It might be interesting to read who sees what where, anything besides the very ordinary, deer, possums, raccoons, rabbits, ect. Granted it's a bigfoot site, but wildlife pertains to the subject and habit and I believe is of general interest to most people who read these forums, and when it comes down to it more than likely most of us might not ever actually see bigfoot, "exotic" wildlife might be as good as it gets in safari land.
That said, from last night, I add 1 7 inch screech owl, likely a screech owl anyway. It sat on a root on a bank right in front of the lights for over a minute about 10 feet away, didn't even seem to be scared by 1 of my dogs barking.
Might not be exotic to some but owls are cool to me. Saw a bigger 1 a year ago in the exact location on top of this mountain. this 1 seemed to be well over a foot tall or more and brown. I hear owls up there a lot also, just hardly ever see them.

Black bear,
mountain top, mid may, '02. fairly good sized. Va.

Black bear,
crossing a country road and running up a bank into the woods, oct. '02. WV side of mountain.

Black bear,
crossing dirt mountain road, oct. '02. Va.

Black bear,
crossing mountain road shimmying tree to negotiate fence on steep bank and up into the mountainside, spring '00. Va side of mountain.

Black bear,
appeared to be very big, crossing a highway and running into woods up a hill, around '96. Va.

Black bear,
average size, eating out of dumpster at mountaintop overlook, didn't seem to pay any attention to me or my dog thor. WV Va border. '97, early evening.

Bobcat,
crossing rural route, disappeared quickly into bushes in field. early summer, '01. Va.

American Crocodile while on weeklong canoe trip in Evergalades National Park.

Ferral Baboons , in a research are of mine, have not seen them in a while.

Spanish Dancer (kinda like a sea slug) my monthly dive

Bald Eagle many times, lives in dead tree across my ex in laws house

Ferral Human, some freaky bum that I found way out in the glades.


Thats all for now.

SkunkHunter

American Crocodile

I hate to say it but I didn't know there was an american crocodile. Or is this just another alias for the alligator?

Also I hope the eagle stays safe. Around here people poach them unfortunately.

[list] I'm sure theres more but I'm tired. :wink:

There goes another 1 of those american crocs I've been reading so much about lately.

orcas, cool. Would be cool to kayak with those. As long as ya don't get the seal treatment.

American Crocs are cool indeed Barkley, unfortunately they are an endangered species ,theres only about 800 or so alive you have to go aways south to see one in the wild.Turkey point here in south florida is now a sanctuary breeding gound for them.As fpr the Orcas I'm not sure about them.They may have been large cryptid giant dolphins. .actually I did some checking and they may very well have been orcas after all they do show up off of the coast of florida occasionally.I'm mostly going that they were orcas by the siza of the dorsal fins.I guess I should add to my list.[list]

Armadillo- LOTS of these on numerous occasions. We call them "organic speedbumps" in this area
Bobcats- seen frequently on parents' property
Alligators- parents' property, Myakka State Park, Alafia River, numerous lakes around Florida
Coral snake- 3 seen in and around parents' property over last 25 years
Water moccasin- way too many to count, aprents' property
Copperhead snake- Alafia River about 1980 or 1981
Pine snake- parents' yard about 1983
Diamondback rattlesnake- most recently in parents' yard 1983. 6 1/2 footer that killed my dog.
Pygmy rattlesnake- too many to count in parents' yard, brother-in-law's pool deck, etc
Gopher tortoise- seen many, but most recently 1 year ago had one living in burrow in my back yard
Feral pigs- WAY too many to count on property adjacent to parents'
Alligator gar- Alafia River, drainage ditch along parents' property
Softshell turtle- last year while housesitting for parents
Pheasants and peacocks- feral ones on property adjacent to parents' and on Anna Maria Island
Barracuda- school of them while snorkeling off of Key Largo
Sand shark- last May while wading in surf on Longboat Key
Horseshoe crab and Hermit crab- Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island

Ok, so this isn't seeing wildlife exactly, but I wanted to mention it somewhere.

My kids have a play area in a short pine area they call their clubhouse. They have been playing here for a few weeks. It's actually on my neighbor's land. Yesterday my daughter went out there and there was a pile of feathers and some bones (just a few) left there. The bones were still connected together by tissue (but the meat was gone ) and strung down like a rope when picked up by my dog. My dog seemed happy to eat the bones...LOL

The feathers and bones were obviously from a chicken. Probably stolen from the chicken house across the highway, but how they got where they were, I have no idea because it came over a 4 foot fence to eat it there or it walked down the highway around the fence and came back up. Not a barbed wire fence, but the kind with the little squares in it from top to bottom. Nothing very big could go through it or under it.

Anyway, I guess I am wondering what animal likely did it. Why you might ask am I wondering. Because this is the area my kids play in all the time, so I'd like to know what it was that's been there so we will know what to watch out for.

