Unusual Animal Encounters

[+D&Dawson]

Had an interesting animal encounter just a few days ago in a pittsburgh area park (boyce). My dog was on the trail ahead of me about 10 yards when he startled a deer that was bedded down next to the trail. The deer, attempting to run away from Dawson, ran straight at me. It was about five feet away from me before I finally yelled and scared it in a different direction.

[AKJim]

Here's what I logged for a cache in Mn, "Missing Bridge":

 

August 17 by AKJim (22 found)

I was well on my way to finding this one on a fine afternoon. I was hiking down the two-track trail about 10 minutes into the hike sorta watching my GPS and looked up and down the trail were 3 wolves watching me walk towards them! Of course I stopped and watched them while they watched me. I ain't afraid of wolves but these were looking at me like I owed them money or something. I had a good look at them as they were about 30 yards ahead of me. All three of them looked like adults. After just a few seconds I took a few steps backwards and turned around as the wolves didn't move off the trail. I started walking back toward the truck and looked back and all three of the wolves were following me! I picked up a broken piece of branch and threw it at them and they stopped and one hopped into the woods and one of the others sniffed the stick, keeping his eyes on me. I continued to walk, a bit faster now and watched both remaining wolves dissapear into the woods. Being a little spooked, I made a 'fast walk' back to to the truck and as I got in and started it up to put into gear, all three wolves appeared in the trail in front of the truck. I watched them for awhile and they acted like curious dogs, stretching their noses towards me and taking a few steps forwards and back again. They eventually dissapeared back down the trail dissapearing around the bend. They must of finally sensed I was an old wolf hunter from Alaska. Quite a thrill, these are first sighting of MN wolves this year. I'll return to find that cache alnother time!

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[+NorthWes]

 

This fellow hung out with us over 2.5 miles of trail and 4 caches this afternoon, closing at times to within 50 feet. Every fourth step or so he let out a grunt call - looking for a cow I suppose - it made him easy to track as he meandered along with us. We kept our dog leashed, but the moose didn't interest the pup much - I could almost see her thinking 'no frisbees or treats in evidence, so must not be any fun'.

 

He's down to just one antler, putting him at a real disadvantage in the current 'mating game' that's underway. Across the valley a big bull was herding two cow moose along... just another day during the rutting season in Alaska's Chugach State Park, along Anchorage's eastern border.

 

 

These four caches are great places to spot moose: Glen Alps Transit Cache, Powerline Music Mix, Powerline Kids, and Hit the Trail 1.

[+GammaPiSigma]

Came across this Echidna, while doing this cache, who had decided to park himself right in front of the cache. Had to forfeit the find.

 

[+carouselcheesecakes]

Ok so it does not compare to what others of you have found but this guy was guarding our cache. Found at View of casco bayView of Casco Bay

 

The other link is not working so visit the photo gallery photo called little visitor

Edited November 11, 2005 by carouselcheesecakes

[+Team Rampant Lion]

Out placing a series of new caches in the Sparta Mountain (NJ) area and came across this guy. If this keep happening, I'll never shake that "TRL Bearbait" nickname.

 

[+Kit Fox]

While hunting a cache called Tiburcio, I cut the trail of some very fresh, and very large Mtn Lion tracks. I wish I could have seen the big cat, from a distance of course.

 

Edited January 4, 2006 by Kit Fox

[mapjunkie]

I happened upon this while looking for GCJ8DW, about the end of Febuary 2005. I sent the photo to the state Game & Parks commision, the guy there is pretty sure it's a dog, because you can see the toenails in the print. He said a cat would more likely have the claws sheathed. It's across the street from a fairly new subdivision, maybe 30 meters away. There have been recent reports of a big cat in the area, which is just outside of Wilderness Park in SW Lincoln, NE.

 

Now I'm not saying this is a cat, but they are coming back in the region.

 

-Matt

[+evergreenhiker!]

