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Just leaving the car park after a ride on wednesday and there was an otter crossing the road. It just sat in the middle of the road for about 10 seconds looking at me then wandered off. Sorry didn't have time to take a picture. What's the most exotic animal you have seen on a ride?
i saw an eagle owl as i was cycling back from outskirts bristol last summer (on bristol/bath cycleway) admittedly it was a tame one (a guy was doing a bird of prey display) absolutely beautiful bird 😀
A barn owl. Not exactly exotic, but I hadn't seen one before in the wild and haven't since. Flew right across me - totally silent.
Seriously, though I saw a short eared owl, last summer on Shining Tor, dropping down to Erwood Res.
Golden eagle near Avimore.
Ring Ouzels on stanage.
short eared owl, badger, black grouse
🙂
I loves nature
oh and 2 black bears in canadialand
A pair of Sea Eagles over Fife. Italspark and I saw a pair of Golden Eagles on Lochnagar. Ospreys on Speyside. Llamas and Ostriches in Oregon
I saw a small monkey that had been run over.
Near a stately home on Exmoor. Assume one of there exotic animals escaped.
Dead flat but a monkey for sure.
Two friends have seen large cats. Panther like things. One near afan.
Golden eagle about 15 feet away! Was in the culvert at the side of the forest road and took off as we passed. Scared the life out of us, those wings are the size of a hang glider!!
My wife and I saw some black bears in Canada. I seem to remember the blurb was to climb a tree if you saw one. Yeah right, one we saw got startled and pegged it up a tree like nothing else.
Maybe it's brown bears who can't climb (grizzleys).
Also heard some grunting from a parked car on the ridgeway once at night, not sure what animal that was 😉
And a massive snake in France. About 5 foot long. The kids thought it was a ace. I was a bit freaked.
Alpaccas - several fields of them.
Black roe deer
Red kites
Kingfisher
Buffalo
Few birds of prey, and a deer. Once saw a road cyclist. Sleek and fast, it whizzed passed and did not even acknowledge my presence. Completely out of its natural environment it was grimacing and appeared to be in distress. Lovely plumage.
A moose - when I was riding at Killington in Vermont. Kind of stopped us in our tracks since he was standing across the trail. He was massive!
Riding 'round a blind corner, I startled a family of kangaroos about 10 feet away from me at Stromlo, Canberra a couple of weeks ago.
Beaver 😯
Llamas on the South Downs.
Not wild, but being taken for a walk 😯
Apparently there are [url= http://www.surrey-hills-llamas.co.uk/ ]clubs[/url] for it...
A white deer
A wallaby came bounding out in front of me at a mountain bike park in Rotorua, New Zealand. Had to double check with the missus I wasn't seeing things!
I saw two rats cross the road in front of me in Manchester.
Do I get a prize?
A Macaw flew over my head on my commute home last year. They are huge when you see them close up in flight.
I strayed towards the middle of the road gazing at it whilst a car coming the other way did the same thing. It nearly ended in tears.
I ride past Whipsnade zoo quite a bit so do elephants count and when the Tigers were in the old pen we could see them.
A white hart, and a tortoise.
Wild boar, Forest of Dean
A couple of hippos......swinley forest (near Bracknell). You get the picture screaming brats, sports clothing two sizes too small and eating chips...nice
Dead otter and dead pine marten near Oban 🙁
Sea Eagles, golden eagles, buzzards (not exotic but they were big and very close!) on Mull.
Black Grouse nr Bridge of Balgie.
Llama and wild goats in Glen Shiel
Zebras and Ostriches in Edinburgh.
A capercaillie would top that list, but I don't think they hang around near roads or tracks and I wouldn't want to incur the wrath of the RSPB tramping about in Abernethy!
Loads of wildlife round here - regularly see Roe deer, foxes, hare, stoats, weasels etc. There some local woodland where you usually see deer and a pair of buzzards. They are amazing when you see them flying through the trees.
My favourite was in the Lakes last year when a Sparrowhawk was chasing a small bird on a trail as I came round the corner. I think I must have distracted the small bird because it was game over as the hawk nailed it. Impressive.
A zebra pretty much every morning, and occasionally a giraffe.
Had a badger run along side me for about 5 metres made me jump the noise it made come out of the undergrowth. Regularly see foxes and deer as well as the normal rabbits
Last summer my girlfriend and I visited her grandparents who live in South Africa. We went out for a ride one afternoon on some local trails and as we went round one corner we were greated by a troop of around 30 baboons sitting eating fruit in the middle of the trail. That was quite a sight to see out on a spin!