It seemed to me like canines (coyotes) would have eaten all of the bones and strewn the feathers all around (my dog sure did). I don't know about wild cats, but my domestic ones always eat the meat off the bones and the grisled ends and leave the rest of the bones there. (These still had the ends on them as far as I could tell before my dog snatched them up)

Anybody got a clue here to help. Do bears eat the bones? Aren't they still in hibernation for another few weeks? Though it has been in the 60's here for the last few days and the buttercups are blooming.

What about raccoons?

I am currently leaning towards it being a wild cat of some sort (could have jumped and/or climbed the fence). But I don't know.

A moose once bit my sister.

I think you can probably rule out the large canid family from the experience I've had. The wolves (at least mine do) and dogs chew up the bones and all and swallow them. This is raw chicken I'm speaking of I've watched them eat leg quarters (thigh still connected to the drumstick) and they will chew the drumstick severing it from the thigh, swallow the thigh portion first and then pick up the drumstick and finish that off chewing it up, bones and all, and swallowing it. We feed almost exclusively chicken leg quarters to our animals so I've seen this a lot and 4 out of 4 animals use this method of eating them. Of course this probably doesn't apply to small dogs who perhaps don't have the bite compression to chew up a larger bone from a chicken. I still think they'd gnaw it into pieces though instead of one long string. I'm not familiar with small dogs though so I don't know there. I'd have to guess a racoon maybe as the culprit. Don't they usually eat close to water though? I've always heard they have to wash their food. Also as you suggested possibly a cat.

A m-m-moose bit your sister?? Was this a domesticated moose or do yall have to look out for moose running around biting unsuspecting people?

I was bitten by a squirrel once. Also I have to count my fingers after I feed the wolves to make sure I still have them all. :wink:

FEED THE WOLVES !???!?

Sorry, that was me being a smart-ass. It's a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Just my way of saying I have no significant wildlife encounter to speak of...

There are a little less than 1000 in the wild, but they did find a nest far as north as west palm beach.



Now that would be cool, Except for the seal treatment. I could not imagine how much that would suck. Become a human volley ball?

SkunkHunter

Had a few black bears run up close to me durring deer seasons.
But out of all the animal encouters in PA the coolest by far for me was a Pine Marten that trotted up to me.Stood on a log about 2 feet from me and looked straight into my eyes. The look on It's face,as if to say what in the hell are you doing in my house. lasted almost a minuet. Then this three foot long ferret just bound away. Very rare critter for PA.

Hey ARsquatch, thanks for the input!!

I have seen:

Black Bear in Scenic Bay Ak

Orca mama and baby: Petersburg, Ak

Sea Lions: Narrows, Petersburg, AK

Moose: Ak

Wolf: Ak

Bald Eagles (So cool): A

Porpoises: Puget Sound, WA

Seals: AK

Unknown Black fin last weekend from ferry in Puget Sound, probably an orca.

Saw lots of cool exotic animals at the Woodland Park Zoo :wink: :wink:

Oh God, heres goes a long list, sure to be added to in the future .. *ahem*

black bear- many times (Arky, bear boars sometimes(well ok, alot of times) wont hibernate and non-preg females have been known to wander in the snow)

bobcats - Honduras, appalachians, tracks in penn, MD, WV, OK

cougar - tracks only, and vocals

Bald Eagle - all the time, they nest around here again

Hawks and eagles

owls - barred, barn, Great Horned (watched one one night take a cottontailed rabbit, wingspan approx 6 foot)

snakes snakes and more snakes

horseshoe crabs, well yeah ! They mate on the beaches of Delaware, dont walk the beach barefoot, youll get a tail in your toe !!

wild horses

wolves, fox, beaver, muskrats, nutria, moose, herons, loons, newts, sika deer, frogs, lizards, skanks, eels, skunks, gators , armidillos, dolphins, sharks, skates, .. yada yada yada (ok, i'm tired)

Oh, SkunkHunter, ... feral human ??? nah ... he just chose to live "off the grid" ... nothing wrong with that


Oh, why did the chicken cross the road ?? To show the armidillo and the possum it could be done !!!!!

Hmmm...

Gopher tortoises - played with'em all the time when I was a kid.

Box turtles - common as crickets around here.

Snakes - Western Diamondback, Canebrake, Coachwhips, Cottonmouths, Coral, various and asundry water snakes, King, Indigo, Rat, White Oak, grass, and garter

Bobcat - A buddy of mine and I found a dead one on the edge of a field. Had the skull for years.

Panther - Saw one cross the road down around Cape Canaveral. Saw another one while out coon hunting one night.

Raccoon - Too many to count.

Opossum - Too many to count.

Jackrabbits - Too many to count.

Armadillos - Seen many.

