It has always amused me that the tourists to the US that I’ve spoken to are often very excited to see raccoons, and disappointed if they don’t see them before they leave.
Some others I’ve noticed on the east coast of the US are blue jays and cardinals. Boy, do people get excited about those if they’ve never seen them before! Very pretty birds of course, just very easy to get used to and see as uninteresting as well.
I’m from the US and I still get excited when I see raccoons. I love those lil guys.
I’m like that with turkeys. They are hilarious weirdos.
They’re terrifying
Wild turkeys can be very aggressive.
Domestic turkeys can as well. I had to beat one of of my little brother cause it was bullying him. In our own front yard. My brother was very satisfied that Thanksgiving
I read this in Linda Belcher’s voice.
Here in Australia, it’s drop bears and hoop snakes. People always want to see them… until it’s too late.
A drop bear got my auntie. All they found was her eskie… empty.
Typical. Those drop bears have no respect at all for a person’s eskie.
Thieves and murderers the lot of em. Just like my great great granddad before he was shipped here.
Some say that the drop bears are the true descendants of the first British convicts sent to Australia
Damnit. I googled it. Im from the US. Closest we have to drop bears here are snipes. I’ve been on a few snipe hunts myself.
I’ve never heard of a hoop snake before, that’s awesome.
In UK people come from all over the world to see our royal family of great apes.
Here in Scotland tourists are always fascinated when we talk about the wild haggis running around.
When I went to Scotland I just wanted to see the Hairy Cows and the goddamn loch ness monster
I’m American and I always get a chuckle from the adoration that people have over raccoons as well. I guess they’re cute but they’re also a menace, there’s a reason we call them “trash pandas”.
But I also went to Spain several years back and saw my first hedgehog. And it was even in a hedge! I took probably two dozen photos and the locals thought I was crazy. So I get it.
I’ve had kinda an inverse experience of this.
I was on a vacation to Mexico with my family and we decided to visit a local zoo. For the most part it was pretty similar to what we have back home with lions and gorillas but there was one exhibit that was drawing a large crowd so we decided to go see what it was. Once we are able to get a look inside there were just 4 or 5 white tailed deer grazing on some grass. We got a good laugh because back home these things are common to the point of nuisance. I don’t speak Spanish but I then started to notice several children pointing and mentioning “Bambi” to their parents and all the commotion made sense
Australian white ibises. They’re kinda like the Australian equivalent to a raccoon in the US; they eat rubbish and their roosts stink because they tend to congregate in a single tree and then shit everywhere. But they are quite unique looking birds: long beaks, black heads and white plumage. So the tourists find them quite interesting and the locals call them bin chickens.
I was one of the fascinated tourists taking a million pictures of bin chickens. But, I was at least aware of it… because I remember at the time joking with my wife that the locals were laughing at us basically taking pictures of pigeons/seagulls.
There’s three different species of Ibises in India:
- Red-naped Ibis
- Black-headed Ibis
- Glossy Ibis
But we don’t see them as garbage birds - they’re quite rare in cities, and you can only see them in towns, villages and forests.
Black squirrels. They aren’t very many if any at all in the south and when family/friends come to visit it blows their mind seeing them.
In DC, the only black squirrels we saw were around the Saudi embassy and we joked about them being robotic spies.
Chipmunks. I once went to a zoo in Chicago with someone who grew up in South Africa and he was more fascinated with the chipmunks running along the paths than with anything else at the zoo.
It’s not a weird animal but cats. Stray cats are literally everywhere and aren’t afraid of people so many will stop to pet them. And on the other hand, when visiting other countries, the lack of street cats does strike me a bit weird.
I’ve seen puppies literally thrown into a bin. Y’all got issues with your pet/animal divides
I don’t know what happens with dogs (there aren’t that many strays) but most street cats were never pets, they’ve always been free. There is an effort to reduce them that’s definitely failing.
Stray is so mean. I like to call them free cats.
Feline Vagabonds
Greece? Turkey?
Tenerife too
Greece but pretty sure it applies for Turkey too
i will pet every cat
Urban foxes
Haggis
Surprised it’s not Nessie
Capybaras are pretty common in the area where I live, and really throughout most of Brazil. Don’t get me wrong, we still think they’re pretty cute, but I’ve seen some Americans get really excited about them.
Oh, and the maned wolf. To be fair, I think they’re pretty neat too.
Are capybaras as chill as their reputation suggests, or is that more a feature of cases that are used to captivity? If the memes/images/videos are to be believed, I’d expect to be able to just wander up to one in the wild and have it respond like a well-socialized pet dog.
I’ve only ever heard of one incident with a capybara, when it killed my SO’s therapist’s dog, but it was supposedly protecting it’s cubs, so I would say as chill as a mammal can be
I’ve hung out with capybaras and can fully verify that they’re chill as fuck. They’re more skittish than a quokka, but as long as you’re chill, the capybara is!
Quokkas win as far as cutest and chillest animals to bless this planet. Quokkas should be everyone’s spirit animal.
I would be SO EXCITED to see a wild capybara.
That maned wolf is really cool! I thought they were extinct but I must have them mixed up with some other canine creature. Something with stripes?
It looks like a long-legged megafox.
You’re probably thinking of the thylacine
Nothing really. I guess insect enthusiasts will have one or two to find only here in Germany?
We’re relatively small and surrounded by other countries, I would be surprised if any species stays within this border.
When I moved to USA it blew my mind that there’s no hedgehogs here naturally, I was so used to having them around I kinda thought they’re everywhere. I miss them. Hedgehogs are cool.
Wait wait, are you telling me the US (the Americas?) don’t have hedgehogs??
God damn Canada Geese.
Also, I’ve seen tourists fascinated by seagulls in Vancouver which surprised me because I thought they were everywhere.
I love Canada geese! A family used to nest every year near where i grew up, and during breeding season traffic would halt multiple times a day while the whole family of goslings crossed the road. When in a rush in the spring, everyone knew not to take that road.
I think they are the bane of golfers and sports areas, but if that’s not a concern they are huge, beautiful birds.
I saw a Canadian Goose exhibit at the Prague zoo and almost died laughing.
