The question is simple, just like the headline says.
I just jockeyd a list of all birds and mammals in germany, learned about our thriving wallaby population and thought to myself "wow, there arnt even that many animals missing, just like 5 or 6 more and i have all the local animals i would need, or atleast enough to make varied zoo sections.
So lets just start with my findings about germany!
I would say, if the wisent, red deer, wild boar, red fox, beech marten and european wild cat are in the game we would have an amazing and worthwile selection for our wildparks or whatever else we want to build. Funnily enough, the bennet wallaby and greater rhea have established populations, while the golden jackal has made its way alone across the alps into the more southern parts of the country.
Overall, germany has an interesting mix between coastal, temperate, wetland and alpine enviroments, featuring pretty much everything biome that the temperature allows, resulting in a very divers set of enviroments, that are only inhabited by a rather small number of mammals, as the alps are quite efficent at keeping most creatures out from the south.
In general, northern middle europe is geographicly far more isolated then you would expect, as its cornerd from all sides by mountain ranges or the oceans, making the animals living inside those that can cross them, which is why many european animals exist outside of europe, while not much from outside exists in europe.
The only way to get into northern europe without crossing an ocean or mountain range is kasachstan, which is really, really far away.
Europe is like a fancy club, hard to get in, but relativly easy to get out for those that are capable of entering.
But enough gushing about how europes geography gave us such a limited mammalian fauna when compared to our bird population, lets talk about the animals!
First i want to introduce you to mr world wide, a true classic of flexibility. He would do a great job of completing the foxes, as he is often paired up with the arctic fox and the fennek fox as the cold, hot and medium fox. As the medium boy hes quite versatile, being found in every biome besides aquatic and tundra. They have not one, not two, but 45 recognized subspecies to their name and are seen as one of the most adaptable species on the planet, right after us humans. They are also one of the biggest winners of urbanisation, opening up new foodsources while keeping out most of its predators.
Theres even a project in russia, that has led to domesticated foxes in a remarkably short time.
They are seen as the most progressive fox species,as they have adapted to almost every enviroment and pushed away the other foxes to the few niche places it cant inhabit like the sand dunes of the sahara, the freezing cold of the arctic and the high altitudes of the himalaya. While being named red fox, they actually have 8 colormorphs and have realativly common melanistic and leucanistic offspring. Their colorsceeme ranges from their red over grey, black, brown, silver to white with multiple subsets of these colors.
For a generally solitary animal, they also have quite the interesting social structures. Normally red foxes live in family groups with joint territory, but when theres enough food they also tolerate subordinate foxes, often former children that they tolerate and are allowed to stick around in turn for their help raising their cups or hunting for them. Besides being really interesting, this also means that they are quite social in captive enviroments, as their will always be enough food for all of them.
Being the total chads of living everywhere and being number2 of the human fanclub, with only dogs above them, because how couldnt they, foxes are important of folklore around the world, be it the many foxes from aesops storys, europes reineke, the japanese kitsune or the cunning companion of the coyote in native american folklore, reaching from just them doing normal shenaningans up to literally creating the world, but let the humans have it cause they felt like it.
Foxes created, conquerd and dominated the world and we got to respect that.
The opposite to the red fox would be the european bison. Instead of living everywhere, these guys allmost went extinct in the second world war, but a small population of 8 animals survived in zoos and private collections. Today they can be seen as europeas greates conversation success and represent with the moose our megafauna. They are both present in captivity and the wild and hopefully will only rise in numbers.
Also before you mention it, actually yes they are quite distinct from the american plains bison we already have in the game with lighter colors, a less pronounced hump and less afro fur for example. They are also taller in general with longer legs. But best to just compare them next to each other.
Something quite cool about them is their social heirachry, as its very fluid. They are very unterritorial animals, with different wisent herds meeting frequently, interacting for a bit before spliting up again, generally with different mixes of individuals then before. The herds are led by the oldest cow. They decide where to go while the rest follows. Older males generally satalite the herd, hanging out on the edges of it, ready to step up if danger arises.
