RaccAttack
TIL. I was confused because I thought raccoons were an American thing. It turns out the Nazis imported them for furs, and some escaped. Now Germany has a bunch of Raccoons.
I thought that this number seemed not so big, but that my perception might be skewed due to the chosen scale and an inability to imagine an process how big the depicted areas are, so I looked up the development of raccoon population in Germany (I read the german Wikipedia).
So, first of all, one of the major relevant incidents was pure greed. A poultry breeder released a couple of raccoons into the wild so that they would populate the area and pelt prices could go down because expensive imports would become unnecessary. I hate humans, especially the rich ones.
Second, according to a publication from 2011, at that time the population of raccoons in Germany size was estimated to be around half a million individuals and that each year, 300k animals would have to be killed if the population sized was to be reduced with a lasting effect. Although, that might not be enough, as research shows, after a 2007 distemper epidemic killed 80% of the female raccoon population in Müritz National Park, the year after more raccoons were counted than before the outbreak.
Third, we need the wolf back. As shown by the example before, raccoon populations are extremely resilient and also in north american raccoon populations hunting shows to be not only not a major cause of death, it was insignificant. In Germany, the lack of natural predators like the wolf is benefitting the expansion of some invasive species like raccoons, american minks or raccoon dogs (who are not raccoons) and also has an influence of growing populations of native species into overpopulations. Hunting and roadkill incidents alone shows to be not effective enough (at least in areas that are not destroyed habitats due to human expansion).
Correlation map with AfD votes next?
The black spaces on the 2020 map kinda look like a rabbit. Geez, you’d think they’d invade in a pattern that resembles a raccoon. SMH
I love the unit, R/ha.
We can do better than 0.1 R/ha though? What’s the R/ha of other countries?
It’s always fascinating to learn of the little differences. Lack of peanut butter. And, apparently, a lack of trash pandas patrolling your trash bins, until now.
I’m a bit confused. Every German supermarket has peanut butter. Most multiple kinds, like with or without crunch, certified organic, with cottonseed oil, etc… Did you have a different experience?
What are you talking about, peanut butter is available everywhere in Germany.
Yesssss. Invade us harder! Racoons for everyone! I love those cute Lil trashpandas 😍
Procyon lotor are only native to North America and are listed as an invasive species in the EU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon#Distribution_in_Germany
Everybody loves raccoons, the animal embodiment of one’s indomitable, anarchic trash-goblin spirit!
(5 seconds later) We regret to inform you that the presence of raccoons in Europe is a legacy of Hitler
That might not be as far from the truth as you might think. In 1945, a few individuals escaped a pelt farm (fuck humans) near Berlin due to an unknown cause and some hypothesize a bomb dropped during an air raid could have destroyed an enclosure.
IIRC, encouraging raccoon farming was a specific NSDAP policy, and may have started in the Nazi era.
They are cute, but they’re just bloodthisty toddler-sized hobos. They prey on small dogs and cats or fight them for territory, they eat chickens, they destroy fucking everything, and they can carry and spread rabies. They will rip up plants, tear siding off your house, pull up paving stones, and even break windows. Just imagine a hostile drifter on your property trying to fuck it up as hard as possible out of spite for you, and that’s about right.
We don’t put ‘siding’ on our houses so that’ll be fine, not looking forward to rabies tho :(
We do have foxes with rabies already, and wild boars plowing up lawns and flower beds
We don’t put ‘siding’ on our houses
It’s very common for continental European houses to have lap siding of some kind. Homes built according to modern trends are not the only kind of home there is.
They couldn’t enter here, would’ve got to climb some pretty high walls first :) But i get your point. So it’s like living in a very bad neighborhood just that the invaders and house-fuckers are fucking cute. Yet we drive 2h regularly to pet them in a tiny spot where they live. So it’s nowhere near your situation. Up to discovering that spot we didn’t even think they’d live here at all.
Raccoons can climb sheer walls. Anything they can grip with their claws, they can climb.
If they’d manage to climb these 8m walls, I’d be impressed and feed them their favorite food as a reward 😁
Speaking as an American, you won’t be saying that once they invade your attic. Trust me, you do not want this.
Couldn’t be mad at them for trying, can’t lie here :)
There’s a joke there about German attics, but I’m not a good enough comedian to make that without it being horribly offensive… So I won’t.
Pretty sure I don’t know about that
Is it in the same kind as with Austrian cellars?Well, the map shows them working their way towards Poland . . .
Europe brings rats to invade de sewers, America counterattacks by sending trash pandas
So they dug out the Klapstuhl? (Only germans understand this reference)
I’m puzzled by how a hectare can be determined to have 0.1 raccoons in it, like is it part of a 10 hectare region with a single 'coon or is the animal migratory and spends a tenth of its time in that particular hectare?
Anyhow raccoons are great when they’re screaming bloody murder at each other at night, and also when they amble up to you curiously during the day. Sorry they are competing with Germany’s, what, native badger population? What is the raccoon niche equivalent over there
You mean, is the racoon transtemporal or transdimensional…
…i put it to you that there’s only ever been a single racoon in Germany, it’s just very fast.
Olaf Scholz fighting a mysterious urge to get a pistol and a cyanide capsule and wander into the basement. Those who ignore history are doomed etc etc.
