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.
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.
It would be awesome to get woolly mammoths back in the Alps.
Squirrels.
Grew up in Chicago, currently in Phoenix. I miss squirrels.
All the lizards are pretty cool though. They’re like desert squirrels.
