Animal Encounters

[GPS-Hermit]

I am sure there some interesting animal encounters while caching whether just seeing one or having an up close encounter. I have seen snakes, had birds fly up in my face, spiders bite me, and Turkeys all over but stil haven't seen my 1st Bear in the woods. Just tracks. Let hear from you.

[+two left feet]

Got bit by a skunk looking for a spot to hide a cache. But he did NOT spray me!

 

Saw a fox last week which is unusual for the Oklahoma City metro area.

[+BlueDeuce]

I used to complain about swallowing the occasional bug until my caching partner told me that maybe I should learn to keep my mouth shut.

 

After that I had nothing more to say.

 

[AlBundy69]

How about the opposite of a huge bear, got attacked by 1000s of teeny tiny seed ticks. boy was that a long drive home! good times

[+briansnat]

Ran into a few bears, rattlesnakes and copperheads. That's about it. I guess the only unusual thing is that this all happened within 30 miles of Times Square.

[+Clothahump]

Stumbled across a very large boarhog one day. Fortunately, he boogied off rather than be territorial.

[+Blue Power Ranger]

You can find a few pages of unusual animal enounters here.

 

There is some really neat stuff in there!

[+boda]

On one cache, going up a steep hill, my son and I scared up a large rabbit, flushed a large mule deer from 20 feet away, and shortly thereafter were buzzed by a rattlesnake. We only got pictures of the snake.

 

I've seen wild burros twice while caching; once in the Las Vegas area and the other time was within sight of my house. I've also seen a number of coyotes.

 

Returning from caching in Panama one day, we spotted two iguanas.

[+Harry Dolphin]

We saw two red tailed hawks within the last two weeks. Of course, one of them was in Central Park.

[+niffir]

No harrowing stories of narrow escapes here. Did see an armadillo once out in the woods while I was hunting for a cache. It's the only one I've ever seen in the wild (that wasn't smooshed on the side of the road). And last fall I picked up a lovely quartet of ticks that I didn't discover for several days-- they were on the bottom of my shoulder blade where I couldn't reach. And my squeamish-about-biting-and-stinging-bugs husband was very reluctant to help me remove them.

[+StarBrand]

Had to wait a skunk out before returning to the Jeep. I scared a coyote as bad as he scared me late one winter night at a cache. Have seen 20 or more rattlesnakes.

[crawil]

Here is my note from "Sticks on the Beach":

 

We gave this a shot at about 10:30 p.m. without too many muggles about. We walked up to a bush and Mrs. CRAWIL asked if I heard something inside the bush. "Of course not", I replied. She had just stepped on a few dried leaves and they rustled.

 

Anyway, I saw a white, curved stick inside the bush and thinking, "This doesn't belong here", reached inside to touch it. It was soft and squishy and IT MOVED!!!! I don't mean it moved a little bit, but it moved on its own!!! It was an opossum's tail!! We decided to leave and maybe try this one on another day. As I type this, my heart it still beating a bit hard!

[+anaddicted23]

Snakes are too common to name, but we've seen manatees, dolphins, rabbits, armadillos, racoons, very tame squirrels, iguanas in many colors, geckos, gators, stingrays and got to see a deer once.

[+Kit Fox]

I've seen:

 

California Valley Quail

Two snakes (1 Western Coachwhip, one Gopher snake)

Lots of migratory birds

Four Mule Deer

One Coyote

About 100 Blacktailed Jackrabbits

4 or 5 Great Horned Owls

One Barn Owl

6 Burrowing Owls

Rainbow Trout

Skeeters

Ticks (once)

Lots of Bear and Mountain Lion Tracks

 

This thread is filled with animal encounters Unusual Animal Encounters.

[Mr.Yuck]

Ran into a few bears, rattlesnakes and copperheads. That's about it. I guess the only unusual thing is that this all happened within 30 miles of Times Square.

 

In Joisey?? I don't believe you. Just kidding, of course I do. Nothing spectacular here, a skunk once hissed at me, just like a cat. But I ran the other way, waited a couple of minutes, then the trail was clear.