Fox - Saw a red one once. Seen several grays.

Coyotes - Seen and heard many times

Black Bear - Found one's tracks while out hunting once. Seen a few while up in the Smokies.

Elk - Had one scare the crap out of me when I was a teenager visiting in Colorado.

Sharks - All kinds. Was damn near attacked by one that had become trapped in a tidal pool when I was a kid. I'd guesstimate it was an 8-footer.

Stingrays - Eagle, Manta and Cownose

Horshoe crabs - They're cool.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. I'm like Rob, I may have to add to the list later.

Hmm, I thought everyone would be overwhelmed by my owl encounter. I thought there would be 4 or more pages filled with questions and awe inspired comments, "What was your 1st reaction when you saw it barkley?......." "Did you ever feel threatened barkley?., ect." no, I'm kidding. Lot's of good responses.
What's the difference between an american crocodile and an alligator, I know alligators have wide snouts, but what's the main difference? Are these crocs bigger than alligators, and I assume more dangerous?

sheraiah wrote



That's 1 thing I have to lend you fl or deep south people credit for, you all do live in 1 unhospitable environment with all the snakes and spiders and mosquitos. I guess you get used to it, but even though we have copperheads, rattlesnakes and black widows and brown recluse sipers here, you don't really ever have to really think about so many dangerous things lurking around, certainly not in your yard itself.

Coral snakes,.... red to black????????
red

water mocs or cottonmouths, aggressive snakes, I had to wade through a water moc nest at the mouth of an earth dam of a snamll north carolina lake while negotiating a land nav course west of ft. bragg in the army. I whopped the water with a big stick from the edge and there was slithering and trails of snake movement everywhere in the water, but I had to go that way or risk not making the grade so I went through the water yelling and screaming most of the way while striking the water all around with a stick, not that they were after me, just to make sure they didn't come after me. I'm sure the snakes were impressed.





See this is what I'm talkin about,

ya can't go anywhere down there without worrying about something.
What happened with your dog sheriah? I thought most dogs could easily get snakes, or do the tables turn with a certain size snake? Or was this a chihuahua or something?
The only place it would be worse to live maybe would be in australia. Did you know the funnel web spider can really walk on water, trap air and sink to the bottom of a pool and sit and wait? People step on them in their pools. Not a place I'd build a house.

Somethin no one has mentioned are spiders. I read on george ks message board a year or so ago in a topic about odd animals about there being these really big bananna spiders in florida. No thanks.
Then someone else posted how in africa decades ago some famed game hunter was driving down a trail and saw something he thought was about the size of a small person cross the way ahead and when they got there they looked and saw it was a "spider".

"Quote:
Diamondback rattlesnake- most recently in parents' yard 1983. 6 1/2 footer that killed my dog.
Pygmy rattlesnake- too many to count in parents' yard, brother-in-law's pool deck, etc


See this is what I'm talkin about,

ya can't go anywhere down there without worrying about something.
What happened with your dog sheriah? I thought most dogs could easily get snakes, or do the tables turn with a certain size snake? Or was this a chihuahua or something?
The only place it would be worse to live maybe would be in australia. Did you know the funnel web spider can really walk on water, trap air and sink to the bottom of a pool and sit and wait? People step on them in their pools. Not a place I'd build a house. "

Murphy was a purebred Boxer. He got bitten because he was protecting my brother. My brother and a friend of his were climbing up an embankment and would have run right into the snake if Murphy hadn't rushed ahead of them and attacked the snake. Took 3 strikes in the head. I have no doubt that he knew exactly what he was doing. Just a few days before this, a diamondback almost as large as that one had crawled up onto the drive going into the garage where Murph was chained and he avoided it like the plague and tried to get into the house away from it. Damn, I miss that dog.

sheraiah, you and your friend will be together again someday.

Yes, I know. There is a whole pack of boxers waiting to reunite with me one day.

Black Bear-numerous sightings, Michigan and Ontario
Moose-numerous sightings, Michigan and Ontario
Wapati(Elk)-numerous sightings, Michigan
Grey wolve-numerous sightings, Michigan and Ontario
Bobcat-a few sightings, Michigan
Lynx-several sightings, Ontario
Martin-several, Michigan
Fisher(very cool animals, BTW), Michigan
Great Grey Owl-Awesome!-Ontario, U.P. Michigan
Snowy Owl-numerous, Michigan
Bald Eagle-numerous, Michigan, Ontario
Osprey-numerous sightings, Michigan, Ontario
Peragrine Falcon-numerous sightings, Grand Rapids Michigan(they nest on a couple of buildings here)
wild turkey-Michigan, see them all the time
ruffed grouse-Michigan, Ontario, given me many a heart attack as they burst from the brush at my feet!
spruce groust-Ontario, Michigan, the dumbest birds in the world, they will let you walk up withing arms reach.
Whitetail deer-Michigan, Ontario, see them all the time
badger-Michigan, a couple of sightings, once fed on pieces of a deer I had shot, it hung around while I field dressed the deer, as if it knew that I would toss it a chunk. It grabed the piece of shoulder I tossed it and took off into the woods, as if it was just waiting all along for the free meal!
porcupine-Michigan, On. seen lots of em'
opossums-Michigan, see them regularly, usually flat on a road
racoons-Michigan, they would take over the world if not for us meddling humans....not sure they won't anyway(anyone ever read the book "The Architect of Sleep"?)
Black squirrel-Michigan-added this because I thought they were common everywhere(they are very common here in Michigan), but recently found out they are rare elsewhere(is that true?)
Snowshoe Hare--Michigan, Ontario.

