After the Yunnan elephant herd entered the village, another animal also appeared in people's field of vision.
Recently, raccoons have appeared in more than 100 communities in Shanghai, and a large number of wild raccoons have erupted in a small area of Songjiang.
For a time, there were a large number of attacks, and many people expressed concern and fear about this creature, believing that special measures should be taken to drive it away.
But reporters interviewed experts and witnesses in the community, who said there was no direct evidence that the raccoons would attack people.
What kind of animal is a raccoon? Why is it now a protected animal? Is it a threat to people? Today, let's get to know it together.
What kind of animal is a raccoon?
The appearance rate of this animal in Chinese culture is not high, and most people know it because of the idiom of "one hill of raccoon", which means that the raccoons on the same hill have similar qualities.
A small number of people know it in the cartoon "Ginseng Kingdom" adapted from a northeast folk tale, and the raccoon and the badger are listed side by side with the two generals of the beast country, and the image is similar to that of the wild cat.
Raccoons are mainly distributed in China, Japan, Korea, South Korea, Russia, Vietnam and other places, and later widely introduced by European and American countries as an important fur beast.
In Japan, the raccoon is called "tanuki", the Japanese believe that it has spells, and like foxes and cats, it is a very spiritual animal, and the prototype of a mori crane is a raccoon.
Raccoons look a bit like cats and some like raccoons, so how do you tell them apart? Let's look down.
Raccoons, tanuki, raccoons, silly and unclear?
Many people are silly about raccoons, beavers, raccoons, red pandas, badgers, and seem to be cute little fat people, in fact, they are still easy to distinguish:
First of all, the main color of the red panda is brownish red, which is different from several other colors, and the little raccoon simply draws the red panda on the face. The claws of the red panda are also round and can be grasped, similar to the giant panda.
Raccoons have slender fingers that can be grasped like monkeys, and can even run on two legs holding food, a skill that few others have.
Badger common species are badgers, badgers, honey badgers, wolverines, are short-legged militants, More common in China are badgers and badgers, badgers are good at digging holes, so the claws are very developed, like the paws of a bear.
Badgers
The most common tanuki in China is the civet cat, which belongs to the civet cat family, just look at the tail, compared to several other fluffy short tails, the civet cat's tail is like most cats, and the trunk is about the same length.
The last thing to mention is our protagonist raccoon, whose paws are similar to those of dogs. Some experts believe that it is a relatively old canine.
Footage of raccoons drinking water taken by residents of Jiucheng Lakeside Community
Image source: Video screenshot
The albino raccoon looks similar to Samoyed.
Raccoons and raccoons also have a very similar place, that is, the diet is more mixed, whether it is rodents, birds, bird eggs, fish, frogs, snakes, shrimp, crabs, insects, snails, etc., or berries, fungi, rhizomes, seeds, grains and other plants, anyway, as long as you can eat food in the mouth, you will not refuse.
This also makes them more parasites, if it is encountered in the wild, do not touch it casually.
Raccoons are still relatively docile overall, and there is a unique hibernation habit in canines, generally relatively timid, and people run away as soon as they get close. Usually, families forage in pairs, day and night, so it is difficult for humans to see them.
In Japan, people love this animal so much that many restaurants put statues of Japanese raccoons on their doors, and most Japanese food stores in China can now see this image.
Japanese raccoons are also more bold, sometimes in the city to rummage through the garbage cans, in Japan some people will feed the raccoon food like a stray cat and dog, raccoons will also bring chestnuts and other things "return gifts", which in turn increases the spirituality of the raccoon.
In fact, this phenomenon is very common in mammals and birds, if you have helped the owl, it will often send you snakes, mice and other things that it likes to eat; if you have a friendship with a crow, it will feed you bugs and so on.
What is the "combat effectiveness" of the raccoon in the wild?
Due to the destruction of the living environment, the number of raccoons has decreased, and it has become a second-class protected animal in China, which is a state of no danger in the world.
However, it should be noted that being a protected animal does not mean that this animal is rare, and the sparrow is also a second-class protected animal, but its ecological value prohibits hunting. Moreover, this animal is artificially raised more, so the overall number is not much.
In europe and Siberia, where tigers, leopards, wolves and lynx are no longer as distributed and abundant as they once were, badgers and raccoons are moving to the top of the food chain in rural and agricultural areas.
Don't look at the two animals in the cartoon are "good friends", but in reality they are feuds.
Raccoons themselves can't dig holes, but hibernation and summer nursery need to find a nest. Therefore, they will choose to occupy the badger nest, the beaver nest and the red fox nest.
Among them, badgers are the best at digging holes, and the safety and comfort of the nest are higher. The nests of the latter two are usually shallow, resulting in poor warmth in winter and inability to withstand predators.
However, the badger is not bullied casually, think of its two "cousins": the eldest brother Wolverine - wolverine, the second brother flat-headed brother - honey badger, its combat effectiveness is also very strong.
Badgers weigh up to 11 kilograms, twice as much as raccoons, with thick skin and thick flesh, but their flexibility is much worse, although they always have a record of equality with large beasts, but against flexible raccoons, they can only be tied with a couple of raccoons.
Since the "combat effectiveness" is five or five, both sides will find an opportunity to kill each other's cubs.
Raccoons and badgers have breeding seasons from May to June, and both have a hibernation habit, sometimes living in different bedrooms in the same nest. During hibernation, badgers sleep relatively deadly, while raccoons like bears easily wake up in hibernation, sometimes burying badgers alive, and some badgers dig many ventilation holes in advance to prevent this from happening, or dig nests on hard soil.
raccoon dog
Even if it can't kill its opponents while hibernating, the raccoon wakes up earlier than the badger in the spring, and will first eat all the large animal carcasses it can find, so that the strong badger has no meat to eat.
In Russia the raccoon has become an invasive species, posing a serious threat to badgers. In recent years, wolves have been protected and their populations have rebounded, suppressing raccoon populations before the badger population recovers.
Expert of this article: Zhu Guangxi, popular science writer, member of Beijing Science Popularization Association