I saw a lot of wildlife on my journey to #2500 in the high Goat Rocks near Mt. Adams, but the most unusual was just before setting camp at midnight. I'd been hiking since 8 pm and had just crossed a dry gully and saw movement at corner of my eye.

 

Holy Smoke! It's a porcupine just an inch from me...next to my right leg. I stepped back and watched the critter wander slowly away. Too bad my digital camera was buried deep in the pack. Never seen one alive before.

[+Sanruft]

Found this animal within 30 feet of a cache in Arizona...Not exactly what we wanted to find:

[RAIDER 1]

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[RAIDER 1]

geo pets

Edited March 13, 2006 by RAIDER 1

[+KoosKoos]

I was out at a state park 2 weeks ago preparing for our Texas Challenge event and found this little guy. I've never seen an animal "skinned" like this before.

 

 

My son was with me this weekend as we were on the same trail...nothing left but a piece of leg and shoulder next to a few tufts of hair.

 

And as always, the best part was my wife's reaction as she was going through the digital cam pics..."what in the H*LL is THAT???"

[Deego]

Both at the same cache

 

A Buzzard

 

 

and a Heron in a tree

 

[+shawhh]

great pics. i'm betting though that that hawk will be miffed at being called a buzzard. -harry

[+guinea gal]

There is a park near by with a LARGE population of deer, and we also have a resident deer lady who feeds them every day and gets in trouble with the law for doing so. These deer are not tame but definitely not so afraid of people anymore. I have finally gotten used to caching in the park and not feeling nervous about seeing packs of 10 or 15 on one side of the trail and another 10 or 15 on the other side, and one waiting for you at the end! But the first time I ever cached in that park, I was quite shocked when I was entering coordinates at a leg of a multi...a deer had sauntered up behind me without my knowledge and actually head butt me! I screamed and jumped and turned around! The deer jumped too and staggered backward...about 5 feet and then waited for me to, I don't know, pull out a bag of carrots?

I love this park however and hope people keep putting caches in it so I can go back over and over again. It is the first park I have ever been to where, if you stand still, birds will land on you!

[+toro168]

Wow a lot of cool encouters, I am a newbie, 5 caches to my name, hope I will never have to see a snake.... Any advice on how to avoid them ?

[+Glockness]

[+guinea gal]

Cache during the winter!

[+Tsmola]

I was bitten by a Snake after finding GCQHK6 which I've since adopted this hide from the original owner. It was funny because of the name of the cache.

 

I see tons of wildlife, I also hunt and fish so I see all kinds of animals quite often.

[+Orpheus]

Don't know if you consider this an unusual animal encounter but I was walking from one side to a cache and my husband was walking to the other. I went to step over a log and just happened to look down before setting me foot down. Just below my foot was a 4 foot long cottonmouth. I am deathly afraid of any snake but to know that it was a poisonous one just below my foot doesn't help any. Other than that we saw a coyote as we were leaving a cache and took some great pictures. Here are the coyote pictures, there are none of the snake of course. Coyote 1

Coyote 2

[+Alan2]

I didn't get to the cache on this one. But the birds made up for that.

 

More turkeys on the prowl for the ladies.

 

On the run.

 

Chasing the ladies

[the butterfly effect]

didnt take any pics. but we have seen two racoons in the daytime one sleeping in a tree and one out to get a midnight drink boy he was sure sleepy too he climbed his tree right in front of us and just looked at us like what do you want and just watched us walk by and he was only about four to five feet beside us!!

we have also seen bobcat foot prints on the way to a cache!!

[+dogdoins]

Found this animal within 30 feet of a cache in Arizona...Not exactly what we wanted to find:

Ultimate DNF.