So I've noticed since I moved here. Fish mentioned something about banana spiders to me when i first started posting here.watch out for the webs or something like it.Coral snakes " red touches black venom lack,Red touches yellow kill a fellow." thas how I remember it .and they said the old Mr.T cartoon wasn't good for anything. :wink: I've only been bit by one snake,a pygmy/massasauga rattler when I was a kid in Mi.Not fun my arm sweeled up into a huge blood blister looking thing.(i've actually still got the scars).And it was last week ?week before? some lady had her arm bitten off in Englewood by a gator.So as for me i watch very carefully where I step around here.

Oh WOW! How could I have forgotten about orb (banana) spiders??? I just wasn't thinking insects. Check it;



Funny thing is, I've seen some that were larger than the picture you're looking at. There is nothing worse than trapsing through the woods and walking right into one of their webs before you realize it. I have damn near beaten myself into a coma trying to get the web AND the spider off of me in the past.

Probably make some money on that dance if anyone ever caught it on video.

Fish where'd you get that ARGIOPE (black and yellow garden spider) shot? Nice.
Sher: copperheads pewter out in north Florida. But yeah you got the rest of em down there.
red and yellow kill a fellow red and black friend of Jack or venom lack
main thing: warning colors: red for stop and yellow for caution are interupted by black on nonvenomous of which you got two spp down there
scarlet snake and scarlet kingsnake which is a beautiful kind of milksnake.
Man I could go nuts on here.. but just a bit. Sheraiah, very sorry to hear your dog got taken. Very sorry. Its tough on them big rattlers, they can drop a horse.
well here is my partial list
elk Shiras Moose, grizzly, black bear, porcupine, pika, bighorn, mt goat, whitetail, mule deer, bison, various rodents, Clarks nutcracker, osprey, golden eagle, bald eagle, redtail, sharpshinned, coopers, roughlegged buteo hawks, kestrel, harrier,
peregrine, gyrfalcon, magpies, crows, ravens, black vultures, turkey vultures, whippoorwill, nighthawk, red bat, little brown, big brown bats, peccaries, wild boars, fisher, pine marten, otter, badger, red and gray fox, coyote, timber wolf, bobcat, armadillo, manatee, nutria, beaver, skrat, opossum, striped skunk, most of the owls, most of the reptiles and amphibians, (NOT AMER CROC ) most of the birds, and black widow spiders, several types of scorpions and the one I dread the most? brown recluse spiders. They can take you out. so if thats a problem, pesticides around the bed area. I dont like pesticides, but when I am in an area I am told have those spiders, I use em.
Most of the states I had my sightings include Montana, WYO, Missouri, North Carolina, Minnesota, Canada, Florida, Alabama, Tenn, Kentucky, and ILL.
The wolves were great. I was out one night on a salamander run photographing them coming out of hibernation in March when we were surrounded by a pack. We exchanged howls with them awhile and then they left. They started distant and then came in and then once they knew what we were, gone. That's one of the neatest things thats ever happened to me on the planet. I called up a young coyote once that was neat. He saw me and then I followed a game trail for a bit, laid down on my hands and knees and sure enough he come trotting along. Saw me laying there with my camera and I nailed him. That was really neat. Then he went off jumping mice in a field and I was so happy with the pics I took I didnt follow to shoot more. DUMB! So moral of the story:
SHOOT MORE FILM .. thats the cheapest part of the adventure and some of this stuff you aint gonna get repeated again. Its like Barkley with the owls... I got lucky with a little saw-whet once. Only time I saw one of those little buggers. Never did get any good pictures of snowy owls.
As far as scared, a wild pig, an elk and a moose. But that's a couple long stories. :wink: Oh, and one rattlesnake den but that was more a surprise than being scared. The rattlers didnt do anything but crawl by me as I was between their basking site and their den. (Neat bite Jim!)
As far as pain and sorrow it would have to be bees. Bad stings and in numbers. When you are on a cliff you can sidestep snakes but its a bear to avoid bees. Oh, Barkley, more on crocs and gators : the crocs usually are brownish or greenish brown and gators black or grayish black.
Yeah, wide snouts on the gators, longer necks on them and 4th tooth from bottom jaw juts out on crocs which really have narrow jaws compared to gators. although brackish water for both, more often crocs. gators typically stay more fresh water, but hey, individuals vary. Never had any problems with gators but when I was a senior in high school I went to the Okefenokee swamp in GA. a current took our canoe right into a log where an 8-9 footer was sleeping. Talk about dumb. We didnt move. When that guy came to we were right there. I coulda reached out and slapped him in the head I was so close. He freaks, dives off the log into the water tipping our canoe and disappearing under it . I was maybe 4 feet away. the guy running the canoe behind me was smirking.... I got even with him later though :wink:

LOL, SR, if I had a nickel for every animal that wasn't SUPPOSED to be in an area where it has been found, I'd be rich! We aren't supposed to have copperheads this far south, but they are here. Not in great numbers, but they are found occasionally. I know of 3 found in and around the city I live in during the last 25 years. LOL, I happen to like snakes, so I keep an ear to the ground for anything in the media about them. Now one I'd LOVE to see in the wild is an Indigo snake! I've only seen captive ones. Oh, speaking of animals found in areas they aren't supposed to be, this was on the news this morning. A young male FL panther was hit and killed on I-4 just east of I-75 yesterday. This is not very far outside Tampa.

good I hope they expand their range, that would be fantastic.
the state doesn't have 'em below the northern tier of counties so how they got there I have no idea. Seen the indigo on my first trip down, lucky, down by Copeland. It was a giant bluish black rope and flew like a cobra off the road on a hot morning. 'smatter of fact its the ONLY indigo I ever saw in Florida. They are awesome . Thanks for that S.

I think I'm jealous, LOL. BTW, where is Copeland?

go to glades and on the west side look at the major roads directly north of the Everglades boundary. on a road south of Alligator Alley running north south you will find it. Loved it there. Really snakey. Saw the biggest cottonmouth I have ever seen. Just a Jurassic giant. its a panther crossing area as well. And as for that indigo, he went into palmetto scrub and at the time I didnt have snake leggings so I didnt go in after him for pics cause of dbacks. Sorry to hear Florida lost another panther. At least it wasn't a female.

Black bears- came upon one once while hiking here about to cross a streambed and some fresh tracks of two black bears once, apparently mama and cub.

Deer- too numerous to list, once walked right upon a doe and baby while hiking here to within 20 ft. before they noticed me, and I have several come up in my backyard.

Hawks- see them all the time around the airport here.

Beaver- see them periodically in the Ouachita river.

Coyotes- hear them every night near my home, see them crossing the roads a lot here, saw 3 in broad daylight crossing the Ouachita river in a shallow area, my son saw one while on the school bus one morning running across a pasture with a chicken in its mouth.

Possums, armadillos, raccoons and skunks- see these more often than I'd like to around here, they usually end up as roadkill on the highway out front, or my dog ends up smelling like one of the skunks after chasing it, got a good video of a grandaddy possum in my backyard one day mid-day, he was determined to eat my cat's food and the hubby had to carry him away on a shovel while he growled the whole time...LOL. Once saw a family of fluffy critters crossing a dirt road, thought they were puppies and stopped, rolled down the window to get a good look at them on the side of the road and realized at once I was looking at a family of skunks! Time to go!

Fox- saw one gray fox in my front yard here and have seen a few in Northwest Louisiana, one red one.

Snakes- several different ones, too many to list, saw one timber rattler stretched across one whole lane of the highway in Louisiana , we used to live here in a house 2 yrs. ago next to a hay field which was a breeding ground for copperheads, they were everywhere and every year when the field was cut for baling they would scatter and come up to the house, also had a rattlesnake crawl under me once while sitting down on a step in LA, it went right under my knees while I remained perfectly still, also have seen cottonmouths quite often in LA, some that looked like they could almost swallow you whole! I have only seen one that I believe was a coral snake.

Owls- have seen a few great horned owls in LA, several barred owls and barn owls here, one barn owl flew down our chimney and we had to catch him and turn him loose, that was fun.

Cats- have seen 3 large cats in LA, one cougar, typical beige coloring, huge, ran down the highway around 3am in front of my car while I was delivering newspapers, I had a good look at it, because it stayed in front of me for a ways and I had almost come to a stop watching it. The other two which I saw together were large, much larger than a bobcat but a smaller than the first cougar and were light colored with dark spots. I still have no idea what they were. Also in LA, there was a bobcat that used to come up to our house at night and sit in a tree watching the house. Not sure why, but it jumped out of the tree one night and scared a friend of mine half to death and then ran off. I only saw it once, but heard it many times.