Today actually there are two lineages. One with only the offspring of the origninal 7 members of the subspecies Bison bonasus bonasus and a second where the last surving bull of the caucasian subspecies Bison bonasus caucasius is mixed in. If they should be treated as a different subspecies is debated, but the general consense is that if they have been seperated for so long it cant do harm to keep it that way, preserving a pure lineage of one subspecies and one broader lineage. Luckily, eventhough there has been only 8 wisents at one point, there is only a small amount of inbreeding depression, raising the calf mortality by a small margin. Which is quite remarkable, as every male wisent has only one of 2 different y chromosomes in the entire species.
Third animal, second carnivore, the beech marten, hunting squirrels and cars. Living a more generalist live then most other martens, they have adapted well to the urban enviroments and masterd living with humans. Infamous for their habit of climbing into cars and destroying them from the inside, the car marten has a blast living everywhere where they shouldnt, being almost as adaptable as mr world wide, but thier most impressive feat must be that they are the apex predator of the church, as they tend to see old, beautiful churches just as big rocks. The cathedral of collogne has not one, but 2 of them living on it in the middle of a thriving metropole and if that is not one of the coolest things you can pull as an urban wild animal i dont know what is.
Our forth candidate also likes living in citys and also has a distaste for respecting cars, but they are far less sneaky about it then the marten. Im talking about the wild boar, europeas black death of the forest and in many cases also citys. Notorious for not really giving a damn about us humans they have conquered the land and honestly who can blame them?
If i was weighing up too 100kg, could lift up to 50 kg with my nose alone, run 40 km per hour, the exposed parts of my canines measure up to 13 cm and no predator left, i would also assume im boss.
Interestingly enough, we actually have all 3 of its main predators across its massive range, being the wolf, tiger and komodo dragons.
Funfact, did you guys know that in colder climate those things can reach the size of a brownbear? While the largest in europe tend to weigh up to 200 kg, its was rather common for them to reach up to 350kg in northern asia and over a meter in height. For now overhunting keeps them from consistenly living long enough to reach those sizes, but when they do they are practicly immune to wolfs and only somewhat threatend by the largest cat on the planet. Those guys can and reportedly have fought siberian tigers 1 vs 1 and come out victorious. Title of black death well deserved.
Now for the third and las carnivore, we have the european wildcat, one of the most common felines in the EAZA. If your zoo is in central europe and supports local wildlife, you can be sure that they will have them. These cats might look like cute kittens, but they are known for being very, very certain on not tolerating humans,being seens as almost untameable. They are super shy animals, that need rather large habitats for their size to keep enough distance from every pesky human they spot. They tolerate being watched in captivity, aslong as they feel save, but far prefer hiding.
But thats nothing compared to their wild cousins. These ghosts of the forests arnt that rare in germany, infact we have so muchof their population that germany has the responsibilty to take care of the population and make sure that what ever happens, that if nowhere else they can atleast survive in germany, but they are almost never seen or photographed, as they are that good at hiding and staying out of our way. To ensure their surivival there have been build many bridges for wild animals across big streets, trying to counterplay habitat fragmentation through roads and the very active breeding program in germany, hence why they are found in almost 70 zoos just in germany alone.
Lastly, we have the majesty, our royal king of the forest, the red deer. Known as the cervid with the most beautiful antlers they are the largest common european animal and they own it.
Something most people dont know is, that they arnt actually strictly forest dwellers. While they do love their forest, their favourite place is the edge of the forest, but they also live in near treefree enviroments, like higher alitutdes, wetlands, grasslands or the scottish highland. The main reason that they are mostly known from forests is, that like the wild cat they really do not like humans.
While not to such an extreme extend as the cat they are still very shy animals for their size and when most of the grassland became clusterd with fields and villages, the red deer started to retreat to the forest. This elusive, yet majestic creature is a rather rare sight in person, making them a staple part of our culture and traditions, being equally as important as the fox and the wolf.
Being the most beautiful and largest creature in europes mideveal forests,a red deer stag was deemed the greatest and most prestigous prey only reserved for the noble class, making them associated even more with aristocracy and a popular motiv for crests.
