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

[melannen]

Oooh, thank you for the Australian options! Some of those will be excellent.

Is wattle widely used for food (or was it in the past)? I know you can eat the seeds, but I had never thought of them as a staple. And emus are definitely a thought.

[ex_pippin880]

Some other stuff too! It also means you can more easily re-enact Monty Python. :D #notthebestpriorities

You'll probably also want a shorthaired farmdog like a blue heeler or a koolie, rather than your classic border collie, due to the heat? I have no idea what breeds US farmers use!

[melannen]

I suspect for dogs they'll go for something generalist to start with, rather than a specialized herding dog - maybe something resembling a pariah dog or a rat terrier or just a mix of dogs from all over the gene pool, so they can get hardy dogs that will do whatever is necessary! The neatest thing about dogs is just how easy they are to breed into whatever you need.

(Most of the farms in my part of the US don't need herding dogs, so for working farm dogs they tend to go for something like a rat terrier or a Carolina yaller dog, often not anything even vaguely like purebred. Or hunting dogs that only do farm-work as a hobby. In the cattle-ranching areas of the West and Southwest, it's usually the Australian breeds, collies, or Australian/collie mixes, depending on how far north you go. ETA: And I have just discovered that the dog Americans call an Aussie dog is not actually an Australian breed. Oh, America. So, Blue Heelers, Aussie dogs which aren't actually Australian, and border collies, then.)

[ex_pippin880]

I guess the idea of a cattle station smaller than Belgium and not needing specialised herders is just too alien for me to imagine. :p

the dog Americans call an Aussie dog is not actually an Australian breed.

Haha, what! *googles* Oh wow, those things have waaaaay too much fur.

[melannen]

See, we American distinguish between a "farm" and a "ranch."

A ranch is approximately the size of Belgium and has cows and/or sheep on it, and has ranch dogs like Aussie dogs.

A farm is a few dozen to a few thousand acres, and has plants, dairy, and/or poultry, usually; sometimes pigs or a few dozen steers. Surely Australia has some farms that *aren't* cattle stations the size of Belgium? In Queensland maybe? :D

[ex_pippin880]

Only in boring places where it actually rains, like south west Western Australia.