[+hairball45]

Last Sunday I was headed to a cache near the campground that my wife and I have camped at for the last 21 years. It's located in a sandstone cave very near a highway. (The cache, not the campground ) High ratings on difficulty and terrain, mostly I think because there is some scrambling around the rocks to do. As I got to about 30 feet away from the cache, two huge turkey vultures - the real name for the buzzards around here, came blasting out of the cave. After I went back to the car to change.........nah, it was't really that bad, but they sure did give me a thrill. Also caught and released a little snake after showing it to my sweetie who had stayed in the car. She thought it was cute.

and no, I don't have a clue why buzzards would be in a cave. There was nothing dead in there.

hairball

[danno77]

I hid a cache inside a hollow tree. I kept reading logs of it being on the ground, so I'd place it back inside the tree again and get another log of it been several feet from where the clue indicated. Finallly enough was enough for the animal inside the tree. I went to retreive the cache and heard an animal running from the tree. I found the container and it had holes chewed all over it and the log was destroyed.

[Rex&Punzie]

We were returning from a handful of caches in the Cascade mountains, and emerged from a trail in an area surrounded by brush and greenery. Open, but not like a big field. We were tired, but viewing a cougar jump into the bushes to our left prompted the expected adrenaline rush. I broke out the air horn and gave kitty a few blasts from a distance as we picked up the pace. Next time I'll keep the horn on a lanyard around my neck!

[Proverbs]

Had one cache hid in an old culvert laying on the ground. Had a strong oder in the area. Turns out there was a skunk about 1/4 the way into the culvert on one end and the cache on the other. Couldn't walk away when we were so close. Pull cache and ran. Signed log and replaced cache followed by more running.

 

The same day we stumbled on a knarly mess of sticks about 4 feet up in the crotch of a tree. The Nest or whatever it was was about 3 feet in diameter. Not sure what it was but if it was tough enough to build a nest 4 feet off the round in an area with bobcats and coyeotes we weren't going to mess with it.

 

My folks scared up a mountain lion in Norther Hall County Nebraska. They had taken my two aunts with them. The gals are all a bit goofy but Dad is straight on. If he says it was a mountain lion it was a mountain lion. Crusty old guy is seldom wrong about much anything. Maybe I'll be wise as I grow older.......or maybe I'll just be older.

 

A few months later they were telling us about a Girafe, Zebra and something else they stumbled onto out in the middle of Nebraska. I assume on a private zoo but we had fun making light of this and the mountain lion story.

[FisherBear]

on wednesday while returning from hiding a couple caches, I was riding my bike along an old railbed that is now part of the trans canada trail when a coyote jumped out about 10 feet in front of me and kept running down the ditch and into a open field. We both stopped and looked at each other before he ran off into the trees. Just 100 meters after this, I almost ran over a snake!

[+WAC2929]

I got "Skunked" on this cache. Heres the log.

 

Skunked

 

 

Now this is my favorite story!!!!

[+Harry Dolphin]

Okay, so I was benchmarking rather than caching, but...

I was hiking along an old rail line on the side of a hill, and a brown vulture came gliding down the side of the hill. He missed me by about twenty feet.

Today, I was in the Delaware water Gap National Recreation Area, and saw a black bear, and two turkeys

[Peanut Butters]

Wild Turkeys are scary, especially when you don't spot them first. I was minding my own business going up a trail when two fly out behind a huge boulder towards the sky. I was turned around and ready to run before I realized what they were.

 

They were smart enough to be on the safe side of the hunting grounds, by about 100 feet. Though I have no idea if you can't hunt turkey in this area, I would have loved to get a picture of them behind the sign.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Here's a whole flock of turkeys in the midle of the road.

[+SilentNW]

[+Team LaLonde]

Well, in addition to bald eagles we've had pretty close encounters with these two. There were two more bison but when you're this close it's hard enough to fit one in the frame.

 

 

[+Marcie/Eric]

I got "Skunked" on this cache. Heres the log.

 

Skunked

 

 

Now this is my favorite story!!!!

 

OMGWTFBBQLMFAO!

 

That is hilarious.

