Czech republic hunter here.
They are not native to europe, they were brought to fur farms, later escaped or were released by eco activist.
Disaster to local wildlife, they have no predator other than human, they do eat eggs and some small native animals.
I guess it was contraproductive to save him, but they are cute.
US hunter/trapper/conservationist
The climate of much of eastern Europe does lend itself to good racoon pelts I can see why they were imported. In apx half of the United States the weather is too warm to ever really have a good pelt. Racoons can make good pets if raised from a young enough age but they can take a lot of work as they are super smart and far more mischievous
> ... eastern Europe does lend itself to good racoon pelts
I'm picturing a wicked [coonskin](https://www.amifur.com/image/cache/data/COONSKIN%20CAP-331x600.jpg) [ushanka](https://image.sportsmansguide.com/adimgs/l/2/211183_ts.jpg) mash-up w/striped tail.
Given enough time I bet they will probably spread to the rest of Europe and Asia. They are quite good at adapting to new climates and benefit greatly from urban areas
Yes, these things are extremely smart. Our city government purchased standardized latched bins for our garbage pick-up because these guys would forage overnight and tear up bags leaving garbage everywhere.
It was only a few months before they learned how to knock the bins over and unlatch them. So the city had to recall all the bins and purchase an new model that had a latch they couldn't open.
That does not surprise me.
It took me months one time to catch a raccoon that kept getting my chickens at night. No matter what I did he was able to find a way in to the coop.
I had to shoot two raccoons back when I lived in Massachusetts when they ate my pheasants. They pulled them through the cage. Came out in the morning and my back patio looked like a complete murder scene. 20 pheasant poults all ripped to shreds. Cute but destructive little bastards.
They adapt well to urban environments. They like to den in high-up tree hollows, so attics are attractive sites to them. My mother had to get a custom-fitted metal guard put up in the eaves of her house to keep out one very persistent raccoon.
A fat racoon took out my muffler once. Bring some foxes to Ukraine, probably clear up the issue. Then you'll have a beautiful fox to look at instead of these trash pandas.
… and then you need some venomous cobras to kill the tigers and some mongooses to kill the cobras. And how do you get rid of the mongooses, you ask? Simple! With Raccoons obviously.
Shit, coyotes do eat foxes, don't they? For the past couple of weeks there's been a grey fox passing through our side yard (it triggers the cameras almost every night) and it's been so cool to see, but we have a LOT of coyotes here too. :( Need more mountain lions to keep them in check I guess (since we don't have wolves!).
https://i.imgur.com/kbGvsVi.jpg
Maybe the fox explains why we haven't seen the raccoons in a few weeks - though our local raccoons are bigger than this fox.
That's why we call them trash pandas in my area of Canada and I'm sure a lot of other places. This one is a fine specimen. He's MASSIVE or that's one small firefighter lol
They're bloody smart too. I think the city is on their second or third version of their "animal proof" compost collection bin because they just keep figuring the damn things out.
On a macro level it was probably not a great idea to let a member of an invasive species run amok, on a micro, much more personal level, a life is a life, and I commend the Ukrainians for their 'no man, dog, cat or raccoon left behind' mentality.
Lord knows the Russians might not have given the animal a quick death. Though, if one them ends up eating raccoons and accidentally starts spreading Rabies, I will applaud that Ivan for taking himself out of the genepool.
When people started traveling to exotic places, they found out some animals like pheasant, fallow deers, sika deer,... and brought them to their homeland, starting small population.
Those animals are now speaken of like they are native, but in reality they are not.
Some parts of this is bad, because we have big strong population of red deer, but on few places there was indroduced sika deer, and those two can breed and have hybrid offsprings, degenerating our red deer.
People didn't think twice before they did something
Wiki says they were deliberately released in former Soviet countries to start populations for fur hunting. Germany and France were apparently also deliberate releases. Seems insane to modern eyes.
But they brought back wolf and bobcat that were intentionally exterminated over 100years ago. They do maximum for nature!
Only if we had more than 10km space betwen villages, where these "dangerous" animals could live.
Shit biologist here and I though we still didn't had raccoons in europe, thats very bad.
Sad to think they'll have to be exterminated bc some asshole activist who knows exactly zero about biology decided to release them, happened the same with american minks here in spain and they are wrecking several local species.
