"top ten" mammals you would like to see (3 Viewers)

[Chlidonias]

wow that's awesome! The only photo I'd been able to find of a live one is the old black and white job of a couple in a cage in Walker's Mammals of the World

 

[Matt Prince]

Canadian polar mammals are rather easy, but expensive to see.

Narwhals can be found in Admirality Sound or to the west of Ponds Inlet in late June.

Polar bears are realtively common, obviously Churchill, Manitoba but if you can get a boat to Akpotak Island you are bound to see dozens.

Bowheads summer in Isabella Bay just south of Clyde River on Baffin Island. I have seen 50+ there

Walrus are best seen in the "low" Arctic, on Monumantal or Lady Franklin Island off Frobisher Bay or at Walrus Island in Hudson Bay

Hmm, having spent two weeks in the NW passage I'd beg to differ on the easy bit. At least with the Narwhals, as, being hunted they are rather skittish. We had distant views and a couple of very brief crash dives..

Also - Isn't Isabella off limits - at least to cruise ships? We could see Bowhead in the bay, but from a long way away, had several close encounters elsewhere.

Polar bears were easy though. We had one swim over to check out the smell of breakfast, it just sat off the port side treading water and sniffing the air. If the gangplank had been down I think it would have walked up...

 

[BrightonBirder]

Hmm, having spent two weeks in the NW passage I'd beg to differ on the easy bit. At least with the Narwhals, as, being hunted they are rather skittish. We had distant views and a couple of very brief crash dives..

Also - Isn't Isabella off limits - at least to cruise ships? We could see Bowhead in the bay, but from a long way away, had several close encounters elsewhere.

Polar bears were easy though. We had one swim over to check out the smell of breakfast, it just sat off the port side treading water and sniffing the air. If the gangplank had been down I think it would have walked up...

Narwhals are not easy to find by ship, you need to get to the ice edge by helicopter or boat/snowmobile. Narwhals are also not going to be found in the western Arctic, much too warm below Viscount Mellville Sound.

Isabella Bay has been designated a National WIldlife Area (called Niginganiq). Last time I was there, no regulations had been issued that described where the limit for cruise ships is. Apparently small boats (zodiacs) can enter.

 

[BrightonBirder]

Another ice speciality is the Arnoux's Beaked Whale. Would love to see that sometime. Pretty tough to find a species we know almost nothing about.

 

[Matt Prince]

Narwhals are not easy to find by ship, you need to get to the ice edge by helicopter or boat/snowmobile. Narwhals are also not going to be found in the western Arctic, much too warm below Viscount Mellville Sound.

NW passage = Eastern Arctic...

I was on the Ioffe, she's a fantastic ship and can cope with a little bit of ice so we tracked the ice edge on several occasions and mounted close to 24 hour watches from the 'bowhead' club on top deck. Still only got distant scope views, from Pond Inlet I think, and not near ice at that time.

Isabella Bay has been designated a National WIldlife Area (called Niginganiq). Last time I was there, no regulations had been issued that described where the limit for cruise ships is. Apparently small boats (zodiacs) can enter.

I don't know whether we were prevented legally, or the company sensibly chose not to go in to a known breeding area, in any case there were several close encounters away from this area.

 

[chris butterworth]

Another ice speciality is the Arnoux's Beaked Whale. Would love to see that sometime. Pretty tough to find a species we know almost nothing about.

Strap-toothed ( as a definite ) can't be that easy, either.

Chris

 

[Matt Prince]

Strap-toothed ( as a definite ) can't be that easy, either.

Chris

At least strap toothed is strinkingly marked and the dentition is obvious on an adult male. I've spoken to people who have seen them (mostly staff on ant. cruise ships).

 

[borealowl47]

Wolverine-most unlikely unless I head up north ,set up a carcass and wait for a long period.
Wolf-seen but only a brief glimpse
Bull Moose
Lynx-seen once briefly in headlights
Martin
Sasquatch,spotted in Northern Manitoba a few years back,close
a yet to be discovered animal in New Guinea
Marmots in British Columbia
Grizzly Bear -seen from far away though
Tasmanian Devil and hear it.
Cougar-might have seen footprints in Manitoba once.Found large footprints in
winter,no bears or dogs around.

 

[BrightonBirder]

At least strap toothed is strinkingly marked and the dentition is obvious on an adult male. I've spoken to people who have seen them (mostly staff on ant. cruise ships).

Are you suggesting strap-toothed whales are seen in Antartica? I have never heard of it. Maybe a few in the Drakes Passage but not south of the convergence.

 

[Matt Prince]

Are you suggesting strap-toothed whales are seen in Antartica? I have never heard of it. Maybe a few in the Drakes Passage but not south of the convergence.

That wasn't my intention - both sightings were from the passage north of the convergence. If anything I guess I was implying that the best chance of seeing this beastie was to be working the relevant waters (in this case the passage, or perhaps sub ant NZ) on a frequent basis.

It looks like their distribution is temperate to sub-antarctic, but they have been seen in Antarctic waters, and are thought to be at least reasonably common and partially migratory (Source - CMS). One problem with mapping the distribution of a species like this is that there isn't a huge amount of data to work from, and observer coverage is not distributed well across its range.

So - I agree that, at the moment, its impossible to go out and guarantee a sighting of a live one in a short space of time, but I don't think they are the hardest cetacean to find or identify at the moment - try Hubb's, Andrew's, Ginkgo-toothed...

 

[Perry Smale]

That wasn't my intention - both sightings were from the passage north of the convergence. If anything I guess I was implying that the best chance of seeing this beastie was to be working the relevant waters (in this case the passage, or perhaps sub ant NZ) on a frequent basis.

It looks like their distribution is temperate to sub-antarctic, but they have been seen in Antarctic waters, and are thought to be at least reasonably common and partially migratory (Source - CMS). One problem with mapping the distribution of a species like this is that there isn't a huge amount of data to work from, and observer coverage is not distributed well across its range.

So - I agree that, at the moment, its impossible to go out and guarantee a sighting of a live one in a short space of time, but I don't think they are the hardest cetacean to find or identify at the moment - try Hubb's, Andrew's, Ginkgo-toothed...

What about Beiji (Chinese River Dolphin)?!:-C

 

[Jhanlon]

Scottish wildcat!!! Then black rat (in UK). Perhaps my ultimate British mammal though would be a walrus... we haven't had one for a while!

Worldwide, Tasmanian devil would be good along with most elusive carnivores & any feline. Snow leopard is a handsome (& elusive) beast. It would be great to see one of the oddities like a sloth, bushbaby, armadillo or pangolin.

 

[Swissboy]

My list as I have seen a few, but also missed several:

Tiger
Jaguar (heared it)
Platypus (missed by a very few minutes)
Dugong/Manatee any of them
Orang Utan
Asian Rhino any of them
Walrus
European Bison (seen tracks)
Okapi
African Wild Dog

Not in any particular order.

There is a common one that I have missed so far: any Skunk! It's not among the top ten, but close. And to say that I spent a total of over six years in the US! It's rather perverse. Seen and smelled many run-over ones.