Hmmm, are you thinking the small birds for pollination, or meat, or general ambiance, or what?
I was thinking of going boring and just bringing Apis mellifera as the main pollinator - a fair number of staple crops are wind-pollinated, and honeybees are so useful in other ways - wax, honey, edible larvae, anti-inflammatories - and so easy to control and propagate - that unless there was a particular crop I really wanted that needed some other pollinator, bees seemed like the best choice.
But, ooh, bats! Bats are awesome. I would love the excuse to have bats as part of the basic colonization set. If you could only bring one bat species, which one would you bring?
Fertilizer shouldn't really be a major issue though - like I mentioned, they're only settling planets that already have functioning nitrogen and phosphorus and carbon cycles that are compatible with Earth biology, so they can get basic fertilizers from the natives.
I'm thinking the ruminant they bring is goats - adaptable, smart, give milk, fiber, meat, and can be used as draught animals - unless someone has a better suggestion. Bring goats, with the hope that they'll be able to semi-domesticate at least a couple of native animals to help out with ploughing and stuff within a few human generations. But then I need to think about fodder crops for the goats...
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I was thinking of going boring and just bringing Apis mellifera as the main pollinator - a fair number of staple crops are wind-pollinated, and honeybees are so useful in other ways - wax, honey, edible larvae, anti-inflammatories - and so easy to control and propagate - that unless there was a particular crop I really wanted that needed some other pollinator, bees seemed like the best choice.
But, ooh, bats! Bats are awesome. I would love the excuse to have bats as part of the basic colonization set. If you could only bring one bat species, which one would you bring?
Fertilizer shouldn't really be a major issue though - like I mentioned, they're only settling planets that already have functioning nitrogen and phosphorus and carbon cycles that are compatible with Earth biology, so they can get basic fertilizers from the natives.
I'm thinking the ruminant they bring is goats - adaptable, smart, give milk, fiber, meat, and can be used as draught animals - unless someone has a better suggestion. Bring goats, with the hope that they'll be able to semi-domesticate at least a couple of native animals to help out with ploughing and stuff within a few human generations. But then I need to think about fodder crops for the goats...