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Places Where Biological Groups are Missing

All.About.Nature

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In this video, we're looking at places that are surprisingly devoid of entire groups of plants or animals.

Snakes in Ireland
Trees in the Falklands
Primates in the US and Canada
Terrestrial Mammals in Antarctica
Salamanders in Africa
Bears in Africa
Deer in Africa
Megafauna in Madagascar
Most groups in Australia
Almost everything in New Zealand

Music:
The Tide is Turning
Helmut Schenker
https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/t...

Clips and images are used for purposes of commentary, criticism, and education.

No AI was used in the production of this video.

20 Comments

@PowerSpirit50 2 months ago

There are even snakes on the tiny islands of the Swedish peninsula. Saint Patrick was a powerful wizard.

@darrelstinkmeaner4673 1 month ago

Naming your country's only native reptile "Common Lizard" is somehow one of the most quintessentially Irish things I can imagine

@SupaKoopaTroopa64 2 months ago

New Zeland also went a really long time without humans, being one of the last major landmasses we arrived on.

@eggsanity04 2 months ago

Video idea - Marine Animal Groups that Have Freshwater Counterparts (like Baikal Seal, freshwater jellyfish, river sharks, etc…)

@LiminalMindsQuizzes 2 months ago

I still don't understand why snakes can't get to Ireland through accidental ocean rafting or birds, considering that Mauritius has a native snake population despite being thousands of miles away from Madagascar and mainland Africa. Ireland is still very close to Britain by comparison.

@aDaewooLanos 2 months ago

Fun fact: while NZ has no land snakes a few species of sea snakes are considered native species (since they can appear here on their volition) so they're protected under our Wildlife Act.

@fairy_type_digimon 2 months ago

Something I find interesting is that Africa has native Bovidae (cattle, sheep, goats, and antelopes) but lacks native deer, while South America has native deer but lacks native Bovidae.

@raoulcorinth1712 2 months ago

Surprised you didn't talk about the North Pacific Tree Octopus!

@AquaticFlapper125 2 months ago

Crows in South America are another example they are no birds in the genus Corvus there.

@Ryodraco 2 months ago

16:24 One worthwhile correction, but nile crocodiles are native to and still exist in Madagascar. Albeit, it's not clear how long ago they arrived there, they've been there for several thousand years at least.

@amphicyon4359 2 months ago

Most surprised by Woodpeckers missing beyond the Wallace line, it seems like such a ubiquitous niche that could easily be universal. Also odd how even the various phases of Green Sahara (or moving along the coasts or down the Nile) still completely blocked salamanders where they so definitively made the Bering crossing and handled arid regions to spread across the Americas. No monkeys beyond Mexico is also strange when you think aboout it

@hydraph4843 2 months ago

New Zealand having no native land mammals besides bats was very surprising to me. But then I guess it does make sense with the flightless birds and ground nesting

@bastianvalenzuela-qu1tl 3 hours ago

Chile is also a good example of a region that lacks species such as monkeys, tortoises, caviids (Guinea pigs & Capybaras), and other prominent animals in South America due to the mountain range and its climates.

@archosaurian2399 2 months ago

While the atlas bear was the last native species of bear humans encountered in Africa, there was a species of bear that coexisted with other hominids; Agirotherium africanum was the only known bear species known to have ever lived in sub-saharan Africa. Fossils of the species have been found in South Africa and Ethiopia in deposits that date between from 11 to just shy of 3 and a half million years.

@hxg45 2 months ago (edited)

There were bears in sub saharan africa
Agriotherium and Indarctos

which were similiar to Short faced bears and Brown bears, ironically their closest living relatives are Panda bears as all of them are in Ailuropodinae subfamily

@billyr2904 2 months ago

The reason why africa has maintained megafauna is due to co evolution around humans.

@d0nkki 2 months ago

the Faroe Islands also have no Native Trees! we did have trees at one point but they didn't survive the ice ages

@libby_exists 2 months ago

Being from New Zealand, I love when people talk about our wildlife, cause it's pretty sick and I'm glad I am able to see a lot of them in person in my daily life