Most zoos organize animals by region they live in. But what can you really do with a European section? Most of their wildlife have identical counterparts in North America far more iconic that it would be redundant to keep both copies, or more exotic ones in Asia. Europe really lacks any uniquely European animals.
What are some distinctly European animals that you'd put in a Euro-themed zoo section?
There's no reason you have to put e.g. brown bears in the North American section of the zoo instead of the European one. They're just as valid in either. The issue here isn't that Europe has a lack of unique animals, it's that North America, Europe, and Northern Asia just share a lot of the same biodiversity due to having been joined by land bridges until relatively recently. Conversely, the southern continents have been much more isolated and so have greater degrees of endemism.
The Algarvian chameleon.
One of my favorite birds comes from Spain, the Azor is a fairly small relative of the eagle and although it is found in the rest of Europe and America, the Spanish azor is known to hunt in a very special way, attacking its prey from below midflight, it thrusts its talons skywards to sink them in its prey’s belly. Really amazing stuff to see for yourself which makes it a great bird to keep for the purposes of falconry.
Other amazing birds from the same region are bearded vultures, which are freaking huge (pic related) and pick up bones and fly up to drop them on rocks to break them an eat the marrow, and great bustards, which are one of the biggest flying birds of them all.
can anyone recommend a good book on
Fauna of the Sahara?
Fauna of Europe?
>Most of their wildlife have identical counterparts in North America far more iconic
Its impressive how self-centered you tards are
lmao this is literally the entire world Anon. US, Japan, China, hell even some fucking Europeans. This is what happens when you don't destroy all your fucking natural landscapes.
European bison
Who the fuck thinks Europe when they think of Bison? It's one of the most American-associated animals out there next to the Bald Eagle.
i think of poland rather than america
It's basically one of Polish national animals
Because they're different species. Just because America has bison doesn't mean European bison wouldn't go in the European section of a zoo, that's like saying tigers wouldn't go in the Asian section of a zoo because there's lions in the African section
A better comparison would be with leopards, and keeping the amur and african. Zoos don't have infinite budgets, they would just pick one and call it good enough. And that's with an incredibly charismatic animal species. Are there any zoos that have both American and European bison?
amur and african leopards are the same species, unlike american and european bison. Call them wisent instead of bison and all of a sudden it's magically no longer associated with the american relative
>Are there any zoos that have both American and European bison?
European bison are incredibly rare with only a few thousand in captivity and basically only exist in European zoos, so probably not.
Zoos need the public support. The public doesn't care if they see two bison species with minor differences. They'll want to see one species, and if they see another they'll go "Oh, OK" look at it a few seconds, and walk past. Considering how much space bison need, no zoo would waste the space having two redundant species when it can be used for something else.
Zoos are businesses.
Ok, so who said they need to have two then? At least some zoos can just keep the European species if they want, especially since it's rarer and in more need of help at this point. Besides to American zoo visitors the European species is the more exotic alternative anyway. I have nothing against American bison in zoos but I can also literally see them at a farm a few miles from my house.
>Who the fuck thinks Europe when they think of Bison?
Well who the fuck cares who actually thinks of it, when the point is that it's a real fucking animal that actually exists?
It's a fucking zoo not a cultural festival retard
i mean i agree, but it's mostly associated with america these days cause our ancestors hunted a metric fuckton of em
There's no uniquely European animals *left* because we killed them all over ~3000 years.
Lynx
Hedgehog
Uhhhh
Jack E. Chaneré
Hedgehog has been the only good answer so far this thread