Your most interesting animal encounter

[JimFromTN]

1. Had a coyote sneak up on my duck decoys
2. Had an owl take a squirrel out of the tree I was sitting in
3. In AK towards the end of the salmon run, had a moose calf walk up to us while we were fishing and it started picking up and chewing dead salmon
4. I was sitting in a ground blind during muzzleloader season and had a family of bobcats walk within 10 feet of me. The babies just walked on by. Momma stopped and looked me straight in the eye and started making a nasty noise. I realized if she decided to attack me, there was no way I could have gotten my rifle up.

 

[WildRose]

77 at scout camp in NM Near Sunspot Observatory. 5 of us got permission to leave the main camp and have an overnight about a mile away where they had some Tepees set up for special ceremonies.

We of course stayed up late drinking hot chocolate and just hanging out. When we finally decided to call it a night one of the other boys threw the rest of the hot cocoa out and rinse out the coffee pot.

About 3 hours later there's a bear licking the cocoa off the side of the tepee; kid had thrown it on the tent instead of walking off into the woods and dumping it like he'd been told.

He must have worked on that lick for half an hour or so before giving up.

When he did, doing what bears do he starts prowling around the camp to see what else he could find which a couple of times included sticking his head inside and poking at a couple of things.

Two of the boys slept through the whole thing, none of the rest of us got a wink of sleep.

Next morning back at base camp we told our scoutmasters about the night, they then report to camp manager, next thing we know the F&G boys are out and by the next morning our bear had been relocated.

That's a whole lot closer encounter with a live, uninjured bear as I'd ever want to have and fortunately no repeat.

 

[cornshank]

1. Had a coyote sneak up on my duck decoys
2. Had an owl take a squirrel out of the tree I was sitting in
3. In AK towards the end of the salmon run, had a moose calf walk up to us while we were fishing and it started picking up and chewing dead salmon
4. I was sitting in a ground blind during muzzleloader season and had a family of bobcats walk within 10 feet of me. The babies just walked on by. Momma stopped and looked me straight in the eye and started making a nasty noise. I realized if she decided to attack me, there was no way I could have gotten my rifle up.

Funny ,how much stuff like I that ends up happening, when you hunt and fish for years .

 

[WildRose]

My dad was probably the most addicted turkey hunter I've ever run into.

We had a place with about a mile of creek running through it so when we'd go down for the spring gobbler hunt we'd also run trotlines for catfish.

We'd hunt the morning and evening of course and after the morning hunt check the lines.

Same in the evening, just after dark we'd hit the boat and go clean up whatever bit during the day (mostly gar and turtles) rebait and call it a night.

Well the fall before, 78 or 79 the remnants of a huge hurricaine or TS blew in and the neighboring town got 28" of rain in 24hrs. Our little creek got to over a mile wide in places and of course lots of things start moving down stream with that much water coming through.

As a result all of the remaining trees below the max flood stage got filed with all sorts of floating crap including brush and tree limbs.

Ok, sorry for long winding this... .

So second or third night we're running lines when suddenly the entire world exploded! Tons of crap falling all around and in the boat including a couple of fairly large logs and the god awful racket of a really scared gobbler trying to get out of the tree right above the boat!

It was to say the least a very sobering and very "interesting" wildlife encounter.

 

[bigngreen]

Had a Mountain Lion come try to help release a bobcat out of a coyote set at about 1 AM, that was a little unnerving!
Released a Mountain Lion from a bobcat set.
Cut multiple baby moose out of fence, momma moose have poor attitudes about such things.
Quite a few encounter trapping and running hounds.

 

[Greyfox]

I was bow hunting about 25 years ago using my longbow and turkey feathered arrows. Sitting dead still, I felt a tugging on my back quiver, Figuring my arrows got hung up on a branch, when I turned my head a Great Horned Owl had mistaken my feathered arrows for a turkey, and had them firmly in in is claws. Both of us had a near heart attack when we realized the error, and he quickly vacated. Never heard the sound off his flapping wings…coming or going!

 

[wyosteve]

Moose hunting in the Yukon and heard splashing in the creek. Out comes a wolverine about 25 feet away!