Jackrabbits and swamp rabbits- too numerous to list.

Black Panther- I haven't seen one, but my hubby saw one here run across the highway one night, he says it was over 100 lbs.

Spiders- The one thing I really HATE!! I have seen way too many spiders and they seem to be around no matter the season, but they are awful in the spring/summer. That pic Fish posted sure looks like some of those big spiders we get making those huge webs on the porch. Those things are as big as my hand and I am terrified of them!

Tarantulas- I have seen a few tarantulas around here (brown colored), caught one for my son's 'show and tell' at school..hee heee hee...and we also used to see them all the time in LA, they had a nest near our house in a rock wall. For some odd reason, they don't scare me as bad as the spiders do.

Scorpions- Ok, so I hate these as much as spiders probably, we see them every now and then around rocky areas, we used to have them bedded up in a brick BBQ my Dad homemade in LA, and when we lived in Boswell, Oklahoma they used to come in the house all the time, and get into the bed covers...

Bats- I see them come out at night and catch the bugs around the nightlight outside, not sure what kind they are.

Frogs and Toads- these are numerous around here. We seldom saw any when we lived in LA, so it is surprising how many we have here. My kids like to catch them and race them, play with them a while and then let them go. Just last fall, they caught 25 toads and frogs in an hour's time just in our front yard alone! I have no complaints though, I like amphibians.

Rats- I had never before seen a large rat until just recently, my cat caught one that was as big as a squirrel. It was squirrel colored too, but had the long hairless rat tail. I have no idea what kind it was. She killed it, but then caught another one a few days later and it got away. As long as it stays outside, I am ok with it. I think.

Wolf- saw one cross the highway in front of my vehicle in Oklahoma.
Have seen two canines here in Arkansas that looked to me like wolves, on two separate occasions, they resembled large german shepards, very pretty, not sure if they were indeed wolves, cause we aren't supposed to have them here, I guess someone's german shepards could have gotten lost and ended up in our yard for some reason late at night.

Turkeys- see these all the time here, and saw a whole flock of them cross the road in Oklahoma, had to stop for them to cross.

I just had to add another pic of one of these orb spiders since Arkansan likes'em so much.

HEY!!! It is NOT NICE to scare people like that!

That one is scarier than the first one!

I am so scared of spiders that I was viewing this halloween page once that the kids found, I could not touch my mouse to move it around because the way this page was set up, this spider would come out of nowhere and pounce the little mouse cursor and then follow it around! It freaked me out bigtime!

Spider, spider on the wall,
ain't you got no sense at all?
Can't you tell that walls been plastered?
Get down from there you silly...spider.

Fish is the cause for RB cracking up!! Blame it on Fish! That silly…spider!

I hate those critters too, Arky…

Here’s a creepy tarantula story, ok, 3 of them…

When I was a kid in West Texas, there was a tarantula in our backyard once… I smacked that thing a really good whack with a croquet mallet… but it only made it mad! It chased us all away…

Another time my friend and I put almost 50 BBs into one before he succumbed to his injuries…

Then the capper… my Dad and I were driving the back roads in East Texas… around Crockett, I think… we drove over the top of a hill, and down in the low area we were about to drive through was a swampy area, with lots of berry vines, etc. on both sides of the road… as we got closer to this low area it looked like the roadway was very dark, and it was “moving”… we slowed down to see it was a herd of tarantulas crossing the road… must have been some sort of migration… there must have been thousands of them…. it freaked out my Dad and we drove through them…pop, pop, pop…. the old man got a real charge out of this, so we did it about 20 more times… he’d drive to the top of the hill and turn around, get going fast and then… poppity, pop, pop, pop… again and again… it was very gross… we had to roll up the windows because these things were flying everywhere…. then we drove through a car wash… oh, how I miss those bonding experiences... :wink:

Oops, gotta go, it's lunchtime!

The wall was plastered?
What was it drinking?

Ickety ick ick!!! I hate spiders also. I cannot too this day read National Geographic because of the blown up insect pictures that are sure to be on the next page. Not to mention snakes!!! I cannot even watch one on tv it just creeps me out bigtime. The way they move I just cannot handle it. I love living in the great Northwest because we don't have lots of snakes and spiders. Just Bigfoot :wink: . I can handle that.

Spiders don't bother me, and I've been known to pick up snakes I knew weren't poisonous. (Much to the sorrow of my siblings who found the critters in their beds when they ticked big sister off, LOL ) Rodents have the ick factor for me. I go into full "girl" mode when I see rats or mice. Standing on chairs, shrieking, and the whole nine yards, LOL.

