Your Most Amazing Animal Experience!

That is very funny VC I like stories like that.
my wild experiences are many but one that stands out was on a holiday in the Algarve in Portugal My then partner and i had had a blazing row one night, next day we drove along a road and he stopped to supposedly clean the windscreen but it was by way of an apology so I could get out to look for animals. I got out and stomped down a small incline to a tidal area of a river, I disturbed a smooth snake which I was able to pick up and examination looking into the water i saw a small green coloured sea turtle about 8 inches/ 20cm long. i can picture it to this day. I also spend a week in turkey a few years later and spent the week looking for green Toads Bufo Veradis, to no avail and got more and more down at the numbers run over each day on the road out side our hotel. as we stood waiting to load the luggage onto our bus for the airport something rustled in the small shrubs behind me, I turned round and there was a green toad or in reality cream, green and red toad. fantastic.

Zoo wise i recall stroking a tiger cub at Blackpool zoo, it was the year it opened and in those days they had a mother and baby house, the keeper came to feed the cubs in a room in the house and the crowd thronged around the glass window, as he came out one of the cubs lunged forward and got half way out the door, every one shot back, exempt me who shot forward and grabbed the cub, I remember thinking how course the hair seamed it wasn't as soft and gentle like a kitten as i thought it would be

Stroking a black and white lemurs feet through the fence at Jersey Zoo in the wind and rain after telling my partner if they came over not to try to touch them they may bite I put my hand straight out

On a family trip to one of the Aspinall parks I was lagging behind my sister in law and her family when they stopped to see the wolves, where the keeper was talking to a crowed as I approached, at which point all the wolves stopped moving around and stared at me totally ignoring everyone else i was surprised and thrilled in equal measures. i still wonder why they did it.

 

I think you'll find it was because the Wolves would be used to seeing everyone gathered together listening to the keeper talking. Seeing a solitary person approaching at the same time might have been different enough for them to focus temporarily on you. Most Zoo animals are very finely tuned to their surroundings and react to anything even slightly outside of the normal.

 

Oh and I thought It was my version of a St. Francis of Assisi moment
Thanks for the insight though pertinax that makes sense.

 

I'd like to start up this thread again. Lots of new experiences could be shared and perhaps some of the older members have new ones!

Non-Zoo:

Seeing wild Northern Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. The older males were vocalizing, the younger ones were fighting for dominance, and I got within five feet of a female and her (mostly grown) pup! There was still a fence between us, but it wouldn't have done much good if the seals really wanted to get through.

Zoo:

-Going behind the scenes at the San Antonio Zoo with the bird curator. I had only come to see two birds of paradise and a painted stork, but instead I got to see everything bird-related behind the scenes, and go in enclosures with many birds. I saw their main behind-the-scenes breeding facilities for smaller birds. There were quite a few rarities, with the rarest perhaps being the Malay peacock-pheasant, which was seemingly the only one in the US. I also saw the incubation room- six incubators running full-time! The hand-rearing facility was also quite cool. I got to pet a southern ground hornbill that was around 80 days old, and watch a chick of the same species that was only around 2 weeks old being fed. There were also 5 magpie geese chicks and a very young Germain's peacock pheasant. When I got to the holding of the larger birds I was again impressed with the curator's generosity as I got to go inside enclosures with Manchurian cranes and whooping cranes. One of the latter tried to peck me, and I think that's why I'm now infatuated with cranes. I also saw part of a display between the pair of Manchurian cranes, which was very neat indeed. The only part that was disappointing is that I couldn't go inside the enclosure with the painted stork due to an overly aggressive crowned crane.

-By chance, I met the owner of the Dallas World Aquarium while asking staff about different species. One of the species which I wasn't sure was on display or not was the resplendent quetzal. He happened to hear my inquiry and took me to see them! I was graced to see the only individuals of their species outside their native countries (1.3) and the male flew directly over my head! I also saw breeding enclosures for leafy sea dragon (no success yet, obviously), multiple species of freshwater stingray, and Guianan cock-of-the-rock. I did not own a camera at the time so I have only uploaded one photo of this experience to the gallery, taken with my phone.

-while not up to the caliber of the others, I have two experiences at the San Diego Zoo:
One was going behind the scenes to see ornate fruit dove and white-bearded manakin, the last of each in the United States. The other was seeing my first (and so far, only) pangolin, Baba the white-bellied tree pangolin.

 

I haven't had the please of experiencing anything breath-taking in the wild as yet, but hope to in the near future.

Zoo-wise, hands on winner is feeding Victor and Pixel at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. It was such an amazing feeling the breath of a polar bear....

 

For wild animals... When I was a kid, my dad took me kayaking in Laguna Madre. After a little bit, dolphins popped up, they would swim right alongside the kayak (close enough to touch! Though I didn't touch one, ha ha) and while they're swimming, they pop up and look at you. It was pretty great, hope that happens again someday.

For zoo animals... Probably feeding the giraffes at the Houston Zoo. Doesn't sound very special, I know, but I liked it. With big animals, it can be pretty hard to get an idea of how big they REALLY are unless you can get close to them. And giraffes are big!

 

To my previous entry I have to add standing within smelling distance of a silverback mountain gorilla and standing in a forest with chimps descending from the trees all around and going on a patrol with them!

 

My best animal experience with wild animals was my trip to the Galápagos Islands. I saw marine iguanas, penguins, sea lions, blue footed and Nazca boobies, sea turtles, manta rays, frigate birds, and giant tortoises. Definitely a trip of a lifetime. The only thing I didn't see were land iguanas.


