Desert tortoise, and an old one at that. Was bigger than a basketball.
A bobcat. It casually sauntered through the neigborhood and hung out at a local park. I watched it for about five minutes from about 30 feet away.
No idea. But if I were to randomly guess, I’d say it was a bison during their endangered days.
Orcas, maybe?
I don’t even know what the rarest animal I would have seen in person is, considering many zoos and aquariums have endangered species in their care and I like going to them. I went to the Sacramento zoo over this last weekend, too.
In the wild, though? Could either be orcas or grizzly bears.
If we’re including captive animals, the one that stands out the most to me is a Chaco Owl. It’s not considered endangered yet, but it’s only found in one particular area of the world, at the borders of Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.
In the wild, I’ve come across porcupines on a few occasions, and I almost had a fisher cat run up my leg. I didn’t know we even had them in my state, so I was very freaked out as to what this long, furry thing coming at me was. I wish I had maintained my composure so I could have gotten a better look at it, but it’s also the kind of thing in glad we figured out what each other was before I was in biting range!
Probably a sea turtle. Was snorkelling in Malaysia, completely obsessed with the coral and all of the fishes, when this massive turtle just cruises by. Held my breath for as long as I could to swim next to it, not too close but just wanting to be in its presence, it was so calm and majestic as it headed out into the deeper ocean
Giant hornet. Easily 4 inches long. I have no idea what it was doing in California.
Giant hornet.
Yep. Murder Hornets are in America now.
I have no idea what it was doing in California
Steroids probably
Captive animals, I’ve seen countless exotic animals. Wild animals are a cooler experience.
A wild black bear in the northern Lower Peninsula.
A loggerhead sea turtle in Calibogue Sound.
A baby Atlantic bottle nose dolphin riding waves at a beach in South Carolina.
I saw a group of 25k redhead ducks together floating on Lake St. Clair in 2022.
Not rare animals, but the sight was. I saw a bull shark eat a sea gull that was floating on the water.
I also saw a dead alligator that was bloating up from rot get stuck on the bow of a boat on the Savannah river. A guy tried to kick it off and his foot went through it and it was the most putrid thing I’ve ever seen.
Probably wild camels in central Australia or a platypus when I was young.
I’m big into (responsible) nature tourism and I believe Mountain gorillas are the most rare. Black rhinos are also pretty critically endangered but there’s successful breeding programs at zoos for them so I would think they’re less threatened.
I went to the Galapagos once and some of the islands have some very rare species. But their habitat is protected and isolated so it’s not like endangered species that are threatened by habitat loss or war or whatever.
I was watching a bald eagle fishing yesterday from my window. They must have moved in to the area, bay of quinte in Ontario, which is good news for their numbers.
If you like eagles, visit Sitka Alaska. They’re as common as pigeons up there.
(Just bigger, and scarier. Have you seen their claws?)
I once saw five different bald eagles on the same day. before that day I’d only ever seen one in my whole life, and I’ve never seen any since despite being in the area all the time.
They’re pretty common in the rural areas of Florida.
Had one perch in my yard last summer.
I see them a few times a year in Michigan. They are more common these days.
African penguins maybe? They’re endangered. I took my partner to feed them at an aviary.
I feel like I’ve seen a black rhino before, maybe at the San Diego zoo as a kid or something. Those are critically endangered, all but one subspecies extinct.
Not super rare, but a wolverine
Saw a lynx cross the road ahead of us in the Yukon.
