This fluffy bandit strikes terror in the hearts of every small creature it meets.
It's a tireless hunter whose belly is a hunger-fuelled bottomless pit
and whose domain is constantly expanding.
Or is it an adorable magical creature who has charmed the hearts of millions?
This cutie has many faces, and they're all masked.
This is the raccoon dog.
Hi, I'm Danielle Dufault and you're watching Animalogic.
Today we're talking about one of the cutest and fluffiest animals I've ever seen.
They're also kind of the black sheep of their family, but it's really not their fault.
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Raccoon dogs are canids and are distantly related to dogs and wolves,
though they're more closely related to foxes.
They're the only members of the nycterectus genus, but within the genus their taxonomy is a mess.
They're found natively in Japan and continental east Asia.
Some scientists believe that the Japanese raccoon dog,
also known as tanuki, is its own species, while others say it's just a subspecies.
Others yet again, say that only some of the Japanese raccoon
dogs are different enough to be considered a separate species.
Of course that doesn't really matter much to them, all they really care about is food.
And who can blame them?
These hungry, hungry creepos have the most varied diet of all canids.
They pretty much will eat anything, from roots to fish to birds.
They have a more well-balanced diet than me.
And as a type-1 diabetic, I do pretty good.
Rodents such as gerbils and voles are commonly taken throughout their range.
In swampy areas they eat turtles and poisonous frogs,
and protect themselves from the toxins by producing extra saliva to dilute the toxins.
Yep, they drool themselves into being immune to poison.
During the winter, they're able to supplement their diet with carrion and, weirdly, feces.
Has it always got to be feces?
This very diet might give them a bit of bad breath,
but it helps them survive the cold winter months.
Though they have more survival skills than just having a black hole for a mouth.
These ninja-like cuties are masters of stealth.
Raccoon dogs are night time specialists.
Despite their abundance, they're most often seen after dusk.
This protects the young from diurnal predators such as eagles and humans.
Their eyes are well adapted to low light conditions,
and their iconic black markings around their eyes help them reduce glare.
This means that they're less likely to be blinded by bright sources of light.
It's a tried-and-true technique that even soldiers and athletes use.
And most importantly, it makes them look like furry doggy bandits.
Their resemblance to trash pandas is a classic case of convergent evolution.
These two nocturnal omnivorous mammals developed similar traits based on similar habits and needs.
Like raccoons, who survive the frigid North American winters, raccoon dogs
have a dense winter fur that protects them from the temperatures as low as -25 degrees celsius.
But unlike their North American look-alikes, raccoon dogs hibernate to survive the lean months.
They're the only canids to do so, and, like other hibernating animals,
they rely on fat reserves to take them through the winter.
Raccoon dogs will go into hibernation weighing about seven kilograms
and come out weighing just half of that.
Those who don't get fat enough are unlikely to survive the winter
in the cold parts of their range, like in Siberia.
So don't be too harsh on them for wanting to eat the world during the warmer months.
They need to get as big as a pug by the end of fall.
Wait, that's it?
They're tiny but they look much bigger because of their fur.
Of course, they'll only hibernate when they need to
and those in the southern part of their range don't need to hibernate as long.
These wintering adaptations have caught the eye of humans,
who see in their fur, a marketable product.
They have been hunted throughout history to make coats and hats.
Things took a turn in the early 20th century when Russian trappers
brought them to fur farms in the western part of their country
to make it easier to get furs without having to import them from thousands of miles away.
This was, what we call in the business, a pretty bad move.
As we all know these fluffy boys are gluttons and are capable of
wiping out native species in just a few years.
And that's exactly what happened.
Some of those raccoon doggies escaped their fur farms and started breeding in the wild.
Since then, they have become invasive in Western Russia, the Baltic States,
Finland, parts of Sweden, and throughout central and western Europe.
They've been observed as far south as the French-Spanish border and the UK
considers them a species likely to become invasive in the near future.
Of course, they're only trying to survive and it's not their fault that they were taken from their
native range, but they also pose a huge threat to local bird, amphibian, and reptile populations.
Because of this, local governments are actively trying to cull them.
But these guys are almost ghosts and are nearly
impossible to catch without the help of hunting dogs.
You'd think that since they live in the same areas as bears, tigers, and Amur leopards that they'd
be considered easy prey, but they're probably too small to be considered worth the hassle.
The real bane of their existence is the wolf.
In Eastern Russia over half of all raccoon dogs are killed by wolves.
Other canids, such as foxes and feral dogs often take pups.
And for trappers,
their success rate increases from 10 percent to 50 percent when employing hunting dogs.
It truly is a dog-eat-dog world.
Back in Japan, tanukis have a much better reputation and are the subjects of legends.
In local folklore, Japanese raccoon dogs have been said to possess supernatural powers,
such as shapeshifting and the ability to possess people.
These superpowers have been used in media such as Super Mario Bros,
where you can get tanuki powers to fly.
The source of their power is thought to be their giant scrotums,
which are prominently displayed in tanuki art.
So, it wasn't that Mario was fat, he was just hiding his giant source of power in his pants.
Here at Animalogic we leave no stone unturned, so we looked into it and it turns out that the
tanukis stones aren't nearly as big as the folk art might lead you to believe.
But keep on thriving, you magical creatures.
Try not to destroy Europe while doing so.
So what should we talk about next?
Please let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes every week.
Thanks for watching, see ya.