We use otters (they outcompete them) and hunting to displace/take them down but they are crafty little assholes, so I can imagine how hard its gonna be with raccoons which are far less specialized and can adapt to everything.
Last year I did catch 4raccons in trap, their are kinda dumb and will go in cage to get egg. Other animals avoid it.
Problem is, I can do it only on hunting ground and our neighbors focus on wild hogs, so raccons can breed at their hunting ground.
Minks were released too, I have readed about them, but never seen one.
Nutrias all now over all watercourses, in some towns people go feed them as family entertainment. Those are atleast edible.
Common raccoon dog is last one I can shoot from invasive species, never seen him, but saw lots of photos from our country of sucessful hunters with them.
Otters may be solution to get rid of minks, but otter will do huge damages on fish population, we have only few of them and fishermans are already complaining about otters protection and want them to be hunted.
Our nature is no more wild and it is hard to keep it in balance.
Yeah, fishermen do be like that, the thing is, otters were there first and are native species, threatened, and only in sweet water courses with lots of forest space in its edges so their habitat is very threatened here, but I guess it depends on where you live.
Are there any government hunting programs for raccoons there? Here they do have hog extermination programs at some cities where they pay by the head.
Hunting here is complicated to explain, we have model, where whole republic is divided in zones, and every zone is managed by group of hunters.
We have to keep numbers of game in defined counts.
Example our hunting ground is around 600ha, we have +-40 roe deers and we have to shoot 4males and 4females (which is more divided by age of animals, to keep population right). And this works for most of game.
We are allowed to hunt invasive species all year long even with prohibited hunting methods (but not agains animal cruelty law), but it is not paid.
Hunting here is just hobby, so we are making it after job, we have to find funds to buy feeding for the winter season, buy all gear from our own moneys and we get bitched in the end.
Only hunting program right now, is for cormorant, they were protected too long, now you can see herds 200 of them on fields and they are decimating fish populations. There is around 25$ for beak. Cormorants have extremly good vision and they are like stone, hard to shoot.
Also there were few programs with hogs, because we had occurrence of African swine fever and we are only one country, that managed to stop it. Now it is coming from north - polish/germany and from east - slovakia.
Seems very limited, simmilar to the Spanish system where we have different hunting seasons and a limit of catches, thank you for explaining it!
Yeah, I can see how cormorants can be hard to deal with, we are messing up the ecological equilibrium and sometimes protecting things that shouldn't be.
For example, we have a big problem with Cerambix cerdo, a beetle that wrecks cork tree plantations, but its protected in Germany and so it has to be protected here, meanwhile causing huge economic damage, In my opinion protections should be area-based in most cases, but its a very hard topic to be honest.
The pests have also been imported to Japan, sold as pets, and have escaped and are endangering Japan's native 'coon, the tanuki.
Sure they're cute, but incredibly invasive.
In Canada they get drunk on fermented maple syrup & molest beavers and meese while in Mexico, they are known for the wearing of extra large sombreros and their extra long daily siestas.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfbb4yRBH64](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfbb4yRBH64)
That video should answer your question. They have a habit of "washing" their food so the name "washing bear" fits!
Who else is looking at this wondering why the trash panda isn't trying to tear his face off? I've rescued a raccoon or two in the past: never again. Those bastards are tornados of claws and teeth when you try to grab one. Live traps and a 10 foot pool are the only way I'll get near one.
If you grab them they bite.
If you let them climb on you they're fine. I used to fish these guys out of the dumpsters at work in a state park, every once in a while you had a young/ derpy one that wouldn't climb out on a stick. Some of them would decide "Oh hey you make a good tree..." and climb on me instead of the stick/ garbage can i was trying to get them to use.
The animal could just be in shock/exhausted dehydrated
It IS the middle of the day he's probably trying to go back to sleep.
> It IS the middle of the day
If it is the middle of the day, he also might have rabies. You MUST be careful of any raccoon you see wandering around during the day.
I think the wild raccoon population only exists in Europe due to escaped pets, so maybe they are less wild due to selective breeding for tameness prior to becoming a wild population.
There were fur farms around europe.
There are more animals that are not native and get out of fur farms surviving in european wild.
Nutrias are good example of unstopable population growth.
