I saw a very strange looking animal

[Fumbler]

I wish I had a pic. I don't know what I saw and maybe yall can help me figure it out.

I was walking back to my car from an unseccessful hunt. I saw some very large deer tracks and followed them to a spot, about half an acre, that had been bush hogged.
Someone had been baiting the heck out of it and there was deer poop everywhere.
I rounded a corner and saw some kinda animal, it was about the size of my girlfriend's border collie.
I thought it was a dog at first because it did not run away, it just stood there with its back towards me and its head turned to look at me.
It was dark brown, almost black, with white. It had white around its eyes, on its stomach, some on its legs, and the underside of the tail and rear of its butt were also white.

I looked at it through my .22's scope to get a better look and realized it was some sort of a hooved animal.
Any hooved animal on the property is fair game to me
the head was shaped exactly like a small deer. I wanted to shoot it so I let my .22 hang and drew my .357mag. It put its tail up and bounced away before I could line up the sights.

Any ideas on what it was?
I thought it was a pigme goat for a second, but it was too tall.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Sounds like somebody's exotic goat ran away.

I had a GF who kept alpine goats as pets, the droppings look the same as deer.

 

[Fumbler]

I just looked up alpine goats and it does look a whole lot like the thing I saw.

The one I saw didn't have horns, and the head was a little more deer-like, but this is very close.

 

[Bob R]

Any hooved animal on the property is fair game to me

Hope the neighbor girl's favorite horse doesn't wander over!!

I wanted to shoot it so I let my .22 hang and drew my .357mag

This is where I am lost. You were going to kill something you could not identify, for what? Were you going to eat the mysterious beast, mount it for posterity, or just kill it because you had never seen one before?

You are exactly the reason people do not get to hunt on my property. Know your game, and hunt it. Don't shoot at something just because. I like my cats, dogs, and cows to much to allow someone to take pot shots at them.

bob

 

[Fumbler]

I was told by the forest manager (this is a 2500ac forest owned by NCSU) to kill any non-native animals, wild dogs, and feral cats.
Of course if it has a tag, branding, or something like that I wouldn't kill it.

I would have eaten it, or at least tried to.

I didn't litterally mean every hooved animal. I don't think horse would be tasty.

 

[Bob R]

sorry about the earlier rant. It just struck me as wrong the way you described the encounter, and ensuening desire to kill it.

If it was a goat, then it would have been tasty. Esp spitted over an open fire for a few hours. Horse is not nearly as bad as some people think.

I still won't open my land though. I have had trees, cows, tractor, and shed shot up. Only very good friends get on to my land with a rifle nowdays. And most of those are nowhere near here.

bob

 

[Fumbler]

No need to appoligize, I reread my post and realized how ignorant I sounded. lol

 

[spacemanspiff]

"oh my god he's coming right for us!"

 

[Fumbler]

lol!

my younger cousins were talking about that after I told them about the goat.

 

[Browns Fan]

You missed the chance to bag a Chupacabra!

 

[Matt G]

Yum. Gabrito.

 

[crt360]

You missed the chance to bag a Chupacabra!

That's what I was thinking. Did it have bloodsucking fangs?

 

[charby]

Deer hunting with a .22? I can see the .357, were you squirrelly hunting too?

Never ate goat, but tried horse in Germany, had enough stuff in the gravy you couldn't tell what the meat tasted like. It was good though and somewhat tender too.

Only feral animal other than ditch tigers and wild dogs I have seen was someone's released/escaped white guinea pig I saw in a patch of switch grass pheasant hunting in the late 90's. Recently read folks in Columbia and Bolivia eat them, I guess meats meat.

Charby

 

[Art Eatman]

charby, it's the "different strokes for different folks" thing: In the Philippines and in South America, monkey is high on the Good Eatin' list.

I don't know if it's specifically a Bedouin thing, but Europeans as guests of honor at an Arab feast were not exactly pleased at being offered a goat's eyeball...

They don't call the LRRP guys "snake eaters" for no reason.

, Art

 

[Kharn]

Jackalope, definitely.

Kharn

 

[Lonestar.45]

In addition to the typical deer, hog, squirrel, etc., I've eaten rattlesnake, possum, and armadillo. Actually, the armadillo was best. Smoked in tinfoil slow in the shell. It tastes like pork really. Kinda dark and greasy. That was in my younger and wilder days. I wouldn't touch it now.

I think you saw some kind of exotic goat.

 

[charby]

I agree Art, I saw on the news that some markets in SE Asia have insects to munch on. I guess if I ever make it there I'd give it a whirl, I guess it can't be any worse than eating fried chicken gizzards and hearts.

