Amusing Wildlife Encounters

[cachman9]

Does anyone have some cool, amusing wildlife stories? I haven't yet while geocaching but have caught cool stuff on my trail cam.

[+wmpastor]

The reverse story: outside phila., a camoed hunter sat high in a tree for hours watching cachers in the woods. He watched me for 20-30 min. until I spotted him. I was the first to see him & talk to him. What stories! ("Colorado" cache.)

[+T.D.M.22]

Yup. Some deer the "cache" out of us when it jumped from the tall grass. That was on a powertrail we where checking. A couple caches before had been eaten. Not by cows or deer- we think coyotes. They must

Not like power trails.

[+DragonsWest]

Rattlesnake hissing and rattling to beat the band while I'm standing inches above it.

 

I nearly laughed my head off.

[+Lineman101]

Rattlesnake hissing and rattling to beat the band while I'm standing inches above it.

 

I nearly laughed my head off.

 

 

 

Yea, lots of buzztails in my neck of the woods too. You learn to use a stick rather thank reach in.

[+basscat5]

I have seen quite a few critters while Geo Caching....I stopped at a parking area up in Northern Michigan and there was a sign put up to Beware of Mama bear and her cubs, I decided not to go for the smiley because I had my dog with me...

 

Puting a trail cam up and watch a Geo Cache would be pretty cool...

[+frinklabs]

An excerpt from my log for Bird Haven (Finch Meander):

 

I used the prospect of tame raccoons to entice my daughter to come caching with me today; she has been reticent to do so lately.

 

From hers:

 

I was disappointed by the broken promise of raccoons. We went to the river and I was going to cool off my feet in there but the crayfish were freaky. Large bugs of the water.

 

The photo from her log:

 

 

The caption for the picture reads "Not a raccoon"

[+Walts Hunting]

How about this log

 

Decided to take a little hike in Cronan before it gets to warm and to see how my recovery is going. Had a nice 5+ miler and found a few cachces so it was a great day. Plus got to kill a rattlesnake. This is where I got to. Arrived and started looking around the base of the tree and my face ended up two feet from the face of the forked tongue monstor. I backed up and since it was at the base of the tree I had to take action. Lobbed a rock in which hit it and it slithered a lttle ways away but was strung out below the tree where I needed to go. Piled a bunchof rocks on the area slithered up (pun intended) to sign the log.

[+Fugads]

In a cache I recently found was this interesting anecdote about the cache being destroyed by a mountain lion. Naturally I am skeptical, but stranger stuff has happened. Maybe the previous container used to store raw meat and wasn't washed very well (ugh)? I'm not sure how a cougar could damage a geocoin... maybe all the CO meant was that the coin was in good/pristine shape despite the assault. Regardless, it was a fun find.

[+BlackRose67]

All I've come across are deer, chipmunks, black/grey/red squirrels, garter snakes, and milk snakes.

 

Myself and a couple of friends were tracked by a pack of coyotes one night while night caching.

[+RudyN]

I have seen the following: Deer, Wild Turkeys, Coyotes, Bobcats, Rattlesnakes, Wild Pigs and one Cougar while caching. The most dangerous to me are deer as the may jump where you are going. Kind of nervous animals I'd say.

[+hydnsek]

I have seen the following: Deer, Wild Turkeys, Coyotes, Bobcats, Rattlesnakes, Wild Pigs and one Cougar while caching. The most dangerous to me are deer as the may jump where you are going. Kind of nervous animals I'd say.

I see your menagerie and up you two bears and an elk.

 

Ok, I've not seen a cougar while caching, only its dinner (mauled deer), but I've spooked two bears, been between a mama bear and her cubs calling to each other, disturbed numerous rattlesnakes (two were coiled to strike), startled lots of deer (including adorable fawns) and a few elk (the bulls make the ground shake when they run), encountered a bobcat with a hare in its mouth, flushed grouse, and found a black widow spider on a cache. While orienteering I've run across turkeys, wild pigs, coyotes - and skunks! I was by myself for most of these, which is when you're more apt to see wildlife.

 

...and then there were the herds of cows and sheep. We had to turn back from a cache one time when we were surrounded by a sea of sheep.

 

Cows and elk make me the most nervous, not snakes or bears.

Edited November 17, 2013 by hydnsek

[+loverfishy]

Well, I've almost been hit by a deer while biking to a cache (bolted out in front of me), and seen numerous others as well as a few moose. Wild turkeys are very prevalent around here, so I've seen large fleets of those while caching; same with squirrel, chipmunk, rabbits, frogs, and garter snakes. I also had an incident where I almost reached into an active paper wasps nest while trying to grab the second stage of the multi- fortunately, my most memorable "wildlife" encounter happened shortly before that, so I had wised up and used my phone cam to take a pic before I stuck my hand into the tree hollow.