[+VO2WW]

This evening a friend and I were doing a check on one of my Geocaches

and when I reached into the rock crevice to retrieve the cache there was a

golldurn racket and a bunch of feathers flying as a Great Horned Owl tried

to scramble back into the crevice leaving two rather large eggs uncovered,

It did get out of sight but could not leave the area as I stood in front of freedom.

I took a couple of quick so so pictures of the eggs and departed the area.

I will return over the next couple of months to see what happens. WOW!!!

I was excited in 2005 when a Kestrel made a food cache next to a Geocache I

had placed and later the next day when it took the cached vole for a meal but

this was a much greater find.. Damm I love this game.

[+griffinox]

I will definitely have to post my pics of the deer that I ended up being LESS THAN TEN FEET away from while getting some on Presque Isle, Marquette Michigan...

[+Harry Dolphin]

How about some blue herons nesting?

[+Team LaLonde]

Unusual animals? No.

 

Unusual encounter? Yes.

 

Last night we took our eight week old puppy for a cache. We were in the woods for ten minutes when two large Siberian Huskies came crashing through the brush. I quickly grabbed up the puppy and put him on my shoulders. The Huskies circled around me and kept me from taking any steps. Their tails were wagging very slightly as they sniffed the air looking up at our puppy. I have never really been afraid of dogs but this time was different. I told my wife to find a big stick just in case something were to happen. The dogs ran off and returned several times. Each time they returned I had to pick up the puppy and move to a high spot so the larger dogs were not above me on the trail. We were glad to see them leave when their owners finally called them to the car.

[+Blue Power Ranger]

 

I learned that there are crocodiles in Mexico while doing some caches down there.

 

Edit: Please note the quality construction of the pier I was standing on.

Edited July 3, 2006 by Blue Power Ranger

[+Miragee]

 

The Cache Guardian . . .

[+The Blind Acorn]

There's an escaped Monkey from the Zoo near several of my caches...

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/72214

[dtownconnection]

ran into a snake, not sure what kind it was, in decatur, illinois guarding a cache in the rock garden... ran into several deer... plenty of spiders (which are the scariest friggin animal in the world to me)... and heard sounds of animals that i have never heard before (its kinda creepy when you think about it)

[+barondriver]

 

here are a couple of geocache guardians that I have found..the Coachwhip really wasn't a factor as he was down the road abit from the geocache..

[Fliper]

 

I learned that there are crocodiles in Mexico while doing some caches down there.

 

Edit: Please note the quality construction of the pier I was standing on.

 

Woah, That would not be a fun time if you fell in while that crocodile was there

[+zeobandit]

I got "Skunked" on this cache. Heres the log.

 

Skunked

 

I'm sorry to hear of your tale of woe, but it is hilarious!!!

[+Keruso]

while looking for spots for a multi-cache in a cemetery, out of the corner of my eye, i see movement. Turns out it was a deer. thinking nothing of it, as i always see deer around these parts (given that this cemetery is in a "crossroads" between two roads). Also this is Moon Township, PA, quite near pittsburgh. I keep walking, thinking nothing of the deer, then i get that feeling that i'm being watched. I look back and notice that the deer was watching where i was going. kinda spooky if you ask me, especially in a cemetery. i get done finding spots (none of which are on any 'stones) i walk (this cemetery being close to me, so no need to drive(if i had a Driver's License)) back up towards the top parking lot. as i'm getting near the back of the lot, i see the deer again, along with two of his friends. i stop walking fast and kick it into low gear (as i usually walk fast anyway, didn't want to scare the deer) I walk right by the deer, closest i've ever been to one, bout 5 or 6 feet away, walk by him/her and keep going. i hear a noise behind me and i turn around to see that the deer came out of the forest and looked like it wa about to charge me i've never seen a deer do that!!!

[+Keruso]

i'd like to hear more of other people's encounters

[+Keruso]

nobody else?