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Not sure if this is interesting to anyone but, I grew up in Spain, in a relatively wild area near the coast, and then spent my remaining couple decades in Engla
by ionwake 5y ago
Not sure if this is interesting to anyone but, I grew up in Spain, in a relatively wild area near the coast, and then spent my remaining couple decades in England in different places.
When I went to Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs, I was completely flabbergasted to come across a tree which had been felled by a beaver.
Not because they exist, I know quite a bit about them, but perhaps specifically because there no signs, no souvenir items in the nearby park shop, no jokes, no real mention, of the fact the forests around atlanta were so diverse they had large mammals. It was just an after thought. Oh that tree? Yes a big beaver did that randomly no biggie.
I then drove to the swamps in Florida and saw the alligators. But I was expecting the wildlife - as its an attraction and known about.
Small things like seeing a flock of large birds on a telephone line, in the city of miami, yet a flock of such a size, with such large birds, is something I had not seen in my life in any city or place in Europe - and I doubt anyone walking passed would stop to notice it.
I really do think the bio diversity in the US is taken for granted! I know about the special parks and often spoken about animals and habitats, but its the small moments you realise just dont exist anywhere else that I am unsure the locals even realise.
Maybe I am wrong - just wanted to share, thanks.
- kingkawn 5y agoIt’s because Europe has hunted to extinction nearly every large mammal on the continent that america seems shocking by comparison.
- zeristor 5y agoA large part is down to the trade in beaver pelts Hudson Bay company, and the Russian expansion into Siberia was in large part down to obtaining more beaver pelts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_fur_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_fur_trade Beaver pelts have been referred to as ‘soft gold’.
- pfdietz 5y agoIt's very common for white-tailed deer to wander into ones backyard if one lives sufficiently far out in the suburbs. These animals can weigh as much as 135 kg (male) or 90 kg (female). I've had as many as five on them on my property at the same time (upstate NY). It's a function of lower population density, I think, as well as agriculture tending to have moved to the midwest and plains states. There's been a lot of regeneration of forests in the Eastern US since they were clearcut in the 19th century.
- beezle 5y agoThere are deer on Staten Island, not really the suburbs. Unfortunately the only real predators left to take down deer are hunters and cars. People (often hunters) even freak out if a dog chases one.
- lukas099 5y agoIn addition to taking out their predators, we have also fragmented ecosystems. Certain species like deer thrive in the boundaries between two different ecosystem types because they get different resources from both ecosystems. Humans do not only reduce forest size, but also change the geometry of forests: fragmentation makes the edges more pronounced (increases the perimeter:area ratio) This harms some animals like large solitary predators who require vast ranges, but helps other species like deer who prefer the edges.
- rdsnsca 5y agoThey freak out for a good reason. A pack of dogs will pull down a deer, eats it hind quarters and leave it to die. I had a relative who worked for the Department of Lands and Forest. When he was the FNG he would get called out every few weeks to kill them. After the third one he started carrying a rifle whenever in the woods and shot every unaccompanied dog he saw.
- csomar 5y agoRelevant: https://luminocity3d.org/WorldPopDen https://luminocity3d.org/WorldPopDen
- grosswait 5y agoThank you for sharing your perspective. It never occurred to me that seeing things like deer, foxes, bear, eagles etc would be a similar experience in rural Europe. I’ve never seen such things when I’ve been there, but I figured it was just my bad luck or bad timing. Makes me appreciate more my surroundings. Thanks!
- justincormack 5y agoDeer are fairly common. Foxes are easier to see in cities than the countryside in the uk. Bears are rare and live in remote places, same with eagles.
- Aicy 5y agoI live in London and saw a fox or two almost every evening.
- nkrisc 5y agoGrowing up in the middle of Chicago, it wasn't terribly uncommon to be walking down a major four lane road and see a coyote running down to the road to the nearby cemetery. Or the time I saw the fattest coyote I'd ever seen casually walk right past me on the sidewalk. Or the coyote in Quizno's (sub sandwich chain) incident: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-04-04-0704040747-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-04-04-070404... A coyote walks into the shop and cools off in a drink cooler.
- JadeNB 5y ago> Or the coyote in Quizno's (sub sandwich chain) incident: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-04-04-0704040747-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-04-04-070404... How can no-one have taken a picture, or, if they did, how can the Trib not have included it?
