# Could any African animals survive in the Americas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2014, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405 "2014-09-24T03:44:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amberlei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Amberlei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amberlei)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/21 "2014-09-25T03:08:02Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Camels were exported to Australia and still live there - if _that_ happened, then surely everything is fair game. We had wild camels in the US until the 1940s. They were the offspring of escaped or released camels from the US Camel Corps ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/22 "2014-09-25T03:14:12Z")
The Americas had the wooly mammoth way back when, why not elephants too? ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/23 "2014-09-25T03:32:44Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > So there are plenty of African species that could live in North America (or South America). The problem is that the habitat they’d need to live is taken for human use. We could introduce wild lions into Texas, but what are they going to eat? Ranchers are already panicked about wolves and cougars, and now we’re introducing lions? I’ve somewhat tongue-in-cheekily argued that they should introduce the cheetah to North America (or reintroduce if you count the Pleistocene variety.) Part of the problem with the out-of-control deer population is that deer are relatively hard to catch and kill and so their traditional predators would much rather have a nice fat sheep or cow if they’re avaliable. A cheetah, though, wouldn’t break a sweat running down a deer but domestic sheep and cattle are generally too big for them so there wouldn’t be the same livestock predation issues. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/24 "2014-09-25T03:52:01Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There are ranches in Texas that are raising rhinos. They’re being cared for and looked after but I think they’re living semi-wild on a large tract of land. So presumably the climate is survivable for them. Black rhinos historically ranged into temperate areas in Africa, as far as its southern tip at about 34 degrees South. This is about the same latitude as northern Texas. Rhinos could certainly survive in Florida and southern California and up into the middle of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/25 "2014-09-25T03:57:13Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I may be showing my ignorance, but I don’t believe America has any tropical jungle (unless perhaps if you go down to Panama) so the species that depend on that environment may not do so well. As Lemur866 says, moist tropical forests extend as far north as [Veracruz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracruz_moist_forests) in Mexico. From there south, much of the Caribbean slope was once covered in moist tropical forest. Of course the largest area of tropical forest in the world is in South America. ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/26 "2014-09-27T02:53:59Z")
Several species are doing well in Ohio… > **[The Wilds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wilds)** > > The Wilds may refer to: ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/27 "2014-09-27T09:13:40Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Eurasian collared dove, Starling, House sparrow. I wouldn’t call any of those African (assuming you mean the common starling). ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/28 "2014-09-27T16:59:11Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Camels were exported to Australia and still live there - if _that_ happened, then surely everything is fair game. Forget Australia- camels can survive in the Arabian desert. This is an animal whose ancestors lived in the Arctic, bear in mind. They can probably survive anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/29 "2014-09-27T17:07:49Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > You never heard of the Amazon basin? America has both wet tropical jungle (lots of it) and one of the rare patches of dry tropical jungle in the world (some of the jungle in Costa Rica, which looks more like a temperate forest with very little brush than like a storybook “jungle”). I am well aware that S America has many different climates too - from frozen desert in the far south, to pampas, tropical jungle and high mountains. The OP failed to indicate whether he was talking about the USA, North America, or the whole continent. I assumed, without any other basis than this forum is largely N America centric, that ‘here’ was N America. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/30 "2014-09-27T17:17:31Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > Forget Australia- camels can survive in the Arabian desert. This is an animal whose ancestors lived in the Arctic, bear in mind. Conditions were much warmer when [camels lived in the Arctic.](http://www.history.com/news/giant-ancient-camel-roamed-the-arctic) > [@](#): > > During the Ellesmere Island camel’s lifetime, temperatures in the Arctic were 14 to 22 degrees warmer than they are today, Rybczynski said. Nor is that camel necessarily ancestral to modern camels. This said, since camels can survive in Central Asia they are not very susceptible to cold. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/31 "2014-09-27T19:53:56Z")
Regarding the feral camels from the “US Camel Corps” experiment: They abandoned the idea, and the remaining camels, at about the time of the Civil War. Various dates are given for “last sightings”, depending on which ones you consider to be reliable accounts. Sightings of camels in Arizona in 1901 seem to be authenticated, later sightings in Az or SoCal are debated. At any rate, the American southwest isn’t really an ideal environment for them. Too rocky. The camel’s foot is adapted to sandy deserts - difficulties with the rocky terrain was one of the problems they had with the Camel Corps. They tried to come up with a way of shoeing them, but never quite satisfactorily. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/32 "2014-09-28T10:55:08Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Several African birds are doing extremely well. Cattle Egret, Eurasian collared dove, Starling, House sparrow. How are the swallows doing? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405/33 "2014-09-29T07:00:50Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I am well aware that S America has many different climates too - from frozen desert in the far south, to pampas, tropical jungle and high mountains. > > The OP failed to indicate whether he was talking about the USA, North America, or the whole continent. I assumed, without any other basis than this forum is largely N America centric, that ‘here’ was N America. The OP said “the Americas” in the thread title. That indicates all of them – the whole Western Hemisphere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-african-animals-survive-in-the-americas/699405.md?page=1)