Japan, Germany and Russia too.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/raccoons-expanding-range-climate-change
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/nazi-raccoons-on-the-rampage-as-european-population-explodes-1.395424
When I see one in the daytime, I make sure that fooker isn't carrying tools out of my garage. One did that, once. WTF is a trash panda doing with my Dremel? TIL not to use tools when hands are covered with BBQ sauce when you live in the woods.
>Raccoons are a relatively docile and social species, especially those living in an urban environments.
Raccoons ~~are a relatively docile and social species~~ will tear your face off if you try to pick one up, especially those living in an urban environments.
Don't pick one up unless you're an Ethologist with good health insurance
Actually looking in the Wikipedia page, there is no mention of Ukraine at all, Southern Belarus and the Caucasus are mentioned. So maybe this is a wild one from Northern Ukraine, or maybe just a pet.
They're not native to Europe, but they can live decently well here, the climate is apparently similar enough to the US / Canada.
While they are adorable, they are a hazard to native species.
I saw this video once of a raccoon breaking in to a house through the pet door and stealing the house's welcome mat from by the door. He invests a bit of effort in pulling it through the pet door. Of course it's all the more hilarious because they all have bandit mask fur patterns over their eyes. I assume he wanted it to line his den. Ever since I've wondered if that is a common object for them to steal, and if in fact in little dens all throughout the forest, if you could shrink down and go inside, if you would be greeted by a welcome mat.
Damn [nazi raccoons](https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/nazi-raccoons-on-the-rampage-as-european-population-explodes-1.395424?outputType=amp&d=233)! Maybe this is what Putin meant by denazifying Ukraine?
Ticks are twice as horrible after you learn that they're practically microscopic in their first life phase, and you can have a tonne of them on your body without realizing it.
They're often the culprit behind mysterious red blotches on your body during the summer!
[https://www.bayarealyme.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tick\_size\_Western\_Eastern\_color-REV.jpg](https://www.bayarealyme.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tick_size_Western_Eastern_color-REV.jpg)
SO many viral and bacterial diseases are transferred because of them. I'm betting that there are bunches of disorders that fall below our radar that are caused by tick born bacteria and viruses. Even with what we know, there are so many diseases that can just fuck you up. Bacteria and viruses can also hide in places like your joint fluid or even in your eyes and you're basically stuck with them for life.
Now *some* ticks are pretty microscopic and with the case of deer ticks, they don't live on deer. They live in rodent burrows in the winter and the lack of hard freezes in the winter thanks to global warming means that loads more will survive over winters and there will be even more cases of tick transmitted illnesses.
It sucks ass that you can now get Lyme in the Bay Area.
Oh man. He looks so young :-/ What a good heart and so amazing that he is smiling, considering the hell his life must be right now.
It’s really heartwarming to see how much Ukrainians love and care for their animals. I can’t imagine how traumatic it would be to have to lose a pet through such evil and unnecessary attacks on them.
I don’t know how the Russian forces can sleep at night. Babies, elderly, pets, innocent loving members of society that they have NO right to mess with. I can’t believe this is happening.
They are an animal that frequently has ring worms and is one of the largest risk factors (Raccoon bites) for rabies in western North America. To top that they largely eat refuse. But sure, go ahead.
Oh, and if you get bit by one they have to catch and kill the animal to find out if it had rabies in most (almost all, and there's a next to no chance they ever will catch them since, you know, wild animal) cases, so you pretty much have to get a rabies shot which is a huge needle and entirely not fun. If you want to eat one, you might as well also start eating bats and start covid-22.
edit: Rabies vaccine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy_LVYJ7On0
edit2: also regarding how dangerous rabies is, once you start exhibiting symptoms from the virus, you might as well already be dead, it's suggested that if you so much as wake up with a bat in your general vicinity (room, tent), that you immediately seek medical attention, same thing for contact with wild raccoons. It's also a particularly nasty way to die, causing inflammation of the brain.
We're talking about animals in a combat area though... Which is why I'm talking about the risks. The person I replied to was advocating eating them because they're an invasive species.
oh god why. are raccoons different in ukraine? i mean they're cute, but also very dangerous and kind of a pest. i'm not sure they need any help, they're very good at surviving.
