Tuesday, August 24, 2010

What is the most exciting wildlife event you have seen for real?

Which one made you feel best (exhilarated) which may be something that seems mundane, a mood thing, or not.





I have never seen a Tiger in the wild. I might be too fearful ? Which can be exciting in the safety of a vehicle.What is the most exciting wildlife event you have seen for real?
African Hunting Dogs.





They are actually the rarest carnivorous animals in Africa, far rarer than lions, cheetahs, leopards, jackals, etc. etc.





I was in a national park in Namibia (the only one I've ever been too) and our guide just stopped as an impala was just standing around staring behind it, looking nervous. Our guide knew something was up so we watched and suddenly out of the bush a pack of hunting dogs just burst out at high speed. We followed them and it was absolutely thrilling. They never caught the impala though.





My brother had been to 5 or 6 safaris around Africa and never seen one and we came back to the camp there was a South African guy who had spent 15 years wondering around nature reserves and safari in Africa and never seen one. He was so intensely jealous that we had seen this pack that it really brought home to me how lucky we had been.What is the most exciting wildlife event you have seen for real?
A lizard hungrily devouring a spider.
As a teenager I was standing waiting for a friend, close to a privet hedge. I was looking at a spider web and at that moment a fly flew into the web. I watched the spider run ou, wrap the fly in silk and take it away. Then the spider came back an diligently repaired its web. Its hardly big game, by I was mesmerised by it and priviledged to see it. :D
my mum and dad, rutting
A load of minkie whales around a boat in the sound of Eigg off the west coast of Scotland with a few harbour porpises joining in too. It was amazing.
For me it would have to be spotting golden eagles in Scotland on a number of occasions. They are truly majestic birds of prey and I could sit and watch them all day. We are lucky to have them in Scotland and did you know that we have one of the best populations of the bird in the world!
In the Wild I have seen Bears, a Wolf, and a Cougar, as well as Deer, Bighorn sheep, and several types of hawks and eagles. I think UI liked the eagles best. Definitely not the Bears, Wolf or Cougar, as I was on foot at the time.
For a while I worked in South Africa - the most exhilerating moment was the first time I did game capture.





In my 'real life' I'm a marketing exec but the rest of the guys on the team thought I was a vet from Britain wanting some big game experience, so they gave me a syringe, and bottle of Haliperidol (the animal sedative we were using) and told me this side of the hill was mine. They b*ggered off, and I hid under a bush waiting for the animals to arrive.





It was very tense, then we heard the sound of the helicopter blades as it drove the animals towards us... suddenly mountain reedbuck (a type of antelope) were jumping over my hiding place running in to the nets we'd laid - everybody ran and jumped on the struggling animals, and I first pinned down my own animal before injecting in to the muscle in the neck, then went round everyone else's kicking and struggling animals with the drug.





I can't tell you how amazing it felt when I'd successfully completed my first catch!





P.S. The animals were treated very well - they were on a farm, eating the food the farmer was leaving out for his livestock, and if we hadn't caught them the farmer would have probably shot the animals. The animals were treated for any wounds and parasites, then sold and released on to a game reserve they would be protected from human threats and a source of joy to tourists.





P.P.S. While mountain reedbuck aren't huge (an adult male will weigh around 30 kilos), the males have horns and will put up quite a struggle - trying to kick, bite and gore you (the females will just kick and bite).
A parrot flying...


don't laugh!


Before i saw that i'd only ever seen ones with clipped wings or stuck in a cage.


They are magnificent, and the blues and greens looked beautiful against the grey sky!
a pack of lioness's feeding on a gazelle in Africa on Friday.
when i lived in zambia, a python came into our house that was pretty scary, a rhino decided to stand right in front of our car, i got to hold a baby croc and i was approached by a baby antelope, we are not quite sure what breed. But i saw it twice and the second time it came right up to me and knocked me over, i was only young but i still remeber it vividly. These all happened within a spread of about 3 years.


i was lucky enough to be allowed into the tapir enclosure in the zoo , i love tapirs there are so funny and intrestin also they are not like animals every1 knwos bout like lions and tiger and zebras etc. they are unusual.





When i was in american 3 years ago i saw golden eagles, chipmunks,elephant seals, otters, seals, sealions ( all in the wild ,lol)


in yosemite and yellowstone: i saw a moose about 3 meters away, lots of bison, birds,insects, sadly no bears.


i also feed a dolphin in sea world. And lots of other fishes in monterray aquarium


I saw loads of other animals in wyoming where i stayed at a ranch for a week and a bit. ( i was going around california and surroundinh states)





And today i saw mi dog, he is pretty wild and two cats fighting in the street and a robin singing and a spider (which i took outside) i dont see y anyone could be scared of them. And that is bout all so far. All you have to do is look.





Oh and dont be fearful of tigers, they wont attack from the front unless u provoke them, they always attack from behind . that is why some natives there wear masks of the back of their heads so the tiger doesnt attack them. apparently it works for the.


p.s sorry for my rubbish spelling
Rudolf the red nose Reindeer.............
Watched a rattlesnake eat a baby bird in the nest! Couldn't do much about it but let the snake eat the babies!!
I went to an animal show in Gran Canaria and saw a cockatoo riding a scooter.
Went on holiday to australia, and have seen:


A whale diving back into the sea, its tailfin upright


A Taipan snake, a little too close for comfort


A puffer fish on the great barrier reef


A kangaroo hopping into the sunset


Any good?
Howler monkeys racing round the trees above my head trying to send a troop of macaques away. The noise was horrendous and I kept thinking what if one of them falls. I couldn't leave as I was studying the macaques so I just stood still and held my breath. It is a fantastic memory.
A female Humback Whale with her calf came right up to our boat to check us out and then breached - the whole body, all 45 tons of it cleared the water. Even the calf was bigger than the boat, but the mother was huge. Totally amazing sight.
I have seen on a jetty in Australia, almost directly below, a group of seals in a shoal of barracuda, snapping them in half as though for fun.
its seeing a stoat chasing a rabbit...but i was on a bus so it was just a flash :(
see 2 guy going for it in the back of a car, they were really wild
We had this scruffy flea ridden hedgehog who came in our garden for his/her bread %26amp; milk, he/she would get quite aggressive if the grub was not forthcoming. Nasty little bugger.
i'd love to see a really exotic creature someday but i think the most exciting thing i've ever seen was a short eared owl hunting by day really close to to me. beautiful. i saw it on cleeve hill, gloucestershire, uk
Sorry to sound a bit soft, but I find all wildlife exhilarating. So many wonderful things happening all the time. (Gawd, that sounds dopey).
When I was on a camping trip in college, I saw a peregrine falcon capture a duck from a nearby pond. It carried the duck out onto the road in front of our van and landed in the road. The duck was still alive, and trying to escape, and eventually the falcon carried it off the road to kill and eat it. A peregrine falcon in a stoop (the hunting dive) is the fastest animal on earth, and they used to be endangered. It was really amazing to see.
a lioness playing with her cubs on monday,
About 4 years ago I spent several weeks travelling in South Africa,- operating from Durban - the most beautiful country I have ever visited. I made several visits to the reservation areas and was always in awe of all the wildlife I was fortunate to get near, be it, Lions, Giraffes, Wild Dogs, Baboons , Elephants, Hippos etc, etc I will always remember that wonderful experience and the lovely Zulu people.

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