In your country, what "common" animals are tourists most excited to see?

Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 267 points –

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.

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Definitely kangaroos. But they have bad luck as I live in Austria and not Australia.

Austria!? Well then, G’day mate! Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYZ6_n7Mpb0

Haha, never watched the movie but I might have to now. But she rounds rather Slavic. Here my favorite example of Austrian English!

I was so amazed at how common they were. I spent a year in Australia and probably saw more kangaroos day by day than I see all wild animals combined day by day here in the UK (excluding birds).

Hell I grew up in North Wales and may have seen as many kangaroos day by day as I saw sheep here, and that's saying something.

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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

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.

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.].”

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.

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.

You're probably thinking of the thylacine

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".

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?"

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.

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.

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.

Which kind? We've got bunches. The sulphur crested are the most famous, and they are great but can be vandals

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.

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.

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

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

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

I mean, I grew up in the US by several sheep farms and I would take pics of the critters constantly because they're cute.

I spent two months or so travelling around the north and south islands and barely saw any sheep! Far more cows strangely. I didn't feel like I had missed anything and wasn't actively looking gor them, but it was surprising!

San Diego zoo has a racoon exhibit. I thought that was weird.

they probably fell into an empty enclosure one day and the zookeepers just rolled with it and put up a sign

Huh really? I have tons of trash pandas around me (central Ohio).

At my house, one figured out how to use my doggy door and kept raiding my kitchen trashcan at night.

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

The one which lives in my attic just moved out for the summer

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'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.

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?

Japan doesn't generally have squirrels like in the US. I took my wife to DC and we spent a solid 10+ minutes taking photos and videos of squirrels around the mall.

i’m from australia and i’m always excited to see squirrels… they don’t exist here at all

I have some friends in Australia and I always send them pictures of squirrels when I see them. Got TONS where I live.

I felt the opposite when we visited Brazil, they had these little monkeys everywhere like squirrels here but they didn't know what a squirrel was haha, basically they had squirrels with monkey faces instead

Squirrels are not native in most of Asia.

In South Asia, we have lots of different giant squirrel species. Maybe they're not that common in East Asia?

We have squirrels in my country but I've never seen one in person to be frank. If you've lived in a heavily populated area your entire life then it's not uncommon you'd be surprised to see common wildlife out and about

Squirrels are extremely common in (most of?) the US, even in cities. There's an albino one that lives in my neighborhood, that one was interesting enough to stop and take a picture of.

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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.

I was one of the fascinated tourists taking a million pictures of bin chickens. But, I was at least aware of it... because I remember at the time joking with my wife that the locals were laughing at us basically taking pictures of pigeons/seagulls.

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.

They look like the wading birds I liked seeing so much in Spanish rice paddies.

I'm not surprised, I'm pretty sure they're wetland birds too.

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.

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

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.

I've seen puppies literally thrown into a bin. Y'all got issues with your pet/animal divides

I don't know what happens with dogs (there aren't that many strays) but most street cats were never pets, they've always been free. There is an effort to reduce them that's definitely failing.

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.

Here in Australia, it's drop bears and hoop snakes. People always want to see them... until it's too late.

A drop bear got my auntie. All they found was her eskie... empty.

Typical. Those drop bears have no respect at all for a person's eskie.

Thieves and murderers the lot of em. Just like my great great granddad before he was shipped here.

Some say that the drop bears are the true descendants of the first British convicts sent to Australia

Damnit. I googled it. Im from the US. Closest we have to drop bears here are snipes. I've been on a few snipe hunts myself.

I’m American and I always get a chuckle from the adoration that people have over raccoons as well. I guess they’re cute but they’re also a menace, there’s a reason we call them “trash pandas”.

But I also went to Spain several years back and saw my first hedgehog. And it was even in a hedge! I took probably two dozen photos and the locals thought I was crazy. So I get it.

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

Can confirm. The rosellas were delightful. The Ibis were pretty awesome as well -such a trashy looking bird. Ours at least hides its shame (kiwi).

I have a mate who lives in midwestern us and they utterly lose their shit over the fact we just casually have all these parrots everywhere like nbd.

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

China has issued a very strong protest

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"

Are they charging my family for the bullet?

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 do love our opossums but they are technically an invasive species in a lot of their current range. But they coexist so well with people that it's hard to mind.

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

Bears ☠️

They actually get dangerously close to them, to pet them and take photos of them and feed them, then these tourists wonder why are they being attacked...

Pet them? wtf?

I saw a comment on here I think which said that a big problem in parks which have bears is that it's really difficult to design a rubbish bin which is simultaneously too difficult for the smartest bear to open but also easy enough for the dumbest human. These types of anecdotes make me believe that more and more.

Not gonna lie, I'd try if he'd let me get close enough, yeah, probably rabid, but maybe not.

