A narwhal. Bonkers
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A cheetah. Went on safari a few years back and saw everything I wanted to except the cheetah.
A Blue Whale in the jungle.
Polar bear but not too close
In the UK on a bike ride: a pine martin.
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Only ever seen dead ones of either!
An Armadillo ,crazy mother ******s.
Otter, Orca, Sea Eagle, Basking Shark.
All perfectly feasible in the UK, these days. I never thought I'd see Red Kites in the wild, now they're all over the place, even saw one flying over the centre of Chippenham one Saturday afternoon. Same with Ravens, too.
Seen a mole scuttling along the kerb on a main road, once, turned around to go and rescue the daft little bugger, but he'd vanished by the time I got there.
It's really not at all unusual to see badgers running around in the road around where I live.
Or deer, for that matter; been lucky not to hit one, they suddenly shoot out of field entrances, or even jump over the lower hedges, not what you want landing on your bonnet... 🙁
Giant squid. Don't fancy being in the water with one though...
Unicorn - thought I had once but it was a narwhal on a segway
Wolves
DezB - how as a mountain biker have you never seen a badger in the wild?
Whale shark
Humpback whale
Blue whale
Great White shark
Giant squid
All sea creature probably and ones you can't see in a zoo.
They always run away! My mate saw one once, but I only saw it's back.
Never seen an actual budgie, only a few being badly smuggled.
In the UK? A Scottish Wildcat. Anywhere else, probably a Polar Bear.
I saw this mole having a rest.
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I also once saw a basking shark swim metres in front of our group sea kayaking out to Lundy.
I went to Peru last summer and wanted to see condors, but didn't... 😥
In the UK on a bike ride: a pine martin.
Seen two. Naaaa naaaa.
Would love to witness these.
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Would love to see a wild cat out in highlands, but haven't.
piemonster - Member
In the UK on a bike ride: a pine martin.
Seen two. Naaaa naaaa.
Me too and I see them regularly in my folks garden.
Love to see a puffin and more owls.
I've seen a wildcat about 1/2 a mile from gj towers - we are in prime wildcat country though.
Would love to see a blue whale - I thought it was going to be very difficult, but since they discovered a population off Sri Lanka, it might just be doable.
I reckon Orca would be pretty good too.
One of these before there aren't any left there
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and one of these.
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A morepork. Got at least one in my garden, I can hear it/them calling, but have never seen one. Will have to do a stake-out one night...
Orca.
Am finding 'Blackfish' on BBC4 now rather upsetting.
http://www.radiotimes.com/film/cqbzgj/storyville--blackfish-the-whale-that-killed-storyville
An otter up close.
A mammoth but if it's got to be living, an elephant seal.
An otter up close.
Weirdest thing; walking along Budliegh beach with Dad a fews year ago, and an Otter just popped up and swam alongside as we walked for a few moments; literally yards away. We couldn't believe it. So impressive.
Manta Rays...
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Threatens to do Scuba course yet again.
grizzly bear or polar bear.
I love bears.
came close to a few black/ brown bears in Whistler and Kamloops but would love to see a proper scary bastard of a bear.
I would really like to see a hyena try to mess about with a honey badger.
(from a distance) .
I would love to see a Honey Badger. We should start a petition to bring them to the uk
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scottish wildcat
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(soon to be extinct 🙁 )
derbyshire wallaby
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Honey Badger!
Nice call on the blue-ringed octopus as well, just don't pick it up........
Canary Island Ground Squrrel, me and a mate spent a week cycling over fuertaventura trying to find one,
no reason, just became a bit of a mission
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seriously, there's millions of them, everywhere.
about as tricky to see on fuerta ventura as rocks...
(cute, and brave if you've got snacks)
DezB - how as a mountain biker have you never seen a badger in the wild?
That's what I thought.. not enough night riding. I've lost count of the number of times I've nearly run over them!
