What's the coolest/most bizarre/most exotic animal native to the area where you live?
For me living in Florida--as cool as alligators, crocodiles and sharks are, the idea that there are Florida Panthers currently lurking out somewhere in the Big Cypress area is just mind blowingly awesome.
A Youtube video of someone lucky enough to come across a Florida panther:
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AKA the Texas Horned Lizard. Not only are they cool looking, but they can squirt blood out of the corner of their eyes at a predator. It can squirt up to 5 ft!
You call that cool looking?? They're ugly and scary as hell! 
They love having their bellies rubbed. We always had these growing up. They are just fun little creatures. 
Keep your observations to yourself...
The Boaz Mastodon on display at the UW-Madison Geology Museum
Can you imagine encountering that whilst you dangle worms for bluegills?
Rare but wonderful when you discover another one.
They are very rare in my red corner of a blue state. Always great to find another one!
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North of me ... the Canadian Lynx.
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Locally ... the Gray Fox.
Ha ha.
No, seriously...whatever kind of moth this is...photo taken about 14 years ago on the side of my barn
Cecropia runs about the same size, but much more colorful ...
I was always amazed by Luna moths as a kid ...
http://fairiemoon.typepad.com/.a/6a00e555016514883401156f4fc4cf970c-800wi
Ours has her own facebook page.
have a name?
I have a hunk of dryer lint with her own Facebook page
Anyway, it's one of the three sock monkeys I made for my grandkids when they were toddlers.
I love sock monkeys
This her in her poofy winter coat.
This was back in 1970 when California had a lot fewer people. His parents had a house high on the hill above the beach town of Laguna Beach at a time before Orange County was heavily developed. Behind his house were canyons and open spaces as far as the eye could see. Neighbors would occasionally see the mountain lion and hear it at night. Small animals would disappear from yards. Now you have to go farther inland to see any and people, especially small children get attacked on rare occasions.
but harder to swat.
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But a few years back I did encounter a Luna Moth on the side of a building. I was pretty happy about that sighting, because they only live for one week a year. It was huge, very beautiful, and placid. Biggest moth I've ever seen, and colored a vivid bright green!
We also get big (4-5"
long praying mantises (manti?) in the garden every year. We've even had cocoons on occasion and have watched them hatching. It's fun watching them go from little specks in May to massive predators by September. And I am even more joyful knowing that they got that big by eating all of the pests in my garden, like the aphids that assault my roses (go Mantises, go!). And they're supposedly extremely intelligent for insects. I love interacting with them, because they're very calm and watchful, like they're thinking about stuff, not just reacting.
On Edit: Actually, I think the funniest sightings every year are in the fall, when the wild turkeys roam around the city (no idea what they are doing every year - looking for mates? Fattening up on scraps for winter?) It's hilarious seeing a big fat turkey strolling down a major thoroughfare as calm as can be, disrupting everyone's rush hour!
I have yet to see one in the wild, but I hope to one day. From a safe distance, of course.
before his morning shave. Don't ask how I know.
The ring necked pheasant. We used to have so many of these on our 20 acre farm that my father and BIL's would hunt them in September and we would have a big pheasant feast in October. I still see them yearly although there are fewer now.
I've never seen them, but others have. I live in the DC suburbs, and there is a lot of parkland around due to river and creek valleys. Bald eagles are more common down along Chesapeake Bay, but one has been photographed in the local lake.
