Unusual ways that you have seen good mammals. (2 Viewers)

[Steve Babbs]

This is a blatant copy of a thread in the birds and birding thread but, reading that, I realised most of mine seem to be mammal related. Here are some of mine.

1987 Venezuela - we were wild camping in some rainforest. Obviously toilets facilities were non-existent so we had to do what bears do. I was doing this when a family group of South American Coatis walked incredibly close to me, taking a bit of time to check me out. Somewhat surprisingly, they are still the only ones that I have seen.

1998 Mersing, Malaysia - I was sitting in a restaurant, having a beer, when a Pangolin literally walked into the restaurant. The owners assured me it must have been a wild one - I suspect if someone had a pet one, it would have been quickly killed and sold - they did this while trying out their new first aid kit on me as I managed to fall down a drain while photographing the Pangolin. It is possible that it wasn't my first beer.

2011 Itataia NP Hotel Ype - being a low-budget sort of traveller this was at the time the most expensive place that I'd stayed. maybe it was due to this shock that I decided to give in to my nicotine addiction in the daytime when usually I can last until the evening. So I had a cigarette while looking out of my cabin on arrival rather than rushing out into the forest. A Tayra wandered past while I was having it. By some way the best thing we saw there and, again, the only one I have seen.

 

[Mysticete]

Probably the closest story I can relate to this is birding Agua Caliente State Park, on the "desert side" of San Diego County. We were watching a Loggerhead Shrike, that seemed focused on a bush. Eventually it dived down, spooking two (lifer) White-throated Woodrats from cover. The rats were larger than the shrike probably, so I have no idea what the bird was thinking...needless to say it didn't catch them. But as the Woodrats dashed away, suddenly a (lifer) Coachwhip slithered from cover and nabbed one, taking it within its coils. I can't say I have ever had one lifer get immediately eaten by another lifer on first observation!

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

My sighting of a Japanese Badger this summer, strolling along a quiet forest road in the middle of the day, was an odd one.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Another one for me was Cape May 1993. Two months there and I'd failed to see a skunk. Probably because I'd spent less time at bars until 3 in the morning than most English birders there, which was more to do with many others having been there before so needing fewer birds than me than me being sensible and sober, and many had seen them walking back from the bars. I'm waiting for the bus to catch a bus to New York to get my flight home and one walks down the street.

 

[Farnboro John]

End of January 1987 and my first twitch to Shetland, for Harlequin, which I got, also Surf Scoter (tick) and White-billed Diver (tick on the way home at Filey). Anyway, at the end of the day actually on Shetland, I'd been dropped off at the quay by my lift driver and I overheard some birders discussing whether there was time to get to Catfirth and back before the boat left. I asked if they had room for me and my friend Guy as well. They said "No - get in" so we ended up packed like sardines, elbow in the ribs, tripod up your nose, you know the sort of thing.

So we got to Catfirth and there was the Harp Seal on the beach, its characteristic back blotch in clear view. Back on the boat and many beers! This is now by far my best British mammal tick, at the time it was just a bonus to a great birding weekend.

John

 

[Jos Stratford]

Cycling and Polar Bears

 

[Farnboro John]

Cycling and Polar Bears

I remember that report. I do think you pushed the limits on that trip my friend.

The only one that gave me more collywobbles was the bloke who said he drove past a wood he'd been unwarily birding in and a male Polar Bear walked out!

John

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I very vividly remember my first Black Bear. I was an exchange student in America in 1993 and we had gone on a field trip into the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico. We were camping in a fairly remote and beautiful area. Of course, we were told that there were definitely bears around and we might need to be careful. There were lots of birds around too, so obviously I wandered off along the tracks through the forest to get some exciting lifers. One morning, as I was walking back to the camp, I heard a loud commotion from the forest. A deer ran out onto the track about thirty metres ahead of me in a state of panic, but I immediately knew it wasn't all there was. It was soon followed by a large Black Bear! As it reached the track, it stopped (as did I), and looked down the track at me. I stood, terrified, for about a few seconds. It then... turned back and ran into the forest.

I walked, fairly briskly, back to the camp. Interestingly, everyone could tell I had seen a bear when I got back without me having to say anything. I suspect the look of panic hadn't entirely left my face.

 

[Jos Stratford]

I remember that report. I do think you pushed the limits on that trip my friend.

Same trip had Grizzly Bear while on foot and, my favourite, a young Black Bear approach to a couple of metres as I crouched thinking it was now too late to make any sudden moves and to back off.

 

[Steve Babbs]

My most scary mammal moments were being charged by an elephant in Kruger - there is an obvious joke there - when our little Toyota Tazz must have been the fasted reversing car on the continent and last year in Uganda. On that occasion we went to go out of our cabin in the morning to be waved back: there was a hippo just outside our room. We climbed onto next door's veranda and took the long way. No problem and we had a great morning - a self-found leopard being a highlight. What didn't occur to me at all was it would still be there at lunch time. I strolled towards the cabin without giving it a thought. I must have been looking in a different direction completely because I almost stood on the bloody thing before it got up. It's fair to say I did a fairly rapid retreat.

 

[jurek]

My first thought was that by looking at rubbish dumps. They so often attract interesting wild mammals, that when I am in some lodge or hotel I ask where they throw their rubbish.

Besides, I was on a trip in Gabon and went spotlighting on the access road going through the dense bush. At one point on this rack there was there a sign with an elephant and the text: Elephants dangereux. So I quietly walk through the jungle in the darkness, shining light, looking for galagos, fruit bats and such.

I walk past the sign, the spotlight cannot penetrate dense bush. Dark, quiet, frogs creaking. Suddenly, I smell a wave of methane. And a second later, a wave of wet, pungent smell of digested grass reaches me. Just as if an elephant sh**ted itself a metre from me. It is incredible, how a smell can evoke strong emotions. I ran some meters forward. Then I shouted several times, slowly turned round and went back to the camp. I decided Demidoff's galago was enough for the night.

Mind you, I did not see or hear any elephants.

 

[lgonz1008]

All my memorable mammal "sightings" happened this year, so here goes:

• First night in Kenya, we stayed in Wildebeest Eco Camp, we got that at 10:30PM and all of us were woken up by a Southern Tree Hyrax that likes to call at 1AM every night...only heard only mammal in my life list, but willing to count it because of how annoyingly traumatic that call was in 4 nights of the trip
  • Bonus to the elephants in Samburu, we knew they were around, but when the bushes are taller than the safari truck and one just shows up next to you blocking the road with no warning or sound, and that one elephant turns out to be a young bull in musth...let's just say I never felt so close to an elephant in my life and I never want to be again
• Short weekend trip in Canada with family. Had a short morning to visit somewhere for birding before going to the airport, so I went to Tommy Thompson Park. Overall, decent couple of hours seeing a nice variety of birds, including the most Yellow Warblers I've ever seen in my life. But as I'm walking doing the paved trail, I see something small, brown, long with stout legs running down the road. I just think it's an otter, but then it turns right to enter a retention pond and I confirm it's not an otter, but my lifer American Mink! Didn't think I'd see a new mammal (and such a good one), just 20 minutes away from Downtown Toronto.