comments: John Schillinski - Michael Peake
When we were in Country, it was not unusual to hear stories of someone seeing a tiger or walking face to face with a King Cobra (of the reptile variety not the gunship). While I’m sure these encounters occurred from time to time especially for those 
pounding the bush, the accounts seem to always be second or third hand as in “I knew a guy in the delta that told me his friend shot a tiger.” More common are stories of “fuck you lizards” and “re-up birds” can be more easily documented. Although I never heard one myself, there are recordings now on the internet of the Tokay gecko clearly uttering the expletive that I’m sure prompted many fully automatic rounds of fire into the bush. Perhaps just as taunting was the “Reup-bird” more correctly known as a Blue Eared Barbet constantly nagging for reenlistment.
After my tour I continued my education and eventually experienced a 36- year career as a Wildlife Biologist, thus my interest in the subject of wildlife. I would like to hear from Centaurs who have had some firsthand wildlife encounters. To get things started, I can share a few myself.
The first wildlife encounter I’ll share points out how thinking you know more than you do can get you in real trouble. There are six species of venomous snakes in Georgia where I grew up. As a young man I could identify all six easily. Basically 5 out of the six belong to the pit viper group than can be easily identified just by knowing some basic characteristics of the group. With that very limited knowledge, in 1971, I find myself looking at a small greenish nondescript snake in one of the revetments in Lai Khe. I think to myself: ”This is not a pit viper therefore it’s probably non-venomous.” What I didn’t know and didn’t even stop to think about is that there were 37 species of venomous snakes in Vietnam and only a handful are pit vipers. Anyway, I penned the snakes head, secured its neck between my fingers, and walked up to the medic station on the off chance they might have a field guide to Snakes in Vietnam. Having no luck there I took it back to consult my next most reliable source of local information, my hooch maid. She looked at the snake carefully and then very calmly and matter-of-factly stated “it bite you today, you die tomorrow”. Only then did I realize my stupidity. I don’t know to this day what kind of snake it was, or if my hooch maid had any idea what she was talking about, but I do know she taught me a good lesson. I remembered that lesson when I returned to Lai Khe in 2008 and saw another venoumous snake along QL-13 (See A Second Tour of Duty). I didn’t pick this one up even though it was a roadkill!
On another occasion I was at the POL station at night. It seems like it was some sort of guard duty, but POL was a long way from our flight line, so I really don’t know what I was doing there. At any rate I saw a porcupine.
They are not native to my home state of Georgia, and it would be many years before I ran across one in the US. I’ve since determined that saw an Asiatic brush-tailed porcupine.
Finally, some of the Scouts (actually, it could have been Blues, it’s been 55 years!) came by the Lai Khe maintenance area asking if anyone had experience butchering deer. I was a deer hunter and stated that I knew how. They said they had been regularly seeing deer while on patrol and planned to shoot a couple if I would butcher it for them. I agreed and sure enough they brought in at least one doe the next day. There may have been more, but I don’t remember. I remember the doe because, as I was removing the entrails, I noticed an almost full-term fetus. When I removed it an old papa-son ran up and said, “you give me that, you give me that”. I did and he ran off like I had just given him a million dollars. Again, I was totally ignorant of what species of deer I was dealing with. Only recently have I tried to identify what they were. They were similar in size to whitetail deer in the southeast US and the outward appearance was similar. Deer are uncommon in Vietnam. The Internet list three species of Muntjac, the Vietnamese Sika deer (thought to be extinct) and the Silver Backed Chevrotain or Mouse Deer. I’m familiar with Sika deer so I can rule that one out. The mouse deer, standing only 12 inches high, is much too small to be the species we encountered. The only species left appears to be one of the species of muntjac. 
A muntjac is a small species of deer whose antlers branch only once at the base. Three possible species of this deer range in Vietnam. One is too small, the other has black legs. (I think I would have remembered that characteristic if that was what was brought in by the Scouts.) Only the Giant Muntjac is similar in size and appearance to deer in the Southeast US . The interesting thing about this species is that it is critically endangered and only officially discovered in Vietnam in 1994 according to Wikipedia. It ranges in eastern Cambodia and the Annamite mountains in Vietnam. The Annamite range ends just north of Tay Ninh. If anyone at Lai Khe in 71-72 remembers this incident with the deer or remember where the deer were killed, I would be very interested. Pictures would be fantastic! I know we were operating in Cambodia and the Tay Ninh area at the time. It appears that Centaur Scouts may have discovered the Giant Muntjac almost 25 years before scientists confirmed their existence in Vietnam.
Comments from Facebook:
From John Schilinski:
Before I came to F Troop and became a door gunner I was a six man recon, 101st airborne after coming off of a mission in the bush For one week we found a cobra underneath one of the bunkbeds ended up emptying a 20 mag into him. First of many encounters.
From Michael Peake:
Nice spread Carl. Now that you mention it, aside from sand crabs and rats big enough to leash, wildlife at Tan My was extremely limited. I don't readily recall birds, even with the pine grove. Do recall during monsoon how I was cured from ever sleeping on my back again. Woke up with king-sized rat curled up on my stomach like a friggin' cat. Had the cover tucked in at the foot, so I was able to launch him nearly into the rafters. That was the extent of my wildlife experience. Do recall some sort of large rodent, guess comparable to a muskrat, down at Long Binh. But you did trigger a related memory.
We lived down outside of Ft. Campbell near Clarksville for 12-years, and I got to know a local veteran who operated a pretty nice Army/Navy/Other surplus store. He had spent several tours in country since 68 and had worked with the highland tribes for an extended period. Also well versed in the local Civil War history. It became a big deal locally through Austin Pea University. Know it comes from the local paper but clueless to date.
I'm of the impression shortly before we arrived in the area in 96. Can't imagine why I kept that, outside of the fact he was a unique personality proud of his heritage.
Lot of interesting stories at this page:
https://www.quora.com/What-animals-did-soldiers-encounter-in-Vietnam