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.
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.