Hey RB you better watch out with what you put on the internet... I heard Peta was coming up with a Be Kind to Tarantula Week this year....
yech (jus kidding, but knowing them ??) Hey Arky I think you mighta seen juvenile cougar with the spots. neat.. did they have a long tail ?
I spose we cant rule out jags in Ark if you got sharks there who knows.
Regarding spiders hey, I was watching tv as a kid one time and I felt something furry on my hand. I looked down an it was the biggest frickin' wolf spider I ever did see... dang I remember shaking my hand and screaming..... never took to spiders ever since then. I photograph em now but thats about as far as it goes. I still woulda liked to see that mass migration you and Daddy were poppin' through though RB. Another time I was on a lake sitting on a pier with my legs hangin over. Wasnt long before this big ol pier spider comes up on the board by my leg
I went in the water that was grose.
still can't stand them big hairy ones. Another time a friend of mine let me hold a tarantula. first timer... nobody told me he had a ferret though and that thing rubbed up against my leg (wearin' shorts) I about whipped that dang spider into the ceiling. I think his name was Fuzzy or something. Naw I like critters that faces I can see !!!

Ha ha ha! Well, I had to use plastered because sh*t-faced didn't rhymne.

THIS is what I love about this forum! Monitor cleaner, please!

Hey SR, you wanna hear a creppy one... out here in CA, the daddy-long-legs are everywhere... if you go under a roadway overpass, especially one over a creek, and look up at the underside of the bridge, you may spot a bunch of those things all massed up into something that looks like Don King's hair! I've seen these masses that were over a foot in diameter!

The day PETA starts protecting swamp spiders is the day I go completely nuts....

Fishbone, you crack me up....

RB, your Dad scares me! (just kidding)
I can't imagine seeing that many tarantulas in one spot! Didn't you guys just want to get out and walk around?
We get the daddy-long-legs around here in summer bigtime. I hate them because I'll just be standing there barefoot and this creepy long-legs just runs up on my foot! Ugghhh!! They don't scare me like spiders though, nothing scares me like a spider.

We get these things here hanging all over the house in summer called "walking sticks" and they get pretty big, last year one the kids found was 7" long.
Of course, my boy wanted to keep it for a pet. :roll:

Walking Stick:



I don't like them either, too creepy looking for me, but they are supposed to be harmless.

SR, they did have long tails. Looked like cougars basically...only smaller and with spots. There were two of them hanging out together.
Sharks in Ark?? Whaaa??
Anyway, the cats were in North Louisiana, not here in Arkansas.

I read an interesting factoid not too long ago concerning daddy-long-leg spiders. Their venom is more toxic than that of a black widow or a brown recluse but their fangs are way too short to penetrate human skin.

Glad to know that considering I played with them everytime I found one when I was a kid.

Hmmm… Critters I’ve seen…. I grew up in Colorado and have traveled, hunted and camped all over the West…

Black bear in British Columbia, Washington, Wyoming, and Colorado (one used to raid a friends trash regularly up Turkey Creek canyon – Game and Fish had to come in and relocate it)… Watched a sow grizzly (on an opposite ridge) for about half an hour in Montana (just outside of Glacier)..

Elk and deer all over the western US.. (jumped a cow elk in a thicket once about 10 feet away.. scared the living crap out of me and the folks I was with. Also had a herd of elk move down through a wash next to my camp here in AZ once in the middle of the night. Got up and watched ‘em move through with a flashlight)…

Seen muleys and whitetails all over the place in CO. Muleys in the hills and whitetails out in the farmlands and plains.

Watched a moose for a while in the Laramie River Valley in Colorado just off a trail I was hiking. It was just after they began reintroducing them there. That was cool.

Bighorn sheep and Bobcats in the canyon (Big Thompson) I used to live in in Colorado. Saw a Ring-tailed cat there one time too, but no one believed me. They’re only supposed to live in the Grand Canyon.

Used to see Bighorn in the area I used to deer hunt in northern Colorado. Got pretty close to ‘em a few times. Took a pic of one once skylined about 30 yards away on a ridge with the sun coming up behind it. All you could see was the silouhette of the sheep with a full curl and the red of the sunrise… Gorgeous pic.. Damned if I know where it is now though.

Badgers (had one pop out of a hole once, about 5 feet from me), raccoons, skunks (lotta skunks), possums (my dog killed a couple possums when I lived in Seattle..), porcupines (had one come for a drink once right across a little brook I was camped next to). Pikas and marmots too, up in the high country.

Eagles (Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles), ospreys, hawks, falcons, lotta owls, and vultures. Nighthawks, jays, crows, kingfishers, ravens… Lotta birds.. Been up to the Grand Canyon a few times since they reintroduced Condors, but haven’t seen any yet. Worked a project in LA for a few months some years ago and the highrise I was working in had peregrine falcons nesting on it. They were a lot of fun to watch. Had a little screech owl follow me and a friend one evening when we were out rabbit hunting. It’d fly by us and sit on a rock up ahead until we passed it and then it’d fly by us again and wait til we passed it again… Did that for a mile or so before it gave up. Guess it got bored.

