# Most bizzare animal you've ever seen in ND



## fishhook (Aug 29, 2002)

The bigfoot craze down by Sakakawea got me thinking. What is the most out of place animal you have ever seen in nd. I saw a Lynx a few years back. It was pitch black and that thing was sitting on an approach just off the highway. I turned around to look again, but it was gone.


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

I know they aren't all that rare, but I have only seen ONE moose in ND. That's about the rarest I have seen, and I have seen some orioles, mostly when I was younger.

I know, not very exciting.


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## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

I haven't seen anything too exotic but everytime I see a moose it just always seems out of place to me on the prairie. I usually see several every fall and each time I do I stop and watch, and snap a few pics if possible. Definitely a cool animal.


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## fishhook (Aug 29, 2002)

NO KIDDING!! 1 moose?? That is fairly odd in it's own right. I see about 8-10 every day during deer hunting season and i have seen 4 different ones around minot this year. I don't think i have ever seen an oriole though. I almost feel bad 4 u.


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## dblkluk (Oct 3, 2002)

Most of my hunting buddies at 4am!!


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## fishhook (Aug 29, 2002)

2-shay (not sure how to spell it..so there it is)


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## BenelliBlaster (Mar 17, 2002)

I've noticed that we are getting a few more bears in the state. There was one all the way south of Rugby a couple years back and I know a few where roaming around the Botno area the last couple years. Heard stories of small families of bears up in the turtle mountains but havn't seen those myself.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Saw a cougar out west in the Badlands while deer hunting.


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## BenelliBlaster (Mar 17, 2002)

I forgot, the most bizzare animal I have ever seen in North Dakota was a camel. Seems like every time I drive through Fargo I notice a couple grazing just south of the interstate on 42nd Ave. They sure had to travel along way to get here. :huh: Boy do they look out of place. :lol: :lol:


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## fishhook (Aug 29, 2002)

Sounds like a buddy of mine who probably had too much to drink was pulling up to his driveway in Minot this winter and thought he saw 2 camel's in his alley-way....he drove up to them and they were moose!! Boy do we give him a lot of shi$ for that one.


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## bigblackfoot (Mar 12, 2003)

Id say probably an elk. I see a couple of moose every year. The only time i see an elk is when driving through Medora sometimes. But if were counting birds too, Id have to say the Blackduck i shot this fall.


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## Goldy's Pal (Jan 6, 2004)

When I seen a Jack rabbit for the first time ever, that freaked me out.

What the FUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:


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## muzzy (Mar 21, 2002)

I have seen a black bear and a river otter both in ND.


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## Fetch (Mar 1, 2002)

I came over a hill once & there was a Emu 

I have seen lots of Moose

Saw a Yak over by DL - it gored it's owner, so he sold it to a guy from Montana :lol:

Have seen bear & wolf in Minn

once came upon a real fat round big bird on a road near a marsh - with a long beak don't remember what their called - but it was really weird

I had never seen chukar before last fall - I had to look it up in a bird book

Caught a tiger muskie once in DL - you don't see those often

If you have ever snuck up on sand hill cranes & got close - they look real weird (I call em Martians) eyes bugout & they have their beaks down & stare at you 

Have seen several Big Dead Bucks run away :crybaby:


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## torf (Mar 11, 2002)

I came across an old goat that must have escaped from a farm and had been living in the wild a few years. Its hair was super long (touching the ground under its belly) and it looked mad as hell when it saw us.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Big Horn Sheep up around Medora....needed good binos to see it.


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## win4win (Sep 8, 2003)

Emu prolly


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## stoeger (Aug 20, 2003)

Wild hogs with small tusks living in the sand hills.


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## hydro (Mar 5, 2004)

I saw some kind of a weird animal one time out NW of Bismarck while driving home from work.
It was about the size of a large cat. It had a pointed nose, was furry and it's color was blothches of white, yellow and brown. The wierdest thing though was its tail. Its tail was about 18 inches long, stood straight up and was hairless except right at the end where it had a ball of white fur.
This thing ran onto the road right in front of me, stopped and looked at me for a few seconds and ran into the ditch. Damndest thing I've ever seen. Moose?? Lots of them.


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## cootkiller (Oct 23, 2002)

Fetch, your bird sounds like it could have been an American Bittern, reclusive bird that is really weird looking.

Back in the 80's when I was 8 or 9 years old my grandfather and I saw a wolf by lake alice. Our whole family didn't believe us until it was confirmed by the authorities that there had been one that wandered probably out of Canada or Minnesota.

cootkiller


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## fishhook (Aug 29, 2002)

I had forgotten about the animal i saw when I was younger too. I too, believe i saw a wolf. My dad and i were out scouting for deer during season and about 300 yards out in the field we saw what we thought was some kind of dog. It was huge and scraggly looking and with all the farms around we thought we should shoot it. We knew no one around there owned it. So we got out got it in the scope, then it turned. Had a big bushy tail and we both just about shi$ our pants. We decided not to shoot. To this day i do not know if it was a wolf, it was silver or grayish in color, but you never know what comes down out of those turtle mountains.


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## Dan Bueide (Jul 1, 2002)

Don't recall seeing any wierd animals, except the birds Fetch mentioned, which we ran into several times this past Fall in the SE - looked like woodcocks on steroids and a high carb diet - kept seeing them standing on the road shoulders near small wetlands.

