What's the most amazing wildlife encounter you had?

**wildWoman** · 12-28-2007, 08:20 PM

Would be interesting to hear what you guys all see out there...
The most amazing wildlife scene I witnessed was a couple years ago in spring, when the lake ice was getting so rotten that I had already punched through on my way to the waterhole and decided not to go on the ice anymore. One day later, this sounds like a movie scene but it's true, I was just enjoying a bath in our wood-fired tub down by the lake, I saw a grizzly walking along the edge of the ice on the other shore. He was going at a really fast pace, totally plugged in, and then started veering out onto the ice! He crashed through and after struggling a bit fought his way out again. He kept going along shore, sort of sliding more than climbing up a couple of incredibly steep cliffs, and then to my dismay headed right out on the ice again! By that time he was already a kilometer or so south of here, so I abandoned my bath and ran to grab the binoculars. What followed were some of the most heart-stopping moments in my life, that bear was so determined to cross the lake (caribou had calved on the other side just a couple days before), he just forced his way across. Breaking in with his hindquarters every few steps, hauling himself out and a couple times going all the way through the ice and taking minutes to pull himself out again. He made it, and the next day I went to look at the spot where he got out - his path across the ice was a trail of churned ice crystals, like a signature.

**Rick** · 12-28-2007, 08:25 PM

Wow. I bet that was an incredible site. And I'll bet the bear kept thinking. "Damned caribou are gonna pay for this." All the way across the lake.

**Sarge47** · 12-28-2007, 08:33 PM

Such determination! Glad he/she wasn't looking for me!

**wareagle69** · 12-28-2007, 09:22 PM

crawling into bear dens tops my list, but i think hand raising my moose calf norm and then returning him to the wild is my best moment

**nell67** · 12-28-2007, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by wareagle69

crawling into bear dens tops my list, but i think hand raising my moose calf norm and then returning him to the wild is my best moment

norm is gone?????NNOOOOO!

**Sarge47** · 12-28-2007, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by nell67

norm is gone?????NNOOOOO!

Ya beat me to it!

**nell67** · 12-28-2007, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by Sarge47

Ya beat me to it!

Sorry Sarge,but they would expect it from a whiney a**ed woman LMAO!

**Tony uk** · 12-28-2007, 09:32 PM

Who is norm ????

**nell67** · 12-28-2007, 09:33 PM

norm the moose,that he trained to umm ,to umm, do impolite things.

**Sarge47** · 12-28-2007, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by Tony uk

Who is norm ????

If you would have read War Eaglwe's post just above Nell's you would have read that Norm was a Moose calf that WE had been raiseing from a pup!

**Sarge47** · 12-28-2007, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by nell67

norm the moose,that he trained to umm ,to umm, do impolite things.

Actually WE only taught Norm to snore, he'd said that Norm already knew how to fart. They used to have "wind-breaking" contests out in the barn as there was no way Mrs. War Eagle was going to allow that in the house, she'd said that WE alone was bad enough!

**Tony uk** · 12-28-2007, 09:40 PM

Very Nice, I would find it really hard to let go of an animal that i had raised since the begging i would start sobbing :'(

**Sarge47** · 12-28-2007, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by wildWoman

Would be interesting to hear what you guys all see out there...
The most amazing wildlife scene I witnessed was a couple years ago in spring, when the lake ice was getting so rotten that I had already punched through on my way to the waterhole and decided not to go on the ice anymore. One day later, this sounds like a movie scene but it's true, I was just enjoying a bath in our wood-fired tub down by the lake, I saw a grizzly walking along the edge of the ice on the other shore. He was going at a really fast pace, totally plugged in, and then started veering out onto the ice! He crashed through and after struggling a bit fought his way out again. He kept going along shore, sort of sliding more than climbing up a couple of incredibly steep cliffs, and then to my dismay headed right out on the ice again! By that time he was already a kilometer or so south of here, so I abandoned my bath and ran to grab the binoculars. What followed were some of the most heart-stopping moments in my life, that bear was so determined to cross the lake (caribou had calved on the other side just a couple days before), he just forced his way across. Breaking in with his hindquarters every few steps, hauling himself out and a couple times going all the way through the ice and taking minutes to pull himself out again. He made it, and the next day I went to look at the spot where he got out - his path across the ice was a trail of churned ice crystals, like a signature.

Just so you know, we've already started a thread like this:

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ead.php?t=1139

**FVR** · 12-28-2007, 11:37 PM

I was deerhunting in Md many moons ago, while up in the tree I got a little pissed off as a truck had gotten stuck, maybe 50 yards off on the other side of the thickets.

Well, I could only take so much time of him rocking his truck back and forth in the thickets.

Got out of my tree, turned around and there is an 8pt buck with tines broken off. He runs off, I follow. It was not a truck, it was two monster bucks fighting. Not only did it sound like truck, but they torn the heck out of the woods. It looked liked a truck had gotten stuck and just tore up the woods.

Ha ha..............

But honestly, there were not tire marks, just deer tracks, skids, scrapes, fall marks. A week later, I killed a nice 7pt with a broken rack.

**wareagle69** · 12-29-2007, 09:23 AM

it was very hard tony, i got norm when he was 30 days old and not doing well. i spent the next three months sleeping out side in the bush with him tons of mosqiters and humid nights but he pulled thru, then he was transferred to a seven acre pen to have total isolation then after a year we turned him loose in the far north, the last day i closed his pen the tears were flowing couldn't stop. it is a very emotional connection raising an animal that closely, but he was tagged and have not heard from the ministry so i assume he made it thru hunting season, we are doing a study on captive raised moose that with hopefully help biologists and wildlife techs worldwide

**nell67** · 12-29-2007, 01:46 PM

Takes a special kind of person to do what you do wareagle,kind of like having to give up one of your kids...

**wildWoman** · 12-29-2007, 08:01 PM

Wow Wareagle, that must have been an amazing year in your life!! The other moose probably think Norm is nuts when he tells them about it :-)
In the Yukon they've had a very sucessful program capturing pregnant caribou cows and keeping them penned up until a few months after birth, to give the calves a head start since so many fall prey to bears and wolves. The survival rate of those calves was really high and they're doing the program in other jurisdictions too now. Hope the same applies to Norm and that he'll evade hunters for a long time yet.