[+BVPete]

Here's an interesting FTF log on one of my caches, (a cougar story)

 

Well, Feb. 3 has turned out to be a most interesting day...Cached in the night darkness in Calgary and then slept in. Awoke to 2 more BVPete caches in the mountains.. Let's go! We parked at the environmentally acceptable parking lot for Heart Creek/Mountain and headed out. I had been up Heart Mtn. before but had not availed myself of Heart Creek. What a grand surprise! There was a huge ice fall, just where the creek disappeared into a maze of rock walled canyons, that was stunning! We took the BVPete go-around and discovered the falls...almost too vertical to see the bottom; and quite a ways down too! Tip toed across the creek several times on rocks that seemed to be in just the right place, even for The Cub, and found the off-the-track cache. We took the FTF prize, coveted, but did not take, the ghost story book, and left a geocoin. Of special interest was the discovery of cougar tracks that would have been made in the early dark hours of Feb.3. They showed up at the cache and then followed the tracks of you and your four legged cache buddy down the creek, around the falls, and half way down the descent hill...at which point the cougar decided that you smelled funny and headed west...We arrived out at the trail head and spotted a young lady with a GPSr in hand heading our way. I said to The Cub, "pretend we are muggles, we don't want to spoil this cacher's day". The young lady walked right up and asked if we had seen any cougar tracks! Turns out she was a local biologist studying these animals and had been ground-tracking this particularly large male cougar for some time. We had a great discussion after which she headed right out on that cat's trail! Totally Awesome! Thanks for the hunt, BVPete. Bearberry and The Cub.

[+SGT red jeep]

Was returning from a DNF on a night time cache with my 16 year old daughter in Anchorage Alaska. "Daddy, there's a moose!" she exclaimed. I changed my direction of travel and picked another way around a tree only to find myself about 10 feet from the hind end of a bull moose. Oh! That's where the moose is!. Night time, winter, trees, snow, a couple of flashlights, mine was currently shining in the eyes of a bull moose. Nice. :D As he started to turn around I calmly said to my daughter. "Cathy, run." I heard a little noise behind me as we relocated ourselves to another area but he didn't follow too far. The only problem was the moose was still between us and our vehicle. Giving it a wide berth, we encountered a couple more moose but at a greater and safer distance.

Also found myself along with my father-in-law about 10 yards from a black bear as we were returning from a cache located by a glacier. We let the bear have the path and he left us alone.

Finishing up a 3 stage multi landed me on rocky outcrop Southwest of Anchorage called Baluga Point. Saw the white whales a little distance offshore.

[+Sagefox]

Lots of animals but those of note include:

 

A female mountain lion in my path and close to the cache I needed (and did) get to.

 

A red tailed hawk on a low branch 30' from me. I only noticed it when it scolded me. We looked at each other and it scolded me again and then gracefully flew away.

 

Lots of ducks! Merganzers, buffleheads, Barrow's and common goldeneyes, long tailed duck, and many, many more.

[X-isle]

Ever seen one of these?

 

[chuckr30]

The most common mammal I see are rabbits. Then deer. Actually I see more (live) deer on roads than in the woods. I haven't seen snakes geocaching but have found them in the parks for other reasons.

 

I also found thousands (and I mean thousands) of toad tadpoles (toadpoles?) in a pond ready to dry up.

 

Mallard ducks are also common. Along with yellojackets, mosquitos, and other insects.

Edited March 1, 2007 by chuckr30

[BRTango]

The most common mammal I see are rabbits. Then deer. Actually I see more (live) deer on roads than in the woods. I haven't seen snakes geocaching but have found them in the parks for other reasons.

 

I also found thousands (and I mean thousands) of toad tadpoles (toadpoles?) in a pond ready to dry up.

 

Mallard ducks are also common. Along with yellojackets, mosquitos, and other insects.

 

I can't say that I've seen any animals geocaching. For some reason they can't seem to control the GPSr very well. Something about not having opposable thumbs... I dunno.

 

I have however encountered several deer; was only a couple of minutes behind a bear (saw the fresh steaming scat); several hawks; a beaver and two turtles; and heard some coyotes off in the distance. Usually though it's domestic dogs out walking their owners.