And thats it! I hope you liked the little excourse into european and especally germanys fauna and geography and i would love to learn more about your countrys ^^
I just jockeyd a list of all birds and mammals in germany, learned about our thriving wallaby population and thought to myself "wow, there arnt even that many animals missing, just like 5 or 6 more and i have all the local animals i would need, or atleast enough to make varied zoo sections.
So lets just start with my findings about germany!
I would say, if the wisent, red deer, wild boar, red fox, beech marten and european wild cat are in the game we would have an amazing and worthwile selection for our wildparks or whatever else we want to build. Funnily enough, the bennet wallaby and greater rhea have established populations, while the golden jackal has made its way alone across the alps into the more southern parts of the country.
Overall, germany has an interesting mix between coastal, temperate, wetland and alpine enviroments, featuring pretty much everything biome that the temperature allows, resulting in a very divers set of enviroments, that are only inhabited by a rather small number of mammals, as the alps are quite efficent at keeping most creatures out from the south.
In general, northern middle europe is geographicly far more isolated then you would expect, as its cornerd from all sides by mountain ranges or the oceans, making the animals living inside those that can cross them, which is why many european animals exist outside of europe, while not much from outside exists in europe.
The only way to get into northern europe without crossing an ocean or mountain range is kasachstan, which is really, really far away.
Europe is like a fancy club, hard to get in, but relativly easy to get out for those that are capable of entering.
But enough gushing about how europes geography gave us such a limited mammalian fauna when compared to our bird population, lets talk about the animals!
First i want to introduce you to mr world wide, a true classic of flexibility. He would do a great job of completing the foxes, as he is often paired up with the arctic fox and the fennek fox as the cold, hot and medium fox. As the medium boy hes quite versatile, being found in every biome besides aquatic and tundra. They have not one, not two, but 45 recognized subspecies to their name and are seen as one of the most adaptable species on the planet, right after us humans. They are also one of the biggest winners of urbanisation, opening up new foodsources while keeping out most of its predators.
Theres even a project in russia, that has led to domesticated foxes in a remarkably short time.
They are seen as the most progressive fox species,as they have adapted to almost every enviroment and pushed away the other foxes to the few niche places it cant inhabit like the sand dunes of the sahara, the freezing cold of the arctic and the high altitudes of the himalaya. While being named red fox, they actually have 8 colormorphs and have realativly common melanistic and leucanistic offspring. Their colorsceeme ranges from their red over grey, black, brown, silver to white with multiple subsets of these colors.
For a generally solitary animal, they also have quite the interesting social structures. Normally red foxes live in family groups with joint territory, but when theres enough food they also tolerate subordinate foxes, often former children that they tolerate and are allowed to stick around in turn for their help raising their cups or hunting for them. Besides being really interesting, this also means that they are quite social in captive enviroments, as their will always be enough food for all of them.
Being the total chads of living everywhere and being number2 of the human fanclub, with only dogs above them, because how couldnt they, foxes are important of folklore around the world, be it the many foxes from aesops storys, europes reineke, the japanese kitsune or the cunning companion of the coyote in native american folklore, reaching from just them doing normal shenaningans up to literally creating the world, but let the humans have it cause they felt like it.
Foxes created, conquerd and dominated the world and we got to respect that.
The opposite to the red fox would be the european bison. Instead of living everywhere, these guys allmost went extinct in the second world war, but a small population of 8 animals survived in zoos and private collections. Today they can be seen as europeas greates conversation success and represent with the moose our megafauna. They are both present in captivity and the wild and hopefully will only rise in numbers.
Also before you mention it, actually yes they are quite distinct from the american plains bison we already have in the game with lighter colors, a less pronounced hump and less afro fur for example. They are also taller in general with longer legs. But best to just compare them next to each other.
Something quite cool about them is their social heirachry, as its very fluid. They are very unterritorial animals, with different wisent herds meeting frequently, interacting for a bit before spliting up again, generally with different mixes of individuals then before. The herds are led by the oldest cow. They decide where to go while the rest follows. Older males generally satalite the herd, hanging out on the edges of it, ready to step up if danger arises.