- nkrisc 5y agoI recall there is a picture, but I’m not completely sure. I’d have to search around. If you search “Lincoln park coyote” you might find it. If you search “Lincoln park pirates” you’ll find a wonderful song by Steve Goodman.
- nkrisc 5y agoFound it. If you scroll down you can see it with bottled drinks behind it: https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2010/12/08/131876027/60-wild-coyotes-patrol-chicago-and-occasionally-stop-at-convenience-stores https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2010/12/08/131876027/6...
- batch12 5y agoA coyote out during the day, alone, and not afraid of humans is something to stay away from for sure. Where I live there are few animals that have no restricted season to hunt and no limits. Coyotes are one of them.
- NordSteve 5y agoGIS map of coyote sightings in Bloomington MN: https://blmgtn-mn.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b040f098383d43ca82edccc5f007c1d0 https://blmgtn-mn.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.ht...
- arprocter 5y agoI had a similar experience moving from the UK to US - 'indoor cats' were an alien concept to me, but a friend explained they couldn't let theirs outside because 'they'd be eaten by coyotes' It was bonkers to me there were beavers and turtles in the lake down the street, not to mention big snakes and humming birds...and the first time you see a possum is kind of crazy When I was growing up the British garden centre nearby sold chipmunks as pets, which amuses Americans when I tell them Apparently they have wild raccoons in Germany
- Tijdreiziger 5y agoRecently, wolves returned to the Netherlands! It was front page news. Farmers haven’t been happy though, as the wolves kill their sheep. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47838162 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47838162
- mikepurvis 5y agoWhat is a "non-wild" raccoon? I'm pretty sure it's wild ones that chew through the bottom of my plastic trash can to lick meat juice off the styrofoam trays.
- pacaro 5y agoI think that the observation about raccoons in Germany is made because they aren't native to Europe. Probably the correct word is feral My mother (who lives in the UK) recently visited me (in the US). While walking we saw a bald eagle fishing. She was blown away. Here that's commonplace
- rmah 5y agoThere are 10 to 15 million beavers in N.America. In comparison, there are 400 beavers in the UK. There are 100's of thousands of bears roaming the US, 10's of thousands of mountain lions, millions of alligators, thousands of wolves, etc. etc.
- krick 5y agoI don't know about England or Spain, but in all of the Eastern Europe wild animals are pretty commonplace and it never occurred to me someone would think of them as some kind of attraction. It's hundreds of occasions that I've seen a beaver, or a fox, or a deer, a hedgehog, a hare, etc., even in cities. I've never personally seen a boar, but it happens for them to stumble into central areas of the city at night as well. So it sounds surprising to me (and kind of sad, honestly) that it's so desolated in Spain. Is there really absolutely no wildlife?
- justincormack 5y agoEastern Europe has a lot more forests and lower population density than much of the west, nearer the cities.
- smackeyacky 5y agoCome to Australia. We have a colony of bats in our backyard at the moment. A very noisy colony of bats that leave at dusk and return at 4 in the morning, squabbling. It was fun for the first month. Now we're hoping it will get too cold for them and they will move back to the coast for a while.
- cmrdporcupine 5y agoHere I am in Ontario wishing I could come up with the magic formula to get a colony of bats to set up shop in the woods near my vineyard, so they can dine on the japanese beetles that decimate it every year.
- smackeyacky 5y agoIf there was a way to train them, ship them and make them stay you would be welcome to ours.
- wmil 5y agoHave you tried setting up bat boxes? https://ontarionature.org/canadian-bat-box-project-blog/ https://ontarionature.org/canadian-bat-box-project-blog/
- bregma 5y agoWe used to have a colony of bats at our house (rural eastern Ontario) but the P. destructans infection ("white nose syndrome") has wiped them out completely in most of eastern North America. Like wolves, bats are now extinct in this region with all the entailing ecological changes.
- cmrdporcupine 5y agoHN needs a "sad" vote button :-(
- yurishimo 5y agoAustin Texas is home to a very large bat colony and watching them emerge from under a highway overpass is a common family activity during the summer. https://www.austintexas.org/things-to-do/outdoors/bat-watching/ https://www.austintexas.org/things-to-do/outdoors/bat-watchi...
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoHere in Iowa we have mountain lions - maybe 100 in the whole state, but they're here. Very secretive, and a sighting is rare. I have dozens of deer living on my property. Badgers, skunk, chipmunks. Eagle fly by regularly. Flocks of crows in the thousands will occasionally park in my orchard, then move on.