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Captain__Spiff t1_ix2kmw3 wrote

Reply to comment by Cinemaphreak in TIL: raccoons are native to North America, having been introduced elsewhere only in the 20th century. by acequark

I'm German, we have a number of raccoons in the wild and also some in zoos. I've never seen any outside myself (except for maybe, maybe a single overran specimen but my sis is stupid).

The poor fella in that zoo has orientation problems, some sort of damage to the his inner ear. He's better off in the zoo anyway and people love him.

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[deleted] t1_ix2n54q wrote

You know why you have raccoons running around in the wild in your neck of the woods?

Nazis. They thought it would “enrich the local fauna.”

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Captain__Spiff t1_ix2nj49 wrote

Now we have wolves in Germany and everyone involved is mad lol

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White80SetHUT t1_ix2ry5e wrote

Do you guys hunt at all?

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ensalys t1_ix2xxj9 wrote

In the Netherlands hunting wolves is illegal, and I think that ban comes from the EU, so Germany probably can't hunt them. We recently got wolves in our country as wel (they came from Germany). It's the return of a natural predator that should've been in our ecosystem all along. Plenty of people are still mad about it though.

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White80SetHUT t1_ix3ouup wrote

Yeah wolves are protected in certain parts of the US too. I just wondered how much of your population hunted in general.

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ensalys t1_ix3pvf3 wrote

Very little I'd think. Getting a weapons permit and a weapon can be a bit of a bitch. And hunting itself is rather limited in when and what and how much you can hunt.

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KmartQuality t1_ix4sxvb wrote

Where is there enough wild space in the Netherlands to support wolf packs?

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ensalys t1_ix4uwrx wrote

Mostly de Veluwe. Though exact locations are kept secret to protect the wolves.

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Akegata t1_ix5m2zt wrote

Wolves are (sadly) hunted in Sweden, so it's probably not prohibited by the EU.

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mrnoonan81 t1_ix34ot6 wrote

"You know what our dumpsters are missing?..."

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AlwaysHere202 t1_ix3nrz0 wrote

It's interesting to think something so common here is unique elsewhere.

I've literally got a live trap outside because a racoon ate two of my chickens last week. Racoons are about as common as squirrels. When I was a kid, I befriended one with breadsticks. I could hand feed it, and then it would scamper away like a bandit with it's masked face!

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xX609s-hartXx t1_ix36xo4 wrote

I have heard stories about them lifting our typical roof tiles to dig into the insulation.

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