What non-native animal would you really really really like to introduce into your local habitat ?
2y 6mon ago by reddthat.com/u/MonsiuerPatEBrown in asklemmy@lemmy.ml
Environment be damned or don't be damned. Because you like them or because you don't like your neighbors ... what animals would you like to see locally that are not there ?
polar bears. it's the only animal that likes to eat people. daily life is just too safe and dull.
Can confirm ... and once they know what a human is, that it is tasty, that it is weak, that it is vulnerable without weapons .. it will chase after people like a dog chasing squirrels.
Or you know, babies
It wouldn't really have to chase the babies.
If they could cut down on the deer population, too, that would be nice.
Without taking into account the environmental impact and viability: Sicilian dwarf elephants. Come on, 1m short elephants, hairier (i.e. fluffier) than their African and Asian counterparts? I want it!
Bonus points: capybaras are native where I live, and a common occurrence in parks. Now imagine those small elephants, plus some capybaras: chilling under the grey sky, taking a bath in the lake in warmer days, gathering together in colder days... come on, it's cuteness overload!
I don’t understand why everything and everyone in the Mediterranean area (read: south Italy) is so hairy lol
In the case of those dwarf elephants it's because they were smaller, so they got a bigger surface area per weight, and lost heat faster. Perhaps also because, while Sicily is hot in comparison with continental Europe, it's still colder than Southeast Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa.
[I know that you're joking, sorry for the serious answer.]
I would love to have a pet capybara, so a local source of wild capybaras would be cool. Also some orangutans. I'm in Utah, so it should probably be fine.
search up CBT (capybara therapy).
If we are going with de-extinction, then the Haast Eagle. NZ is really far too safe, we need a genuine predator to keep us on our toes.
Squirrels.
Grew up in Chicago, currently in Phoenix. I miss squirrels.
All the lizards are pretty cool though. They're like desert squirrels.
We've got ringtails, will that do?
Oh hell yes they will!
Capybaras! They are so chill
Guinea Bigs
Fireflies. I could sit on a porch watching fireflies every night of my life
They're dying everywhere due to climate change and overuse of pesticides.
Sorry, my dude... :(
And we seem to like destroying their breeding grounds. I'm leaving some brush piles in place and starting to see few more of them
Meanwhile, people in my town seem to think that climate change is a librul hoax, when you can clearly track things if you've lived in town for 50 years.
Like, armadillos. They didn't used to live here, because it got too cold. Now they do. Just six years ago I spotted the first (dead) one on an interstate that's about 1500' below where I live. This year I saw several that were about 500' below where I live. That's solid proof that their range is expanding, and in only six years.
Monarch butterflies are also dying off; the habitats for milkweed are shrinking.
It's a lot of little things, and no one seems to remember them, because it's feels so slow in terms of human perception, but so, so fast in terms of evolutionary epochs.
You'll not believe your eyes
6 to 8 fireflies?
That's a believable number, go for something higher, like in millions, I would even say 10 million
Brontosaurus
Zebras seem cool. I don't think Texas has any zebras. They can hang out with the horses...? (Idk if they actually get along.)
And giraffes! I want a giraffe to come hang out in my yard and eat some tall leaves.
Zebras are evil though
Hey now, it can't be that black and white
I've driven past Zebras and Giraffes (and more) in Africa and it's absolutely beautiful watching those creatures chilling just doing what they do.
In Minnesota... bison. Because it was their native habitat before we killed them all, and because watching jackasses in cars trying to negotiate with 1500lb bison everywhere would be hilarious.
Agreed, also I don't think there's enough here to fuck around and find out with. The scariest animal I've had to deal with up here is my neighbors always angry papillon getting loose. There's a thrill about seeing an enormous reptile staring lazily at you from an apartment retention pond, I bet bison would be fun too.
None. We're still dealing with many other instances of people thinking it's a good idea...
OP specified that it's hypothetical and you can choose to ignore the consequences if you choose.
Fellow Aussie?
Hi!
I used to think "bloody poms with their rabbits and foxes", but now I'm mostly angry at cats, bloody cats...
Keep your cats inside people, billions of wild animals are killed by cats every year in Australia, billions!
Leopards. There's some faces that need eating here.
I just moved from a place with raccoons to somewhere without them and I miss them. So raccoons. They're funny as fuck.
Giant ground sloths
There's a cool beaver damn down the road from my camp in NW Florida. I'm seeing some maps that disagree, but that land in considered subtropical on all of them.
Beavers are absolutely insane. Nature's engineers.
capybara
Kangaroo. I'm sure they'd thrive and be a pain in the ass but they look cool.
