• acchariya@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This goes back to around 2000. Snake hunting in the Everglades middle of the night, my friend and I saw a black panther. I know, I know, impossible, Florida doesn’t have them etc etc etc. we both saw it clear as in a zoo in the floodlights of his truck. 100% big cat, 100% black.

  • lettruthout@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    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.

  • zcd@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    My buddy is an entomologist and one time I tagged along while he went to collect beatles in the highlands. When we got back to the lab one of the specimens I had collected turned out to be a species that was thought to be extinct in the region and hadn’t been spotted in a very long time. He was wildly jealous

  • anon6789@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    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!

  • lath@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    No idea. But if I were to randomly guess, I’d say it was a bison during their endangered days.

  • baduhai@sopuli.xyz
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    1 month ago

    Not sure how rare they are, but I’ve seen wild crested caracaras a few times.

  • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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    1 month ago

    There was an albino red fox that lived on a golf course near where I work, I I would see it running along the fence about once a week.

    Recently caught a firefly for a few seconds to relive my childhood of catching jars full of them as a night light. I let him go, and was sad that he was so alone; there were only a few flashes in a field where I used to see thousands…

  • Madblood@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    For me it has to be an Arctic Blue Fox. Saw several on a trip to the Aleutian Islands. Not really rare or endangered, but as someone who lives well south of their territory it was certainly a rare thing for me.

  • medgremlin@midwest.social
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    1 month ago

    I once got to meet a Tasmanian Devil baby at a zoo. The zookeeper was carrying him around in a little pouch to keep him comfy while his mom was getting a vet checkup. (The picture is one I found on google because the picture I took is buried in some backup folder from about 6 phones ago)

    • steeznson@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      When I saw them in the wild their faces were covered in tumours. Sure would have been cute without those though. I think our tour guide might have said it was due to intra floral/fauna contamination between species like these who were historically isolated.