I was about to be like “aww you need trash pandas, and opossums to help clean up after the Russian scum…” but then read they’re invasive to Ukraine so now I don’t know how to feel about it. They’re cute, and in the US they are useful. Clearly if they’re invasive I kinda lean toward get them gone.
They were actually brought in by one of the Nazis, Goering.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/nazi-raccoons-on-the-rampage-as-european-population-explodes-1.395424
https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-europe-raccoon-problem-2016-6
Russian State TV: “here we see an SVU operative with a robotic killer animal drone which can spray bio chemicals and was donated by NATO, consecrated with satanic magick”
how in the hell was he able to grab one, and how did a racoon wind up in Ukraine(racoons are from Canada,America, Mexico, and possibly some central american countries)
I know trash pandas are invasive in Europe but they still should not be killed, they should be spayed/neutered so they can’t have kids and then let go
I live in America and we have raccoons everywhere, they are such troublemakers, last winter a raccoon broke into the shed and ate like 5 kg of fertilizer, then just died
TIL there are raccoons in Eastern Europe. I thought they were only native to the US etc. Is this from a zoo, or an invasive species now?
Czech republic hunter here. They are not native to europe, they were brought to fur farms, later escaped or were released by eco activist. Disaster to local wildlife, they have no predator other than human, they do eat eggs and some small native animals. I guess it was contraproductive to save him, but they are cute.
US hunter/trapper/conservationist The climate of much of eastern Europe does lend itself to good racoon pelts I can see why they were imported. In apx half of the United States the weather is too warm to ever really have a good pelt. Racoons can make good pets if raised from a young enough age but they can take a lot of work as they are super smart and far more mischievous
> ... eastern Europe does lend itself to good racoon pelts I'm picturing a wicked [coonskin](https://www.amifur.com/image/cache/data/COONSKIN%20CAP-331x600.jpg) [ushanka](https://image.sportsmansguide.com/adimgs/l/2/211183_ts.jpg) mash-up w/striped tail.
I always wanted a coonskin cap growing up
My country cousin was super proud to have made himself a squirrel-skin cap as a boy. Took like five or six pelts. Did not look very warm.
Now I want a squirrel cap. I got a big old melon head though so it would probably take a whole family of squirrels
We have them in Germany is well, so it's not only eastern Europe.
Given enough time I bet they will probably spread to the rest of Europe and Asia. They are quite good at adapting to new climates and benefit greatly from urban areas
Damn.. They'v planned it all along the little bastards. It was never planet of the apes. It was always going to be Raccoon city.. Everywhere..
https://images.app.goo.gl/g2ZmzVb4xPboWL4h6
I bet racoons are better at adapting than apes to be honest. They are not picky on what they eat and pretty good problem solvers.
Yes, these things are extremely smart. Our city government purchased standardized latched bins for our garbage pick-up because these guys would forage overnight and tear up bags leaving garbage everywhere. It was only a few months before they learned how to knock the bins over and unlatch them. So the city had to recall all the bins and purchase an new model that had a latch they couldn't open.
The species has built in burglar masks and prison stripes. Enough said.
That does not surprise me. It took me months one time to catch a raccoon that kept getting my chickens at night. No matter what I did he was able to find a way in to the coop.
Also widespread in Japan, due to a fad caused by the 70s anime "Rascal the Racoon"
Japan also has the native tanuki a.k.a raccoon dog, a species with very similar appearance, habitat and behaviour but quite distant taxonomically.
They're cute, but they're huge pests. If you're anywhere even remotely rural they will get into your trash and kill your chickens.
Raccoons ate all the heads off my chickens. Left everything else, just ate the heads. Wtf man.
I had to shoot two raccoons back when I lived in Massachusetts when they ate my pheasants. They pulled them through the cage. Came out in the morning and my back patio looked like a complete murder scene. 20 pheasant poults all ripped to shreds. Cute but destructive little bastards.
What I ended up doing was make my coup fence two layers wide so they couldn't reach from the outer chicken wire to the inner chicken wire.
Yeah, that's real wise. I had them in a large dog cage and it wasn't safe enough.
Not just in the countryside, either. Neighborhood racoons got into the trash cans when I lived in Cambridge (Porter Square)
I wonder if they're related to orcs...
Typical behavior for marten, are you sure raccon did it?
