Tim writes: Raccoons (Procyon lotor) were once thought to be related to bears but they are an early offshoot of the dog family. They are only found naturally in the New World and the family includes Coatis and Kinkajous. The generic name Procyon means “before the dog” indicating that distant relationship. But the specific name lotor means washer because of its habit of appearing to wash its hands in water. Alas the food washing habit isn’t entirely true. Captive animals have been seen to wash their food but this hasn’t been observed in the wild. They do forage with their hands in water though. I photographed this individual at Ucluelet on Vancouver Island doing just that.
Taken with Nikon D500 and Nikkor 300mm f4 lens with a 1.4x converter at f5.6 ISO 16000 1/640s
[registration_form]
An invasive species in Germany, aren’t they?
Indeed, and increasingly problematic.
There is an interesting site by Mark Hows: Alien Invaders (It does not include plants –
too numerous to list?).
(I have a probable Steatoda species(?) I have been feeding for a year now, living behind my toilet cistern:-)
Here is the GB Mammals section:
http://www.hows.org.uk/inter/birds/exotics/gbm.htm
And here is a Scottish Racoon story:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/rare-raccoon-spotted-in-the-wild-in-the-highlands-1-4088108
The species present in Europe is the Raccoon Dog, of Asian origin introduced from the 1920s, and unrelated to the New World Raccoons.
As is usual with an invasive species,they can be troublesome. For instance, Pheasant shoots in Scandinavia are forever finding them in traps set for Goshawk, which I imagine must get quite tiresome.
Mr Dancey, you may care to take a look at my comment of, I think, the 26th November, concerning a possible Raccoon sighting.
Apologies to you both, my usual meticulous research failed me.
The North American species is indeed rife in Germany, and by the look of it is going to take some stopping..