Introduce a clever, adaptable, agile, and audacious creature into an area without natural predators. This can lead to all sorts of problems. Australia learned the lesson from rabbits and Japan is now learning it with raccoons.
Multiple Japanese news outlets reported that the raccoon problem in Japan has worsened over the past decade.
Tokyo’s government said that nearly 1,300 raccoons had been captured in the fiscal year 2022.
Kyodo News reported that this is five times more than the number of people who were arrested ten years ago.
In 2013, the Japanese Government reiterated its need to combat the raccoon as an invasive species.
Raccoons were not originally from Japan. They were introduced to the country after the success of the anime “Rascal the Raccoon” in 1977.
One of the worst things to happen to a critter would be to become a sensation in the media. The American Cocker Spaniel used to be a small, smart, and hardy bird dog, big enough to hunt quail or grouse but small enough for an apartment. Disney then released a movie in which a cocker spaniel fell in love with a gray-furred, raffish mutt. The American Cocker became a globe-headed, flea-brained monster.
The anime that started the trend for pets has now impacted Japan.
The anime is based on Sterling North’s autobiographical novel, “Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era”. North tells the story of raising Rascal, a baby raccoon.
As a result of the show, Japanese people began to import raccoons as pets.
Smithsonian Magazine reported that at its peak, Japan imported more than 1,500 Raccoons each year.
The Japanese government acted quickly to ban the importation of raccoons and the practice of keeping them as pets. But it was far too late.
Raccoons are one of the most dangerous animals an island nation can face. They share habitats and habits with the Japanese takuni and are displacing tanuki in some areas.
Growing up, I was surrounded by raccoons. Raccoons, which were second to foxes in terms of difficulty to capture when I was a teenager, were the most difficult critters for me to trap during winter. They can live anywhere, eat almost anything, adapt well to human habitats, and are very intelligent. The Japanese authorities are unable to control the infestation of masked garbage pandas. The masked trash pandas also possess an innate ability to navigate; they are called GPS by biologists, or Garbage Pickup Sense. They are also notoriously hard to reach with a cord.
Even worse, they don’t make good pets. They can open drawers and cabinets, are curious and aggressive, and are four-legged velociraptors.
Japan is a great object lesson. Leave the wild animals where they live.