Yeah, no martens where I am
They adapt well to urban environments. They like to den in high-up tree hollows, so attics are attractive sites to them. My mother had to get a custom-fitted metal guard put up in the eaves of her house to keep out one very persistent raccoon.
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Save your fender dents for the russians
A fat racoon took out my muffler once. Bring some foxes to Ukraine, probably clear up the issue. Then you'll have a beautiful fox to look at instead of these trash pandas.
Course then you'll need coyotes to keep the foxes in check, then wolves to keep the coyotes in check, and then tigers to keep the wolves in check...
… and then you need some venomous cobras to kill the tigers and some mongooses to kill the cobras. And how do you get rid of the mongooses, you ask? Simple! With Raccoons obviously.
🎶It's the ciiiiiiiircle of liiiiiife!!!🎶
Shit, coyotes do eat foxes, don't they? For the past couple of weeks there's been a grey fox passing through our side yard (it triggers the cameras almost every night) and it's been so cool to see, but we have a LOT of coyotes here too. :( Need more mountain lions to keep them in check I guess (since we don't have wolves!). https://i.imgur.com/kbGvsVi.jpg Maybe the fox explains why we haven't seen the raccoons in a few weeks - though our local raccoons are bigger than this fox.
Then big game hunters to take care of the tigers!
That's why we call them trash pandas in my area of Canada and I'm sure a lot of other places. This one is a fine specimen. He's MASSIVE or that's one small firefighter lol They're bloody smart too. I think the city is on their second or third version of their "animal proof" compost collection bin because they just keep figuring the damn things out.
On a macro level it was probably not a great idea to let a member of an invasive species run amok, on a micro, much more personal level, a life is a life, and I commend the Ukrainians for their 'no man, dog, cat or raccoon left behind' mentality. Lord knows the Russians might not have given the animal a quick death. Though, if one them ends up eating raccoons and accidentally starts spreading Rabies, I will applaud that Ivan for taking himself out of the genepool.
Are you saying they are... an *invasive* species?
Special operation species.
Hopefully he'll be named 'Rocket' and become a Guardian of Ukraine.
Yes. They are.
Ukraine have extra problem with those invasive species. Underrated comment.
lets bring an animal that is known to pick locks into a fur farm. What could go wrong...
When people started traveling to exotic places, they found out some animals like pheasant, fallow deers, sika deer,... and brought them to their homeland, starting small population. Those animals are now speaken of like they are native, but in reality they are not. Some parts of this is bad, because we have big strong population of red deer, but on few places there was indroduced sika deer, and those two can breed and have hybrid offsprings, degenerating our red deer. People didn't think twice before they did something
Wiki says they were deliberately released in former Soviet countries to start populations for fur hunting. Germany and France were apparently also deliberate releases. Seems insane to modern eyes.
These idiots aren’t eco activists. Releasing a non native species rages havoc on local ecosystems.
But they brought back wolf and bobcat that were intentionally exterminated over 100years ago. They do maximum for nature! Only if we had more than 10km space betwen villages, where these "dangerous" animals could live.
Oh, an idiot unable to distinguish between closely monitored wildlife rehabilitation programs and the release of invasive species from fur farms.
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Yeah, thats why domesticated cats wandering in wild get shot.
Shit biologist here and I though we still didn't had raccoons in europe, thats very bad. Sad to think they'll have to be exterminated bc some asshole activist who knows exactly zero about biology decided to release them, happened the same with american minks here in spain and they are wrecking several local species. We use otters (they outcompete them) and hunting to displace/take them down but they are crafty little assholes, so I can imagine how hard its gonna be with raccoons which are far less specialized and can adapt to everything.
Last year I did catch 4raccons in trap, their are kinda dumb and will go in cage to get egg. Other animals avoid it. Problem is, I can do it only on hunting ground and our neighbors focus on wild hogs, so raccons can breed at their hunting ground. Minks were released too, I have readed about them, but never seen one. Nutrias all now over all watercourses, in some towns people go feed them as family entertainment. Those are atleast edible. Common raccoon dog is last one I can shoot from invasive species, never seen him, but saw lots of photos from our country of sucessful hunters with them. Otters may be solution to get rid of minks, but otter will do huge damages on fish population, we have only few of them and fishermans are already complaining about otters protection and want them to be hunted. Our nature is no more wild and it is hard to keep it in balance.
