What's the most exotic animal you've seen? Not counting

>>2374047
I've seen pretty much all the African savanna animals that exist. They're cool. My favourite are cheetahs.

>>2374047

Unless I'm forgetting something probably a porcupine.

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Some kind of lizard I found last year. It tried biting me but it had no teeth so it didn't hurt. I brought it home and put it in a tank to keep as a pet, but 2 days went by and it didn't eat or drink anything so I went back where I found it and let it go.

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Not counting any sort of zoo or wildlife reserve, elk. I know they're pretty common in northern areas but I live in Seattle. Saw a small herd sitting around. They weren't deep in the city but in a nearby one, on someone's farm property.

>>2374218
Oh, and they didn't belong to the farmer or anything, they'd just kind of wandered in and were hanging out apparently.

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Saw an orange breasted bunting in my banana tree after hurricane Ike. Guess someone lost their pet

Nordic: wolverine, arctic fox, puffin, orcas, some huge whale of unidentified species, white reindeer (holy according to lapp shamanism), eurasian eagle owl, snow owl

Tropics: babirusa (yes, wild), hornbills, monkeys, random marsupials, that insane bird with the huge mouth and crazy eyes, pythons, butterflies the size of my head, wild pig, dwarf deer, alligator, crocodile.

Desert: the fox with the silly ears

All seen in the wild, randomly.

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I've seen a bald eagle, great horned owl, barn owl, black bear, steller's jay, red fox, bottlenose dolphin, and some kind of beached shark in the wild before.

My personal favorite encounter was a bobcat I watched carry prey through a cornfield and into the woods.

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I guess, by ameridudes standards, some of the local brazillian fauna I've seen would be exotic... examples include(using the brazillian names since I'm lazy and don't feel like googling the english ones) tuiuiu(pic related), bugios(a kind of monkey), quati(maybe not that rare), a mico(though not the mico leao dourado), and maybe a stingray(it flew past me pretty fast under a wave near the shore, couldn't name the species, or even be sure if it was one).
wildlife is pretty boring here if you don't go to some natural sanctuary, even then it's mostly small-ish fauna. There's also the fact that you're generally fucked if you see an onça in the wild (since it's kind of unleikely you'll be in possession of firearms due to the laws in here).

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sharks (no idea which species in particular, too far away), bottlenose dolphins, macaws, a wild chinchilla, llamas, galapagos sea lions

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Hawaiian monk seal would be the rarest.
As for exotic, I'd say a yellow lipped sea crate.

>>2374233
Spics in Tijuana frequently release them. That's how Magpie-Jays got into San Diego.

Probably a sunfish

I once saw a barracuda while snorkeling.

I'm a Brit who lived in Belize for a time so virtually everything I saw there.
In Britain idk, probably a Hobby.

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>>2374047
Live right outside of Chicago.
One day driving home I saw the biggest bird I have ever seen. Later went home and Google what it may have been. Found out that cranes are indeed found around IL. Was just the first time I ever saw one at the age of 32.

>>2374454
Did you ever get robbed in Belize? The crime rates are off the charts.

I walked by a bridge and spooked a blue heron, but was throwing a cigarette that hit it in the wing. I met another person that did the same thing to it.

>>2374458
Im in Florida and I see them all the time. It's neat to me that they're this cool rare thing to you.

Then again I also get to see giant fucking water lizards all the time too.

>>2374458
>crane

Not to rain on your parade, but that's a heron.

yellow headed temple turtle

hummingbirds

>>2374047
Penguins

I live in Virgina.

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I like Night Herons as well OP.

Wood ducks look pretty exotic.

I saw moose, bears, and sandhill cranes when treeplanting.

I saw a water moccasin on a trip to South Carolina

I am not sure. In terms of exotic, there is an ever-growing, wild Monk Parakeet population near my city. It is weird to see them out in the wild. I think they are an invasive species too.

Also the Pyrrhuloxia. They aren't really exotic, but fairly limited in range in the states. They are really cool looking birds.

saw what was definitely some kind of blenny off a beach in northeast canada, didn't think they were in water that cold
a childhood cat killed and brought home a star-nosed mole, still the only one I've ever seen in-person
some kind of sticky neon blue worm-like critter in new zealand which I've never been able to look up
a yuge blue-tongued skink in aus who I carried around with me for a while

>>2374047
Herps - Massasauga Rattlesnek, Lake Erie watersnek, Blandings turtle,
Fishes-Bull Trout, Grayling (native in lower 48) Lake Sturgeon
Birds - Kirtlands Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Euasian Widgeon, Perigrine Falcon, Harrier

I've never been anywhere very exotic, so probably golden eagle.

Bald eagles and alligators most likely.

I don't know if either of those really counts as exotic.

>>2374459
I was a child at the time but my mum never mentioned being robbed, also we lived in a tiny little village on the end of an archipelago. I went back when I was 18 and it had been gentrified to shit but crime seemed virtually non existent.
I never visited any of the major cities properly however.

