One of the courses I grew up on was in a national park. We quite regularly saw black bears and even a pack of wolves that came onto the course on occasion (even though I never saw them). There were elk all over the place. It was very common to putt with several elk grazing on or just beside the green, or to hit tee shots with them grazing on the tee box. They would lie out on the practice fairways and wouldn't move. If they were hit by a ball they'd flinch, but not move. But the star of the show was a fox that stole balls all the time. The scorecard even had a local rule on it that said if you saw the fox steal your ball, you could replace your ball approximately where it was picked up. One day when we were kids my brother and I were standing on the tee box waiting for the group in front of us. We were looking up into the mirror to see how far down the fairway the group in front of us was. We turned around just as the fox ran out and grabbed my brother's ball that was sitting on a tee. The fox ran about 20 feet away, turned around to face us, laid down with its paws in front, and dropped the ball between its paws. My brother ran toward it and when he was a few feet away, the fox picked up the ball and ran another 20 feet away and did the same thing. He did that three times like it was playing, and then finally ran into the bush with the ball.