Coyotes out the wazzoo (hell, they live in the parks here)... Saw a wolf one time while camped on the Navajo rez by four-corners. (About 18 years ago.. I was making coffee right at sunup and heard a noise above the camp and looked up and saw him come over a little saddle. When he saw me, he just sat down and watched me for about 5 minutes before taking off – one of my neatest sightings – thought it was a big coyote at first).

I knew a prarie dog town where a Black Footed Ferret lived once near where I grew up in Colorado.. He popped out of a hole once and stared me down for a while. Never told anyone about him. Used to go back and just hang out watching for him. Only saw him a few times (they were very rare). That area’s a sub-division now. Had some kind of weasel come into camp once down in the Ozarks and nose around until I made a noise.

Beaver and muskrat in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. I love camping next to beaverponds. Sea otters in Oregon and off of Vancouver Island. River otters in my home town and down here in a river I canoe a lot in the summer (when the water’s deep enough).

Since I’ve moved to Arizona, I’ve seen javelinas and coatimundis (in southeastern AZ). Scorpions, tarantulas, rattlesnakes (diamondbacks and prarie rattlers in Colorado and Wyoming. I’ve only seen blacktailed rattlesnakes here so far). Haven’t seen any Gila Monsters yet, but I keep my eyes open. A friend of mine had one climb onto a windowsill once and stayed around for a few days. And he lives in the city…

Got close to a cougar once in southern AZ in the Chiricahua mountains.. Heard a noise in the brush and heard something bound away and when I went to look, I found it’s tracks behind a boulder where it had been bedded down in the shade just off the trail.

This was fun… Good thread!

Great stuff Titus. I envy everyone's cougar sightings. never ever have I... although I am sure they have seen me... just like Bobcat probably seen everyone here. Bipto, for the record, that pword box just did like 9 times in a row. Thats better than 211 x . Arky I think they were juvenile cougar.. immatures with the spotting of the youngens. They can be quite big and still carry that coat. (I will take that back Bipto.. Make that about 30 times by the time I finished this post.)

That's all I was gonna add. This was one of the funnest threads for me, brings back memories.
I ain't never seen a cacomistle (ringtailed cat), coatimundi or even a weasel yet. A blackfooted ferret would have been great. I had a friend who as a grad student studied the little fellers out in Wyoming. Did she invite me out? I dont know.... not on paper or by phone so guess not.
I like weasels... closest I got so far is mink. Red wolf would be a great thing to see, rare as they are. I ain't even seen a cinnamon black bear yet. I should add Sandhill and Whooping Crane, all the egrets and herons, and some of the harder to see birds like rails and warblers.

Ha! That damned box keeps coming. 12 more times Bipto :rolleyes:
Arky, yeah those walking sticks are harmless. I got a shot of a male and female from southern ILLinois mating what weird life they are. I could just for fun add some more critters here
(neat on the blacktails in 'Zona Titus.. I like those, they are pretty dang relaxed for rattlers, compared to ye old diamondbacks, them westerns are just like coiled springs)
eastern, 3 toed, ornate, gulf coast box turtles, painted, wood, Blandings, map, false map, common musk turtles, spiny, smooth and Florida softshell turtles, cooters, sliders (red eared, yellow bellied, Peninsula, Florida) snappers, skinks : (prairie, broad headed, ground, five lined, mole, coal) slender and eastern glass lizards, alligator lizard, gilas, fence, anoles, whiptails & racerunners, most eastern amphibians and snakes. Theres a bunch I haven't seen in the wild
especially something called a short tailed snake in Florida and a rainbow snake. Lots of the western rattlesnakes too. Timber, canebrake, pigmy, massasauga, blacktail, east. & west. diamondback, tiger and prairie rattlesnakes, copperheads , cottonmouths, and Arizona and eastern coral snakes I have seen though. A bunch of snakes : garters, ribbons, waters, rats, kings, milks, hognose, fox, bull, ringneck, brown, redbellied, earth, worm, Tantilla, etc. Living jewelery.
Seen the relections of spider eyes at night? That is kinda interesting. Until you find out what it is

Some you guys are regular steve erwins.

As for walking into spider webs. Oh yeahhhhh, happened all the time in the army, early in the morning when it just starts gettin light out and it's all wet and you're on patrol you'd walk right into a web face 1st and you know that spider was somewhere on ya. That would have certainly been some reactions to have on video. Not certain what type of spiders they were but they were big and back and yellow.

Appreciate the info on the american crocodiles.
Did I tell yall that story about that time I was attacked by a giant bat? Wait a second, maybe that was just some lie I told a long time ago...............