What to Bring to a Colony World

[melannen]

Okay. You, and a bunch of your friends, are going off to colonize an alien planet.

You know that this planet has:

Gravity, heat, light, temporal cycles, elemental resources, and weather that are close enough to Earth's that most reasonably adaptable Earth species can survive and breed there.

A functioning carbohydrate-based planetary ecosystem that does basic things like keep the atmosphere oxygenated and soils fertile and dead things rotting and oceans thawed and all the other cycles rolling, and has been around long enough that much of the geology is fossilized (so there are probably coal and petroleum and carbonite deposits, etc.)

A fairly large landmass with a subtropical/Mediterranean-like climate with warm temperatures year-round, no major extreme weather, and ample seasonal rainfall, where you are planning to settle.

However, the planet's biology is not close enough to Earth's that Earth life can interact with it on any complex level. You can count on being able to use native life for things like fibers and building material and fuel and maybe latex and dyes, but anything you want to eat or use for medicine you'll have to bring with you. Along with pollinators and symbiotic fungi and any other life needed to keep that life going. And you're going to need to be self-sufficient within a year or two of arrival, with a fairly small initial population and very limited technological resources. On the plus side, local diseases, pests, and predators are mostly going to ignore anything Earth-based.

If you could have your pick of all species currently alive anywhere on Earth(and maybe a few that are recently extinct, and maybe a few that need a tiny bit of gene-tinkering first), what among Earth life would you bring with you? I am especially interested for species that aren't currently common food products in Europe/North America.

Comments

[dragonjournal]

1) Butterflies/bees (Probably wasps and/or yellow jackets. Yes, they're the epitome of EVIIIIIIIIIIIL but they're damned good about cross-pollination.)
2) Birds. Mostly small species (wrens, sparrows, robins, humming birds, etc)
3) BATS - damned good for pollination, keep the insect population down AND can be used to help with fertilizer. (Don't judge. Bat guano's good for it!)
4) Horses/goats/sheep - farming herd beasts. Manure, and all that jazz.


I think that's about all I can think of right now, but I'll probably come up with something later.

[melannen]

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...

[jjhunter]

Earthworms!

[melannen]

I think I would only bring earthworms if I wanted to completely nuke the native ecosystem. Ecch. I'm going to end up with invasives one way or another, yeah, but unless I'm missing something, if the planet has a earthworm-equivalent already we won't need to bring one, since most of what they do is soil aeration and simple decomposition, and if it doesn't have an equivalent, then they can really mess up the existing ecosystem, quick. (Oh, my lovely North American forests, and your sad shadow of what you once were.)

[passerine]

I remember in Herland, Ellador mentions that the last domestic animal the Herlanders regularly used was sheep, for the same sort of reasons (dairy animal that is also a source of fiber and meat).

[melannen]

Of course, people have also used horses and ponies for all of those things (riding, draught, milk, meat, fiber, etc.)

They've also used camels, llamas, alpacas, yak, buffalo, and kine for all of those. And I'm sure others, too. (Okay, llamas and alpacas aren't traditionally dairy animals, but you get some milk, and you could probably get them there with a century or so of directed breeding.) Rabbits and chinchillas give meat and wool; dogs give meat, draught, fiber and defense (among other things)...

...so if I have to pick one as the best?

I'm actually leaning against sheep, because they're stupid, and they overgraze, and they need lots of supervision, and the main thing they're good for is creating a wool surplus; if you aren't planning to export wool, or swim in the stuff (which my isolated sub-tropical colony won't be) they don't really seem like the best choice. I could be wrong, though.