This goes back to around 2000. Snake hunting in the Everglades middle of the night, my friend and I saw a black panther. I know, I know, impossible, Florida doesn’t have them etc etc etc. we both saw it clear as in a zoo in the floodlights of his truck. 100% big cat, 100% black.
I saw a big white owl. It looks like as tall as a toddler. Then it flew away before I can even react.
Used to have a bush about 5 feet from my bedroom window that Cardinals would nest in.
My buddy is an entomologist and one time I tagged along while he went to collect beatles in the highlands. When we got back to the lab one of the specimens I had collected turned out to be a species that was thought to be extinct in the region and hadn’t been spotted in a very long time. He was wildly jealous
You found Pete Best?
Underrated
I’m big into (responsible) nature tourism and I believe Mountain gorillas are the most rare. Black rhinos are also pretty critically endangered but there’s successful breeding programs at zoos for them so I would think they’re less threatened.
I went to the Galapagos once and some of the islands have some very rare species. But their habitat is protected and isolated so it’s not like endangered species that are threatened by habitat loss or war or whatever.
Not super rare, but a wolverine
Probably a California Condor at the San Diego Zoo.
They have them in the wild at Pinnacles National Park. Had maybe five or six flying about 60 feet over my head at one point during a hike. Amazing birds. Would recommend.
And yeah, probably the rarest animal I have seen as well. Though we had a Lawrence’s Goldfinch in our yard regularly in an area where they are extremely unlikely to be seen. Different kind of rare I guess.
Jealous that you’ve seen them in the wild!
Quokka on Rottnest Island (Western Australia)?
Followed by trying to stop fuckwits from playing “quokka soccer”. 🤭
In my area,
Pheasants and peacocks
Saw a lynx cross the road ahead of us in the Yukon.
Kemps Ripley sea turtles
Not sure how rare they are, but I’ve seen wild crested caracaras a few times.
Orcas, maybe?
I don’t even know what the rarest animal I would have seen in person is, considering many zoos and aquariums have endangered species in their care and I like going to them. I went to the Sacramento zoo over this last weekend, too.
In the wild, though? Could either be orcas or grizzly bears.
African penguins maybe? They’re endangered. I took my partner to feed them at an aviary.
I feel like I’ve seen a black rhino before, maybe at the San Diego zoo as a kid or something. Those are critically endangered, all but one subspecies extinct.
Desert tortoise, and an old one at that. Was bigger than a basketball.