[+OHMIKY]

found a cache with a rubber rat fastened to the top of the lid - the whole thing hidden in a hollow log - does that count?

[+Cog&Gil]

Enjoyed the animal encounter reports.

 

On our personal Arizona geocoin the reverse has inscribed, "Wildlife adventures in Arizona Geocaching." We are always in the "observation" mode whenever we geocache. Our encounters are too numerous to list here. During your caching adventure, stop, look, and listen now and then. You might be surprised at what you might observe.

[+padlinfool]

 

Spirit of Sedona GCGAZZ where we picked up a coin called Ouch!

[+kc8bdr]

I have set my eyes on quite a few white tail dear over the years. However I was doing a cache in a park not far from home a few months back, was crouched down next to the cache getting the logbook when I heard something running through the trees behind me. When it started to get close I (Thinking it was a person) jumped up and spun around to see a white tail buck come to a screeching halt about twenty feet away. I do not believe the deer saw me until I stud up. I don’t really have a fear of deer but this guy was a bit close and had quite the spread on the antlers. I did not get the chance to count the points but would bet a good ten point. Anyway he turned and bounded back in to the woods

 

It is funny as many deer as I see I never get tired of seeing them.

 

Jim

Kc8bdr

[+Sequoia_2]

Have only seen 2 snakes so far while out caching. Pretty good record for Louisiana I guess! One was a small black snake wrapped around a limb I was going to grab, the other was a little grass snake yesterday. The only other thing I run into literally is those dang BANANA SPIDERS!!! Their webs are about 5 foot across and they just love to block the trails. I didn't know hikers and cachers were on the diet! Nothing else though, my 5 year old CAN'T keep quiet and will scare anything within a 5 miles area.

[adampierson]

Ever seen one of these?

 

 

I stepped on something like that once, it took me a while to clean it off.

[adampierson]

Animal Encounters with mentioning while caching...

 

snakes

cougar

deer

black bear

 

Does a crazed homeless man count?

[+peznurse]

I have ran into way too many snakes - just plain old gardner snakes - while caching. I have added a paper bag to my caching gear because no matter how small they are, I always hyperventilate when I see them. After that first time, standing on the trail with my head between my legs thinking I'm going to pass out and this is how they will find me, I keep that bag in a very handy spot!

 

I have also seen a big bull elk come crashing through the woods and stop about 50 feet from the cache - we all looked at each other for about 15 seconds until he skeedaddled back into the woods - guess he realized he would not get the FTF!

 

The deer I have seen have been much braver. There were two standing right at GZ, I kept thinking they would run off as I edged forward. They finally backed up a bit, sat down and decided to watch the wacky lady in the woods as I grabbed the cache.

 

I was also follow for a while by a coyote and saw a big pheasant/quail type bird (I don't know my birds) - but it was good sized, on the ground and unusual looking. In the same area I have seen a beautiful gray wolf. I saw it before I stopped to get a cache and decided to go elsewhere since I was by myself.

 

But my all time favorite was an evening I went out - it was already getting dark, raining and I forgot to "mark" where I parked with the GPSr. After a few turns on different trails, I realized none of the trails where marked - should I turn around or continue? Continue of course! Well, I found the cache, decided to get another on in the area and I was heading back to the general area on the car - completely soaked at this point and a bit cold. Came to yet another Y in the trail, choose one path (neither went where I was interested in going) and started heading down it. Suddenly, there was a low growl from behind me. Dreading what could be back there, I slowly turned around (imagination running everywhere at this point) and the flashlight revelled a dog - thank goodness, just a dog! I yelled at it to go home, which worked for a minute until I heard the growling again and so I stopped and yelled at it again to go home when I heard "Hello?". I was releived, and felt a bit sheepish, for yelling at this guys dog in the woods - but it was dark and this guy didn't even have a flashlight, but he did know the area. He helped me get out of the woods and back to my car, and the doggy didn't growl at me the rest of the way[]

[fivedime]

I see animals of one sort or another on pretty much every cache hunt I do. Some of the more recent and memorable sightings were a spotted skunk (tiny little thing, looked more tiger-striped than spotted, beautiful animal and luckily far away), a smal black snake climbing a tree (who new they could climb? yuck!) and a possum inside an in-ground water meter box...showing a very, very toothy mouth.

