1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
I've only been abroad one time, and there were little gecko/lizard things everywhere, climbing up walls and scurrying across roads, and nobody cared. I was constantly fascinated but to the locals they're just kinda there.
Bonus question to anyone who visited the UK - was there anything that fascinated you but I'd be taking for granted?
Pic unrelated.
When I visited the US I was excited to see squirrels running around. We don't have squirrels where I'm from. We took pictures.
It must have looked like we were excited to witness a cloud in the sky.
I saw my first chipmunk last week and I totally screamed oh shit there's Alvin! in my heart.
Don't let your inner child die!
I still remember my first chipmunk encounter. I heard the little guys before I saw them and wondered “who the f is out here playing laser tag in the woods? ”
I was a bit excited that the US squirrels are gray and large, we have smaller red ones in Germany.
If you really want to see huge squirrels check out a US college campus. They're so fat!
Noted
A squirrel in a public park near me climbed up on me to get to the peanuts I was holding, no fear. It was also absurdly obese.
Hey, just like many of our people! Yay, America!
Those poor lil things... I feel sad for them. :(
I got a squirrel took my apple away from my hand!
Jesus how strong was that squirrel
Fake news! That user "CatDogL0ver" is just is a dog and a cat using a keyboard. They're just trying to discredit squirrels.
Had the same experience in Ann Arbor, MI. The next day I learned they have a squirrel feeding club and a kid walked around in the morning with granola bars throwing them out to a circle of 20 chubby squirrels
We have grey squirrels in the UK, although they're not native. They're responsible for the decline in native red squirrels, you rarely see them now unless you go to particular areas.
Not only UK. As far as I know the same problem is spreading around all of mainland Europe. US squirrels have a better immune system and a more varied diet, they are also more aggressive and territorial. They are slowly replacing indigenous red squirrels.
Dammit. :( Us humans are so talented at selfishly fucking over indigenous populations and animals in general. Ugh.
In this case, it was just randomness. Some grey squirrels got randomly transported with cargo between North America and Europe and they found a good spot. There was no human intent behind it… (does it make it better?)
We have different colored squirrels in some regions.
https://wildlifeinformer.com/types-of-squirrels/
You'll need and extra SD card next time you visit.
Ah, very cool. Maybe I'll visit again once the current presidency ends. If that's ever going to be the case.
and the german ones are really skittish too.
Those i saw on the canadian campus just lay next to the side walk, chilling. Fat and grey
I wonder where you visited! Grey squirrels are rare where I’m from in the US, 90% brown in midwest
NYC and surroundings
American squirrels can be aggressive. I was eating an apple one day and I kid you not, a squirrel jumped at me and took it from my hand.
I love when people see deer here in North America. You'd think they're seeing a unicorn, when it's just some plain ol' mule deer.
Forest rats.
I always lived in states where deer hunting was a pretty common pastime. The first time I went to a zoo in South America, I cracked up when we got to the display of white-tailed deer.
I understand Australians have a similar reaction to zoo kangaroos
Totally me in the US! Deers in Europe are stuff for natural parks!
I've seen deer just wander through my yard in town
We also get turkeys.
Ah, yes. Those fuckers regularly stopped traffic when I lived in Michigan. Not for tourist reasons of course, they're just big and travel in packs. And take their sweet time crossing the road.
Chipmunks did it for me. They look and act so much like cartoon critters I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
I love chipmunks! Such a big squeak from such a tiny body, plus I love their pointy tails :)
When I visited Canada from the US, my extended family and I drove in separate cars, thereby arriving at separate times spread out over a few hours.
Every group of us took basically the same picture when we arrived because we'd previously only seen brown squirrels and there was a solid, dark black one running around in the back yard.
My parents' neighborhood is ALL black squirrels. I thought they were rare until they moved (only 30 minutes from where I group up) so I was quite surprised to see dozens in their yard
It’s funny what people notice. I have a friend who grew up in the American Southwest, and her wildlife culture shock when she moved away from there came from wild rabbits.
The Southwest is populated by jackrabbits, so after they encountered an eastern cottontail, they were genuinely concerned some malady had befallen it to cause it to have such small ears. She thought maybe someone was torturing the local wildlife and cutting off its ears.
I love this and was about to post something similar because my family met a family from Australia at Disney World and the little girl was SO excited about the squirrels. It was adorable.
I live in the Midwest, so squirrels are just always there.
Used to work at Disney World. Can confirm the squirrel amazement. (And I worked at Animal Kingdom, the squirrels occasionally got more attention than the actual zoo animals. Although the local ibises hanging out with the spoonbills were still cool.)
I grew up in rural US, squirrels everywhere. Still fascinated by them! Moved to the southwest, was sad there weren't trees and squirrels out here. Then saw my first (closely followed by like a dozen more out in the area) ground squirrel! Some touristy areas they will line up all cute doing tricks for scraps of food. They've learned our oohs and aahs generate treats.
My wife is from the Philippines. Squirrels are a thing you have to visit the zoo the see.
Mirroring what others have said - at a nearby university that has (had? sigh) a large foreign student population, some folks actively feed the squirrels. For several weeks at the beginning of the school year, you could very easily spot new students by who was out taking photos and getting mobbed by these squirrels that are way, way too comfortable getting close to humans.
Oh wow. I saw a squirrel once in Catalonia. Wonderful sight.
I'd guess people from monkey countries feel the same way about them impressing us. They're in similar niches and everything.
No squirrels? You from Greenland? Antarctica?
Israel