 

Behold, I give you the memorable Felis domesticus aka kitty cat:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=adb7fdd6-3824-4e6f-b892-2b0d76180670

[+sasqwatches]

The only animals we have come across are a few eagles, owls. hawk, crows and other birds. The sqwatch kids are a bit loud and haven't figured out that if they are quite they'll see cool animals thing yet .

[+Planet]

Scroll down to 8/24/05

 

It took me five logs to fit in the story of my two close encounters with bears in one day.

 

The two white dots are the bear's eyes. It was 5AM.

 

In addition, bobcat, deer, wild turkeys, and not while caching, but one mountain lion in CT. (Yes, they do too live here, I don't care what anyone says.)

Edited November 17, 2013 by Planet

[+colleda]

 

 

Two pictures of Frilled Neck lizards we spotted last week.

We often see large snakes, mainly the Red Bellied Black snake but they usually slither away before we can get a pic of them.

[Clan Riffster]

Because much of my caching involves heading deep into swamps, solo, I've had encounters with all manner of critters. Probably the most memorable encounter was with a cow. Yeah, unfortunately, that's not a typo. A walking hamburger got really upset with me. The SJRWMD property where one of my night caches is, is home to feral cattle. All told, there are maybe 50 head of cattle out there, including at least one very large, frequently grumpy bull. I should add that the entire reflector trail is in dense vegetation, often with less than 5' of visibility.

 

I was out there around 1:00am, doing reflector maintenance. I've encountered this particular bull numerous times out there in the past, without problems. In most cases, he'll be bashing his way through the flora, and all you need to do is figure out his direction of travel, and step aside. He'll walk right past you with nary a tail twitch. But not that night. Like a tank creeping through a bubble wrap factory, you'll hear him coming from a long way off. When I heard him coming, I stopped hanging reflectors, and waited in an opening in the brush. When he came into the clearing, he shook his head, giving me the hairy eyeball. I stepped to the side, and instead of continuing his beeline course, he turned to face me. More head shaking, and a snort, followed by another dirty look. I step aside again. He turned to face me again, and went through the same posturing, as if to tell me he didn't care that I was at the top of the food chain.

 

That's when I realized that I was way back in the woods, with no cell phone, and no one knows where I'm at. Prudence dictated that I back away slowly, calling it a night.

 

My self image took a few hits that night.

 

Big bad cop... Scared off by a cow...

[+Fridge01]

I grabbed a film can from the base of a sign and there was a scorpion under it.

I was on a hiking trail and saw a whole family of wild pigs. I got quiet and they wandered to within 30 feet, I took out my camera trying to get a picture when they noticed me and ran off. Who knew pigs were camera shy?

On a bike trail crossing a stream there were two huge alligators less than 10 feet below. We stopped to gawk, they totally ignored us.

In the woods I got stung by a nest of wasps and posted it in my log. Three more people posted the same thing as if they were the first person it ever happened to. Read the logs first and you might avoid getting sting.

I've seen llamas in fenced areas, obviously somebody's pets. I've also seen a zebra and a camel (uh oh, guess what day it is).

[+hydnsek]

I have seen the following: Deer, Wild Turkeys, Coyotes, Bobcats, Rattlesnakes, Wild Pigs and one Cougar while caching. The most dangerous to me are deer as the may jump where you are going. Kind of nervous animals I'd say.

I see your menagerie and up you two bears and an elk.

 

Ok, I've not seen a cougar while caching, only its dinner (mauled deer), but I've spooked two bears, been between a mama bear and her cubs calling to each other, disturbed numerous rattlesnakes (two were coiled to strike), startled lots of deer (including adorable fawns) and a few elk (the bulls make the ground shake when they run), encountered a bobcat with a hare in its mouth, flushed grouse, and found a black widow spider on a cache. While orienteering I've run across turkeys, wild pigs, coyotes - and skunks! I was by myself for most of these, which is when you're more apt to see wildlife.

 

...And then there were the herds of cows and sheep. We had to turn back from a cache one time when we were surrounded by a sea of sheep

 

Cows and elk make me the most nervous, not snakes or bears.

For anyone who read the bolded bit and thought "huh?" - read this. Cows, definitely the scariest wildlife.

