Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Dragmire800 t1_ix226tk wrote

This is like the opposite of a TIL I had a year ago. I assumed they only lived in North America. I was very surprised to hear Germany had a raccoon population

133

CarelessHisser t1_ix2grzs wrote

Apparently they have small colonies throughout the west and quite a few places in the east

27

i_worship_amps t1_ix2huox wrote

IIRC Japan had them become extremely invasive because people read a story about a girl that had a pet raccoon, and promptly got one themselves and realized fairly quickly that they don’t make great pets

48

zachzsg t1_ix3gun0 wrote

I feel like raccoons could take over basically anywhere that isn’t Antarctica or the middle of a desert. Those mfs are smart as fuck and crafty as hell, studies have shown they’re far smarter than cats and dogs and are more at the level of monkeys.

Growing up I lived in a very rural house, we would lock our doors not because of people, but because the raccoons could open doors. And to go even further, we would leave a key on top of the door. One time we got home and saw a raccoon trying to put the key inside the door. He couldn’t figure out how to get it in, but he was smart enough to recognize that he needed to get the key in the door to open it.

31

twobit211 t1_ix3k5fq wrote

>He couldn’t figure out how to get it in, but he was smart enough to recognize that he needed to get the key in the door to open it.

that’s some planet of the apes shit

18

zachzsg t1_ix3u4nm wrote

Yeah it was actually crazy. I guess he had watched us using the key before and tried to give it a shot himself. We basically just watched in amazement as he tried to get the key in there lol

7

PageTheKenku t1_ix445o4 wrote

I'm not all that surprised, I remember at one point when I was living in Ontario they were sort of at war with raccoons when trying to make a garbage container that prevented raccoons from getting in and was inexpensive enough.

At one point the lid was made more complicated so they wouldn't be able to open it...but this resulted in the material itself being somewhat cheaper, and raccoons would scratch the bottom of the containers until they made a hole to grab stuff out of.

2

evil_burrito t1_ix44x3k wrote

I remember doing battle with a raccoon in the middle of the night who had come in through the cat door to have some kitty crunchies.

Ten year old me and a broom against a big fat raccoon. He was completely unimpressed as I tried to shuffleboard him out the door.

3

AidenStoat t1_ix2rp94 wrote

The USSR released some in the Caucasus, so now there are raccoons in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Iran etc.

12

Tokishi7 t1_ix30mpl wrote

USSR also grabbed some crabbed and brought them across the towards the Fjords and the crabs decimated populations there

4