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What in your country/area is totally normal but visitors get excited for? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] 107 points 1 year ago (43 children)

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.

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago (18 children)

    I was a bit excited that the US squirrels are gray and large, we have smaller red ones in Germany.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    If you really want to see huge squirrels check out a US college campus. They're so fat!

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Noted

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I got a squirrel took my apple away from my hand!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    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

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    Dammit. :( Us humans are so talented at selfishly fucking over indigenous populations and animals in general. Ugh.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    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?)

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I've seen deer just wander through my yard in town

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    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.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    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.)

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    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.

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