[+mertat]

I guess the most interesting wildlife encounter I had was when I was caching with my brother and we were "attacked" by a turkey on the trail. It jumped out at us unexpectedly and then proceeded to posture on the trail in front of us. We figured it must have a nest nearby and was trying to lure us away. I got some not very good pictures of it:

 

 

 

[+etphoneme2plz]

An excerpt from my log for Bird Haven (Finch Meander):

 

I used the prospect of tame raccoons to entice my daughter to come caching with me today; she has been reticent to do so lately.

 

From hers:

 

I was disappointed by the broken promise of raccoons. We went to the river and I was going to cool off my feet in there but the crayfish were freaky. Large bugs of the water.

 

The photo from her log:

 

 

The caption for the picture reads "Not a raccoon"

 

BUT he is soooo CUTE!!!! I've never seen a real live chipmonk!!!

[+etphoneme2plz]

All I ever see are fields of cows, occasional dogs and cats and a few squirrels, couple a garter snakes and BUGS..... They can keep the creepy bugs.....

[+Isonzo Karst]

From a log of mine on a cache in the Ocala National Forest (there's a military facility in the forest the Pinecastle Bombing Range):

 

Had an exciting start to the day here. Arriving, I felt the need to hustle down the trail for a coffee-in coffee-out exercise. So I'm standing there pants down, and two things happen nearly simultaneously - an enormous BOOM! from the bombing range, and a bear pops outa the scrub about 20 feet from me. Good thing my pants were already down, eliminating any soiling issues.

 

So the bear and I are both pretty startled (but he doesn't have his pants down). He rears up, running his nose over my scent, while I'm trying to straighten up smoothly, and get put back together in a nonchalant non-threatening way. He gets organized first, and saunters back into the same hunk o' scrub he just left.

[+QuiltinNana]

We've seen the usual chipmunks, squirrels, deer etc when in the woods, but what never fails to scare the beejeesus out of me is a grouse taking flight.

[+fishgeek]

From a log of mine on a cache in the Ocala National Forest (there's a military facility in the forest the Pinecastle Bombing Range):

 

Had an exciting start to the day here. Arriving, I felt the need to hustle down the trail for a coffee-in coffee-out exercise. So I'm standing there pants down, and two things happen nearly simultaneously - an enormous BOOM! from the bombing range, and a bear pops outa the scrub about 20 feet from me. Good thing my pants were already down, eliminating any soiling issues.

 

So the bear and I are both pretty startled (but he doesn't have his pants down). He rears up, running his nose over my scent, while I'm trying to straighten up smoothly, and get put back together in a nonchalant non-threatening way. He gets organized first, and saunters back into the same hunk o' scrub he just left.

 

It's a good thing that you had already marked the territory as yours before all of that happened :-)

[+sparklefingers]

I had a frog jump out of a tree in mexico and land on my shoulder while I was walking towards a cache.

 

Whilst looking at GZ for a cache I found an iguana sat on it and geckos all round it.

 

In England all i seem to see are other peoples dogs, evil cows, sheep, swans, pigs, goats, horses, squirrels, bats.

[+JohnnyVegas]

do cows count- I had some cows looking over my shoulder once in an area in which cows, hikers and Mt. Bikers share an area. But I was wearing a shirt the said Vegan. Just in case one of the cows could read

cows trample geocacher

Edited November 22, 2013 by JohnnyVegas

[+larryc43230]

do cows count

cows trample geocacher

Does a confrontation with a dog and a cow count?

 

My log of The Tortoise and the Hare Part I

 

--Larry

[+The Rat]

do cows count

cows trample geocacher

Yeah, I was going to post that link, too, although I'm not so sure it qualifies as "amusing." I was once attacked by a wildcat in Rancho San Antonio Park. Appropriately enough it was on the Wildcat Loop. I was actually running, not geocaching, although I do geocache there and have a cache in that park. I expected it to run off as I came running pretty fast downhill at it, but instead it jumped me. I was in the right spot in my stride and just planted my leading foot squarely on its forehead and pushed it away. I didn't even get scratched. That park is full of both caches and wildlife: turkeys, quail, bunny rabbits and jack rabbits, coyotes, wildcats, deer, rattlesnakes, hornets, owls, spiders, banana slugs, even mountain lions on occasion.

[+Heli Leo]

Just returned from Hawaii and while searching for the Sugar train cache we had a Mongoose cross the trail in front of us. I did not know that there were Mongoose in Hawaii but after looking it up on google I was surprised to find that they are considered a pest. When it first crossed the road I thought it was a squirrel and then realized the head shape was wrong.