It'd be quicker to list things I HAVE seen that I thought were cool:
UK:
Seal
Badger
Mole
Red deer (outside Scotland)
Hare (white and brown)
Octopus (seriously)
Salmon
Abroad:
Eagle
Brown bear
Otter
Ibis
Stork
Crane
Musk rat
Racoon
Hummingbird
Coyote
Prarie dog
Buffalo
Pronghorn
Porcupine
Hoopoe
Vulture
Stoat
Capercaille
Elk
Orca. Always been my favourite since I was a nipper.
Saw enormous basking sharks, bottlenose dolphins and loads of harbour porpoise off Mull. They see Orcas a couple of times a year; a pod of transients known as the West Coast Community. Seemingly, they hunt the minke whales also found in that area. Regrettably, they're believed to be in terminal decline (no surviving calves for years).
+1 for 'Blackfish'. Saw it in the cinema and haven't seen that many people blubbing since the Christmas Eve screening of 'It's a Wonderful Life'.
I've been on foot 10ft away from a tiger in the wild, looking me straight in the face. Love to see a condor in the Andes.
Surly faced shitehawk.
Gorilla. Always fascinate me when I see them in zoos and on the bucket list to see them in the wild.
Haggis. Only ever seen dead ones.
I'd be over the moon just to see a red squirrel 😕
Rorschach - Member
Surly faced shitehawk.
Heh, the old name for Red Kites was Shitehawks, 'cos of the huge numbers of them squabbling with the ravens over the crap and offal that used to get dumped into the streets in London, before things got cleaned up.
Beavers. Hopefully going to become more widespread in Scotland sometime soon.
And lynx would be cool (though probably less likely in Scotland...).
A highly poisonous snake such as a taipan, black mamba or king cobra. Alternatively one of the big constrictor snakes.
I'd love to see a red squirrel in the wild in the uk
I'd love to see red squirrels in the uk.
You can sit in any park in Vienna and see reds as common as greys here. They also have black ones there too.
Oh, I've seen one, in the Lakes - just a glimpse on a ride.
I've seen loads in Europe but they aren't quite the same - much less red, just rusty brown really. UK ones are apparently a subspecies and are brick red.
The Coelacanth!
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And a Giant / Colossal Squid, but preferably from inside some kind of large armoured vessel because they are basically just Kraken aren't they!
There's a nice overlap of red squirrel populations and mountain bike trails- I've only seen them at Mabie but I'm told they're around in reasonable numbers at dalbeattie, kirroughtree and drumlanrig to name just a couple. We had a small population on our campus (edge of Edinburgh) until very recently but no reported sightings for a while, there's enough unmaintained woodland that we might still have some but it seems that they're pretty much done 🙁
Northwind you could go looking for evidence. You know those gnawed up pinecones squirrels drop? I think Reds eat them in a different way, so you can tell which ones you have.
Panda, all the big cats especially Tigers and Snow leopards
Oh and the Cannock beast, I've only heard this
A bigfoot/sasquatch/yeti! 😉
i was kitesurfin in Ireland when i had an"off" and a seal got very interested ? i shit my self as i was in my rubber suit and was being stalked ? the wife shit her self and thought i was gonna get eaten by 100 kilo of blubber ?
I've always wanted to see a Scottish wild cat and a pine marten. I'd better go mountain biking in Scotland!
on rides in scotland I have seen.
Pine marten
Otter
Golden Eagles
Red Squirrel
and all on the same ride! from Kilmore up through Glen cruitin and out to gallanach.
An otter up close.
There was one in the moat of the bishops palace at Wells Cathedral a few years ago
weejase40 - Member
An Armadillo ,crazy mother ***s.
- See more at: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/animals-youd-love-to-see-in-the-wild-but-havent#sthash.wySVgGS9.dpuf
I was out on a night ride with my buds iin NW Arkansas and we startled one that was chilling just off the trail. I didn't know till then that they can jump (pretty high) when frightened. He got up to my friends shoulder height as he passed. Quite alarming
Because, yes. They are crazy mother ****s
[i]not enough night riding.[/i]
Bloody cheek! I've done more night rides than you've had hot dinners. (Maybe).
