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In your country, what "common" animals are tourists most excited to see? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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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[–] RozhkiNozhki@lemmy.world 14 points 6 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Bonifratz@lemm.ee 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] RozhkiNozhki@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Surprisingly, porcupines and hedgehogs are not closely related

[–] Bonifratz@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago

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).

[–] cinnamonTea@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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

[–] SecretPancake@feddit.de 4 points 6 months ago

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.