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
Alligators…not sure if that’s considered “common” or not. We don’t see them on a regular basis depending on your activities. If you fish/kayak on a lot, you’ll see them. If you don’t, you generally won’t unless there’s a drought. Then they’ll be in intersections or in your parking lot at work looking for water.
They’re fairly common in Central Florida. Many large retention ponds have them and they just get relocated once they reach a certain size. It was still fun to be standing on a friend’s apartment balcony and spot an alligator laying next to the retention pond.
Relevant username!
Guaras, or Guacamayas, I suppose. Think they’re called Macaws in english. They’re neat, pretty feathers and all. Shame they’re hardly ever visible outside of a zoo, unless you’re in the right spot at the right time and you’re really paying attention.
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.
Plenty of goth squirrels in parts of the Bay Area, California too.
When we first moved to Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads, VA, my mom almost wrecked the car when she saw a group of black squirrels. We’re not sure why it’s so fun to see them, they’re just squirrels that are black, but it’s always a treat.
In DC, the only black squirrels we saw were around the Saudi embassy and we joked about them being robotic spies.
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.
Also koalas, red back spiders, blue ring octopus and great white shark.
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.
I went camping with my cousin and a blue jay came by our campiste and him and his wife are bird watchers and were amazed by it, I was amazed they didn’t have any where they live even though it’s only a few hours from the campsite
Reindeer, the four-legged derp zombies of the animal world.
I was fucking thinking if we have any, but yeah, driving in the North and having basically stoner deer on the roads is not something all countries have.
People everywhere ive been go apeshit over a squirrel.
I live in an area with grey/brown squirrels. When I went to Ohio for the first time, I was far more excited about seeing a black squirrel than I should have been.
Yesh same here. Black ones are becoming more common out here
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.
If you want to see a croc, just go walking near the shallow water of the top half of the country’s coast. You won’t see the croc for long, and it will be the last thing you ever see, but it will be up close and very personal.
Seriously though, you don’t go to see salt water crocodiles in the wild or even go near any body of water on the northern coast. If you can see one with the naked eye in the wild, you’re already too close. They’re extremely fast, extremely aggressive, and the males get up to 6m / 20ft long and 1000kg / 2200lb. They are very much a zoo only thing.
I had to check with my Australian colleagues because I couldn’t believe ibis were called bin chickens. They are silent, beautiful here, land on the lawn like angels, peck around awhile then take off in a beautiful cloud of white wings. I thought it was a joke! But they confirmed. Apparently you’ve developed a subspecies.
Sorry about you not seeing the lightning bug.
Insects are dying out a bit.
Oh no, i got to see them. This was a decade ago, and I was told even then that there used to be many more. I was happy to see any at all though, I had only ever seen them in movies and they almost seemed mythical. They are pretty magical, it’s very sad to hear they’re almost gone.
Good to know! I’ll put the Ibis and fruit bat on my Australia bucket list, along with a Huntsman. Although the latter are so widespread that I’ve probably already seen some living in America. But I’m guessing the Australian Huntsmen are a bit different from the North American ones.
How can you speak of the bin chicken and not link to the song?
Don’t forget the wild cockatoos! Those are a sight. (Source: my ex-step-sister lives in Melbourne.)
Yellow crested cockatoos, galahs etc can be terrorists to trees and shrubs. You can be walking along and on the ground see piles of leaves and little branches and fruit with one bite out of them.
The cockies have very sharp beaks and will just chomp through anything. This includes aerials, cables or anything else they think looks like fun. Sometimes they will even party in your room
Do NOT put your finger near one.
Seeing the flying foxes around Sydney surprised me.
The bin chickens, I simultaneously felt a little sorry for, and enjoyed watching.
The bin chickens are my kin, I’m in the small minority here who appreciate them.
And yeah, the flying foxes are a surprise for most foreigners. They’re also pretty big and often fly low at dusk, so they can be slightly startling too, even though they’re just adorable fuzzy harmless nectar drinkers. It’s a pity they screech too, it might be easier to reassure non-locals that they’re not dangerous.
People are also often surprised to see all the other Sydney city wildlife and how much of it there is, especially rainbow lorrikeets. Everyone loves the lorrikeets, but people from the northern hemisphere are especially awestruck when they see them. It’s understandably almost a little surreal to have such brightly colored parrots hanging out in the middle of a city, if you’re someone who comes from a city that is just pigeons and sparrows.
Pigeons are pretty dope though. They waddle around like they are part of the landscape, and it’s like “bro you can fly why are you walking?”
deleted by creator
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?
But it was supressed with tan-
“Individual found dead in his house after typing a comment on a social media. Allegedly he tried to kill himself with 2 shotgun rounds to the head”
I generally agree, but I’d like to extend it to
red panda > trash panda > regular panda
I can agree to that
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.
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
Not a tourist, but a girlfriend that grew up in Long Beach, and moved to the East Coast, stopped me dead on the street one day, and asked, “what in the world is THAT‽‽‽” I looked where she was looking and, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, said, “what is what?”
“The furry thing with the tail!”
“You mean the squirrel?”
“That’s what they look like in real life‽‽‽”
Monkeys in a very snowy forest. I remember feeding them nuts once.
They’re called macaques.
“Do you wanna see a macaque?”
- “I hope you’re not Italian!?!!!”
Royalty 🇬🇧
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.
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.
Black bears of Surrey. (UK).
