Raccoon-Wikipedia common
And fend for themselves they certainly do. Since 2007 over 400 specimens of this North American mammal have been captured in Madrid.
This raccoon is known to wash its food and has the Linean name procyon lotor, ‘dog-like washer’. IN German it’s called Waschbär (wash-bear), in French raton laveur (washer rat). The English and Spanish names, raccoon and mapache, come from the Native American languages in Virginia and Mexico respectively.
On average, raccoons live for five years; so the current burgeoning population are descendants of those let loose post-Pocahontas.
Raccoon-Wikipedia common
Raccoons
cluster in packs of fifteen to twenty, drive out native species, such as the
otter, and their bite potentially transmits rabies and other diseases.
The
propagation of other invasive species includes the Argentine parrot and Kramer’s
parrot – openly sold as pets until December 2011, the Florida turtle (which has
been banned from sale in pet shops), and the American mink – also affects the
ecosystem. Capture and kill policy is not an easy option; poison and other
non-specific methods that affect the rest of the flora and fauna are banned;
the use of firearms requires a permit. Still, after almost twenty years the
authorities are waking up to this serious health problem.
Condensed
from a report in El Pais by José
Marcos, Madrid, November 2013.
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