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Catastrophic disaster, new beginning; Exercise - anyone can join
Topic Started: May 11 2010, 01:48 PM (1,072 Views)
KayKay
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Edited by KayKay, May 16 2010, 04:43 AM.
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KayKay
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I'll maybe provide a map some time in the future, but it won't be in the next few days I'm sorry. But I will make one eventually, I don't mind. I just want to get tomorrow's and Friday's exam out of the way before doing any more drawing and scanning.

In general, I'd say places of highest population (major cities) would be worst affected directly by attacks and pollution. That could have changed a lot though in 5,000 years, but maybe generally the most favourable lands for human settlement and development would have been where those cities would have ended up.
Edited by KayKay, May 11 2010, 03:54 PM.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

So we're talking most of Eurasia and America, then?
Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction!
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Ook
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white tailed deers,roe deers,boars,feral goats,martens,stoats,rabbits,hares....some of species,that could survive
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KayKay
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Quote:
 
So we're talking most of Eurasia and America, then?


Yeah. Especially the plains, which would be blackened and radioactive for many thousands of years.

Bexi, those sound like good ideas for survivors. I'm not quite sure about the deer and goats, but they are hardy animals so I'll add them for now. I've added a few ideas to the OP actually, I'll use it as a place to organize ideas put across so we can see what's been suggested and what hasn't.

Also I was thinking about survivors - the Earth pre-disaster was heavily deforested, and had undergone extreme ice-age climate change. I don't think tree-reliant animals would fare too well. The ones that survive entry into the ice age might be in numbers or species diversity that is too low for them to make it past the disaster.

So... would squirrels stand any chance? What about tree-nesting birds?

Also, what about crocodilians? Could they survive another disaster?
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Ook
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caimans can survive,tree nesting birds can change their habitat..they can nest at ruins,rocks or ground

for middle europe survivors:


Red fox live ewerywhere too,some lives in big cities
some rana sp. can survive this toxic polination,they live ewerywhere in big numbers
red squirel is common and fast breeding too,bu im not sure if they can survive deforestation,but some is adapted to live in cities
various rodents and insectivores(shrews,white toothed shrews etc.)
hedhehogs
various rodents.....maybe beavers too,
american mink
martes foina
mustela nivalis
racoon dog(not racoon,but racoon dog...there is very small number of racoons,and racoon dogs lives almost everywhere)
canis aureus-jackal
sus scrofa-wild boars...in czech republic is pest,there is very very big numbers of wild boars
dama dama...they are common and fast breeding
capreolus capreolus roe deer-most common deer,pest,fast breeding,lives everywhere
ovis musimon-Muflon?...lives everywhere,some enter cities
there is no feral goats in czech republic or slovakia
Edited by Ook, May 12 2010, 08:13 AM.
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KayKay
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Hm... you sure about red fox? Actually I guess they are pretty good scavengers and survivors that can survive in urban areas (though not too urbanized, that's more raccoon territory, foxes need a bit of green space), will eat almost anything.

Humans like to keep them breeding too, either for pets or for hunting purposes. Even if fox hunting goes out of fashion in 5000 years (which it likely will long before) they could still survive.

I can see some red squirrels surviving in the Centre of Asia, where there is likely to have been less deforestation and human settlement. During the ice age too, its climate-related biome is likely to be more Taiga. Greys I imagine would also be able to hang in there too, perhaps surviving in North America where reds don't.

I've put down raccoon dogs as possibly because I'm not sure, do you think they may be a bit too persecuted? Or perhaps the fact they are farmed enough to give them the chance to survive with humans being there?

I am also not sure about jackals, though I suppose if dogs can survive jackals might do too.

Are fallow deer small enough? I have never seen them up close, but I'm avoiding big animals because bigger bodies are a bigger energy drain in harsh times such as extinction events.

Mufflon is possible, but consider in many places they also don't do too well - to say they are everywhere, even knowing it's an exaggeration, is a bit much.