[crtrue]

Horses.

Biting dogs.

Non-biting dogs.

 

And today? A dead raccoon sans legs

[+misguided one]

While caching in Texas a few years back we had a Turkey Vulture fly out from under our feet. Go figure, the cache was hidden in the small cave the bird flew out of.

 

Living in the Pacific NW I get to see bald eagles soaring overhead almost every visit I make to my first cache hide.

Countless numbers of red-tailed hawks are perched on the lamp posts along the freeways around here.

I was fortunate, this past fall, to be able to show fellow cacher hydnsek, Chum salmon returning to their natal streams to spawn.

I have seen sealions while on the ferries crossing Puget Sound.

I am really hoping that I get to see an Orca this summer.

[+Team LaLonde]

You would think that spending so much time in the woods, one would run across a moose (especially in moose country). Would you believe my only moose sighting was IN TOWN on my way home from work? We see plenty of moose tracks and droppings in the woods though so I know they are out there.

 

While caching we regularly see bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, deer, rabbits, snakes and the like. The deer on Presque Isle are so tame I accidentally walked right into a resting herd while following this doe. I thought she was alone but when I looked up there were six deer all around me.

 

The last bald eagles we saw were at Bald Mountain (GCXWJM) in January. We have seen an osprey, many lizards (Valley of Fire) and had a close up encounter with a very angry desert rabbit at Petrified Cache (GCJA5R). He was in a burrow in the rocks directly under the cache placement and I was blocking his exit with my knee. I've never heard a rabbit growl like that in my life!

Edited March 3, 2007 by Team LaLonde

[+Groovy Cachin' Dude!]

We have seen an osprey, many lizards (Valley of Fire) and had a close up encounter with a very angry desert rabbit at Petrified Cache (GCJA5R). He was in a burrow in the rocks directly under the cache placement and I was blocking his exit with my knee. I've never heard a rabbit growl like that in my life!

 

That was no ordinary rabbit!

[+Wander Lost]

After reading this thread Friday we decided to keep track of all the animals we saw on our day caching. This is what we saw yesterday in about a two hour period:

 

Swans

Ducks

Bald Eagles

Three different types of Hawks

Falcons

Blue Herons

Gray Herons

Llamas

donkeys

horses

Alpacas

 

and a giant Marshmellow Farm.

 

Edited March 4, 2007 by Wander Lost

[+BornAdventures]

I don't usually see too many animals, I think I make too much noise.

A few months ago I saw a HUGE porcupine and today I saw some fresh leopard spoor, I got out of there really quickly

[X-isle]

We have seen an osprey, many lizards (Valley of Fire) and had a close up encounter with a very angry desert rabbit at Petrified Cache (GCJA5R). He was in a burrow in the rocks directly under the cache placement and I was blocking his exit with my knee. I've never heard a rabbit growl like that in my life!

 

That was no ordinary rabbit!

I saw a rabbit like that once, in a Monte Python movie. Vicious thing it was!

[+EScout]

Saturday, I saw a rare, seldom seen California Black Headed snake. Very thin, brown with black head, about 1 foot long, shy and disappeared quickly. California Black Headed snake

On this morning's hike, I saw my first rattlesnake of the season. This Southern Pacific Rattlesnake was sunning himself on the trail, and he is about 2 feet long.

Local rodent exterminator.

[+Bad_CRC]

lots of people seeing poisonous snakes. A log from a few days after I found a cache stated the finders found a cottonmouth sitting on it, we had joked at the time that it would be the perfect place for a snake to be hiding.

 

Anyone hear of a geocacher ever bitten or attacked by one? I know bites are very rare, but then most "Average" people don't go feeling around under rocks and behind logs either.

[adm4984]

My wife almost stepped on a snake on Sunday. She's terrified of them and screamed and jumped on my back!! I thought it was hilarious!!!

