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

[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.