There was an albino red fox that lived on a golf course near where I work, I I would see it running along the fence about once a week.

Recently caught a firefly for a few seconds to relive my childhood of catching jars full of them as a night light. I let him go, and was sad that he was so alone; there were only a few flashes in a field where I used to see thousands...

In a zoo? Probably a binturong or something like that. In the wild- an ocelot.

I was at the old job, staring mournfully out the window at the world free of this drudgery, and - lo and behold - I see a black weasel-like animal galumph into view and disappear down a breezeway.

I couldn't believe my eyes, as this was on Vancouver Island where we have no black weasels.

I looked it up, and apparently there were some mink farms in the area, and they shut down due to one or more problems, so now there's a resilient invasive mink population up near Camosun and the old Insane Asylum.

I saw a melanistic eastern grey squirrel this summer, which Wikipedia tells me has a prevalence of about 1 in 10,000. It was just pokin' around my campsite when I woke up one morning. Oh! And I just remembered seeing eyeless fish and salamanders in caves.

When entering the Everglades NP my girlfriend and I were handed one of those folded maps with info on the park. Early 90's BTW. We went to a campground and set up our tent then soon decided to drive out of the park to buy groceries. On the drive out we saw a convertible pulled over to the side of the road, it's occupants looking at something. We looked and I saw the back end of a large cat walking away. My first impression was who could abandon a cat here? It will get eaten by alligators. Soon I realized it was no ordinary house cat. The brochure we were given stated there were nine known Florida panthers left in the million acre park.

A white tiger.

I once got to meet a Tasmanian Devil baby at a zoo. The zookeeper was carrying him around in a little pouch to keep him comfy while his mom was getting a vet checkup. (The picture is one I found on google because the picture I took is buried in some backup folder from about 6 phones ago)

I got to see one of the last few white rhinos.

Polar Bear this year in Southern Greenland

For me it has to be an Arctic Blue Fox. Saw several on a trip to the Aleutian Islands. Not really rare or endangered, but as someone who lives well south of their territory it was certainly a rare thing for me.

When I was a kid, on a trip to Paris, I went to the zoo, and the highlight of the whole trip was seeing an Aldabra giant tortoise (listed as vulnerable by IUCN). Now, even when this was 1990, I was still like "ooooooo cool turt". I didn't expect the buddy to jump around and munch pizza. Just a tortoise doing tortoise things slowly.

(The other highlight of the trip was seeing a public Minitel terminal. Holy shit guys, we were only mildly approaching that level in Finland.)

Little blue heron. Not so much rare but very rarely seen here.

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 remember seeing a Liger at the zoo when I was kid.

That really bad taxidermy lion that was / is a meme.

Endangered Monk seal when I was snorkeling in Hawaii. Dude was just suddenly there! Saw sea turtles and plenty of fish. Like some finding Nemo shit.

Probably my cat. There's only one of her.

It’s been a lot of years since I’ve been anywhere with wild animals …. But I live in an urban area and am amazed by how regularly i see coyotes. I’m used to thinking of rats, pigeons, and squirrels as adjusted to city life, but I guess coyotes are becoming so too

Before that, maybe i saw a right whale on a long ago whale watch?

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

A bobcat. It casually sauntered through the neigborhood and hung out at a local park. I watched it for about five minutes from about 30 feet away.

In the wild? Bald Eagle.

Not super rare, but a wolverine

Wild turkey.

Tanuki

I saw a big white owl. It looks like as tall as a toddler. Then it flew away before I can even react.