iNatters have probably had a lot of weird experiences with wild animals. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen a wild animal do?

Just now, after sitting down at my desk, an osprey flew past my window carrying a dead muskrat. There’s a big reservoir just west of the office where ospreys hunt but I’ve never seen an osprey fly past my window and I’ve never seen an osprey catch a muskrat!

Last year, I saw a pearl crescent butterfly outmaneuver a dragonfly and escape–I didn’t think that was possible, given the speed and aerial capability of a dragonfly. (I was rooting for the butterfly.) I watched a squirrel one morning chase a leaf, pounce on it, release it, let the wind swirl i…

While conducting bird surveys in Maine, I was driving down a backroad and came across this little Ruffed Grouse standing right in the middle of the road. I stopped the car and snapped some photos, then guided it back to the roadside where its mother and siblings were waiting. The fearless little thi…

Not sure how “weird” this is, but I watched a frog try to eat a Taricha (Pacific newt), an incredibly toxic animal. Its tongue looked numb after it let the newt go. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/550227

I’ve seen lots of crazy stuff honestly. Once I was on my back porch watching the mockingbirds and I see one come swooping down across the yard. Hot on it’s tail is this hawk that just pins it to the ground, grabs it and carries it off. It happened so fast I had no chance to go inside and get my came…

My undergrad advisor told me a similar story once! He watched a bullfrog swallow a newt only to flop over dead a few moments later, at which point the newt crawled its way out of the frog’s mouth.

A coworker and I were once birding in NW Minnesota and found out that a Geo Metro’s horn sounded just like the Marbled Godwit standing in the road. The darn bird spent 5 minutes walking around the car trying to find his rival.

Another snapper story…“Hi Ma’am, would you like to buy a vacuum cleaner?” says the turtle knocking on my front door: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19760435 And the rat snake design expert who was exploring my assortment of things left on the back deck in pursuit of RT hummingbirds and E…

One more–I swear it happened. I woke one night and could not fall back asleep because I couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching even though I knew I was alone. Finally, I reached over and turned the light on. Sitting atop my pillow looking down at me was a small katydid. I caught it, relea…

Weird Wild Animals

Nature Talk

KitKestrel May 12, 2019, 2:25pm 36

Maybe, but it was a good 6 feet from the road, and the road was really washboarded so you have to enjoy serious shaking if you go more than 10 mph. Still, it could have been thrown.

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Weird Wild Animals

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