One of the folks I work with is on exchange from South Korea and he brings in some interesting dishes from time to time, so far I haven't had one I didn't like yet, even the one that had pigs feet sticking out of it.

Charby

 

[horge]

Fish and marine crustaceans aside...
Nothing beats python (sawa).
Monitor lizard (bayawak), maybe.
Others like it, but I can't stand the thought of eating dog.
I mean, what's next? Eating people? Yechhh.
Locusts and beetles also turn me off, though others love em.

 

[Horsesense]

sounds like a Bora Goat. go back and try to catch it $$$$

 

[Fumbler]

Deer hunting with a .22? I can see the .357, were you squirrelly hunting too?

I was after squirrels and deer.
I had jumped 5 does the week before in the spot I was hunting earlier that day, so I hoped to get one with the 357mag.

 

[El Tejon]

Maybe one escaped from an Indian restaurant in town?

Mmmm, spicy goat meat.

 

[McCall911]

True story, so help me!

I saw a strange critter myself several years back...

It was late at night and I was driving along the road going to my house from work, when I saw this small, dark shape proceed across the road about 15 yards ahead of my car. It appeared very black, much blacker than the pavement, and was about a foot and a half long and maybe a little over a half a foot high. The odd part: It seemed to have numerous (5 or so on one side) short legs which propelled it quickly across the road!
I'm not an excitable person by any means, but, man, I was really rattled. "No, I did not see that !" I told myself several times before I arrived home, just a few minutes later. I was so perplexed that I woke my wife up and told her about it and was about to call 911 (my work number.) But what was I going to report? That I just saw a black, multi-legged creature which doesn't exist in this known world? So I gave up and went to bed, but I don't think I slept too well that night.
But, the very next day, I saw the creature again. directly in front of a house! And this time, I saw it in broad daylight! I slowed the car so that I could observe it in detail, so that I was absolutely sure of what I saw.
It was a fat, mostly black female dachshund, obviously with pups, and she had long tits which wobbled back and forth like legs as she ran.
Later that day, I told my wife what I saw and she laughed at me for almost an hour.

 

[pete f]

good eatin....

taste like great horned owl....

you've never had owl?


it tastes like a cross between sand hill crane and bald eagle....

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Mmmm, Crane

Yum. A buddy of mine used to hunt them in North Dakota and make crane jerky. It was delicious.

 

[neolithic hunter]

strange animals

i was hunting in northern new mexico a few years back and i didn't see a strange animal as much as hear it. i was walking down a trail back to camp when in a big clump of stunted oak i heard the wost sound i could think of the cry of a mountain lion scared the ???? out of me. i turned to the patch looking when i heard the cat screem and hiss and a really load thud that i could almost feel. i heard the cat hit the groud with a thud the cat was hissing and screeming the hole time. then i heard a load scrape and the cat hissing and screeming again along with the thud. i pulled my 44 mag and figured i could fill my bear and small game tag at the same time. well i like a fool rushed into the scrub pistol at the ready. i came out into an open area of deer beds and 6" or 7" pines. looking to my left, the wrong thing to do, i heard the cat hissing and screeming to my right, my boxers needed cleaning at this point. i jumped to the left fell down while raising my pistol at the sound of the biggest meanest and nastyest mountain lion i've seen in my life. i thought he was jumping for me. i fired 1 round and it went through his nech just below his chin. then i got the whole picture. a 8 or 10 point mule deer buck had this cat pinned to a tree. the deer jumped back at my shot stomping on my right ankel and twisting the ???? out of it. before i could pull the trigger again he was gone. left me with a dead cat, his intestines were hanging out of his stomach from the encounter with the deer just laying there. me in pain and feeling really stupid, i hobbled my way back to camp using my rifle for a crutch. in camp i told my brother where the cat was and the rest of the storie. he said he new where the place was and would go get the cat for me. well he came back about 2 hours later with no cat i asked him if he couldn't find the place, he said he found it but no cat, but a lot of bear tracks and blood. i still had a twisted ankel so i had to hunt from camp for the rest of the hunt and listen to the other guy's about dead mountain lions that get up and walk off. well the day before we were to go home i was sitting in camp looking at the meat pole with deer and turkies hanging there. i had my rifle over my lap and was discussing my misfortune with a bottle of wild turkey, just how ????ty it was for me to not get to finish the hunt with game on the pole when a really nice 6 point whitetail walked out on the trail about 75 yrds from me. i took the ammo out of my shirt pocket reloaded my rifle and shot him. i limped down to him and put a tag on him, got my brother to clean him and hang him so the hunt wasn't all wasted. just wish i could have gotten the lion. i still hear about it when i'm with questionable company.