So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

So how common are Japanese macaques in zoos?

Apparently there's a few hundred in Texas.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Apparently there's a few hundred in Texas.

Man. Where are y'all getting this data from exactly? I could use that. Did someone post a link I have otherwise been blind to?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

That's pretty awesome. Good to know. Thank you, Brett. I kind of like the idea of rampant kangaroo populations in the ruined NYC streets.

And don't forget that kangaroos are adept at shooting down attack helicopters...

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by dcarson

You might have hippos in the south. https://publishing.tor.com/americanh...9781250176424/

There are more tigers in Texas then in the wild so how many are released or escape from private owners and wildlife parks.

There are actually more tigers in the United States than in any other country, mostly in zoos and rescue facilities. Tigers make cute kittens, but by the time they're two years old people start to get unnerved by them.

I learned that about 20 years ago, when our photographer at the Fort Morgan Times learned about an animal rescue place, over in Weld County.

He went over there to do a photo essay, and got in the compound with a couple of rambunctious tiger kittens that weighed upwards of a hundred pounds, each.

At one point, he said he was focusing on one of the kittens through the viewfinder of his camera, when a thought suddenly popped into his head.

"Where's the other tiger?"

He said the hair on the nape of his neck stood straight up, and he looked over to the left to see the other kitten doing the kitten thing -- kneading the ground with its claws while staring at him, its tail swishing back and forth.

As soon as he looked at it, the kitten Tigger-bounced toward him, grabbed him around his thighs with its paws (no claws), bit him at the waistline, and "boinged" away. Just having fun, y'know, like kittens always do.

Stitches, antibiotics, three weeks to heal, permanent scars, and one hell of a cool story to tell. :)

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Funnily enough, I've considered bringing in mammoths. There is a in-world mechanism by which I could do this called "Dark Fog". Essentially, it's a fog or mist that connects different places and times. For example, the colony of Vinland essentially got transported into the future (so did Roanoke and a dozen other mysterious disappearances all over the globe). I see no reason why I can't say it transported multiple herds of wooly mammoths at some point.

Mastodons were better adapted to forest living. Mammoths were more of a plains-steppe-tundra kind of beast. Then you could also get giant ground sloths, terror birds, giant beavers, teratorns, sabercats, and dire wolves.

Luke

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

This does make me wonder. So in setting there are these huge (150 yd or bigger) trees called "Drasilian" Trees that cropped up - the last gift of a power animal-, plant-, and weather-controlling metahuman. He turned himself into the first one in Central Park and sent out seeds that were carried all over and planted in other cities. Around the tree the harshness of the weather is decreased, it tends to draws too it because it bears a fruit (manna) that is highly nourishing. What's more, it has hollow spaces within it that can be lived in. Their is a priesthood that lives in the Central Park one along with numerous other animals and humans.

If they bear fruit year round, they would serve as a sort of oasis for exotic wildlife. Unfortunately, you might not be able to sustain large enough populations of large animals to prevent in-breeding and decline unless there were enough of these trees that the large animals could move between them. This would serve to sustain smaller exotic animals like monk parakeets and monkeys, as well as attracting native large animals like deer and elk (and their predators).

Luke

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

"Where's the other tiger?"

That reminds me of a documentary on a pair of rehabilitated tigers being reintroduced to the wild. They were being observed attempting to hunt, but one tiger just wandered off to who knows where, and the other goes tearing off straight at the prey with no attempt at stealth. Figuring the tigers wouldn't survive in the wild, the team started considering how best to recapture them when the tiger that had wandered off burst out from the undergrowth directly into the path of the panicked prey. They had worked together to set an ambush. Tigers aren't supposed to do that.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by RyanW

That reminds me of a documentary on a pair of rehabilitated tigers being reintroduced to the wild. They were being observed attempting to hunt, but one tiger just wandered off to who knows where, and the other goes tearing off straight at the prey with no attempt at stealth. Figuring the tigers wouldn't survive in the wild, the team started considering how best to recapture them when the tiger that had wandered off burst out from the undergrowth directly into the path of the panicked prey. They had worked together to set an ambush. Tigers aren't supposed to do that.

Clever girl.

The idea of zoo-descended animals behaving significantly differently from expected in the apocalypse, like tigers working together to set up an ambush, would be interesting, and throw any PC's (and players!) with relevant skills for a loop.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Mastodons were better adapted to forest living. Mammoths were more of a plains-steppe-tundra kind of beast. Then you could also get giant ground sloths, terror birds, giant beavers, teratorns, sabercats, and dire wolves.

Luke

I'll consider it. I don't want the future to be TOO weird. But a few choice ice age critters would be interesting to have.

Originally Posted by lwcamp

If they bear fruit year round, they would serve as a sort of oasis for exotic wildlife. Unfortunately, you might not be able to sustain large enough populations of large animals to prevent in-breeding and decline unless there were enough of these trees that the large animals could move between them. This would serve to sustain smaller exotic animals like monk parakeets and monkeys, as well as attracting native large animals like deer and elk (and their predators).

Luke

They do bear fruit year round. I hadn't considered the predator angle though that's obvious now that you've said it. I wonder if it also has a calming effect on animals so violence is not easily committed. Could be an interesting "Noah's Ark" effect.

Originally Posted by RyanW

That reminds me of a documentary on a pair of rehabilitated tigers being reintroduced to the wild. They were being observed attempting to hunt, but one tiger just wandered off to who knows where, and the other goes tearing off straight at the prey with no attempt at stealth. Figuring the tigers wouldn't survive in the wild, the team started considering how best to recapture them when the tiger that had wandered off burst out from the undergrowth directly into the path of the panicked prey. They had worked together to set an ambush. Tigers aren't supposed to do that.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Clever girl.

The idea of zoo-descended animals behaving significantly differently from expected in the apocalypse, like tigers working together to set up an ambush, would be interesting, and throw any PC's (and players!) with relevant skills for a loop.

That's a *great* idea. Tigers working as a pack instead of being loners. Yes. I do like that.

[khorboth]

Another thing to remember is that humans will pack-bond with ANYTHING. A group of humans adopting a small troop of elephants and forming a weird symbiotic society is actually pretty plausible. A group adopting the escaped alligator snapping turtle and managing to keep it alive and getting it a home near one of the warm trees... not actually out of character of us. And for zoo animals who have become used to looking to humans for food, anything could happen.

I could see a troop of orangutans living in the branches of one of those trees with the humans on the ground and both tolerating the other for the benefits provided. For a time. If the humans provide the food during the lean times... that might be enough.