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.
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 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.
Fun fact. When in danger, Quokka parents drop their little quokka babies from their pouch as a distraction so the parents can get away.
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
Ah, thank you! Yes, the Tasmanian wolf.
Fingers crossed that it isn’t actually extinct. Unconfirmed sightings have been going up recently. My head canon is that a government agency is covering it up so they can bounce back without tourist destroying the ecosystem just to see “the last one”.
It is a fox with some long long legs! Neat!
A fox horse! A forse!
I went to the Buenos Aires zoo and Iguaçu and that capybaras can just roam freely in the zoo is amazing. And in Iguaçu (or Iguazu), coatis were fun. They’re devious.
I lived in the northeast for a few years in and around college and I was amazed by chipmunks. I had never seen one and was like, “Holy shit, a chipmunk!”
I’ve been to the Galapagos, Australia, multiple African countries and nothing shocked me like seeing a chipmunk for the first time. Nature shows let you know exotic animals exist but there’s no nature show that’s just like, “Check out this [chipmunk, hedgehog, etc.].”
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.”
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.
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
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).
At my house, one figured out how to use my doggy door and kept raiding my kitchen trashcan at night.
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
Same at Denver, they are albino though.
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.
Back when I worked at Disney, a subset of the Asian guests would get excited and take pictures of squirrels. Are there parts of Asia that don’t have many squirrels?
Squirrels are not native in most of Asia.
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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.
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It looks like our White Ibis and Wood Storks were crossed.
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.
Greece? Turkey?
Greece but pretty sure it applies for Turkey too
Tenerife too
i will pet every cat
Stray is so mean. I like to call them free cats.
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.
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.
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.
Here in Florida it is alligators, certainly. We also have remarkable birds, but it’s alligators.
Can confirm, been to Florida several times and I liked seeing the alligators.
I’m older now and appreciate birds more so perhaps I should come back.
I’m older now and appreciate birds
This is 100% how it goes.
Really? It’s a thing?
I want to make friends with some crows really badly.
I absolutely love crows too. They are just so clever and OMG so metal, I once saw two crows bashing a baby bird on the sidewalk then sharing it for a meal. They are certainly not gentle birds but are so smart and so interesting.
Yeah truly fascinating. I’ve been waiting until my routine is a bit more dialled in so I can find a spot to go at the same time everyday and see about making some friends.
Yup, it’s a thing, and I too yearn for crowbros! 🐦⬛🖤
God damn Canada Geese.
Also, I’ve seen tourists fascinated by seagulls in Vancouver which surprised me because I thought they were everywhere.
I saw a Canadian Goose exhibit at the Prague zoo and almost died laughing.
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.
They breed multiple times a year and are protected. They take over city parks and make them big piles of goose shit. They get angry and aggressive at people who walk by, making them even more of a nuisance in said parks.
But yeah, I appreciate them as a living being.
Raccoons are a national treasure and should be recognized as such.
Trash panda > regular panda
Fight me, China
China has issued a very strong protest
Are they charging my family for the bullet?
Them and opossums. They’re our special scavengers
I prefer skunks. Cute, practically harmless, and watching people absolutely flip out when they get spooked by one is a favorite past-time of mine.
I do love our opossums but they are technically an invasive species in a lot of their current range. But they coexist so well with people that it’s hard to mind.
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.
Plenty of goth squirrels in parts of the Bay Area, California too.
In mid to southern Wisconsin it’s your average brown squirrel…but head to the north woods and black squirrels everywhere. I agree with ur family/friends…they’re doubly cute!
We did a Mexican vacation several years ago and everyone in our tour group would surround and excitedly take pictures of iguanas. The local tour guides would laugh and talk about how that always happens and how they were like squirrels to them.
Florida man. 🇺🇸
I’m from the US and I still get excited when I see raccoons. I love those lil guys.
I read this in Linda Belcher’s voice.
I’m like that with turkeys. They are hilarious weirdos.
TURKEYS CAN FLY AND CAN LEAP INTO TREES AND I DID NOT KNOW THAT UNTIL LIVING NEAR A GROUP OF WILD TURKEYS
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
