Discussion»Questions»Animals (Wild)» Have you ever caught a wild animal? If so, what is the most exciting (or dangerous, even) wild animal capture experience you've had?
Several fish and yabbies (freshwater crayfish). We had a koala wander into our front yard one day, dazed, disoriented and dehydrated. I "borrowed" the cat's water dish to give him a drink, then nudged him towards a tree - thankfully I know the right kind and one was available. I've shot several feral rabbits, cats and foxes. Never bothered to capture them or even attempt to. I'm a pretty good shot, or was. I've also crashed into a kangaroo - at low speed, minor dent in the car and the roo survived.
I leave those to the experts - those things are DANGEROUS. We used to get tiger snakes and browns all the time. Next door neighbour kept chickens, they were after the eggs as well as the rodents which were after the feed.
I'm sure I'd have more fear if we had many dangerous snakes. Probably. My most dangerous capture was a venomous snake. The other top contender was a great-horned owl; though that was an attempted rescue rather than a capture.
Some people call them lightning bugs. There's no fire or lightning and they're sturdier and easier to catch than butterflies. You can safely use your hand (gently) and a clean, rinsed glass jar with holes poked in the lid so they can breathe. You can keep them overnight but let them go in the morning.
I do remember catching fireflies when I was a kid. When we went hunting them, a small group of kids would get jars and put holes in the covers. We only kept them for a short while. I don't remember keeping them over night. It's what we did on a hot summer night.
Yeah once when I was a kid I trapped a wild racoon figuring since I was like Doctor Doolittle I could make a pet of it. That lasted for about 5 minutes before I could see it could never be a pet. It was like that cartoon Tasmanian Devil and it was pretty scary when it started chewing through the cage while looking at me. So I brought it back to the wild were it belonged.
Glad you released it! Raccoons are so adorable, but not something I ever attempted to capture. I remember seeing our dog quarrel with one when I was young and knew they weren't to be messed with!
I couldn't have been more than 4 when I heard what I thought was a bird in a section of our garden that was basically mulch from sticks and leaves collected. I dug through that stuff for quite a while and eventually found what turned out to be a shrew, not the baby bird I was expecting. It promptly bit me, surprise, surprise. My mom called the doctor, worried that I might contract rabies. He said not to worry.
Slartibartfast 