Are There Raccoons in Europe? Invasive Raccoons in Germany

How raccoons came to Germany

The raccoon is native only to the Americas, from southern Canada to Panama. Its European story began in April 1934, when a forester released two pairs of pet raccoons at the Edersee reservoir in northern Hesse, at the request of their owner, a poultry farmer. The aim, in the language of the time, was to “enrich” the local fauna. Earlier attempts to introduce raccoons in Germany had failed, but this one succeeded.

A second population began in 1945, near the end of the Second World War, when about 25 raccoons escaped from a fur farm at Wolfshagen, east of Berlin, after an air raid. The two populations grew separately at first, one in Hesse and one in Brandenburg, before spreading toward each other. They can still be told apart by their parasites: the raccoon roundworm is common in the Hessian population but has not been found in the Brandenburg population.

Growth was dramatic. The Hessian population was estimated at about 285 animals in 1956 and over 20,000 by 1970. By 2008 Germany was thought to hold 200,000 to 400,000 raccoons, and by about 2012 more than a million. In German, the raccoon is the Waschbär, the “wash-bear”, after its habit of handling food in water.

Where raccoons live in Europe today

Germany has by far the largest raccoon population outside North America, and raccoons are especially common in central and eastern Germany, around their two original release areas in Hesse and Brandenburg. From there they have been recorded in every country that borders Germany: Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Other European populations have separate origins:

• France: A population in the north, around Laon in Aisne, descends from pet raccoons released by U.S. Air Force personnel near the Laon-Couvron Air Base in 1966.
• Spain: Raccoons have lived around Madrid since the early 1970s.
• Italy: A self-sustaining population lives in Lombardy, in the north.
• Belarus and the Caucasus: Between 1936 and 1958, about 1,240 raccoons were released in nine regions of the former Soviet Union to be hunted for fur. Two introductions took hold, one in southern Belarus and one in Azerbaijan, from where raccoons spread through the Caucasus.

Kassel, Europe’s raccoon capital

The city of Kassel in Hesse, close to the original release site, is famous for its raccoons. Since the 1960s it has hosted Europe’s first and densest urban raccoon population, with about 50 to 150 animals per square kilometer in parts of the city, similar to North American cities. Raccoons there sleep in attics, garages, sheds and old garden trees, and a 2003 study found that about 43% of the city’s raccoons slept in buildings. Garbage, compost, fallen fruit and pet food provide plenty to eat, as described in what do raccoons eat?

Why raccoons are an invasive species in Europe

Since 2016, the raccoon has been on the European Union’s list of Invasive Alien Species of Union Concern. This means it may not be imported, kept, bred, transported, sold or released anywhere in the EU, and member states must take measures to manage populations.

Raccoons are considered a problem for several reasons:

• Predation on native wildlife: Raccoons raid bird nests and eat amphibians, and conservationists worry about their effect on rare species such as the European pond turtle and ground- and tree-nesting birds.
• Disease: Raccoons can carry raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis), a parasite that can very rarely infect people with serious results. Raccoons in Germany can also catch canine distemper.
• Damage in towns: Denning in attics and raiding bins and gardens cause frequent conflicts with homeowners.

How much harm raccoons really do to European biodiversity is debated. Some local studies have found heavy predation on amphibians and nests, while the German zoologist Frank-Uwe Michler has argued that high raccoon densities do not necessarily harm overall biodiversity. In most German states the raccoon is a game animal, and hunting numbers have risen sharply: from about 400 a year in the 1990s to about 128,000 in the 2015–2016 season.

Raccoons in Japan

Japan has a similar story. After the 1977 anime Rascal the Raccoon, up to 1,500 raccoons a year were imported as pets. Many proved hard to keep and escaped or were released. Raccoons were recorded in 17 of Japan’s 47 prefectures in 2000 and in all 47 by 2008. They damage crops, especially in Hokkaido, threaten native wildlife and have damaged some historic wooden temples and shrines. In Japanese the raccoon is araiguma, the “washing bear”.

Raccoon or raccoon dog?

Europe has a second invasive “raccoon” that is easily confused with the real one. The raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is a member of the dog family from East Asia. It was released in the western Soviet Union for fur between the late 1920s and the 1950s and has spread west through Finland, the Baltic states, Poland and Germany. Like the raccoon, it is now on the EU list of invasive species.

The two are easy to tell apart. The raccoon has a ringed tail, a gray coat and nimble, hand-like front paws, and it climbs trees well. The raccoon dog has a plain, bushy tail, a fox-like shape and dog-like paws, and it rarely climbs.

Other non-native mammals in Europe

The raccoon is one of several North American animals that have become a problem in Europe. The best-known British example is the eastern gray squirrel, explained in why are gray squirrels invasive in the UK? For a guide to the animals you can see in the German countryside, see wild animals in Germany.