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.
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.
Here in the US, I find most of my EU friends want to see the American Texan in the wild. Weird fetish, but hey, you do you.
Had an american who loved our robin redbreasts
Really? Where I’m from in the states there are robins fucking everywhere
American Robins are not the same as European Robins.
American Robins were named so because they vaguely reminded British settlers of their robins “from home”.
I am aware of the two different species. I never noticed a stark difference between the tone of red/orange between the two.
robins
🤔
Swans. It’s a wonder to me that such an arrogant bird ever became the national pride of Denmark. But tourists freak out about them, thanks to H.C. Andersen.
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
Royalty 🇬🇧
common animals
Royalty
“And here on your left you will see a prime example of the common European prince. No longer afforded a natural habitat, the nation of Britain has built special reserves for these princelings and other royalty, called palaces. On certain days you can observe royals being transported in specially equipped vehicles from one palace to another to encourage mating.”
All humans (which afaik includes royals) are animals anyway.
My ex’s family were pissed when I didn’t take her to see Buckingham Palace. There is NOTHING there to see. They make it as boring a possible on purpose. It’s on a fucking roundabout for cry sake, you’d see more driving past.
Definitely kangaroos. But they have bad luck as I live in Austria and not Australia.
I was so amazed at how common they were. I spent a year in Australia and probably saw more kangaroos day by day than I see all wild animals combined day by day here in the UK (excluding birds).
Hell I grew up in North Wales and may have seen as many kangaroos day by day as I saw sheep here, and that’s saying something.
But the kangaroos run away when you try to sneak up behind them
Austria!? Well then, G’day mate! Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie
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Haha, never watched the movie but I might have to now. But she rounds rather Slavic. Here my favorite example of Austrian English!
Manm both Dumb and Dumber movies are great imo
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Kangaroos are the clear winner in my experience, but we’ve also got possums and various parrots (e.g. sulphur crested cockatoos). Wombats too but they’re less common to see.
Seeing a Wombat in the wild is a dream of mine.
Wait till you get chased by one
Happened to me three times. One in particular was like a little furry tank and did not mind tryingbto bowl us over to get back to his home.
Also koalas, red back spiders, blue ring octopus and great white shark.
Yeaay spiders, I’d really look forward to see the spiders!
Prairie dogs along the front range of Colorado, deer in the Colorado mountains…
I live somewhere where they’re common, lived here my whole life, but I still love to watch prairie dogs. They’re cute and cool and interesting
I had a relative visiting the US for the first time who was really excited to try turkey meat.
you mean try to meet a turkey?
for australia i think most people would assume kangaroos, and sure people are excited to see them but they’re not quite as common - youre probably only going to see them if it’s intentional
i think common AND excited is probably rosellas - they’re a bright red and blue/green parrot that are kinda eeeeeverywhere
If I was in Australia I’d be so excited to see wombats. Is also be scared of seeing spiders…
Still not seen a wombat outside of a sanctuary. They come out at night and leave square poos on the paths.
Honestly - even seeing one of their square poos would be quite a thing!
As a local I smile seeing lorikeets and kookaburras, but rosellas are very rare where I am and I have to do a double take
Where I am the lorikeets and rosellas are often together, like double dating
San Diego zoo has a racoon exhibit. I thought that was weird.
they probably fell into an empty enclosure one day and the zookeepers just rolled with it and put up a sign
Same at Denver, they are albino though.
The Audubon zoo in New Orleans has a raccoon exhibit and it’s got a rusted out jalopy for them to play in. And a mouse exhibit where their natural habitat is a spice cabinet. Also, we probably have the only zoo with recipes on the wall next to some exhibits. They’re a relic of a bygone era and I asked the zoologists about it and they were like, “I mean, most of us are vegetarians but we just think it’s funny so we leave them up.” And there’s a fake loup-garou around a corner where you can scare your kids.
In grand New Orleans tradition, it’s also one of the few zoos that sells drinks and sometimes has live music. But it’s still probably one of the top 5 zoos in America for actual science and conservation. I haven’t seen one better besides San Diego and I frequent zoos. So, no one act like the giraffes or gorillas are upset. They get fed better than humans in most of the world and the climate is right up their alley.
Huh really? I have tons of trash pandas around me (central Ohio).
The one which lives in my attic just moved out for the summer
Well yeah this (also central Ohio) is their native habitat. I seem to recall Columbus or Cincinnati zoo having a local wildlife section
Opossums are also everywhere and are probably wildly exotic to people who aren’t used to there just being one marsupial in their garbage can and no others on the continent
At my house, one figured out how to use my doggy door and kept raiding my kitchen trashcan at night.
I’m Dutch and a zoo near me has racoons too. But then again they’re an invasive species here so it’s not as weird.
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 not Japanese but have been living here most of a decade. As no one mentioned anything from that side yet, the Nara Deer are probably the most famous followed by the hotspring monkeys. Tanuki are also something people might want to see, off the top of my head.
My wife was super surprised by all the squirrels in the US and loved taking pictures and videos. She suddenly realized we kept seeing more of them as we walked and, yep, they’re everywhere.
She was also super surprised that people just had cattle and horses when we’d be driving where my US family lived (countryside).
Went to Japan a few months ago. Deer and monkeys, yep.
What blew me away is how it was done - literally living side by side with the animals. Walking next to a deer or being a foot away from the monkey gave me amazing respect for Japan.
Where in the states, we either keep them in cages or fenced off, or we treat them like a nuance and if they come too close, respond with hostility (including the American Deer).
That’s really not normal here. The deer in Nara have special protections and are super accustomed to humans. They actually were menacing the residents of the area when tourists dried up. The monkeys can be real dicks and aggressive in general. Farmers are always trying to run both off. It’s basically the same as the US except I can’t just kill dear that come on to my property and eat my crops.
my property
Vs
their ancestral grazing lands
If they want to pay my property taxes and feed me, then we can argue that. At the moment, it’s my land (~8000 sqm) on which I pay taxes and on which I grow my own food. However, it’s all a moot point because, at least as of now, I’ve not seen deer on my actual property; it was just meant to contrast how things work in two countries with which I am familiar.
The actual problem around here is wild boar which are not ancestrally doing anything in my neck of the woods but have migrated north due to human-caused climate change.
Okay, so it isn’t animals, but tourists in my parents’ town get stoked when they see how big the Monongahela River actually is. They think a nearby creek is the river and we’re like, “that’s a creek. Drive up the road a bit to see the river.”
The same tourists also lose their minds if they see a train filled with coal go by.