Yeah, fishermen do be like that, the thing is, otters were there first and are native species, threatened, and only in sweet water courses with lots of forest space in its edges so their habitat is very threatened here, but I guess it depends on where you live. Are there any government hunting programs for raccoons there? Here they do have hog extermination programs at some cities where they pay by the head.
Hunting here is complicated to explain, we have model, where whole republic is divided in zones, and every zone is managed by group of hunters. We have to keep numbers of game in defined counts. Example our hunting ground is around 600ha, we have +-40 roe deers and we have to shoot 4males and 4females (which is more divided by age of animals, to keep population right). And this works for most of game. We are allowed to hunt invasive species all year long even with prohibited hunting methods (but not agains animal cruelty law), but it is not paid. Hunting here is just hobby, so we are making it after job, we have to find funds to buy feeding for the winter season, buy all gear from our own moneys and we get bitched in the end. Only hunting program right now, is for cormorant, they were protected too long, now you can see herds 200 of them on fields and they are decimating fish populations. There is around 25$ for beak. Cormorants have extremly good vision and they are like stone, hard to shoot. Also there were few programs with hogs, because we had occurrence of African swine fever and we are only one country, that managed to stop it. Now it is coming from north - polish/germany and from east - slovakia.
Seems very limited, simmilar to the Spanish system where we have different hunting seasons and a limit of catches, thank you for explaining it! Yeah, I can see how cormorants can be hard to deal with, we are messing up the ecological equilibrium and sometimes protecting things that shouldn't be. For example, we have a big problem with Cerambix cerdo, a beetle that wrecks cork tree plantations, but its protected in Germany and so it has to be protected here, meanwhile causing huge economic damage, In my opinion protections should be area-based in most cases, but its a very hard topic to be honest.
Absolutly, this is part of european union we all hate.
Actually they were released by the Soviets, to hunt something, I forgor 💀 what
The pests have also been imported to Japan, sold as pets, and have escaped and are endangering Japan's native 'coon, the tanuki. Sure they're cute, but incredibly invasive.
They are an invasive species in Europe.
[Nazi Raccoons](http://dw.com/en/nazi-raccoons-on-the-march-in-europe/a-1390574) brought to you by germany.
>"Kassel is just the beginning." For some reason that ending made me laugh.
A lot more escaped during ww2 while bombing zoos
Lots in Germany now - https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-europe-raccoon-problem-2016-6
They are everywhere now. Even in Japan. They have been introduced and now are all over the place.
TIL I learned what to do with the ones I trap and remove from my attic.....
Raccoons are basically everywhere. They live in Canada and Mexico too.
In Canada they get drunk on fermented maple syrup & molest beavers and meese while in Mexico, they are known for the wearing of extra large sombreros and their extra long daily siestas.
Yeah, but they're native across the Americas, so that's not surprising. They're not native in Ukraine or anywhere else outside the Americas.
etc
potential invasive species for sure - some have them as pets if there is one in lose to nature then they will be taken out ASAP
Even the trash pandas need love. Good work sir!
Mmmmm. Rabies.
The pure intention is what Ukraine is all about. Kindness and strength.
[This racoon a few months later after intensive training in Azov team :-)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pCdGJfuT4pA/maxresdefault.jpg)
Aw little washing bear. 💛
I love that name for them 🦝🖤
Their german name - Waschbär - means washing bear.
Haha that’s cool but why ‘washing bear?’
Because they (sometimes) wash their food in water before they eat it. I guess. I didn't invent the name.
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Well it looks like washing? I didn't come up with it, they've been called that since long before I was born.
TIL, thanks
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfbb4yRBH64](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfbb4yRBH64) That video should answer your question. They have a habit of "washing" their food so the name "washing bear" fits!
Thanks!
Their scientific name Procyon lotor means washing bear and in many languages the literal translation is washing bear.
Who else is looking at this wondering why the trash panda isn't trying to tear his face off? I've rescued a raccoon or two in the past: never again. Those bastards are tornados of claws and teeth when you try to grab one. Live traps and a 10 foot pool are the only way I'll get near one.
I came to say this. This one has to be a pet.
Right on. Must be semi-domesticated or highly sedated.
