Saw a full-grown elephant at the at the Chogori gate to Mt. Kenya National Park, at the start of the approach to Mt. Kenya (~3,000 m). He was just having his breakfast (i.e. lots of vegetation), not caring too much about all the people that were checking him out (albeit from a distance!). Quite the sight! My partner Gordon discovered the carcass of a leopard just below the base of the Normal Route of Mt. Kenya, at ~16,000 ft One can only wonder what a creature that normally lives in the tropical rainforest was doing in such inhospitable environs...

Last Friday I was walking along a trail in the desert when I saw a fox chasing a rabbit at full speed, about 100 feet in front of me. The fox took down the rabbit just off the road. It was incredible, I'm used to seeing wildlife out there, but never "in action".

A couple years ago while climbing in "the notch" at Diablo Canyon outside Santa Fe, I watched 2 Cuyumunge, (pronounced koo-you-moon-gay), playing opposite the base of our route. These animals are a rarity to behold, and resemble a ring tailed cat.[/quote]

A Scotsman

In order by quantity of sightings:

Hikers Dogs (okay not wildlife)
Squirrels and Chipmunks
Pika (although I hear more than I see, they are so small)
Jays and Magpies
Marmots
Ptarmigain/Grouse
Eagles/Birds of Prey
Deer (see more driving than anywhere else though)
Elk
Mountain Goats
Bighorn Sheep
Snakes (only once though)

Never saw any Moose, Bears, Mountain Lions etc.

I guess all of us hikers are driving away the less people-friendly animals

My regular hiking/climbing/skiing buddy, Will Wyles, was a couple of hundred yards ahead of me as the sun was coming up on Register Ridge. He was startled to stumble upon a majestic Big Horn -- who was obviously King of the Hill!

Unfortunately, HE did not enjoy seeing Will. So, THE Ram snorted, put his head down, and pawed the ground menancingly...

What did Will, The Survivor do?
Make the sign of the cross with his self arrest poles!
And guess what? THE Ram was history before I caught up with them.......

http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=179639&confirm_post=12

All I've seen is the typical animals. Deer, Bear, Chipmunks, and Birds. But I have run into people that smell like wild animals, yes including myself.

While cycling up Mt Wilson, I practically ran into a mama bear and 2 cubs. I don't know which of us was the most bewildered!

I also saw 2 red tails hawks having sex. Naturally, it was in Malibu.

bobcat and a mt lion. Bears quite a few times. Bear and her cub climbing a tree near Owens Peak - had to walk under them ... made me a bit nervous I was gonna have a momma bear land on my head. Coyotes all the time in the desert. Deer and the other usual critters.

Something I haven't seen but would really love to ... are the groups of wild horses I have heard about it near Boundary Peak and some other more remote california areas too.

My buddies have some real crazy stories ... like one guy waking up to a bear licking the gel out of his hair!

Came around a corner on a logging road near Hurricane ridge in the Olympic Range in the fall of '93, and off to the left side, appx. 20 yards on a huge old growth stump, was the largest auburn colored mountain lion I've ever seen (the only one coincidentally) sunning himself.

My boss, who was with me at the time, grew up in Forks,WA, and had logged the area for 30 years. It was only the 2nd one he'd ever seen in that long. He also said it was twice the size of the other (probably 275 to 350 lbs).

It was a magnificent, majestic beast, and we watched, awestruck, as he (we assumed) rocketed up off the stump and through thick foliage down a 500 ft ravine and up the other side in probably less than a single minute. That SOB was coverin' some serious real estate.

If you're ever lucky enough to see one like him in the wild, and survive, it's something you won't soon forget.

The other day while descending Bisaurín I could see a roe deer and when driving back to camp we saw a fox. While driving back to Madrid we stopped and saw a beutiful ocellated lizard (Lacerta lepida).

Exactly one month ago we could see some wild he-goats fighting (I'll post some pics soon). And when driving back to Avila we saw a green lizard (Lacerta viridis) on the road.

Some weeks ago, we drove to Sierra de Alto Rey when spending two nights in Cogolludo (Guadalajara) and saw some roe deers. We saw another one while driving from Cogolludo to Majaelrayo, near Ocejón

We were eating lunch in a parking lot of one of the open spaces above the S.F. Pennisula. I looked up and saw a coyote hunting on a grassy verge nearby. I think there were a lot of ground squirrels there. The coyote would kept on puncing on the holes. I finally walked over closer to him to get a better look, He looked at me, then went back to what he was doing.

Most of the coyotes I've seen have been thin, often mangy looking. This one was really well fed & had a beautiful coat.

In the last few weeks I've seen a Great Horned Owl swoop down onto a vole in the neighbor's backyard and catch it. I saw a young Osprey in the nest waiting for the parent to come feed him while hiking on the Rubicon Trail. An adult Osprey flew over our car on the drive back home. Red-Tailed Hawks often fly over me.

Two days ago, while hiking alone and following an animal trail, I encountered a bear. I was following a seasonal creek up a drainage to a pass. I glimpsed the bear's fur and immediately thought, "I didn't think I'd see anyone else--is that their dog?" In the next second the bear ambled out of the brush and walked towards me. Even though he was close he didn't notice me--I was downwind. He was a fully grown male bear with beautiful thick reddish brown fur. I had to whistle and wave my arms so he'd stop approaching me. The second he noticed me he turned right around and ran into an Aspen grove.

Monument Pass, here in Tahoe, seems to be a major thoroughfare for all sorts of wildlife coming to Tahoe from the Carson Valley.

Even though I know bears probably won't hurt me, every hair on my body stands on end whenever I run into one in the forest. The adrenaline nearly makes me pass out. Being alone doesn't help.

Lots and lots! Some of the more memorable: Mountain Goats in Custer State Park, ND; Big Horn Sheep in Glacier, MT; Black Bear in Great Smokies, NC; Alligators in LA; Osprey in UT; Bald Eagle in Yellowstone; Marmot in Flaming Gorge, UT; Bison and Elk in Wichita Mountains, OK and northeast NM; Javelina in Big Bend, TX; Golden Eagle doing a fantastic stoop (dive) on a prairie dog at Black Mesa, OK.

mark d.

In the summer of 2004 I hiked from the Merriwether picnic area up and out of Merriwether Canyon and into Mann Gulch. (This is where the Mann Gulch fire occurred in 1949, made famous by Norman Maclean's book "Young Men and Fire". It's in the Gates of the Mountains wilderness north of Helena, Montana.)

After looking at some of the smokejumpers' memorial crosses, I scrambled up to the top of the ridge between Mann Gulch and Rescue Gulch (very hot, very loose and very steep; this is the slope the smokejumpers tried to escape up in 1949). When I looked over the top, two bighorn sheep were looking back at me, about 100 feet away.

We watched each other for quite a while. I made no attempt to move closer. I made a couple of photographs of them, and eventually I returned back over the sharp ridge between Mann and Rescue gulches.