I was thinking of adding crows. Also common are pigeons, rock doves, very common and breed quickly (sometimes even over winter) in vast numbers most major cities around the globe, and can adapt easily to reverting back to the wild.
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Ook
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there is only few racoons,foxes rule here...they can easily live in agrucultural areas too

in southern europe jackals live almost everywhere,like foxes in middle and south europe

racoon dogs is adapted here,there is stabile populations almost everywhere.They are noctural animals,so they can easily hide from humans.

fallow deers-they are farmed and kept in big numbers,i think that here is more fallow deers than red deers.THey live in agricultural areas too

for roe deers-there is more roe deers in czech republic thatn hares and rabbits

muflons are kept mainly in forests and rocky areas,but they commonly enter town.I saw some muflons in our city park.

Pigeons survive,crows too,maybe magpies,sparrows and some other passerine birds,ducks..
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KayKay
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Hm... can we make the extinction event a little more severe?

When making this topic I had in mind to reduce species numbers and individual sizes to a minimum. Like even very successful species such as rats would be very hard hit.
Edited by KayKay, May 14 2010, 06:13 AM.
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Ook
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its your project,i give your only tips...many speciesa are succesfull ;)
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KayKay
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Maybe some rules...

No mammal above a metre in length survives, and those close to a metre in length have to be (a) in good numbers before the catastrophe and (b) fit the criteria for survival from a global extinction event that poisons, irradiates and sweeps the Earth on all surfaces and blocks out the sun, strengthens the current ice age, kills off many trees and leaves many lowland areas unusable thousands of years after other areas have recovered. Oceans are especially hard hit on coastal areas and the upper layers of open ocean. So we will still keep some of the suggested ideas but do away with a few also.

So, perhaps we cut back on larger mammals - a fox might be the limit in size of the individual and pre-catastrophe "health" of the species and its populations. Especially mammals and birds who have to eat much more food to sustain the same body mass as a reptile.

No more deer or goats or boar either.

Also thinking of avoiding animals that are too specialised, that would rule out mustelids and domestic cats. Yeah, it may not be a rule but it can be a guideline.

There's bound to be many songbirds that will make it, since they are so diverse, but which ones? There's so many to pick from. Perhaps we could just create a songbird archetype, and just say it's songbirds that fall under or chosen criteria for the archetype? Would save time listing possibly hundreds of songbird species (and maybe just list one or two examples). Could do something similar with other types of animals and plants, such as fish or insects.
Edited by KayKay, May 14 2010, 03:47 PM.
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Ook
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how about armadillos?smaller species could survive...silky anteater can survive too
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KayKay
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I think armadillos would suffer too much from habitat loss pre-catastrophe to be able to survive the catastrophe. It's going that way already it would seem. Do correct me if I'm wrong though, but all I hear about them is that they're struggling for habitat even today.

I'm about to post a map of how the Earth was affected pre and post disaster, but my scanner is not compatible with my version of windows (there literally isn't a driver available for windows 7) and it behaves on and off. So, having to restart the computer to see if that helps.
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KayKay
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Edited by KayKay, May 16 2010, 04:43 AM.
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Ook
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can you post legend of this map?what means that darker blue,light and dark green,and grey?


what about surviving hyrax?If they survives,they have big potentional to diverge into many herbivore niches(hyppo like,antelope like etc.)

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KayKay
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The legend is in the OP. It reads:

Light blue: Ice caps
Dark brown: Black poisonous radioactive desert
Light yellow: Habitable desert
Grey: Mountains
Light green: Arid scrubland
Bright green: Hardy meadows
Dark green: Emerging mixed forest
Teal green: Mixed tundra and taiga


I honestly don't know about hyrax survival, I'd imagine if there are any hyraxes that are adapted for desert or semi-desert habitat (not knowing much about them I don't know if there are). I'll look them up.

Well, from what I've seen rock hyraxes could theoretically escape the first extinction with habitat loss - people generally speaking don't want to inhabit rocky areas, and they look to live near dry, hot places that might also be unfavourable for human habitation.

There may be enough to survive in the habitable rocky scrubland available.
Edited by KayKay, May 15 2010, 01:52 PM.
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