Rarest animal you have seen out

[Harvestman]

I feel a thread revival coming on...

Lots of spiders (but then I go looking for them), Saw Callilepis nocturna, first record for over 100 years from its original site in Devon, discovered the Fen Raft Spider (one of only 2 protected spider species in the UK) at only the third site in the UK, and added the harvestman Centetestoma to the UK species list (at the time we thought it was new to science). Lots of others.

Have seen Scaly cricket at one of its 2 UK locations, Skomer vole, manx shearwater, glow-worm, silurian moth (only occurs in a single valley in South Wales), osprey...

I'd better stop.

Oh, one quick story. A mate of mine who knows moths found the caterpillar of a moth believed to be extinct in the UK. He reported his find, and then requested protection for the site from the local council, on the basis of it being exceptionally rare. The local council replied that species protection was based on rarity, and since the species was officially known to be extinct, it had no protection status. :11doh:

 

[Bigfoot]

Last week I saw two teenagers strike camp and then take all their rubbish away!!!

 

[sandbender]

Pine martens.

 

[galopede]

A mate of mine and myself were heading to Gloucester from Soudley in the Forest of Dean late one night after a pub trad music session. We are used to seeing things like boar and so on. This time something very strange ran across in front of us.

Looked a bit like a small pig type thing but it was all wrong! Looked it up and decided it was an agouti from South America. Friends thought I was mad until it was killed in a road accident a month or two later and I was proved right! Nobody knows where it came from. Assumed a private collection.

Felt sorry for the poor thing, wandering round the forest looking for a non existent mate.

Gareth

 

[JonathanD]

I had the opportunity to meet Lonesome George some years back.

Doubt I'll see anything as rare as that again.

RIP George



.

 

[Wook]

We`ve got a breeding pair of Ospreys nesting in a nature reserve locally. When I was there the ranger pointed them out to me like it was a really big deal. I thought they were "just birds".

I didn't appreciate just how rare they are till I got home and looked them up in my bird book.

 

[ged]

I saw a Spanish Imperial Eagle (Aquila adalberti) once whilst out mushroom picking with my mother-in-law,it just sat there on a dead pine tree watching me watching it.

Apparently there are only about 200 nesting pairs in the whole of Spain.

I think that's about the rarest thing I've seen too. It was over ten years ago. I was on my motor-bike, following my brother-in-law and his wife in his car somewhere in the middle of Spain on he way to Jerez, when this abso-bloomn-ginormous bird buzzed their car in a spectacularly low, flat glide. When we stopped next I just raved about it, but they hadn't seen it!

 

[mountainm]

Spiney echidna in Tasmania

 

[Bowlander]

We`ve got a breeding pair of Ospreys nesting in a nature reserve locally. When I was there the ranger pointed them out to me like it was a really big deal. I thought they were "just birds".

I didn't appreciate just how rare they are till I got home and looked them up in my bird book.

While not common, Ospreys are making a comeback.

The rarest thing I've seen was a Snowy Owl in Lincolnshire, a vagrant that caused a big twitch at the time.

Don't think I've seen any rare mammals.

 

[sandsnakes]

Fish eagle in Hong Kong bay!

 

[cbr6fs]

Wild Black Bear in northern Greece

 

[Bowlander]

How do we categorize rarity? The iucn red list gives a good idea.

So far I think Lonesome George has won the top trumps game!

 

[Wook]

Well to be fair the only way anyone is going to top Lonesome George is if they have spotted either a cryptid or a species incorrectly believed to be extinct.....

As for my Osprey, it is definitely not rare. Globally.

In Britain there are only between 150-300 breeding pairs, so it is pretty rare to see one >here<.

 

[lou1661]

As an update a wild Black (hook lipped) Rhino at a range of 75m, Fantastic to see.

 

[JonathanD]

I'm sad about ole George. I tickled him under his chin and he put his head down on my calf just above the knee for a few minutes before I got muscle strain and had to move. I went to see him again a couple of times during the course of a week because something about him fascinated me. It's quite weird to have seen a now extinct species. I always intended to go back and see him again.

 

[lou1661]

I'm sad about ole George. I tickled him under his chin and he put his head down on my calf just above the knee for a few minutes before I got muscle strain and had to move. I went to see him again a couple of times during the course of a week because something about him fascinated me. It's quite weird to have seen a now extinct species. I always intended to go back and see him again.

He was worth seeing, i would have liked to have spent time with him too.

 

[Laurentius]

It would have to be the one that I did not see.

I was driving in the west of Scotland many years ago with my mum and she could see a Golden Eagle. I was unable to look up and see it, because I had to keep my eye on the road. I have seen red kites in Wales however, one perched on a fence post once.

 

[BOD]

The otter civet - gone from being "Insufficiently Known" to "Endangered" in IUCN list and rarely seen. Two possible sightings.

 

[Humpback]

A pine marten stealing food from our camp on loch etive

 

[caffeine]

wild boar whilst hunting in north france

and the wild cat roaming the uk near cleobury mortimer