Are you serious? Why do you care if he's rabid if you'll be dead?
When I was a teenager, I was walking past a bear cub (it was the middle of the city and some asshole took money for pictures with a "trained" bear cub). The cub didn't like me for some reason I had a textile bag in my hand, with a leather-cover notepad in it, like a knock-off moleskin. The cub slashed the bag and his fangs cut through the bag and half of the notepad like butter. If it was my hip, he'd scratch my bones.
Now there are adult bears...

Oh shit, my bad.

I thought this was the thread about raccoons.

My original comment probably seems less insane now. I wouldn't need to pet the bear, my grandpa had a rug, I know what they feel like. Not snuggly at all.

Here in Florida it is alligators, certainly. We also have remarkable birds, but it's alligators.

Can confirm, been to Florida several times and I liked seeing the alligators.

I’m older now and appreciate birds more so perhaps I should come back.

I’m older now and appreciate birds

This is 100% how it goes.

Really? It’s a thing?

I want to make friends with some crows really badly.

I absolutely love crows too. They are just so clever and OMG so metal, I once saw two crows bashing a baby bird on the sidewalk then sharing it for a meal. They are certainly not gentle birds but are so smart and so interesting.

Yeah truly fascinating. I’ve been waiting until my routine is a bit more dialled in so I can find a spot to go at the same time everyday and see about making some friends.

eh, you just have to bait and traIn em like every other animal.

just be careful about bird law

Bait? As in give them treats and stuff? I don’t want to kidnap one, but I’d like to keep going to the same area at the same time to maybe get a routine.

Then I wonder what happens if I don’t make it one day. Will they still come back.

I went on an alligator boat in Florida and they were cool sure but the Anhingas hunting and catching fish were cooler, I didn't even know you had those!

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.

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.

Plenty of goth squirrels in parts of the Bay Area, California too.

I saw them in New York! Brilliant!

In mid to southern Wisconsin it’s your average brown squirrel…but head to the north woods and black squirrels everywhere. I agree with ur family/friends…they’re doubly cute!

God damn Canada Geese.

Also, I've seen tourists fascinated by seagulls in Vancouver which surprised me because I thought they were everywhere.

I saw a Canadian Goose exhibit at the Prague zoo and almost died laughing.

I hate Canada Geese. I once stayed in a hotel in Manchester where they would squawk all through the night right outside the window.

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.

They breed multiple times a year and are protected. They take over city parks and make them big piles of goose shit. They get angry and aggressive at people who walk by, making them even more of a nuisance in said parks.

But yeah, I appreciate them as a living being.

Cows and monkeys in India

The word "monkey" does not do justice to the diversity of primate species. What are commonly referred to as monkeys are actually macaques. With that being said, India is also popular for langurs, lutungs, lorises and gibbons.

As far as bovine species are considered, people often forget gaurs. They're quite jacked.

You're absolutely right. In India the most common species of monkey is actually the ones we see on our news asking us to vote for them.

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

We did a Mexican vacation several years ago and everyone in our tour group would surround and excitedly take pictures of iguanas. The local tour guides would laugh and talk about how that always happens and how they were like squirrels to them.

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.

I'm from the US and I still get excited when I see raccoons. I love those lil guys.

I’m like that with turkeys. They are hilarious weirdos.

They’re terrifying

Wild turkeys can be very aggressive.

Domestic turkeys can as well. I had to beat one of of my little brother cause it was bullying him. In our own front yard. My brother was very satisfied that Thanksgiving

Well that makes me nervous, but I'm thinking the ones by me are just used to people. They're on my landlords yard/in the driveway every day and thankfully they don't seem to care about me lol

Definitely cool to see as someone who spent most their life in a suburban/urban location.

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.

Desert southwest USA here. For us, it’s usually roadrunners, armadillos, and blue tail lizards. Although, the blue tails along with the horny toads are becoming a touch more rare it seems.

I was 8 years old when I moved to Texas. I've never been more disappointed than the first time I saw a roadrunner. My only frame of reference was Looney Tunes.

They are basically dinosaurs.

Prairie dogs along the front range of Colorado, deer in the Colorado mountains...

I live somewhere where they're common, lived here my whole life, but I still love to watch prairie dogs. They're cute and cool and interesting

Okay, so it isn't animals, but tourists in my parents' town get stoked when they see how big the Monongahela River actually is. They think a nearby creek is the river and we're like, "that's a creek. Drive up the road a bit to see the river."

The same tourists also lose their minds if they see a train filled with coal go by.

I'm from the US but lived in Japan for a while. They have squirrels, but they're not very common. They went nuts when they would see a squirrel. At least where I was (Tohoku).

They'll probably go even more nuts once they start seeing the Indian Giant Squirrel. They look like something out of a Studio Ghibli movie.

None! I live in Korea, and the local wildlife was long ago mostly displaced or eaten by the seething mass of humanity. Once upon a time, there were some cool bears and tigers even. There are some nice, big herons still around I suppose. Oh, some tiny deer, too.

People are excited to see raccoons. If you've ever had to make major repairs to your property, this makes no sense to you.

People somehow don't even think about hummingbirds. We get ruby throated hummingbirds through here, and they're fascinating. Never had a visitor even mention them.

