but they are everywhere anymore. Can hear them all the time yowling at night.

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:56:07 AM EDT

[#7]

When I was growing up in the Mojave Desert town of Barstow(130 miles n. of los angeles, home of the US Army NTC and the largest USMC supply depot west of the Mississippi), I would see sea gulls flying around. I suspect that the winds probably blew them off course.

Posted: 4/2/2006 10:58:51 AM EDT

[#8]

the best one was up in Bowie an adult mountian lion walked across our shooting range during an extended break in our firing. I've seen bobcats while mountain biking in the metroplex, as well as a fox. The other day there was a deer near my neighborhood(barely outside the city limit) nearly ran over a 5.5ft long rattler while biking but then I was in his enviroment. Got some great pics of him...

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:00:22 AM EDT

[#9]

There is a herd of elk not 10 miles from here in the foothills of the Texas Hill Country. And I have seen Pronghorn antelope in Bandera, right off of TX 16 at Tarpley on one of the Medina River crossings.

But these are transplants. And the elk are behind a 10 foot fence.

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:01:29 AM EDT

[#10]

Do yankee's count? Because we sure have alot down here now, and it ain't natural.

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:22:49 AM EDT

[#11]

Nutria in seattle city center. Originally south american beaver/rodent type thing. Imported by the tobasco baron in louisiana back in the 1800's for fur. He was going to breed them in captivity for fur. Hurricanes freed them from their cages and now they are all the way up here.

Also Coyote

edit: this coyote pic was taken by a coworker, in the middle of Seattle on a golf course.

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:24:48 AM EDT

[#12]

I was with some Fresno Search and Rescue guys a few years back in the desert in NV, right on the border of Area 51, it rained the entire night and in the morning we found bear tracks. They were flipping out and took a ton of pics, took the pics to show a Wildlife Ranger in Cali and he confirmed it was bear tracks.

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:25:04 AM EDT

[#13]

I have seen deer running across the Glamis sand dunes. Wild, their little hooves don't support them well in soft sand...

Lem

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:28:06 AM EDT

[#14]

Anybody heard about that coyote found in Manhattan? It actually died recently.

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:29:59 AM EDT

[#15]

A few years ago we saw an emu walking down a field road on our hunting property in Northern Arkansas. That's a bit out of its natural range.

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:30:42 AM EDT

[#16]

I swear I saw a Golden Lemur in a tree on mount Lemon north of Tucson when I was a kid.

There was talk around the camp about a Monkey some kids had seen in the woods, so everyone was keeping an eye out. Sure nuff, walking to the craft hall we look ofer and BAM, there he was singing and dancing I LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT!!! JK. We was just hanging out in the tree looking at us.

This is what I saw. Now HTF does a Lemur end up at a youth camp near Tucson?

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:32:08 AM EDT

[#17]

Nothing spectacular

Deer were a very rare occasion when I was growing up. Overdevelopment has caused them to be backyard grazers now. So much so that liberal suburban OH has authorized sharpshooters in one township in order to bring the numbers down (due to accidents)

Wild pig would graze at a university next to my parent's condo in FL

I have seen a few alligators navigating (storm) sewage ditches when walking round small town LA.

Edit: I forgot, we had a mating(?) pair of coyote that would tour the garden district of our city about 2 years back. The paper made a charming lottle portrayal of them. It is an extreme minority case so not too bad, but the more we become greedy opportunists and overdevelop, the more we are going to have a problem with "displaced citizens" of the non-domestic variety.

Posted: 4/2/2006 11:33:48 AM EDT

[#18]

I see the dark looty all the time way up here in the great white nord. I always heard they hated the cold.

Posted: 4/2/2006 3:08:56 PM EDT

[#19]

You mean like the black tail sitka three miles off shore just out for a swim ?

Posted: 4/2/2006 3:12:02 PM EDT

[#20]

Armadillos in Huntsville Alabama.

Posted: 4/2/2006 3:12:03 PM EDT

[#21]

There is the occasoinal Mountain lion spotting here, but its not like they wern't here before.

Posted: 4/2/2006 3:13:58 PM EDT

[#22]

well let's see.....

blue and gold mcaws, iguanas, kinght anoles, and various other exotics.

back when hurricane andrew blew away the miami zoo it cut loose a LOT of different animals. the climate around here is perfect for those rainforest animals, so they thrive

Posted: 4/2/2006 3:14:13 PM EDT

[#23]

Seen a black deer in Anchorage. It must have trekked from Prince William Sound, not too terribly far out of their normal range but still not supposed to be here.