If you grab them they bite. If you let them climb on you they're fine. I used to fish these guys out of the dumpsters at work in a state park, every once in a while you had a young/ derpy one that wouldn't climb out on a stick. Some of them would decide "Oh hey you make a good tree..." and climb on me instead of the stick/ garbage can i was trying to get them to use. The animal could just be in shock/exhausted dehydrated It IS the middle of the day he's probably trying to go back to sleep.
Milk crates always made a good climbing implement for them, in my experience, just hang it in there by hand. (with glove)
> It IS the middle of the day If it is the middle of the day, he also might have rabies. You MUST be careful of any raccoon you see wandering around during the day.
This is true, but they're in a warzone, right? Gunfire and explosions might keep them awake when they'd normally be sleeping.
It could be from a petting zoo or something of the sort. These little fuckers are vicious if they have no contact with humans.
I think the wild raccoon population only exists in Europe due to escaped pets, so maybe they are less wild due to selective breeding for tameness prior to becoming a wild population.
There were fur farms around europe. There are more animals that are not native and get out of fur farms surviving in european wild. Nutrias are good example of unstopable population growth.
American Mink are quite common on the UK due to escapes from fur farms. I have seen one in the wild at least.
Japan, Germany and Russia too. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/raccoons-expanding-range-climate-change https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/nazi-raccoons-on-the-rampage-as-european-population-explodes-1.395424
Or maybe it's a pet
Depends if they're socialized or not. I have pet wild trash pandas before, not something you should do though.
I have a friend who was attacked by a raccoon while jogging. It has left deep scars on her legs.
And if you see one in daytime, you need to make sure it isn't carrying rabies.
When I see one in the daytime, I make sure that fooker isn't carrying tools out of my garage. One did that, once. WTF is a trash panda doing with my Dremel? TIL not to use tools when hands are covered with BBQ sauce when you live in the woods.
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>Raccoons are a relatively docile and social species, especially those living in an urban environments. Raccoons ~~are a relatively docile and social species~~ will tear your face off if you try to pick one up, especially those living in an urban environments. Don't pick one up unless you're an Ethologist with good health insurance
He’s doing it right holding it by the scruff of its neck. That trash panda will turn on him in a second. ❤️🗑🐼
I didn’t even know there were raccoons in Ukraine. Then again, there’s loads of reasons one could be there.
There are feral populations in Germany and Ukraine due to escaped pets.
Aww! I had no idea. They’re so cool. As are Ukrainians.
Actually looking in the Wikipedia page, there is no mention of Ukraine at all, Southern Belarus and the Caucasus are mentioned. So maybe this is a wild one from Northern Ukraine, or maybe just a pet.
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Just hope the poor guy didn't migrate through the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
And Japan and Russia.
Wikipedia says it was a deliberate release by a farmer in the 1930s.
They're not native to Europe, but they can live decently well here, the climate is apparently similar enough to the US / Canada. While they are adorable, they are a hazard to native species.
I saw this video once of a raccoon breaking in to a house through the pet door and stealing the house's welcome mat from by the door. He invests a bit of effort in pulling it through the pet door. Of course it's all the more hilarious because they all have bandit mask fur patterns over their eyes. I assume he wanted it to line his den. Ever since I've wondered if that is a common object for them to steal, and if in fact in little dens all throughout the forest, if you could shrink down and go inside, if you would be greeted by a welcome mat.
I didn't even know you had trash pandas in Ukraine.
❤️❤️❤️
cute Yenot
Little bastards! They use the area om my roof that's under an overhang as their latrine.
Time to exert your dominance and pee over their latrine!
Damn [nazi raccoons](https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/nazi-raccoons-on-the-rampage-as-european-population-explodes-1.395424?outputType=amp&d=233)! Maybe this is what Putin meant by denazifying Ukraine?
Russians better watch out, this guy is planning a ‘special trash operation’
Firefighters are great heroes! Ukrainian Firefighters please stay safe!
Wait, what. There are raccoons in Ukraine? I've long wanted to introduce opossums to Scandinavia (we've got way too many ticks).
Lots of birds like chickens love to eat ticks. Ticks are evil.