My best zoo experience is probably seeing two silverback gorillas squaring off at the Henry Doorly Zoo. One slammed against the glass and I thought it would shatter. I also think the swamp in Kingdoms of the Night is one of the best exhibits I've ever seen.

 

Those had to of been truly remarkable and heart pounding experiences!

I once watched a wild bobcat stalk, catch, and eat a small mammal (I think a small rabbit), and on a back gravel rd. in the middle of Nowhere, Arkansas, I had to stop so an American Black Bear and her cub could cross.

A couple of years ago, on a hot day at the Memphis Zoo, a zoo keeper threw a bottle of Gatorade to an orangutan. Her throw came up short, hit the edge of the mote, broke open and spilled on the ground. Having an unopened, sealed bottle of Gatorade with me I offered it to her. She told me to go ahead and throw it to him, which I did. The male orangutan caught it with one hand, unscrewed the top, chugged it down, screwed the cap back on, and threw the empty bottle back to me. I missed the catch and the orangutan fell backwards laughing at me.

 

I'm surprised they would give Gatorade to an orangutan. I had a fun encounter with an orangutan in Omaha. A juvenile was climbing its enclosure and stuck its hands out. It snapped its fingers and gestured for me to come closer (or give it something). I pulled out my pockets to show I didn't have anything and it climbed up higher, turned around, and pouted.

 

Sometimes visitors feed them through the mesh. I saw quite a few people throwing goldfish to them on one visit.

 

Wild - When I went snorkelling in the paradise waters of the Maldives, many rare fishes made their self visible to me, including spotted eagle ray and long-nosed butterflyfish

Captivity - The female jaguar at Edinburgh Zoo, who is not there anymore, but the visit was in Jan of 2013, kept following me where I went!

 

Just go to Tama zoo in Japan,and I saw a chimpanzee using tool.There was a cylinder with food,but there is only small holes.The chimp use their stick to get the food out.This was amazing because I have heard chimp are intelligent but this is the first time seeing they use a tool.

 

My most amazing animal experience was being groomed by a chimpanzee I'd been building a relationship throughout my internship working alongside him. On my last day I was allowed to waive the usually strict no-contact policy and offer my arm to the mesh for him to groom. He was very excited, but I'm sure I was much more.

With wild animals, my most amazing experience was spotting (pardon the pun) a mother leopard with two young cubs- the smallest my guide had ever seen- in Kruger. It was just magical to watch them.

 

This is my favorite thread right now! I love hearing all these varied experiences.

The most spectacular experience I've had in the wild was a surprise encounter with a lone bull bison at Yellowstone. We stopped to picnic, but as I walked forward my parents started harshly whispering my name. Just in the nick of time I saw what I thought was a giant boulder rise up and show the white of its eye at me. That image was burned into my memory before I power walked back to the car. I reportedly had the biggest grin on my face. (bear in mind this was during the rut!) Other great Yellowstone moments included seeing a huge bull elk briefly trot alongside our car at dusk, and watching a faraway grizzly family flushing out rodents from prairie grass early in the morning. Probably my favorite place on earth.

Closer to home, despite how common they are I treasure every sighting I have of white tailed deer, but especially an incredibly curious and friendly doe on a hiking trail. Volunteering at a wildlife rescue center for a few months also brought some great experiences, including handling baby opossums, being swooped at by a protective mother great horned owl, and being in a large flight cage with two very active red tailed hawks.

Regarding zoos, one stands out to me from an Atlanta visit. I was seated by the glass in front of the Sumatran tiger enclosure sketching one of them. I got really engrossed for a while, and when I looked up a tiger was seated just 2 or 3 feet away from me, giving me the most intense stare. I got serious chills. I'll also never forget being right up close to a roaring male lion. People who are disappointed they don't sound as intimidating as in the movies (where they're usually given tiger roars instead) have never experienced it that close in person. You literally feel its rumble deep within you. Goosebumps.

 

Holding a NZ falcon at Wing Span and having a helmeted honey eater land on my camera at Healesville Sanctuary.

 

Its always cool when animals interact with visitors. I find that in colder weather, they are more inclined to do so, not sure why. One time I went to the Kansas City Zoo with my cousins and the lions were very interactive with them. It was really cool, and definitely one of those moments you really hope you can trust that glass. Another time was at the St. Louis Zoo in the sea lion tunnel, which in itself is already an incredible experience, getting to see them swim over you like that. This particular time the sea lions were very playful with the visitors, and kept following our hands. I remember there was this little girl in the tunnel, about 5 years old, and she had a bright pink coat she had taken off. The sea lion was clearly very fascinated with that coat and followed it every time it was moved.
If we're talking about non-zoo experiences, one summer morning there was a red-tailed hawk sitting on my fence. In my experience, they're pretty flighty around people and don't tend to let them get too close. This was not the case here. The hawk had very little fear of me and let me come right up to it. I spent about an hour just watching and photographing it until it eventually flew away. It was just really awesome to be up so close to such a cool animal.
In a similar vein, there was a juvenile great blue heron that was a frequent visitor of the park near my house. While blue herons tend to be pretty timid towards people, this one showed very little fear of me and other people at the park. Almost made me wonder if it had been socialized at some point. It literally just let people walk right by them. It was a regular at the park for several months, so I was able to watch it develop as well.