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.
Raccoons are a national treasure and should be recognized as such.
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’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.
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.
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.
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.
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
San Diego zoo has a racoon exhibit. I thought that was weird.
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.
I was excited to see squirrels, lightning bugs and a racoon in the US.
When people come to Australia they obviously want to see kangaroos, koalas and platypus and quokka. Koalas are very rare to see in the wild, and a visit to a zoo will score you a sleeping ball on a branch. Kangaroos are frequently roadkill if you go outside the city. Quokka require a long trip to a really remote location. You’ll also almost never see a platypus, even the ones at the zoo you might catch a water ripple at best.
But if you’re headed to Sydney city, guaranteed you’ll spot the almighty and much maligned “bin chicken”, our Australian white ibis. Often not quite white from the bins. At night they serenade you with their collective honking from their tree, which can be easily spotted by the masses of white poop underneath. And you’ll see fruit bats in the evening. Hopefully not the daytime corpses hanging from electrical cables while they slowly rot, but that’s not altogether unlikely either, unfortunately.
What about crocodiles? Alligators are in most reasonably large retention ponds in Florida. Most places just relocate them once they reach a certain size. They’re pretty common. Knew a guy in high school who had a side hustle of removing them from people’s swimming pools. They’re pretty weird if you’re not from a place used to them.
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
Shitting themselves over possums isn’t hyperbole for any non-Australians reading.
Possums at night sound like a demon crossed with a chainsaw.
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.
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.