Today actually there are two lineages. One with only the offspring of the origninal 7 members of the subspecies Bison bonasus bonasus and a second where the last surving bull of the caucasian subspecies Bison bonasus caucasius is mixed in. If they should be treated as a different subspecies is debated, but the general consense is that if they have been seperated for so long it cant do harm to keep it that way, preserving a pure lineage of one subspecies and one broader lineage. Luckily, eventhough there has been only 8 wisents at one point, there is only a small amount of inbreeding depression, raising the calf mortality by a small margin. Which is quite remarkable, as every male wisent has only one of 2 different y chromosomes in the entire species.
Third animal, second carnivore, the beech marten, hunting squirrels and cars. Living a more generalist live then most other martens, they have adapted well to the urban enviroments and masterd living with humans. Infamous for their habit of climbing into cars and destroying them from the inside, the car marten has a blast living everywhere where they shouldnt, being almost as adaptable as mr world wide, but thier most impressive feat must be that they are the apex predator of the church, as they tend to see old, beautiful churches just as big rocks. The cathedral of collogne has not one, but 2 of them living on it in the middle of a thriving metropole and if that is not one of the coolest things you can pull as an urban wild animal i dont know what is.
Our forth candidate also likes living in citys and also has a distaste for respecting cars, but they are far less sneaky about it then the marten. Im talking about the wild boar, europeas black death of the forest and in many cases also citys. Notorious for not really giving a damn about us humans they have conquered the land and honestly who can blame them?
If i was weighing up too 100kg, could lift up to 50 kg with my nose alone, run 40 km per hour, the exposed parts of my canines measure up to 13 cm and no predator left, i would also assume im boss.
Interestingly enough, we actually have all 3 of its main predators across its massive range, being the wolf, tiger and komodo dragons.
Funfact, did you guys know that in colder climate those things can reach the size of a brownbear? While the largest in europe tend to weigh up to 200 kg, its was rather common for them to reach up to 350kg in northern asia and over a meter in height. For now overhunting keeps them from consistenly living long enough to reach those sizes, but when they do they are practicly immune to wolfs and only somewhat threatend by the largest cat on the planet. Those guys can and reportedly have fought siberian tigers 1 vs 1 and come out victorious. Title of black death well deserved.
Now for the third and las carnivore, we have the european wildcat, one of the most common felines in the EAZA. If your zoo is in central europe and supports local wildlife, you can be sure that they will have them. These cats might look like cute kittens, but they are known for being very, very certain on not tolerating humans,being seens as almost untameable. They are super shy animals, that need rather large habitats for their size to keep enough distance from every pesky human they spot. They tolerate being watched in captivity, aslong as they feel save, but far prefer hiding.
But thats nothing compared to their wild cousins. These ghosts of the forests arnt that rare in germany, infact we have so muchof their population that germany has the responsibilty to take care of the population and make sure that what ever happens, that if nowhere else they can atleast survive in germany, but they are almost never seen or photographed, as they are that good at hiding and staying out of our way. To ensure their surivival there have been build many bridges for wild animals across big streets, trying to counterplay habitat fragmentation through roads and the very active breeding program in germany, hence why they are found in almost 70 zoos just in germany alone.
Lastly, we have the majesty, our royal king of the forest, the red deer. Known as the cervid with the most beautiful antlers they are the largest common european animal and they own it.
Something most people dont know is, that they arnt actually strictly forest dwellers. While they do love their forest, their favourite place is the edge of the forest, but they also live in near treefree enviroments, like higher alitutdes, wetlands, grasslands or the scottish highland. The main reason that they are mostly known from forests is, that like the wild cat they really do not like humans.
While not to such an extreme extend as the cat they are still very shy animals for their size and when most of the grassland became clusterd with fields and villages, the red deer started to retreat to the forest. This elusive, yet majestic creature is a rather rare sight in person, making them a staple part of our culture and traditions, being equally as important as the fox and the wolf.
Being the most beautiful and largest creature in europes mideveal forests,a red deer stag was deemed the greatest and most prestigous prey only reserved for the noble class, making them associated even more with aristocracy and a popular motiv for crests.
And thats it! I hope you liked the little excourse into european and especally germanys fauna and geography and i would love to learn more about your countrys ^^