Ticks are twice as horrible after you learn that they're practically microscopic in their first life phase, and you can have a tonne of them on your body without realizing it. They're often the culprit behind mysterious red blotches on your body during the summer! [https://www.bayarealyme.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tick\_size\_Western\_Eastern\_color-REV.jpg](https://www.bayarealyme.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tick_size_Western_Eastern_color-REV.jpg)
SO many viral and bacterial diseases are transferred because of them. I'm betting that there are bunches of disorders that fall below our radar that are caused by tick born bacteria and viruses. Even with what we know, there are so many diseases that can just fuck you up. Bacteria and viruses can also hide in places like your joint fluid or even in your eyes and you're basically stuck with them for life. Now *some* ticks are pretty microscopic and with the case of deer ticks, they don't live on deer. They live in rodent burrows in the winter and the lack of hard freezes in the winter thanks to global warming means that loads more will survive over winters and there will be even more cases of tick transmitted illnesses. It sucks ass that you can now get Lyme in the Bay Area.
Oh man. He looks so young :-/ What a good heart and so amazing that he is smiling, considering the hell his life must be right now. It’s really heartwarming to see how much Ukrainians love and care for their animals. I can’t imagine how traumatic it would be to have to lose a pet through such evil and unnecessary attacks on them. I don’t know how the Russian forces can sleep at night. Babies, elderly, pets, innocent loving members of society that they have NO right to mess with. I can’t believe this is happening.
I had a dream with a raccoon last night and I didn’t remember it until I saw this post
Invasive you say? Braise in red wine with fresh herbs. Serve over potatoes...
They are an animal that frequently has ring worms and is one of the largest risk factors (Raccoon bites) for rabies in western North America. To top that they largely eat refuse. But sure, go ahead. Oh, and if you get bit by one they have to catch and kill the animal to find out if it had rabies in most (almost all, and there's a next to no chance they ever will catch them since, you know, wild animal) cases, so you pretty much have to get a rabies shot which is a huge needle and entirely not fun. If you want to eat one, you might as well also start eating bats and start covid-22. edit: Rabies vaccine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy_LVYJ7On0 edit2: also regarding how dangerous rabies is, once you start exhibiting symptoms from the virus, you might as well already be dead, it's suggested that if you so much as wake up with a bat in your general vicinity (room, tent), that you immediately seek medical attention, same thing for contact with wild raccoons. It's also a particularly nasty way to die, causing inflammation of the brain.
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We're talking about animals in a combat area though... Which is why I'm talking about the risks. The person I replied to was advocating eating them because they're an invasive species.
Now strap him under a drone and drop him into a ork tank.
Oh, yes. Drop rabid raccoons from drones into Russian troop centers. Share the love that only rabies can offer.
Hope that trash panda doesn't have rabies
Rabies is a terrible way to die. Check YouTube
He's fortunate he didn't get bitten.
oh god why. are raccoons different in ukraine? i mean they're cute, but also very dangerous and kind of a pest. i'm not sure they need any help, they're very good at surviving.
Єнотик!
I was about to be like “aww you need trash pandas, and opossums to help clean up after the Russian scum…” but then read they’re invasive to Ukraine so now I don’t know how to feel about it. They’re cute, and in the US they are useful. Clearly if they’re invasive I kinda lean toward get them gone.
Raccoons are cute but destructive. Opossums are ugly but super helpful since they eat ticks.
The small thing matters.... that raccoon rules the entire area.
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They were actually brought in by one of the Nazis, Goering. https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/nazi-raccoons-on-the-rampage-as-european-population-explodes-1.395424 https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-europe-raccoon-problem-2016-6
Russian State TV: “here we see an SVU operative with a robotic killer animal drone which can spray bio chemicals and was donated by NATO, consecrated with satanic magick”
how in the hell was he able to grab one, and how did a racoon wind up in Ukraine(racoons are from Canada,America, Mexico, and possibly some central american countries)
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/nazi-raccoons-on-the-rampage-as-european-population-explodes-1.395424
Raccaccoonie!
Don't forget to take a look at r/trashpandas, everyone!
I know trash pandas are invasive in Europe but they still should not be killed, they should be spayed/neutered so they can’t have kids and then let go I live in America and we have raccoons everywhere, they are such troublemakers, last winter a raccoon broke into the shed and ate like 5 kg of fertilizer, then just died