What are your favorite wild animals?

[The_LED_Museum]

My favourite wild animal would have to be the dragonfly.
You know, those big blue darner dragonflies.

Let's see if I have a picture of one handy...BBS...

This isn't an actual blue darner, but it's close.
It's just an insect, but it is wild, and it is an animal, so it fits the criteria for inclusion in this thread. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bindibadgi]

They are amazing! I read an article about their flight habits and they seem to have almost perfected stealth flight and detection evasion.

By the way I found an article about emus in today's paper. How can I attach a pdf?

 

[ACMarina]

Yeti - Does that count?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I really like penguins, wolves and manatees. .

 

[MikeF]

American Kestrel, formerly known as Sparrow Hawk. I sat 10 feet away from a male Kestrel that was sitting on a fence post. It had just caught a baby prairie dog from it's burrow, and landed on the post as I watched the kill, and the meal. Of course I didn't have a camera with me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
American Kestrel

Polar Bears, I spent two weeks in Churchill Manitoba, Canada in November of 1998 videotaping the wild Polar Bears as they are waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze over. 200-300 Polar Bears were there, as well as Arctic Hare, Arctic Fox, Ptarmigan. The link below is to another photograper that was shooting stills during the same trip. He is from Japan, and makes cooking knives. I was shooting video, and I do not have a way to stream the video I shot, so here is a picture that my friend took.
Polar Bear "Ice Bear"

Bald Eagles, I spent one week in Haines Alaska in November of 1994 to videotape the Bald Eagle convention as they feast on the Salmon in the Chilkat and Chilkoot rivers. There were 4-5,000 Bald Eagles there - absolutely incredible!!! The link here is to the site of Wendy Shattil and Bob Rozinski. I went with Bob in 1994, and some of the images on this link appear to be from that trip. Again I was shooting Video, so until I grab some still frames, I can't show my own images.
Bald Eagles

Edited to provide links

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Chipmunks, prairiedogs, squirrels, dogs. All of them are really smart.

 

[Wolfen]

Wolves, bats, foxes, badgers, wolverines. pumas, bobcats , lynx, Gila monsters, tiger salamanders, garter snakes, frogs etc.

I saw a copperhead snake on Kentucky Mammoth Cave grounds last summer. We were about 8 feet away when I pointed it out to my wife. She jumped about five feet and scared it away. I was in Minnestota last summer and saw about fifteen bald eagles and about 6-7 golden eagles. The goldens are huge!!!

Dragon fly are cool. I grew up in the middle of the third largest city in America but two blocks from my house was a undeveloped parcel of land half a mile long on all sides. It had a small prairie with native plant species, a small wooded area and a marsh and a dirt bike track. I spent a large part of my childhood there observing frogs, turtles, salamanders, wild pheasant, opossums and many other critters. Its now the parking lot for Midway Airport.

I also heard Boy Scouts of America / Chicago will close Owasipee Boy Scout camp in Michigan and sell it to developers. Makes me sick to my stomach. I have a little guy on the way and I hoped it would be there for him one day.

 

[BC0311]

I like every animal mentioned. Don't know about the Yeti, though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I love any animal that eats lots of mosquitos, so the Dragonfly (even its larva eats mosquito larva) and the insect eating bats are high on my list.

I'm situated a few miles south of the largest known bat colony in the United States. They eat literally tons of insects each night.

You can build a bat house and either erect it on a pole or attach it to your house. Great way to put a major dent in the mosquito population around your place.

Building a Bat House

North American Bat Conservation Partnership

U.S. Bats by State

About Bats

My grandfather gently corrected me when, as a youngster, I shot a dragonfly with a BB gun.

I've heard that the eggs can be purchased by mail order and you can introduce them to a mosquito larva-laden pond near you.

 

[BlindedByTheLite]

worldwide - lemurs
local - wolves

 

[jtr1962]

If I have to pick a favorite wild animal I'll pick one that has the trait I find most admirable-surviving under the most dire of circumstances. From this strictly survival of the fittest aspect nothing beats the lowly cockroach. I've heard they would be one of the few things alive after a nuclear holocaust. It's also the most common "wild animal" numerically in NYC by far, with the rat a distant second.

 

[MaxaBaker]

And then the scorpians that also survived the holocaust come and eat the cockroaches!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Catman10]

All big cats, cougars in particular.

 

[MaxaBaker]

Never would have guessed it from your name /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif





/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[PhotonWrangler]

[ QUOTE ]
jtr1962 said:
If I have to pick a favorite wild animal I'll pick one that has the trait I find most admirable-surviving under the most dire of circumstances. From this strictly survival of the fittest aspect nothing beats the lowly cockroach. I've heard they would be one of the few things alive after a nuclear holocaust. It's also the most common "wild animal" numerically in NYC by far, with the rat a distant second.

[/ QUOTE ]

There would be two life forms that would probably survive a nuclear holocaust -
Cockroaches and Cher

 

[greenLED]

gray wolf
hawks

 

[snakebite]

big snakes.
and spiders,scorpions ect.

 

[BC0311]

Speaking of scorpions, I have a few photos of them in my gallery.

I think I got these two from CountyComm's website. Scorpions illuminated with UV flashlights they sold.

Scorpion Mama and babies:

I just scored this off of Ebay today. It's a nice sized (2.2" x 1.9" x .7") piece of Baltic Honey Amber with a very old scorpion inside. My 6 year old son has a collection going, I'd pick up those acrylic paperweights with a large scorpion inside at the airport gift shops in Texas for him.

Then we went scorpion hunting last summer with an Inova X5 UV. So, I've got to keep my eyeballs peeled for scorpion stuff for him now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Britt

 

[raggie33]

raggie dont mess with spiders or scorpions they scare the hell outa me.i mean im terefied of em.

 

[357]

I can deal with snakes and most spiders (I've held captive snakes before, and don't mind the occasional spider), but I am absolutely terrified of scorpions.

 

[bindibadgi]

But you were thinking of breeding snakes! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

Actually, jokes aside, I kinda agree. Snakes are cool (if a bit disconcerting) but spiders are just a bit too creepy-crawly-bitey for me too.

 

[raggie33]

lol snakes dont scare me at all its spiders and scorpions that do