 

[BallisticsGuy]

I had a chance to have a brief discussion about manners and littering with a mountain lion that got caught in a leg hold trap that belonged to an uncle of mine. The cat was adamant that we were being extremely rude by leaving such things where any passing entity could get caught in them and why didn't we have it labelled for the target species. We were adamant that we didn't appreciate it clogging up a trap that was meant for slightly smaller animals with much more in demand pelts. In the end the argument over who was the most lacking in manners was solved with a .22lr.

 

[FrogFire7]

I was bow hunting about 25 years ago using my longbow and turkey feathered arrows. Sitting dead still, I felt a tugging on my back quiver, Figuring my arrows got hung up on a branch, when I turned my head a Great Horned Owl had mistaken my feathered arrows for a turkey, and had them firmly in in is claws. Both of us had a near heart attack when we realized the error, and he quickly vacated. Never heard the sound off his flapping wings…coming or going!

Cool thing about owls- they have a ridge of feather projections along the lead edge of their wings. That's how they can silently glide in and take prey without being heard.

At work, we have an owl wing and a hawk wing. You can flap them in the air and it's crazy to hear the different (or, NOT hear the difference)!

 

[Starlite]

I was bow hunting about 25 years ago using my longbow and turkey feathered arrows. Sitting dead still, I felt a tugging on my back quiver, Figuring my arrows got hung up on a branch, when I turned my head a Great Horned Owl had mistaken my feathered arrows for a turkey, and had them firmly in in is claws. Both of us had a near heart attack when we realized the error, and he quickly vacated. Never heard the sound off his flapping wings…coming or going!

Yeah. Here in Canada we have a program called nature of things. Anyway they had a program on that; it discussed the incredible silence of an owls flight.
On one frosty Calgary fall year, mid 80s; was muley deer hunting. I'd just stepped down into what was likely an old settlement foundation. thought I'd sit a bit out of sight of this open field. Well seconds later I was being, what I interpreted as a dive-bombing attack by a big ole snowy owl. It was both majestic and terrifying. Big eyes and open talons. It flew right over me and grabbed a Richardson ground squirrel all I could think of was better it then me. I quickly decided I'd do some walking.

 

[BigDon]

I've had this happen multiple times while calling coyotes at night! Scary when they're grabbing your hat and hair - but awesome at the same time. It gets to the point you have to turn a light on so they could see you aren't actually on the menu!!

 

[cornshank]

When I was 10 or 11, my two younger brothers 9 and 7 came running out of the chicken pen (20' x20' ) ,attached to one side of the barn/shop , they were yelling ( a hawk is killing one the chickens !) , so I grabbed a pitchfork ,ran into the pen , and a big hawk had a chicken by the neck on the ground and when it saw me, it let go of the chicken ,turned on it's back with claws up, so I stabbed it with the pitchfork and killed it.
Probably get thrown in jail now days.

 

[JimFromTN]

I got to witness turkey fight club. They were making so much noise that I was able to sneak up on a ridge overlooking a saddle that they were collected in. I don't know how many turkeys were there but I know it was at least 50. They formed a circle and in the circle were 2 gobblers fighting. All the ones on the outside of the circle were excitedly chirping and clucking, basically going nuts and egging the fighters on.

 

[LVJ76]

We were camping in late September of last year, and the campgrounds aren't to close to each other, but you can hear some noise from them still. It's a quite campground for the most part.

From the parking space you walk down a few steps to the campground, so the parking is at an elevated location.

It was dark and we started hearing noises, stuff being moved around and such. Thought it was the campground next door but that wasn't the case, the noises got louder and we realized they were coming from inside my truck, I had left the windows down.

So I put on my headlamp on and walk up the steps towards the truck, with my wife right behind me, being curious. So I'm coming up on the passenger side and when I reach the pavement and window of my truck, there they are, a pair of big eyes looking straight at me.

It was a racoon looking at me from the driver side door, she was climbing out and just stood there frozen. We looked at each other for a couple of minutes whike I talked to her, until I finally ran her off.

Little after 2 am I heard her outside making noises and trying to get in to a tote. I walked out and tried to scare her away, and as I was standing by a large oak tree, a small face pops out in from of me from the tree, it was the baby racoon, literally 2 feet in front of my face.

It was a funny and nice encounter. My wife says that both the racoon and I had the same surprised look when we saw each other.