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.
Raccoons are a national treasure and should be recognized as such.
Trash panda > regular panda
Fight me, China
I generally agree, but I’d like to extend it to
red panda > trash panda > regular panda
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.
They look like the wading birds I liked seeing so much in Spanish rice paddies.
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.
Right, I’ve heard recently in a podcast about Sonic that hedgehogs are seen as exotic animals in the US.
You don’t see them very often here either because they are mostly active in the dark, so I’m also happy to see one every time. And so is my dog.
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.
