Over the years I have kept tabs on critters I've seen and where biologists say their range is compared to where I see them. Some examples;

There is a healthy road runner population in northern California although biologists do not show their range in the areas I've seen them many times. Loosely associated would be animals you never see, but exist in the area, for example fishers and other martins. Northern California has a healthy fisher population, though I've never seen one, one of my neighbors stopped trapping coyote because too many fishers were being caught in his trap(Long time ago). Ringtails I've seen on occasion. I've seen horny toads in Northern California, well outside their known range. The Shasta salamander my son found while I was metal detecting for gold. We looked it up to find out what it was he found. They only live in a hand full of locations in Shasta county. Where he found them was 25 miles from the nearest know location.
While I was elk hunting I found some tracks of a small mammal I figured to be a Martin or ferret. Sure enough I look it up and it's a pine martin. Protected in my state. A perfect habitat for them, but completely disconnected from any of their other range.
And finally, what conjured this entire thought- today on i80 in the middle of the god forsaken desert was a raccoon dead on the road. Explain that one

Easy. The coon got run over by a car while trying to cross the interstate.

Thank you Mr. Obvious. Long time listener, first time caller.

Unusual sightings have always interested me. I know a guy who caught a badger in NE Indiana in the early 90's, a buddy has a small population of flying squirrels in the same area that live in a beech tree in a river bottom and I have heard of no similar sightings anywhere close and last year when one of the hurricanes rolled through, my brother and I saw a frigate bird on barkley lake. The natural roamers don't get my attention as much as the smaller critters that are large distances from any other known populations. Would love to know their full stories on how they ended up there.

We all know that Bigfoot lives in the Cascades but who would ever thought they would be in West Virginia.

Elk in central SD and bear on central MO moose end up in SD and out Cougars show up about anyplace in the Midwest.

The Yankton Sioux had a small, fenced in herd of elk near the river back in the day. Imagine what happened after that. Do they still have that cross-state elk unit in part of Gregory County and the NB county south of it? Used to back in the late '90s/early 2000s, like four to six tags split between the two states.

Prairie unit tags for outside the Hills have tags I don’t follow them at all. Lower Brule lost some years back to a snow drift they walked over.

A moose was spotted in Winnemucca last week.

I was on my way home from school one day in when I was a kid. Lived on 80 acres, in the alfalfa field, (may have been corn stubble) was a heron that looked like Marvin the marshon. The puff on its head looked like fiber optic cables. I thought I was looking at a wild animal, lost from a farm away place. it was this bird. An African Crain. Somebody's retirement flew away

I would guess raccoons get transported all over the US when they get on trucks carrying produce and other items. Raccoons will get into almost anything if they are looking for food.

Keith

I saw Big Horn Sheep in South Dakota. Thought I went the last step to crazy until I got somewhere that had internet and I looked it up, lol.

We have hundreds of white squirrels in western NC. They are no albino however.

Last week an elk was sighted and photographed in far eastern Iowa. And last fall a wolf was hit and killed crossing I-80 in the same area.

A cougar from SD was road killed in CT a few years ago.

I thought they might...

I caught a nutria up here by the house a few years ago. No clue how they got up here, body of water isn't connected to anything they are living in, far far far away from known population's.

We've been getting brown Pelicans up here recently and earlier this summer a flamingo was hanging around, easier for birds to travel though...

About 25 years ago I was at my place in the Catskills and picked up a road killed porcupine, which is common, but I relocated it in a prominent location back here on the Island, where they are non existent.
I'm sure it created a stir....

Twice I have seen armadillos in Keokuk IA and this summer there was one dead on the road north of Medford MN.

Statutes of limitations has probably run out

Birds frequently get lost and show up here during hurricane season