Not seen a stupid badger though.
Philby
After nearly running over a baby Eastern Brown Snake on the bike I can confirm that it certainly grabs your attention! Every wiggly looking stick after that for the next two weeks was treated by my mind as a snake! They are that common in my work area so much so, that we have yearly reminder training on how to avoid getting bitten! and if you do what to do afterwards!
Still I prefer them to the spiders here! saw a bloody big Huntsman today 100mm in the legs so only a baby....
For me the animal I'd like to see would be the Snow Leopard. One of my favourite big cats... Also as mentioned above Wolves they are on my list!
In the UK I'd love to see Otters and a Sea Eagle.
The second one I'm pretty sure I've seen at a distance (about 2,000 feet above me!) but I'd love to see one a bit closer, they are awesome things.
I'd love to see a Killer Whale, and a Great White too, but not too close up!
April's sighting of a Sperm Whale in the Firth of Lorne was quite special. Sea Eagles and Otters in Scotland and Magellanic Penguins ,Rheas, Guanacos, Flamincos, Torrent Ducks and Condors in Patagonia.
I've never seen Pine Martins or Capercailles in the wild yet.
In the UK on a bike ride: a pine martin.
This for me. Rumours that there might be a small population in Hamsterley Forest and I hold out hope that I might spot one but never have.
A cow, never seen one in the wild, only on farms, dunno if there are any in the UK but id love to see em running free as it were...
I almost ran over a fairly big snake in the UK - about 3 miles from the centre of Cardiff!
Closest I have come to wild cows is buffalo in the US national grasslands.
For European wildlife spotting head to Poland for that wilderness national park. Really want to go there.
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End of.
I'd love to see some big cats and wolves in the wild. Bears would be cool too.
We have otters just along from us though don't see them that often, but I did once see one in the canalised part of the river through the town centre.
We see urban foxes a lot, but they're still cool to see. Quite a few deer in the field round the edge of town as well, and have seen them in Hamsterley a good few times.
My aunt and her husband live in Scotland and have semi-tame badgers that come and eat food off their deck at night 🙂
My brother lives out in the sticks in British Columbia so often meets bears on the gravel road to their house. They've had a cougar in their garden, too.
Id love to see an Otter.
If you want to see red squirrels, come to the Isle of Wight, thats all we have down here, none of this common grey muck oh no.
Oh and on night rides, I've heard Tigers roaring (yes really). There's are few at the zoo in Sandown. It shits me right up still. There's something about a deep roar that says "get the **** out of there"!
We spotted what was probably a lammergeier up near Tignes, that was pretty amazing- the sheer size of the thing made it seem unreal, sort of like how really big planes seem to hang in the air because you can't get the size to match up with the speed and distance. Kind of unearthly, talk about majestic. So I'd love to see that up close, it was too far away to see any detail or properly ID it.
Pine marten for me too.
I'm so lucky!... I've seen a Scottish wild cat 😉
I'd love to see African wild dogs .... They are so majestic...
A dragon.
The list is just too long to type.
After nearly running over a [s]baby[/s] Eastern Brown Snake on the bike I can confirm that it certainly grabs your attention!
I've done that! Thought it was a strip of eucalyptus bark and fair shat myself!
Saw an Echidna walking by the side of the road too.
Chased badgers down the trails regularly, and chased kangaroos in Oz. Seen lots of red squirrels round here, and in the Lakes.
Scottish Wildcat would be ace.
Oh and on night rides, I've heard Tigers roaring (yes really). There's are few at the zoo in Sandown. It shits me right up still. There's something about a deep roar that says "get the **** out of there"!
When my dad first moved to London, he found digs near Regents park, not knowing about London Zoo. The found at sharpish after hearing the Lions roaring on his first night!