Ooh, the famous FOD wild boar! I'd love to see them..

RS, what lens were those taken on, and how close were they?

RS, what lens were those taken on, and how close were they?

molgrips, all those pics were taken with an Olympus E500, I had the two kit lenses that came with it. They were taken a while ago but the whales, sealion and eagle were reasonably close but not very, think it was just the small lens I used can't remember, they have been cropped a bit. The really clear close-up of the grizzly was the ones in captivity at grouse mountain so less than 10m probably. the other two black bears were on the other side of the road driving back from whistler to vancouver so literally the road width apart, there was a big concrete barrier separating us so thats why you can't see the whole bear as i cropped the barrier out.

I've seen bears and whales but I was really stoked to see an owl in broad daylight a few weeks ago.

Seen bears and moose biking in BC, Adders and Pine martens in scotland.

Best however was Duck-billed platypus in Oz. Have a vast array of Loch Ness monster style photos as they mainly come out at dusk and light wasn't great.
Still remember being transfixed by 1 feeding right underneath me as I stood there gawping.

Whales, dingoes, koalas and Kangaroos were good but the Platypus in the wild were the best.

Ooh forgot abouth the turtles and stingrays on Barrier reef , they are second.

Would love to see a platypus in the wild but top of my list is an echidna. Still, very pleased with my wombat.

Saw wombats in Steve Irwins place, my they are solid little fellas. As 1 bus driver said, roos you can hit but you wanna drive round wombats! Nice shot of him.

Eungella National Park near Mackay in Queensland is the place to see Platypus, miles from anywhere but still well worth the visit.

Sorry they are pretty speedy and it was just after dawn!

Yes, I've seen platypus in captivity and they're hyperactive things! I went biking in forest where echidna are commonly seen but missed them – good excuse to go back though.

came face to face with a bear outside my tent in yosemite, as it stood on its hind legs and smashed our steel food box open, it was about 8 feet tall, shat myself big time.

came eye to eye with a Killer whale once too, pretty scary as well.