But I have seen some neat animals in weird places. Saw a 6 or better Bull Elk last Fall a ways West of Carrington - could have been a game farm escapee, but no tags or similar markings. Few years back saw a cow moose down by Gwinner. Aslo a few years back saw a huge mallard feed both sides of the interstate out by Sacred Heart - not uncommon to see a few ducks and geese out that way, but never before or after have seen a swarm like that. Have seen one other sizable, not huge, mallard feed in SW - this past fall while deer hunting SE of Bowman - about a thousand mallards working the crap out of (probably litterally) a very small, enclosed, completely trampled down and black feed lot right behind a ranch house.


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## johnsona (Dec 4, 2003)

i think fetchs bird was probably a curlew. I saw one while prarie dog hunting a few years back. Definitely weird lookin. My weirdest has to be the gar i caught in the knife river a few years back


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## Perry Thorvig (Mar 6, 2002)

The weirdest animal I ever saw in ND was a goose that we shot two years ago. It looked white from a distance as we shot it off a small pond with a group of honkers. (There were no farm yards anywhere close.) When we got the goose, it was two to three times the size of a snow goose and had buff colored feathers. Yup, it was a farm goose. I found one just like it at the state fair last summer.


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## ND Native (Mar 12, 2004)

We have seen two snowy owls in the last three years sitting along highway 18.


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## curty (Sep 18, 2003)

I saw a newt I think it is the right spelling? It was in the sand hills by Hankinson N.D. it is a lizard about four inches long black with a blue stripe and very fast. Found it while I was securing a well in the hills for the federal govmnt.


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## falconer_3 (Apr 10, 2003)

I saw an ostrich with my grandpa when I was little. I think it escaped from a farm, but it was pretty wierd to see an ostrich running along highway 52 in a dirt field. I've also seen two gyrfalcons, and a few more peregrines. Not unheard of, but still rare and pretty cool too.


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## Fetch (Mar 1, 2002)

Yep that was it coot http://birding.about.com/gi/dynamic/off ... ttern.html

If Hunting gets any more screwed up I may just get the best digital camera & go take wildlife photos all over the region

Do farmers let you shoot pictures on their lands ???

Still want to get into digi-scoping


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## 4CurlRedleg (Aug 31, 2003)

A slough elk(horse) wading around with a flock of slough pumpers(herons), being stocked by a prairie lion(cat) dd: .
Speaking of prairie lions, couple of years ago called one into the decoys and duffed em'. That tom had the biggest jewelry sack you ever saw! I swear they were like tennis balls!!


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## h2ofwlr (Feb 6, 2004)

Some guy back in the 80's had a suburban painted like a goose and trying to hunt out of it in the field--now that is one strange sight indeed.  :toofunny:

For me a mountain lion in 91 or 92-can not remeber which year--not a lynx, a mtn lion up NW of Rolla by the hill over there.

Other strange animals is watching a few locals getting into it :box: over who had the field at 5am :rollin:


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## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

In the 60's and 70's there were a more than a few candian lynx seen in the Pembina Hills. I personaly did not see one but as kids 3 of us used to ride horse alot. My friend that was in the lead saw one, didn't know what it was at first then it gave out a cat like scream then the horses spooked and raced home. Kind of scarey for 12 year olds.


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

I saw a kangaroo in north dakota today. It was pretty odd, didn't know they existed around here. OK, It could of possibly been a deer sitting like a dog, but damn did that thing look funny. Looked damn near like a kangaroo at first glance.


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## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

The deer sitting like a dog made me think of something I saw back in the mid 80's. Two whitetail bucks with about 7 or 8 does. The lesser buck was on the fringe of the group and mastrabaiting (sp). No lie I have witnessess. He was dry humping the air. We watched him at about a half of mile for about 10 minutes.


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## Fetch (Mar 1, 2002)

:lol: You sure that wasn't a Sota that saw all our ducks :lol:


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## cootkiller (Oct 23, 2002)

Fetch,I thought that is what it sounded like. However I cannot take full credit for identifying that bird for you. I aquired every ounce of birding knowledge from the world famous "Archie Moore's Second Semester Birding Class" at VCSU.

Archie is still a legend in birding circles.
He also had the privelege years ago(before I was born) of hunting on the Forbidden Forty.

cootkiller


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## Fetch (Mar 1, 2002)

I wish I'd of had a camera that day - we got a real good look at it too & it was a big mature specimen - Quite an unusual bird - I have never seen before. It was a near flooded road in a very thick marsh - North of Petersburg if I remember right

I have had the pleasure to know a couple of Biology teachers as an adult - that made me wish I would of had my sh!t together when I was younger & would have studied & had more interest in high school & college. Dang women - By the time you know thats what you love & want to learn your old :-? This internet has sure broadened my interest & knowledge

Did you see that Birding site my pic came from -- UNREAL !!! check all the links 










http://www.avianweb.com/ducks.htm look under geese too


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## Fetch (Mar 1, 2002)

I'm probably going to sell my guns someday & have to join PETA (after Commercial hunting takes over) & harrass you guys for killing my birds :roll: :wink: 

But here is another good site http://www.wildliferehabber.com/ducks.htm#humane


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