• Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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.

  • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    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).

  • Asidonhopo@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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

  • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The fuckers reached Belgium by 2023… Those pests are everywhere and wrecking havoc both in suburbs and rural areas.

  • federal reverse@feddit.org
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    2 days ago

    So I live in one of the barely-still-gray areas from 2020. I.e. we’re obviously colonized by now. And the neighbors now refuse to clean up the garage because they might disturb the gworing family of raccoons living within. And we obviously can’t force them to do anything.

    • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
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      2 days ago

      Is it because they claim they don’t own them? I assumed ownership of various invasive species like raccoons was banned EU-wide.

      • federal reverse@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        The raccoons aren’t pets, if that’s what you’re asking, they moved into a disorderly garage out of their own volition. As to why the neighbors fail to clean up now, I don’t really know. There’s some contrived argumentation, but I think they simply don’t want to.

  • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    Yesssss. Invade us harder! Racoons for everyone! I love those cute Lil trashpandas 😍

      • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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        2 days ago

        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

        • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 days ago

          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.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        Don’t care about the exact species. The ones i know from here (We drive 2h to the only place where i ever learned they exist) are fucking cute and i adore them. I also don’t care what the EU labels them, we are the worst invasive species of them all and noone cares :-)

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        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.

    • pimento64@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      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.

      • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Man when my first kid was little those fuckers would get into our trash all the time. You know how much fun it is cleaning ripped-up dirty diapers off your front yard?

        Anyway I whipped up some pepper spray and poured it all over the can. They never came back. Worked a lot better than shooting them with bb guns.

        • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          Yuk, i would find the diapers disgusting even before they’re in the trash :-) They couldn’t reach our trash, so that would not be a problem. Also between our current situation of population (they live here? at all? WOW!) and yours are many decades. So i might enjoy the way towards your situation :)

          • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            They’re fun as long as they’re not out to get you. I love the little anarchists but please stay out of my shit thanks ;D

            Generally, you won’t encounter them much unless you’re near available food at night. If they do start showing up, film em, they’re entertaining.

            • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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              1 day ago

              I guess it would take a looong time before they’d ever show up here at my doorstep. I live in a city, not rural. But i fucking would film them, i have surveillance cameras all around anyway :)

              And yeah i probably wouldn’t love them fucking my trash up, but i also couldn’t be mad at them. It’s our fault they’re here, i can’t judge or hate them for that.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        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.

      • Zwiebel@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        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

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    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.