[+Ambrosia]

Not an amusing story, but when we visited an elephant seal beach last October, some of the elephant seals were awfully cute:

 

 

[TheDangers]

I got a decent one. One day on my lunch break during on a rainy day decided to run out and grab a cache real quick. I had to do a good amount of hiking through the woods with my umbrella to get to it. On the way back I found a deer just chilling on the trail right blocking the trail. I told it to move and it just stood there staring at me. So I popped my umbrella and spun it around hoping it would spook the deer, this was to no avail. I had to eventually just sprint at it waving my arms around then it reluctantly stepped out of my way. Thankfully I was the only one hiking there because I'm sure I looked rather silly.

[+JohnCNA]

I usually use my hiking stick to poke into holes first, before putting my hands anywhere. But *this* hole was 10 feet up a tree. Standing on a low branch, the *one time* I did not use my stick to poke first, I got bit by a possum. My gloves took most of it but the little bugger did draw a little blood. Never did find the cache there, either.

[+hzoi]

Closest encounter we had was with this nonvenomous black snake outside Grand Caverns, Virginia. Cache was under a stage; found the cache, removed it, and we were logging it when I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and noticed this immense snake blithely slithering in front of me under the stage.

 

 

I was a little more careful returning the cache than I was retrieving it.

[Luckless]

I had been doing a multi cache with a friend. We'd found the first couple of stages, but got stuck on the third one so we quit for the day. Later when I was in the area I decided to follow a hunch. I found the next stage high on a fence over my head. A piece of wood had been hollowed out to hold the container. As I pulled the piece of wood away from the fence...AGHHHHHH! About forty earwigs came raining down on me. The earwigs had decided to make the hollow in the piece of wood around the container their home and all fell out on top of me when I went to retrieve the piece of wood.

I didn't want to finish the cache without my friend so we came back a few days later. I hadn't told her about the earwigs. We planned on eating a picnic lunch since we were in a park and then look for the cache. While I was eating she decided to look for the stage that I had already found and wandered off. She said she actually wanted to find it herself and not just go with the coodinates that I had found. I was sitting there wondering if she had found it when I hear, AGHHHHHH! Yep she found it.

[+TrinIzzyCar]

I've only been startled by bunnies and spiders..... Thats right i said BUNNIE'S those evil things.....

[+fbingha]

 

A Canada Goose protecting its nest on a small island where I hid a cache.

[+mom2sage]

I was once attacked by a wildcat in Rancho San Antonio Park. Appropriately enough it was on the Wildcat Loop. I was actually running, not geocaching, although I do geocache there and have a cache in that park. I expected it to run off as I came running pretty fast downhill at it, but instead it jumped me. I was in the right spot in my stride and just planted my leading foot squarely on its forehead and pushed it away. I didn't even get scratched.

^^^^above posted by The Rat...I am no good at quoting

 

Um, are you sure that was you, and not your "alterego" Cliff

LOL

Edited December 16, 2013 by mom2sage

[+Psychoticjesters]

I've run into a large group of raccoons in this cache in golden gate park that seems to be getting larger and larger as time passes.

 

Found a California giant millipede under another cache

 

Find a lot of these Spotted orbweaver spiders on a regular basis (non-venomous, just creepy looking )

 

Some juvenile Canadian geese started following me around at this cache. I think they though I was going to give them food or something.

 

My log for this cache talks about a rarely seen snake I stepped on But it seemed to be ok and was even seen again the next day (or one just like it) but it didn't seem hurt at all or anything.

[+Viajero Perdido]

We found an ammo can in a crevice big enough to also hold a porcupine; the critter was comfortably tucked into the back, and part of the tail was curled around the front of the cache. My friend almost went to move the tail out of the way - thinking it was just some old fur or something - until it moved first. She'd almost grabbed a porcupine by the tail!

 

Somehow I got the job of retrieving the cache (used a stick to pull on the handle), and putting it back again afterward (comfy?).