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.

Yes same here. Black ones are becoming more common out here

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‽‽‽"

In the Pacific Northwest I’ve had visitors get really excited to see slugs.

Moose. We get European summer students and seeing one is the highlight of their animal watching when they're here, apparently.

Personally, I'm more impressed with elk, a bull elk with a full rack is pretty awesome.

Who doesn't like a full rack.

It's wild to me that there are wild macaws in northern South America. Granted I haven't seen them in person, but even videos of them look so weird, like a hundred people let their pets out on accident.

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.

Alligators. (I live in South Louisiana, which is a separate country for all intents and purposes.)

Southern Florida checking in. You're never too far from an alligator farm here.

I'm always amazed at tourists looking at gators at the zoo. Whatever zoo you're at there's probably a river or lake full of them within a couple miles.

I saw some tourists a while back who thought they were looking at a whole group of albino gators, but they were just covered in bird crap. I had to tell them.

Koalas

Are these common nowadays? Thought their environments got burned down.

Are you confessing to something

Just a lot of the koala habitats got destroyed by wildfires and they’re more endangered than ever now. So I’m surprised if they’re commonly seen.

There are the ones whose habitats were burned down/deforested. Then there are the ones with raging chlamydia infections. Then there are the ones that are overpopulating their habitat.

Swans. It's a wonder to me that such an arrogant bird ever became the national pride of Denmark. But tourists freak out about them, thanks to H.C. Andersen.

Armadillos

I live in the US but not where they’re common. I’d take note.

Just don't touch them. AFAIK They're one of few species in America that can give you leprosy.

(Though if, by chance, you do catch leprosy, it is in fact very easily treatable. It's the already-done damage from banging toes and touching fire and things, if you catch it late, that's harder to repair.)

Most USians probably expect to see monkeys and capybaras crossing the streets here in Brazil. There's a good chance to see the latter near most freshwater bodies, even in the capital, though monkeys will vary a lot more from place to place.

I had a relative visiting the US for the first time who was really excited to try turkey meat.

Peacocks. Where I live (central California) there is a local park that has a flock of wild peacocks. I had a friend visiting from Korea and he was so excited to see them.

When I first moved, I was happy to just see some robins.

I still get a giggle when I see them pretending to be the Amazon delivery crew.  

In UK people come from all over the world to see our royal family of great apes.

Monkeys in a very snowy forest. I remember feeding them nuts once.

They're called macaques.

I went camping with my cousin and a blue jay came by our campiste, 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

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 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.

Had an american who loved our robin redbreasts

Really? Where I’m from in the states there are robins fucking everywhere

American Robins are not the same as European Robins.

American Robins were named so because they vaguely reminded British settlers of their robins "from home".

I am aware of the two different species. I never noticed a stark difference between the tone of red/orange between the two.

robins

Here in the US, I find most of my EU friends want to see the American Texan in the wild. Weird fetish, but hey, you do you.

We dont have much in the way of animals but we have birds. The Tui is common in suburban gardens here, but they are beautiful and even as a local I still like seeing them. Pukekos are everywhere but for those from the UK/ Europe/ USA they're prett exotic. Down South, Wekas are absolutely everywhere outside the cities and will walk right into people's homes - I once experienced coitus interruptus when a Weka jumped up on the bed I was in with a guy.

When I was in South Africa I was super excited to see baboons, locally considered something of a nuisance. And in Queensland, Australia, the first time I saw an Australian white ibis, locally known as a bin chicken, the locals must have been very amused to see me chasing it with a camera getting photos

Pukekos are everywhere but for those from the UK/ Europe/ USA they’re prett exotic.

Canadian here and yeah, when we first saw them we got super excited to get close enough to one a good photo. A week later we realized they are everywhere and everyone hates them.

Same thing happened when I went to Alaska and saw my first bald eagle.

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.

my old hometown has swans. They're surprisingly aggressive.

Swans are just White Supremacist geese.

Chipmunks. I once went to a zoo in Chicago with someone who grew up in South Africa and he was more fascinated with the chipmunks running along the paths than with anything else at the zoo.

Here in Scotland tourists are always fascinated when we talk about the wild haggis running around.

When I went to Scotland I just wanted to see the Hairy Cows and the goddamn loch ness monster

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.

Wait wait, are you telling me the US (the Americas?) don't have hedgehogs??

Nope. There used to be some that went extinct millions of years before humans arrived.

There are porcupines though, but I haven't seen them in the wild yet.

That's so interesting! Changes my perspective on an animal that has always felt like a perfectly normal neighbour everywhere I've lived (though seeing them is still kind of a rare thing).

I second hedgehogs for Germany, they're so cute! Also, or squirrels are so different from the US kind, they're just unfortunately a lot shyer, too

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.

I loved seeing red squirrels when I was in Germany. Coming from the UK where they're super rare, it was really exciting to see them. Not exclusive to Germany I guess but I've seen them more frequently there than anywhere else.