Monkeys. Several species, but specifically pygmy marmosets. What I really want is Borrowers, but since the scientific community refuses to focus research on the actually important things, it feels unlikely in my lifetime. So pygmy marmosets. I want to walk onto my porch, and a troop of teeny little monkeys is chilling out there, living their best lives.
Needless to say, raccoons (in Southern Europe).
Hedgehogs. They're hilarious
"Why would you keep those dreadful things?" - my wife's Irish grandmother when we told her we have a hedgehog. Apparently they're a big pest for gardeners.
I also immediately thought of hedgehogs.
We don't have enough apes in northern europe
. . . enough species of apes.
There's way more than enough individual apes - at least in my shitty parrt of N. Europe.
Here in RI, I will take some of those Japanese Snow Monkeys, and a bunch of Tanuki as well.
Pangolins! I'm not sure how well they'd survive in Texas, but if they find fire ants tasty, they might be able to make a dent in the population (they're invasive themselves). Also, being present on another continent might help ensure their survival, especially the species currently critically endangered.
Edit: if they don't have to be extant, then troodontids! They were supposedly smart little raptors. I bet they'd make great pets c:
How many you want? I'll box some up.
Koalas. Or maybe sloths. I’d love to see either climbing the trees when I go to the park.
Drop bears though
Am from tropical zone so stumble upon capybara will be nice. Though we already have tapir and that creature is rare as heck.
Gimme da Red Panda
Tyrannosaurus rex
Easy, I'm on vacation around the New Jersey area. Release the Candiru fish. Use your fucking turn signals ass hats.
Somehow we can get the red panda to replace the raccoon. This is my wish.
Cassowary. Giant dinosaur bird that will lunge at you get first with razor sharp talons. But looks cool and prehistoric. One of the few creatures that terrify zoo keepers as they are smart enough to be evil but not smart enough to be tamed
Chameleon
They've been there since 2013, haven't you noticed?
Is that why i keep feeling my chair is staring at me?
Honestly foxes. They are so fun to photograph and there are none on Vancouver Island.
I have a mating pair of foxes that live right next to my house in a small unmaintained area. I spot them pretty regularly in the early morning and it's kind of a fun treat. They nab a lot of bunnies from my yard.
Some stupid bastard did that on Tasmania (also an island, somewhat bigger) and they have been a whole world of trouble.
Kukaburra, what a great call. Second only to the haunting loon call.
They're not anywhere near my favorite animal, but if dolphins could survive in freshwater, it would be interesting to hear about all the interactions people have with them near me considering people have re-learned they have a language, even if it's more like 50,000-BCE-human-levels of communication. If any were integrated, I wouldn't mind going the extra mile to treat them as anyone else and anticipate them showing up.
if dolphins could survive on freshwater
Well, you're in luck cause these guys already exist
Yeah but I mean bottlenose ones. They're the ones which are being studied, the other species are to bottlenose dolphins what other apes are to humans. If you put a bottlenose dolphin in freshwater, they get all wrinkly before dying due to saltwater having the chemical properties they need.
Polar bears. It would be hilarious.
Tarantulas. We don't have any.
Pretending that they’d have a good life here: koalas and elephants.
Platypus would be cool, or African land snails
Giant land snails!! They're soooo sooooo cuttteeee, but also unfortunately sooo destructive here.
Or how about it would be really annoying to annoying people. Like if zombies were pretty rare but also didn't bite you or kill you but followed you around in a constant light slap fight and stole from you like a sock from each pair or put holes in your donut holes or threw rocks at your house in the middle of the night but was totally invisible to police.
I would not want it murdering the slightly less intelligent than me without knowing that sliding frame of reference of what "less intelligent" could mean would eventually subsume me as a matter of fact.
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Nah, I don't want them annoyed. I want them gone. It wouldn't be a sliding frame of reference either. It would just be "animal that is smarter than people who are so stupid they become a problem for everyone else around them"
What a weird thread to bring eugenics into.
This. Or a predator that cant smell vegans lol
Hedgehogs or stoats. They're delightful little critters in their own ways I love them both
red pandas.
also pandas.
samoyeds too.
cockatiels, elephant seals, blue whales and giant squids aren't bad either.
I need sloths, hummingbirds, monarch butterflies, raccoons and orang utans in my life, please.
You do not want raccoons in your life. They are horrible criminal psychopaths that will bite you.
If not friend then why friend-shaped?
So you're saying they're more suited for political ambitions?
Hedgehogs. Damn cute and eat slugs and snails.
Nutrias. Oh wait, they're already here!
Humans! ..... oh no wait ... we already did that one
They wished for that hundreds of thousands of years ago, so be careful what you wish for
Velociraptors