[gamerguy]

Exotic animals are not limited to Texas or the US either. Here in Ontario there are some options for displaced species.

In the '80s there was a push to start farming Emus. The hook was some oil gland or other was supposed to be valuable. Plus the meat made use of the carcass. I know there were quite a few farms in and around Kitchener Waterloo area. What they did with the birds I don't know but that whole market is bust.

In the '90s a guy from the western US imported the first alpacas into north America. He split the herd into three and kept them at different locations in case of disease or some other unknown event he would only lose one or two thirds of the critters. I know this as the Lama farm (yet another species!) they kept one group in was local to the vet clinic my wife worked at. She had quite a way with them and saved a very rare baby so became quite the hero in the importer's eye. She kept the idea of getting a few and keeping them on our property going for years "helped" by input from our nephew's wife. They are kept for their wool much like the Lamas. The terrain is not as mountainous as where they are from but the climate here should be reasonably close temperature wise. Don't know if they taste good or not.

There is a big cat rescue entity near where we used to live. Orono Jungle Cat World, or something like that. I think unwanted grown up lions, tiger, etc. were saved and housed there. They ran it as sort of a zoo mostly to recoup costs. Another source or idea of how and where off continent big cats can come from.

My wife being a vet was very much into everything. We had peafowl for years, a pair but siblings. One day one got loose and we saw it walking down the drive (we lived in the country) so we ran out and corralled it up and led it back to the pen, where it already was! Here we found a "wild" loose peafowl just walking around central Ontario as if it was just the thing to do. Turns out our neighbors had it walk up their drive a couple years earlier so they fed and kept it. Well it got out and hearing ours came to investigate. So another odd creature you can "just run into".

Last one, not Ontario but I think in Pennsylvania. Clive Peelings Reptile Land is what I always took for a small sad roadside attraction on the drive from my place to my sister's in the DC area. One year my wife spotted the sign and insisted we stop. I was all set for a handful of ill kept animals in lousy cages which would be very depressing. Turns out Clive is one of the top authorities on reptiles in north America and this place would put any high end Zoo to shame. I was very impressed and this thread got me thinking how these animals would fare out in the wild.