 

~~~

 

And in Mexico recently, I had to carefully scope out the boundaries of this guy's web, because it was only a few inches from a cache I needed to retrieve.

Signed, sealed, and delivered, and the spider never even flinched.

[team tisri]

Does anyone have some cool, amusing wildlife stories? I haven't yet while geocaching but have caught cool stuff on my trail cam.

 

I was looking for a micro (a bison tube) and saw a small square stone with a corner chipped off. An obvious place for a micro, so I lifted the stone to find a garter snake coiled up underneath. It looked surprised to be disturbed. Needless to say I put the stone back...

 

While out walking trails looking for caches and driving to and from caches I've seen a bobcat, porcupines, a couple of rat snakes, hawks, and a rattlesnake.

[7rxc]

Back in 2012 I was making a frustating attempt at finding a micro, it was in the days following a big rain and wind storm and things were just drying up after blow downs and minor flooding in the creek. Life had been a bit disrupted for both types of locals, people and wildlife but was settling down. I DNF'd the cache at that time (found this summer). Still I have distinct memories of that search.

 

The cache was Duck Crossing GC2TN4A

 

While I was following GZ around considering all sorts of possibilities for the hide... I heard (and became aware of) a visitor a few feet away... forunately, all was good and stayed that way til we parted company 30 minutes later on.

 

 

Definitely NOT a DUCK, although I was well prepared to just that although it might have been a futile effort.

 

 

This summer when I finally got back to find the cache, the ducks were there as they had been, but I didn't see my friend at all.

 

Doug 7rxc

[cachman9]

Tip: DON"T GET SKUNKED! That smell stays on you and your items for DAYS. I know because my dog just won't learn the lesson the first time. (I live in the country.) Guess who has to give the dog a bath. I went to a meeting the next day, only to find that my suit had picked up that terrible smell. I was so embarrassed.

 

At least you didn't have to live through that.... My porch smelled like skunk for weeks....

[7rxc]

Tip: DON"T GET SKUNKED! That smell stays on you and your items for DAYS. I know because my dog just won't learn the lesson the first time. (I live in the country.) Guess who has to give the dog a bath. I went to a meeting the next day, only to find that my suit had picked up that terrible smell. I was so embarrassed.

 

At least you didn't have to live through that.... My porch smelled like skunk for weeks....

Yes... I've bathed a few dogs in my day... and one brother. (They were his dogs!).

 

Mostly I learned it's better NOT to provoke a response in the first place. My friend there was mostly curious and at most just looking for something to eat. Spent most of it's time as you see it and then came over to see what I was doing next. And yes... I did get skunked on the cache that time... and the next two tries, then found it this year. I figured the ducks were holding it for ransom.

 

Doug 7rxc

[+MinionBrigade]

Not really a funny story but found this guy on the bank of the lake. We were on our way to a cache. If my wife hadn't shrieked I wouldn't have known it was there, I was too busy following the arrow.

 

[+humboldt flier]

Because much of my caching involves heading deep into swamps, solo, I've had encounters with all manner of critters. Probably the most memorable encounter was with a cow. Yeah, unfortunately, that's not a typo. A walking hamburger got really upset with me. The SJRWMD property where one of my night caches is, is home to feral cattle. All told, there are maybe 50 head of cattle out there, including at least one very large, frequently grumpy bull. I should add that the entire reflector trail is in dense vegetation, often with less than 5' of visibility.

 

I was out there around 1:00am, doing reflector maintenance. I've encountered this particular bull numerous times out there in the past, without problems. In most cases, he'll be bashing his way through the flora, and all you need to do is figure out his direction of travel, and step aside. He'll walk right past you with nary a tail twitch. But not that night. Like a tank creeping through a bubble wrap factory, you'll hear him coming from a long way off. When I heard him coming, I stopped hanging reflectors, and waited in an opening in the brush. When he came into the clearing, he shook his head, giving me the hairy eyeball. I stepped to the side, and instead of continuing his beeline course, he turned to face me. More head shaking, and a snort, followed by another dirty look. I step aside again. He turned to face me again, and went through the same posturing, as if to tell me he didn't care that I was at the top of the food chain.

 

That's when I realized that I was way back in the woods, with no cell phone, and no one knows where I'm at. Prudence dictated that I back away slowly, calling it a night.

 

My self image took a few hits that night.

 

Big bad cop... Scared off by a cow...

 

Good one Riff

[+JohnCNA]

Ran across this guy in Shawnee National Forest area in southern Illinois. Harmless milk snake, about 3' long. I had to tap the ground in his vicinity with my hiking stick to get him to 'pose' for my shot.

 

 

[+Viajero Perdido]

Like a tank creeping through a bubble wrap factory, you'll hear him coming from a long way off.

You have a way with words.

 

I knew of a cache that was archived (retracted?) because of aggressive cattle. So I totally believe the story.

[Clan Riffster]

I knew of a cache that was archived (retracted?) because of aggressive cattle.

For some reason, I got a flashback from Star Trek...

"It's the spores cows, Jim!"

[Love]

On the ET Highway we saw wild horses, jack rabbits, antelope and lots of cows. Here are a few horses we ran into along the way...

 

 

This was one of my favorite muggles near a cache in Idaho...