[+maugin]

we were out this past saturday, doin one of those "behind the hotel" caches. there was this nice little park with steps down to a natural area. on either side of the steps were large wooden planter boxes. we kinda figured that we knew where the cache was. lifting the bottom of the plants a little, locating nothing. i got ready to check the corner of the planter & i am just glad i looked before i put my hand in there!! EEKKKK!

a rather large cat with big yellow eyes staring back at me. do you think he moved, NO!

didn't get the smiley but i did get his pic!

 

[+Miragee]

Last Sunday, after walking away from a cache I DNF'd because it is missing, I saw this guy.

 

 

[+Haffy]

I ran into this monster while out on the caching trail

 

[+snakecharmr]

I honestly can't remember how many animals I've come across caching or just out looking for a co-ordinate someone has given me. (usually the co-ordinates are for critter sightings so go figure). I have a ton of photos from some of these on my own site though, photo's aren't for sale off the web site so don't harp on me for this please just wanted to share My Webpage

[BoostJunkie]

 

 

I was wondering where Pete had got off to. He done R-U-N-N-O-F-T.

"We thought you was a toad!"

[+Too Tall John]

Bumped into a bear two different days at the same cache (had to come back a 3rd day to finally get FTF on the cache...)

 

Come to think of it, I'd been kayaking the day previous to all this and saw one on the shore of the river, so that's 3 bear sightings in 3 days for me.

 

Sorry, I didn't get a photo, day one he was gone as fast as I was, day two, well, I coulda gotten some great closeups, but didn't want them to be any closer than they were.

[+CTYankee9]

For some interesting local San Diego encounters there is also a very long thread located here:

 

Critters!

[+Bad_CRC]

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...b3-d476148a6160

 

sorry picture quality is bad.

 

his twin brother tried to attack me.

 

 

or maybe milk me.

[+wildchld97]

Have only seen 2 snakes so far while out caching. Pretty good record for Louisiana I guess! One was a small black snake wrapped around a limb I was going to grab, the other was a little grass snake yesterday. The only other thing I run into literally is those dang BANANA SPIDERS!!! Their webs are about 5 foot across and they just love to block the trails. I didn't know hikers and cachers were on the diet! Nothing else though, my 5 year old CAN'T keep quiet and will scare anything within a 5 miles area.

 

Banana spiders are really cool. I love em'..good fly catchers. That is as long as you're seeing a banana spider from the U.S. Don't be touchin' the ones that accidentilly come in on your nanners though.. they'll hurt ya.

 

In any case..on my travels I've seen:

 

Spiders of all shapes and sizes...including the banana spiders in Florida.

 

Snakes...most colors and lengths. I'm NOT the crocodile hunter so I'm not stupid enough to pick any of them up. Pennsylvania has maybe three species that are venomous...so I'm not worried. I know what a rattlesnake and a copperhead look like at least.

 

My most recent encounter was with a black rat snake. A cool little fellow that thought he'd rattle his tail to scare me a little. I nudged him with my foot and off he went up a tree. However, he basked in the sun right above that cache. I had a feeling that he'd do something vindictive like DROP out of that tree, so I gave him a little nudge with a long stick. I think he got the *point* .]

 

Deer...some I startled..some of them scared the bejeezus out of me. I never knew that female deer will "chuff" if that's what you call it. I guess she was warning the fawn that was less than 20 feet from me to beware because she smelled somethin' funny...AKA...ME.

 

Black bears. Never stick around when you see bear skat...and definitely don't go for the kodak moment when you see a cub. (I don't take that person hiking anymore for obvious reasons. Sheesh.)

 

Hawks circling...awesome sight.

 

chipmunks, moles, frogs, toads, salamanders.

 

A very affectionate cow. That's another story though.

[+wildchld97]

we were out this past saturday, doin one of those "behind the hotel" caches. there was this nice little park with steps down to a natural area. on either side of the steps were large wooden planter boxes. we kinda figured that we knew where the cache was. lifting the bottom of the plants a little, locating nothing. i got ready to check the corner of the planter & i am just glad i looked before i put my hand in there!! EEKKKK!

a rather large cat with big yellow eyes staring back at me. do you think he moved, NO!

didn't get the smiley but i did get his pic!

 

 

Holy Smoke! Have you ever seen a bobcat? Me thinks that's what the "kitty" looks like.