Unusual wild animal or wild animal event in your campground?

[JudyJB]

What is the most unusual wild animal or wild animal event you have seen in your campground? (Sister post to strangest thing people take camping.)​

I want to limit this to wild animals because there are just way too many pet things I have seen in a campground. Here is one of mine to get us started:

One day I was at my site using my hose to fill my fresh water tank at Trailer Village at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. As many of you know, there are quite a few elk running around this area. They are captives of a sort because they cannot escape through the canyon or the hot deserts on the other three sides. A handful of elk were introduced in 1926 by the first GC administrator who was from Montana and liked elk. Their numbers have stayed around 150 for the last few decades. They have plenty of food, but almost no water because there are no streams anywhere near here that flow into the canyon. So they have learned to get water from the water bottle fill stations and have learned how to turn on a lot of water faucets in the campgrounds. A lot of residential staff also leave buckets of water for them.

Anyway, I was focusing on holding onto my hose with both hands and waiting for water to spout out of the overflow hole. Pretty soon, as I was focusing on the water fill area, a nose appeared about 4" from my hands. It was a full-grown female elk who wanted a drink. She was right next to my stairs at my entrance, so i was afraid to startle here and held very still while I finished filling my tank. I could have easily reached out and petted her, and she was so big I could barely look over her back.

She patiently waited until I turned my hose off and followed me around to the other side of my rig where I filled up a container for her to drink from. Unfortunately no one around to take a photo, darn!

 

[DonTom]

I filled up a container for her to drink from. Unfortunately no one around to take a photo, darn!

"Yes, it is illegal to approach or feed wildlife in Grand Canyon National Park, which includes providing water to elk. Park regulations mandate that visitors maintain a distance of at least 100 feet from elk at all times to ensure the safety of both humans and animals. "

-Don- Sac Pass, NV

 

[JudyJB]

She approached me, and she followed me to the opposite of my rig where I turn off the water. If you have ever camped in Trailer Village, you will know the females are almost always walking around in or near there enjoying the slightly better grass and leaves from shrubs. They also know how to turn on campground faucets, but seldom turn them off when they are done.

I know about the rule, but elks should really not be there. They were introduced in 1926 by the first national park administrator who was from Montana. He did not take into consideration that there was no natural source of water for them on that part of the South Rim, and because it is surrounded by desert, they cannot leave. I don't know if the park service provides watering stations for them, but they should take responsibility for them or capture them and relocate them to a better place because they are really an introduced species.

 

[UTTransplant]

You can’t really say black bears are uncommon in Rocky Mountain National Park, but we still had a funny encounter with one. There were signs up at all the bathrooms saying “bear in area - use caution.” Turns out a young black bear had figured out the dishwashing sinks frequently had food left in them, and every day he/she came to check them all out. As the bear wandered around, a ranger followed to make sure no one bothered the bear. They weren’t too worried about the bear bothering people - he/she was just looking for food. The ranger had to shoo away one family that thought it would be cute to feed the bear! My kids got a real kick out of the entire show.

 

[gwinger]

We were on Skyline drive camping with our motorcycle pop up campers.
I woke up and went outside and heard a noise int the tree right behind me. I thought it might be a squirrel so I went to take a look.
Seems a small juvenile black bear was spending the night in the tree.
When he saw me he tried to climb down, missed a limb and fell out.
Gave me a strange looked and rambled away.

 

[DonTom]

She approached me, and she followed me to the opposite of my rig where I turn off the water. If you have ever camped in Trailer Village, you will know the females are almost always walking around in or near there enjoying the slightly better grass and leaves from shrubs. They also know how to turn on campground faucets, but seldom turn them off when they are done.

I know about the rule, but elks should really not be there. They were introduced in 1926 by the first national park administrator who was from Montana. He did not take into consideration that there was no natural source of water for them on that part of the South Rim, and because it is surrounded by desert, they cannot leave. I don't know if the park service provides watering stations for them, but they should take responsibility for them or capture them and relocate them to a better place because they are really an introduced species.

I agree with all of that. If they can be brought in, they can be brought out and should be to where they belong.

But it is not a "rule" it is a law and they can give fines, regardless.

-Don- Sac Pass, NV

 

[EdJunior]

I was camping at a KOA (at the time...it is no longer a KOA) at Lake Corpus Christie, and we were heading out for a walk around the place. I heard the loud "singing" of some bird, and saw a beautiful peacock around the back of my truck. He was strutting back and forth, then I saw him peck at the bumper of my truck. Turns out, he saw his reflection in the shiny chrome of my bumper, and thought that was competition in his territory. I don't expect that bumper felt too good on his beak as he fought it out with himself. Funny stuff. And I did have a camera!