>>2374797
same, I'm from georgia. finding a species of mole salamander out above the ground was a much rarer find but it doesn't really seem "exotic"

Wolverine
Lynx
Neither are exotic but it's fairly rare to actually see one. Caribou too which are pretty rare in the lower 48.

>>2374828
Alligators are pretty fucking exotic to me even though I know you guys have them everywhere down there.

>>2374797
if you stand pretty much anywhere in north america for long enough you'll see a bald eagle

>>2374878
I dunno mang, I lived in CA for 25 years and never saw one. I get to Oregon and they're like as common as sparrows almost. Then again 25+ years ago I guess they were fairly endangered. Still cool to see them come back though.

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>>2374047
Locally and wild? A great egret. I've only seen one in the wild and I chased it down with my truck when it was flying through the valley. It was like a scene out of the movie Twister trying to keep up with it. I low crawled up the local lake's dam just to get these images. It was skittish as all fuck. This is full zoom with 15x lens and I was soooo far away. The instant it saw me it flew off.

But, I raised peacocks, golden pheasants, Indian fantail pigeons, and a host of non-parrot/non-parakeet exotic birds.

I've seen and caught 2 Mud Puppies and 1 Hellbender in the local river:

https://www.google.com/search?q=mud+puppy&tbm=isch
https://www.google.com/search?q=hellbender&tbm=isch

>>2374458
I see these all the time. One flies into my pond nearly every day. Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, wood ducks, Canadian Geese, and Mallards are pretty common here.

>>2374894
>Great egrets are exotic
I see them all the time. Any type of wetland will have them. Like even ditches on the side of the road.

>>2374902
I don't live where you live. Same as >>2374458 doesn't live where I live. It is less rare than seeing a waffle house, but I've only seen one egret here and no waffle houses.

>>2374908
I seen a waffle House once.
RARE
R
E

But never seen a Chik-Fill-Eh.

Pod of North Atlantic Right Whales with calf right off Herring Cove Ma.

>>2374924
Never seen one of those either. Have you ever seen a Big Boy? They went extinct in this area.

>>2374908
I guess the Sportsmans' Paradise really is a haven for nature and animals. There are so many different birds, fish, snakes, and critters you'll come across that you don't even think of it.

>>2374894
Where do you live? We got egrets at almost every park here. It's strange to think of them as exotic but I'm happy for you that you saw such a cool bird and got those pics. They're really neat.

>>2374186
probably this for me as well. I've seen everything there is to (officially) see in New England I think

>>2374931
I think they're still around... But it has been awhile since a sighting.

ETA. Yes, there's one about 80 km east.

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>>2374047
once saw a tatu carreta traveling in the south of Argentina

one time I saw a vagrant magnificent frigatebird flying overhead. apparently they have colonies in florida, so it was going southward towards there. I don't know why it went to georgia in the first place though

>>2375398
>Frigate bird in Georgia
Unmistakable.
Was it hurricane season?

>>2375406
I don't remember what time of the year it was

There's an exotic farm about 30 mins away, so I see ostriches, emus, and giraffes frequently.

I saw some manta rays at the beach in Florida once. That was cool. And a dead horseshoe crab.

As for in the wild, I live in southeastern Missouri along the Mississippi, so the rarest thing I've seen here was a bright canary yellow bird. It didn't look like a hummingbird. Could've been a canary someone lost I guess.

>>2374215
Lacerta viridis

For Native its a five-lined skink, immature phase. Caught him and put him in with my hermit crabs, they got along surprisingly well and I use to hum him to sleep, he would fall asleep so I thought he actually enjoyed it.

Non-native (somebodies pet) would have to be between a Reticulated Python or a Chinese Water Dragon.

>>2375480
immature five-lined skinks are everywhere where I live. ground skinks and broadheaded skinks are rare for me though

Native to my country? Dolphin / Red Kite.

I live in Glasgow, wildlife can be sparse at times.

Weirdest native animal I've seen was an albino gar. Spotted it in a small creek off of the Meramec south of Saint Louis.

bearded vulture, somewhere in the northern parts of the netherlands.

>>2374047
I saw a Jew once.

>>2375517
upvoted

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>>2374047
If we don't count animals in captivity, probably the grey heron.

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>>2375664

>>2374047
I caught a three foot sea lamprey on light tackle fishing a freshwater river like a couple hundred miles away from the ocean.

I was not expecting a massive hellbeast that day, obviously. I had no idea what the fuck it was for a while since I always thought lampreys were small, but this thing was arm-sized. And straight out of nightmares. What the hell does a 3+ foot long lamprey feed on, anyway? Whales?

>>2375676
only about half of lamprey species are parasitic, and there are a ton of fish bigger than that on the ocean

off the top of my head, I was swimming in Florida and encountered one of two things:

A: A manatee
B: A shark

I think it was a manatee because I didn't see a fin poking out of the water, but I did make out its shape. Big, brown, moving slowly.