We also have great blue herons.
we got Mexican Generals
Javalinas
Colorado River Toads (pretty sure this is a young one, might be something else)
Roly Poly Bugs (classic dung beetle)
we have Horny Toads too! (and yes they squirt blood from their eyes. and hate dogs)
the ONE and ONLY Dumbass (something about a taterguy exception?)
now this is rare, a Christmas Rattler
TP Scorpions
Giant Desert Centipede
Giant Desert Milipede
Rhinoceros Beetle (bad photo - nothing for scale, these guys are pretty big)
Tarantula
a few that I don't have pictures of: coatimundi, (possible jaguars), Gila Monsters, various birds
and probably my choice for cool and rare local critter, something I have actually never seen (not my photo)
the common name, Texas Canyon Longhorn Beetle named for the site of the original find (my home)
but shoes, fly swatters, rolled up newspapers all work
because the TC Longhorn is only out for a couple of days a year and prefer oaks. Have you noticed if the bugs you are seeing have an odor? I think it kind of smells like strong playdough (yes I am wierd, but they do have a strong stink - they are actually related to stink bugs and are true bugs not beetles)
I surprised one of these fellas in my shed once. He/she ran over my foot escaping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-tailed_cat
maybe not "exotic" or "bizarre," but I find most wildlife cool.
Sticking to what can actually be seen from my house, here are just a few:
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSWBlsWpYLDQapXrcl6Clf4NzlrBf6ZDF_fiiuswQaeS6ap8dDa
http://vireo.ansp.org/feeders/images/square/steller's_jay_b57-6-046.jpg
but I think the inimitable geoduck merits consideration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_cricket
I'm also fond of these guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Alligator_Lizard
They can be bad-tempered little beasts.
I've seen each in the past two days.
I never saw a black squirrel until we moved to central Maryland 20-plus years ago. There are quite a few in our neighborhood, and they're beautiful.
According to Washington Post writer John Kelly:
"They came from Canada, specifically from Rondeau Provincial Park, a peninsula in Morpeth, Ontario, that juts like a uvula into Lake Erie.
The first batch of black squirrels — eight in number — was sent to the National Zoo in 1902 by Thomas W. Gibson, Ontario’s superintendent for parks. Smithsonian secretary Samuel P. Langley, in his report to Congress that year, wrote that the squirrels were accepted “in exchange,” and, indeed, checking Canadian records, Answer Man discovered that Rondeau park received an unspecified number of gray squirrels from the Smithsonian. (They are “doing nicely,” reported park caretaker Isaac Gardiner.)"
More of the Post article:
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-04-01/local/35207995_1_black-squirrels-gray-squirrels-sciurus
There are a lot of cool critters out there.
The alligator snapping turtle
and the cute little saw-whet owl.
native to the western United States and Mexico. In my younger days I used to do a lot of caving in the caves of the Mojave Desert in Nevada and California and in the redwood country in and around Sequoia National Park and I'd occasionally see one.
Occasionally at night you'll see these things:
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But they're pretty shy. I once rescued one from a fish pond, where he had fallen in while trying for a drink during the night. he must have been treading water for hours. He went right to sleep, slept through the day, and disappeared after nightfall.
On the other hand, these critters are everywhere, and are not shy at all:
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Unfortunately, where we always go for our summer vacation (outer tip of Cape Cod, USA), the increase in the seal population along with the noticeably warmer water has brought these animals (this is not pretty, don't open if you aren't up for a slightly gory scene) very close to where we swim. We had our first attack by a great white on a human last year for the first time in 75 years:
Watching these humpbacks feed is a lot more gratifying (makes you feel VERY small, too):
Timber wolf
Grey Wolf
They are majestic creatures. Please don't shoot them.
I don't know how they got there, but they seem tame enough
I was fishing and caught a hellbender, probably a foot - 1.5 foot long. It kind of freaked me out because I hadn't seen one before-
http://www.hellbenders.org/The_Hellbender_Homepage/Home.html
I saw a bunch of sandhill cranes early one foggy misty florida morning standing around the neighborhood and they were pretty awesome too.
ETA I am talking about two different places - I was born in SE KY and grew up in E TN and live in Chattanooga most of the year now; my parents got divorced and I went to high school in FLA, still have a home there with an older parent
They're the size of a mouse, but absolutely fearless. No much afraid of humans, either. The one I see in my yard, will let me walk right up to it without running away. Once, I reached down and touched it on the back. It let me know that wasn't an acceptable behavior right away.