 

[8Muddypaws]

We were parked in the lower lot of the Monterey Fairgrounds when we saw a mountain lion calmly walking by on the golf course.

Another time we were there for several days and every day at 5PM a large murder of crows descended on the lot to fill their crops with tiny bits of gravel from the lot.

 

[Vanbrat]

Hubby tried to do some salmon fishing out by the Oregon coast in a small stream. He put the bait on his hook and swung it out over the stream. Big buck deer jumped out of the brush and caught the bait and hooked himself in the mouth. It took a few minutes for the hook to work its way out. Hubby wasn't sure if his fishing license would cover it or should he have gotten a deer tag too?

 

[UTTransplant]

Another one: Doris Campground in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, OK on an Easter weekend. We had a pop up without a toilet and two small children. Woke up in the morning to discover bison all around the camper! An entire heard just wandered through, taking their time grazing. Kids were so enthralled they didn’t even need to head to the bathrooms. Same trip we had gotten up at first light to leave a bunch of eggs for the kids on Easter morning. The kids eventually got up (no bison!), and found so, so, so many eggs! Many more than we had brought. The campers across the way were in their lawn chairs with huge grins on their face, having placed the additional eggs themselves. We waved, they waved back, and the kids were thrilled. The last of that isn’t an animal story, but it was on the same trip, and it is one of my fondest memories of camping with the kids.

 

[Ohiosnowbird]

White squirrels. Ochlockonee River State Park Florida. Just this past January. They liked to run across the roof of the RV in the morning. It seemed they were intentionally tormenting our 5 cats.

Ever heard of cat zoomies?

This was that cranked up to one thousand.

Five cats on the hunt in the RV.

Multiple squirrels on the roof.

Our kitten would go full speed ahead and then splat at the window.

Trying to read on the couch was a no-go.

Coffee on the couch, fug-get-about-it.

They were all making that kitty-clacking noise at the windows.

Each cat turned into their own version of Taz the Tasmanian Devil because they all could see the squirrels outside through the windows and skylights.

Clacking and meowing and yowling each morning for ten days.

They were fun to photograph.
So were the cats.

 

[EdJunior]

Whoa, I've never heard of a white squirrel before. Seen lots of black squirrels when we lived in Omaha/Council Bluffs. But never a white squirrel. Cool.

 

[Firstime RVer]

We were up in south eastern NY state, outside of Newburgh sitting out enjoying a few after dinner drinks, chatting, when a full grown black bear decides to take a stroll thru our campsite. We were frozen in our seats as it completely ignored us and proceeded to go where ever it was going.
Who woulda thunk??
Safe travels and all the best.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Not typical to see these guys going through the campground:

And the last thing you want to see is one of these:

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Larry N.]

At the campgrounds in Palo Duro Canyon (S. of Amarillo) there are often wild turkeys roaming through the camps.



Back in the '70s we tent camped for the night going through the mountains neat Ruidoso, NM. Turned out that there were more skunks than you could shake a stick at. It was rather uncomfortable but thankfully they found no need to spray, though their presence was -er- less than welcome.

When RVing I tend to wake rather early and, after some coffee, take a walk. Ridgway, CO is one of several places where deer will be abundant in those early hours. I wish I could recall the place where they were a LOT more abundant than that, though, almost tripping over them.

 

[Kirk]

When we were campground hosts in Black Rock Canyon campground of Joshua Tree NP, the trucks came in to empty the dumpsters about 6 am on Monday and Friday mornings and there was a large bobcat (large for a bobcat) who would shou up in the bushes just in front of our site each morning when he heard the truck and then check each dumpster site for any spilled food as soon as the truck as out of site. We were there for 3 months and I think that he only missed doing so one or two times.

 

[Domo]

End of season, all the campers had left the national Park we were in, deep in a pristine forest. We were alone and felt primative and isolated from the world. There had been a light rain that made the pines sparkle and the air crisp. The floor of the forest was a soft carpet of pine needles. I went out and then had to hurry back to open the door and tell my dear wife there was a bare in the woods.

She joined me.

 

[RayIN]

I kept my distance from this one, and snapped the picture from behind others. You can't outrun a moose, so I made sure I could outrun those between us.

 

[Kirk]

When we volunteered at Shark Valley area of Everglades NP, part of our job was to keep people from crowding the local alligators. This was not in a campground but it was just up the walking area from the visitor center.

 

[Jackiemac]

When we volunteered at Shark Valley area of Everglades NP, part of our job was to keep people from crowding the local alligators.
View attachment 2446650

Were you the bait?