This goes back to around 2000. Snake hunting in the Everglades middle of the night, my friend and I saw a black panther. I know, I know, impossible, Florida doesn’t have them etc etc etc. we both saw it clear as in a zoo in the floodlights of his truck. 100% big cat, 100% black.
I have a shirt of a black panther holding a shotgun.
I remember driving around Florida and seeing a sign with a panther on it. It might have said panther crossing or it just implied it. Wish I could remember where it was.
Me and a bunch of guys saw a lynx at a remote airstrip in western Australia.
Plenty evidence of them in the UK, I see no reason they couldn’t be in Florida!
Saw a hulking Florida Panther on a lonely creek in NW FL. Wikipedia says there’s only a small population in the very south.
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.
In the wild? Bald Eagle.
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!
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 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 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.
Tanuki
My buddy is an entomologist and one time I tagged along while he went to collect beatles in the highlands. When we got back to the lab one of the specimens I had collected turned out to be a species that was thought to be extinct in the region and hadn’t been spotted in a very long time. He was wildly jealous
You found Pete Best?
Underrated
Probably my cat. There’s only one of her.
I saw my first Praying Mantis yesterday.
those things freak me out
Very weird, this guy seems to have moved into our garage. Just saw it again!
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If we’re including captive animals, the one that stands out the most to me is a Chaco Owl. It’s not considered endangered yet, but it’s only found in one particular area of the world, at the borders of Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.
In the wild, I’ve come across porcupines on a few occasions, and I almost had a fisher cat run up my leg. I didn’t know we even had them in my state, so I was very freaked out as to what this long, furry thing coming at me was. I wish I had maintained my composure so I could have gotten a better look at it, but it’s also the kind of thing in glad we figured out what each other was before I was in biting range!
Not super rare, but a wolverine
Polar Bear this year in Southern Greenland
No idea. But if I were to randomly guess, I’d say it was a bison during their endangered days.
Not sure how rare they are, but I’ve seen wild crested caracaras a few times.
Quokka on Rottnest Island (Western Australia)?
Followed by trying to stop fuckwits from playing “quokka soccer”. 🤭
Orcas, maybe?
I don’t even know what the rarest animal I would have seen in person is, considering many zoos and aquariums have endangered species in their care and I like going to them. I went to the Sacramento zoo over this last weekend, too.
In the wild, though? Could either be orcas or grizzly bears.
Red squirrel
Saw one at Balmoral estate once!
