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.

  • Ragdoll X@lemmy.world
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    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.

    • randomsnark@lemmy.ml
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      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.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        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!

        • Philote@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          Quokkas win as far as cutest and chillest animals to bless this planet. Quokkas should be everyone’s spirit animal.

          • nnullzz@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Fun fact. When in danger, Quokka parents drop their little quokka babies from their pouch as a distraction so the parents can get away.

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        7 months ago

        I’ve only ever heard of one incident with a capybara, when it killed my SO’s therapist’s dog, but it was supposedly protecting it’s cubs, so I would say as chill as a mammal can be

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      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.

      • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        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.].”

        • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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          Seeing a chipmunk was the same for me. And goddamn are they cute, I had no idea they were so small and precious. Alvin and the chipmunks are monstrosities by comparison.

    • watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      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.

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          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”.

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        6 months ago

        Yep, I was going to say capybaras but also anacondas, although they are hard to spot, but I recall there’s one in Butantan Institute, in São Paulo city.

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      7 months ago

      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.”

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      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.

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    7 months ago

    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.

    • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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      7 months ago

      Seeing the flying foxes around Sydney surprised me.

      The bin chickens, I simultaneously felt a little sorry for, and enjoyed watching.

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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        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.

        • BruceLee@lemmy.ml
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          There is more and more budgies in big european cities. Some espace there cages, reproduced and live now among pigeons and sparrows. I was surprised to see they could live in region where the winter go bellow -5°C for weeks.

          Austrian lorrikeets and rosellas will still surprised and amazed me though.

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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          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?”

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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        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.

    • RBWells@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • tamal3@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Don’t forget the wild cockatoos! Those are a sight. (Source: my ex-step-sister lives in Melbourne.)

      • No1@aussie.zone
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        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.

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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        Which kind? We’ve got bunches. The sulphur crested are the most famous, and they are great but can be vandals

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      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.

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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        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.

    • hallettj@leminal.space
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      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.

    • waterbogan@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      First time I landed in Australia on the Gold Coast I followeed a bin chicken for 20 minutes with a camera trying to get the perfect picture like it was some rare exotic bird. I’m sure the locals were sremoveding or openly laughing behind my back, I dont blame them

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It never occurred to me y’all didn’t have squirrels or lightning bugs. Like it makes sense with squirrels, y’all got a dearth of placentals but dang

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    7 months ago

    I’ve seen a vanload of tourists happily taking pictures of sheep on more than one occasion. New Zealand.

    • randomsnark@lemmy.ml
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      they probably fell into an empty enclosure one day and the zookeepers just rolled with it and put up a sign

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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      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.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        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

    • Sir_Fridge@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      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.

  • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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    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?

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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.

    An Australian white ibis, a bird with white feathers, black head, long legs, and a long beak.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      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.

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    I’ve had kinda an inverse experience of this.

    I was on a vacation to Mexico with my family and we decided to visit a local zoo. For the most part it was pretty similar to what we have back home with lions and gorillas but there was one exhibit that was drawing a large crowd so we decided to go see what it was. Once we are able to get a look inside there were just 4 or 5 white tailed deer grazing on some grass. We got a good laugh because back home these things are common to the point of nuisance. I don’t speak Spanish but I then started to notice several children pointing and mentioning “Bambi” to their parents and all the commotion made sense

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    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.

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    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.