I didn't take the risk of getting a closer look but it was like 6 feet away from me when I noticed it wasn't sand dusting up from waves

>>2374422
One time when I was a kid, my family took me out for a vacation Turks and Caicos. I was swimming pretty close to the shore, and I went under with a pair of goggles on, and as soon as I got under, right in front of my face was a barracuda.

I know their pretty harmless if you leave them be, but being ten and that spiky ass maw staring me down, I was pretty scared. I just sat still for a second and it swam away

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>>2374047
Saw this guy chilling in the gantries over a bear sanctuary in Malaysia, he was pretty friendly. Followed me all through the sanctuary as I was looking at bears then disappeared into the jungle.
Saw a whole lot more plus some proboscis monkeys when I went trekking.

Personally though, the coolest animal I've seen was an armadillo when I was riding through Patagonia. Cute little mouse-rock appeared out of nowhere and scared my horse half to death.

>>2374047
Black Sea nettle

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>>2374047

How do some of you people have time to travel to all these distant places? Don't you have jobs? And if not then how do you afford it?

>>2376314
proper prioritization, planning and execution.

Lets' see

>Orca Whale
>Harbor Porpoise
>Grey Whale
>Brown Bear and cub
>Snowy Owl

Pretty standard Pacific Northwest fare. Not too special.

>>2374844
Lynx are incredibly rare. They're so fucking shy and endangered.

>>2376342
>tfw PNW and haven't seen any of those

I did see a whale once and just the water spout was what gave it away. No idea what kind it really was. I'd really like to see a snowy owl.

Horseshoe crabs.

>>2376314
being born in the right family

>>2376349
Snowy Owl is certainly the rarest find on my list. They're really cool to see at night if there's a strong moonlight factor. I've seen a couple in my time and one of them was flying during a very "bright" night and it looked fucking majestic.

There's a buffalo farm near where I live.
That's pretty interesting to see.

>>2376290
>edgy
Is this the fedora of birds?

Probably a gray fox in Yellowstone.
Unless you think a moose is more impressive.

One time I was at a Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan and they had an entire exhibit for one fucking raccoon. The asians were crowding around taking pictures and shit. Meanwhile the red panda exhibit was empty. Fucking coons.

>>2376314
I get 4 weeks vacation a year and I spend most of it traveling
I'm American and don't even have a great job so it's not like it's impossible

Saw a leopard in a tree at a nature reserve in Sri Lanka.
Also saw a tusked elephant once

>>2374047
A grey fox (seen in an urban setting). Or unless you live in some country where the usual north america native raccoons, striped skunks, opossums or armadillos are exotic to you.

Drop bear

>>2374047

A whale

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>>2374047
Roseate Spoonbill

They're common here in Florida but still pretty exotic looking. Too many people mistake them for Flamingos.

>>2374218
A client of my firm got gored by one of those in her driveway in CO. She survived but it fucked her up pretty good

In Idaho I've seen cougars come up to our doors and windows.

I've held, cuddled, and pet a fennec fox, a baby arctic fox, a kangaroo, and a baby tiger. They weren't in the wild but still.

>>2376385
I see them occasionally in Montana, pretty cool birds.

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this motherfucker right here

THE BIG BLACK COCKATOO

HOW CAN WHITE BIRDS EVEN COMPETE

hehe... before clicking on picture... I thought that the birdie was waving.... heheh... upon closer inspection.... :O... wow... that is suppose to be a heron.... didn't know they came in such a small size... thought they were all long legged like the birds in the crane family......... great picture!!! love herons!!!

>>2376314
I'm a uni student on a 47k/year scholarship with my uni fees covered by an interest-free loan. Travel was pretty easy in the first few years of my degree when I was getting 3-4 months of the year off.

>>2376741
>tusked elephant
are you implying that most of them don't have tusks?

>>2376737
>American
>4 week vacation

How the fuck.

>>2377169
I get five weeks.
I know several people who get at least four, maybe it's not as unusual as you think.

>>2377172
What job? I can see teachers getting the summers off but for most people I think 2 weeks is the norm.

>>2374047
I've seen the spindly killer fish while I was drifting behind a vessel in a dinghy.

>>2377173
I'm just a lowly construction worker, but I get 5 weeks.
All the other people I mentioned mainly work factory jobs and get 3-4 weeks typically.

Have seen some crazy shit sailing. Lots of Dolphins, a few Man o' Wars, a Manta Ray and got really lucky to see a Diamondback Terrapin. I saw an Orca kill a family of seals, which was pretty traumatizing, all of this in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Small blue shark
Status: deceased
Rest in peace puper

>>2377173
Christ, I can't imagine getting 2 weeks a year off. I would literally quit every year if I had to put up with that.

>>2374513
Crane is an old name for them.

black ibis or just ibis

Narwhals, iguanas


Snowy owl being released after a bird sanctuary repaired it's injured wing.