Any mammals/bird/reptiles that are unique to Europe?

I’m not sure what you mean. What do you mean be a “specific place?”

The OP lists mostly distinct species, but in one case lumps 3 species (zebras) and in another case a whole family (penguins).

I was surprised to read this, and was going to make a snarky remark about not imagining all the robins I see each Canadian spring, but then I decided to check Wikipedia.

Yep. The American robin (Turdus migratorius) and the European robin (Erithacus rubecula) are separate species. :slight_smile:

Yep, the early settlers did a lot of that…a thrush that resembles the European robin only in that it has a red breast was named “robin”. If it’s vaguely similar to what we had back home, give it the same name…

There are lots of birds called “robins” in quite unrelated families. There are “robins,” I think, on every continent. Same with “warblers,” “flycatchers,” and many others.

As far as mammalian megafauna go, Europe has the wisent. That’s the biggest uniquely European mammal I can think of.

Restriction of the Wisent to Europe, however, is an artifact of human persecution. Two thousand years ago the species’ range extended to Siberia and the Caucasus Mountains, and thus into Asia,

Yes…I knew there were seperate species…cough

Uhm, but…Turdus Migratorius? Who thought up that name? Sounds like something more often associated with a fan.

Turdus simply means “thrush” in Latin. Linnaeus used it as the scientific name of a number of European species, including the Blackbird Turdus merula, as well as the American Robin Turdus migratorius (the ''migratory thrush).