Grizly - OK the rider in front did 🙁 Other bears though
Mink.
Seen quite a few round here, used to be a farm not too far away.
Locations just the ones that come to mind - multiple sightings of most.
White Tailed Sea Eagle - Diabeg to Red Point path, Rum.
Otters - Oban, Tobermory, Arisaig (Rhu Point)
Mountain Hares - Glen Avon, the Gaick
Corncrake - North Uist
Badgers - badger woods 🙄 my secret trails
Woodpecker - Newton Farm, yesterday
Kingfishers - Clyde and Forth Canal, Bothwell Castle
Golden Eagles - many, first Glen Avon
Ptarmigan - Beinn a Ghlo
Snow Buntings - Cairngorm plateau
Pine Marten - Secret bothy in Great Glen, Glen Affric
Beavers - Aigas (used to live in Beauly)
Minke Whale - Rubha Hunish (cycled there from Glasgow)
Various smaller cetaceans.
Slow worm - Great Glen
Adder - Leadhills
Salmon jumping - Inverpolly
Haven't seen a scottish wildcat or a capercallie. Yet 😀
My favourite is the orange tipped butterfly. Then you know the weather is nice....
Once saw two elephants in a field above Calvley Woods, thought I was tripping until I saw the rest of the circus. 😯
Ospreys
Mink - mother and 5 little ones
Black grouse near Linn of Quoich
Loads of red deer - largest herd around 50, several close ups of huge stags
Barn owls at night flying in front of me lit up by my light
Ptarmigan
Mountain hares
5 fledgling grouse - probably a week old
Reindeer - Aviemore
the turbo fairy at enduro 6 a few years back at trentam gardens in the next pit lane, now that was exotic, think i still have some photo's somewhere 😉
Golden Eagle circling above Beinn a' Ghlo, glorious creature in a fitting setting.
After much persuasion and reassurance, got the missus onto a hired tandem in Colorado. 20 mins later, riding along a dusty trail when a black and yellow snake crossed the trail in front of us forcing me to brake to a halt. No idea what type of snake it was but the missus hasn't been on a tandem since.
Saw an otter too on Monday on the Irwell in Salford 😯
Also see deer regularly in the woods at Drinkwater (Prestwich) - gets the adrenalin going when they dive out of the woods in front of you on a night ride!
Saw a stoaty / weasely thing in Swinton a couple of years ago running down the street.
Found a dazed Merlin stood on the pavement outside my folks house in Morecambe many years ago. We took it to the owl sanctuary where it made a full recovery.
Quolls
Bandicoots
Potteroos
Tiger snakes
Water Moccasin - Ohio (came so close to prodding it with my bike pump as it was basking on the road. Very glad I didn't)
Bald headed Eagle - Nova Scotia.
Tiger - Broxbourne, Herts (back of the old zoo)
Porcupine - Nova Scotia.
On yesterday's ride a kestrel burst out above me just as a class 66 freight train went past a few yards away. Sensory overload!
TooTall - Member
Alpaccas - several fields of them.
Black roe deer
Red kites
Kingfisher
Buffalo
Can I ask about the black roe deer? Are you certain they were roe?
A wallaby - well, I've seen several over the years. There's quite a scutch of them living in the forestry around Ballaugh.
USA (calif):rattlesnake, tarantula - both basking (separately!) on the trail I was riding
some giant scary eagley vulturey things that seemed to think I might turn into a meal at some point as they "followed me" for quite a while
UK: Once raced a badger down about 20m of trial
passed within about 2ft of a pair of fighting deer on a nightride (didn't even notice us)
Ditch full of about a dozen squabbling wild(ish) piglets. Weird until we got close enough to see WTF it actually was
All in (n wexford/s wicklow)
Red Kite, Buzzards, Deer, Hares, Grey Crows, red squirrels - pretty much every spin
Common lizard, Stoat, Jay, Sparrowhawk, long tailed tits - just the once - oh and was once surrounded by a massive flock of redwings and fieldfares.
Badgers - only dead.
Oh and wallabies once in the peak district but that was when I was a scout on a hike, dunno if they are still there.
Llamma's and Emu's - this was on a road ride 10 miles south of Birmingham city centre