Poor guy. It’s hard to tell It’s even a canid.
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In the 1980s I lived in Chobe Botswana. I had a room in a house at the National Park headquarters. I was woken up one night by a really loud sound that didn’t really fit with the location. It turned out to be an elephant scratching itself on the corner of our house (built from concrete blocks). The sound was the noise a gutter/eavestrough makes when it’s being ripped off the building by an elephant’s back.
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Not sure if anyone will come up with a bigger animal than that. Hard to get a whale into a backyard.
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The biggest wild animal I have recorded in the backyard is this common brushtail possum. Trichosurus vulpecula
It would be about 4 kilograms (9 pounds) max. The arthritic looking “hands” are actually the back feet.
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I think a “backyard” should be limited to the location of the surveyed lot on which you dwell. Also would question whether large farming/grazing properties could be classified as a 'backyard". Comfortable with people including obs from the front of the house though.
Same species but late this afternoon the biggest one yet was sitting at the bottom of our (empty) chukum pool.
It was still there when I checked again a few hours later so I had my husband place a door as a ramp at the other end of the pool, as there is a lipped edge that can be problematic. Please cross your fingers our friend walks up and out during the night.
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When I was in Tonga I made three observations of an undescribed fly species in the property I live in.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?subview=map&taxon_id=956935&user_id=islandnaturespotter&verifiable=any
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Endangered Rusty patched bumblebee in the yard (bombus affinis): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/121928364
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My backyard includes mature tropical forest so this is my biggest: Apeiba membranacea, I think.
There was increasing chatter locally about illegal timbering to build tourist villas in the forest so I purchased the parcel before damage could be done.
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https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/254302784
One very healthy looking water python. Where do snakes go during the day? I 'm hoping it has moved on as there is a dove nesting in that tree.
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/201907938 In recent years cane toads have made an appearance and are sometime dinner plate size.
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/103969643
The common big critter is actually an insect.
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Biggest by size would have to be this big boy! He was probably 3-4 years old but totally pumped-up for the rut. He was following a cow with a calf but she wanted nothing to do with him. The roof of the sled rack behind him is a little over 6 feet high (p.s. the dog house was empty). Near Fairbanks, Alaska.
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My biggest (most unusual) so far is this big water beetle, Dytiscus fasciventris, also in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was identified by the Entomology Collections at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as a first record for the state (2014).
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That’s interesting!
I’ve seen a similar one about the same size, near Nenana, but I didn’t get any pictures.
It was wandering around in the open, away from water which I thought was odd because it didn’t seem well suited for land at all.
Very nice Mallards! A pair of them visited our garden for three years, flying here from a nearby pond. We bought cracked corn for them. Sometimes the male would visit with another male. We were very sad when they didn’t return this past spring. www.inaturalist.org/observations/109375699
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I’m pretty sure this one hit the 2nd floor window. That’s not an uncommon event in late spring when they’re flying far and wide. I see comments every year on a local insect Facebook page about water beetles flying into car windshields etc. Maybe something similar happened to your Nenana critter.
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It was late spring, so I wouldn’t doubt it.
These three Giant Silkmoths are the biggest moths I have seen in my backyard attracted to my Black Light … here are a few from this last year … about the same giant size …
Polyphemus Moth
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/227744385
Cecropia Moth
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/222832892
Luna Moth:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/222009098
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The biggest in number was a spider collection. I went to this fellow’s house (sometime last century) to buy some photographic equipment. I asked what he photographed - spiders! He was a Pharmacist, a customer asked for treatment for a spider bite, and had brought the offending spider! He tried to get an identification for the spider and failed, so set about photographing them in minute detail. He had hundreds, preserved in jars. I asked where he got so, so many spiders from, and immediately regretted my question. “This one was the one initially brought in”, “this one was brought to me by a friend from …” [uh, oh, this is going to be a long story] then, to my relief, pointing at the garden “the rest came from out there”. It was the back garden of a typical Australian ‘quarter acre block’ garden.
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I haven’t had any large, by measurement, find in my backyard but at my previous home in a semi rural neighborhood but not far from the city. A place that was once all lawn and just a few hosta and some ferns. Where the only wild life was a few honeybees and a couple of bumble bees on the clover that often would pop up on the lawn.
After 3 years of painstaking work replacing all the lawn with native plants my biggest finds were a ruby throated hummingbird (no hummingbird feeders), a threatened bumble bee species (Bombus fervidus), a threatened checkerspot butterfly (Chlosyne nycteis) and the native Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis Carolina).
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If you count an ant colony as a ‘superorganism,’ then the largest was a horde of army ants ( Eciton burchellii). They bivouaced for about two days and not only took over the whole yard, but the house as well. We moved out and let them have the run of the place, and they pretty much cleared out all the roaches and spiders before moving on.
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