Best survival dog?

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  • edited December 2014
    In the scenario, the island is the size of Texas.

    Well, Texas is 696 241 km². The only ones which approach that size are Madagascar (587,040 km²). Baffin Island (507 451 km²), Sumatra (480 848 km²), New Guinea (785 753 km²) and Borneo (748,168 KM²). There's more biodiversity on Baffin Island than in this scenario.

    But since we are looking at temperate zone, the most suitable ones would be Great Britain (229 848 km²), Honshu (227 963 km²), South Island (145 836 km²), North Island (111 583 km²), Newfoundland (108 860 km²).

    The closest island I can think of which matches this scenario would be the continent of Zealandia given the description of temperate forests, savannas and mountains. They have all the potential game, except for the predators. The largest mammalian predators would be stoats, feral dogs and feral cats.

    For Great Britain to work, we would have to wind back the geological clock back to when wolves still roamed the island. However, they do have all the listed ecosystems when the island used to be forested.

    Not sure what Honshu would be like if 103 million people weren't living on it. If UK's ecosystem is radically different from 600 years ago, and they only number 64 million, hard to fathom Japan would be like without humans.

    But on the other hand, if remnants of the Appalachians could be "considered" as mountains, then Newfoundland could be a candidate seeing they have both grasslands and temperate forests. They have wolves and coyotes as well as lynxes. No bobcats, but Canada Lynx is close enough. Boars would have to be substituted with escaped feral pigs. Just no feral goats. The golden jackal is basically a Eurasian coyote anyway in term of ecological niche and genetic relatedness; and the eastern wolves are basically coydog-coywolf-wolfdog admixture anyway.

    In any case, all of those islands have more biodiversity. The proposed ecosystems are plausible though. The only thing missing in the picture is the lack of mention of avian species.
    I'm impressed by your evaluation. Nice job! Since avians are needed let's add wild turkeys and game pheasants. Also I was wondering if a dingo would be suitable for such an enviroment.
    @souggy - I think it's the absence of other avian species, reptiles, amphibians, and lack of biodiversity (esp the latter) that makes it implausible to me in the real world. 9 mammals, 1 bird, a few species of deep water fish, plus you and your two dogs. That's discounting you, that is 10-15 species over three different climate ranges....
    I suppose you're right. So in the waters there will be bullfrogs, trout and salamanders. That includes their common prey. On land I'm adding hedgehogs, because they rock. For reptiles lace monitors, corn snakes, and a poisonous viper will be added.
  • Those trout won't live too long in a tropical climate like that. Catfish and bass might be a better choice lol.
  • You had Gen ( @shishiinu ) at "wild turkeys"... He's ready to move there now.

    The upside of large dogs is that you could eat them if SHTF. Just say'n...
  • Yes I am, this island sounds like paradise to me.
  • Those trout won't live too long in a tropical climate like that. Catfish and bass might be a better choice lol.
    It's an evolved species.
    You had Gen ( @shishiinu ) at "wild turkeys"... He's ready to move there now.

    The upside of large dogs is that you could eat them if SHTF. Just say'n...
    That's true. Though I don't think I could bring myself to it.
    Yes I am, this island sounds like paradise to me.
    Yeah, the biggest issue would be the coywolves and shelter.
  • Dealt with coydogs and know how to build shelter.
  • edited October 2015
    edit: didn't realize this thread was so old...
  • This has been utterly fascinating! However I will live and die with my AA. He and I would both starve, just together. I can farm. And used to trap. My father and his father taught me. I have actually never killed anything and don't want to. I'm not a vegan. I eat meat, I just don't want to kill it. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite. I can and have butchered deer, rabbit and squirrel. Also Dad was a big fisherman and I can clean and filet fish with the best of them.
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