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.
It’s not a native species, but in some German cities, you can see a lot of rose-ringed parakeets. They really stand out between the other local birds, so if you go to places like Cologne or Heidelberg, it’s quite likely to spot them, especially since they’re so loud. A few months ago, I moved to a city without parakeets and frankly, I miss them a lot.
Fuckers will scare the shit out of you when they fly 40cm above your head while you’re on a bike.
Just minding your own business and suddenly a giant screetching flock of green will fly above your head from behind
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.
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.
It looks like our White Ibis and Wood Storks were crossed.
Ah the Bin Chicken
I have never heard of this before, and now I wonder whether we shouldnt be encouraging more animals to consume our waste.
They look like the wading birds I liked seeing so much in Spanish rice paddies.
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.
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
See the thing is i’m not worldly enough to know what common animals in my country are uncommon in other countries. I mean there’s some mallards here and there, the ones with the green head just like the meme, are those exotic and surprising? Oh, my old hometown has swans. They’re surprisingly aggressive.
What i will say though is that i definitely feel that way about architecture. I quite like the winding medieval back alley leading to a church built in 980 (as in the year), it’s cool; but Americans will have a spiritual experience over it because no building in the US is that old.
my old hometown has swans. They’re surprisingly aggressive.
Swans are just White Supremacist geese.
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.
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.
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
🤔
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.
Most USians probably expect to see monkeys and capybaras crossing the streets here in Brazil. There’s a good chance to see the latter near most freshwater bodies, even in the capital, though monkeys will vary a lot more from place to place.
It’s all about the koalas and kangaroos but then they see a cockie or a rosella, hear a possum late at night and shit themselves
Can confirm. The rosellas were delightful. The Ibis were pretty awesome as well -such a trashy looking bird. Ours at least hides its shame (kiwi).
I have a mate who lives in midwestern us and they utterly lose their shit over the fact we just casually have all these parrots everywhere like nbd.
Shitting themselves over possums isn’t hyperbole for any non-Australians reading.
Possums at night sound like a demon crossed with a chainsaw.
I’ll answer the opposite way: in South America we have no crows, so it was by far the most fascinating animal I saw while in England.
That’s wild, I thought crows lived everywhere humans do.
In UK people come from all over the world to see our royal family of great apes.
Here in Australia, it’s drop bears and hoop snakes. People always want to see them… until it’s too late.
I’ve never heard of a hoop snake before, that’s awesome.
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.
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
People come from all ove rthe world to see them. I’ve seen crowds of tourists by the side of the road queueing to take selfies with them. Crazy. They are quite cute admittedly. Quite tame too so it’s generally safe to approach them.
I mean, an emo cow is just hilarious
