The raccoon dog, better known as Nursery dog or Tanuki is an animal of Asian origin that lives in China and Japan. Its scientific name is: Nyctereutes procyonoides.
It is a very old breed, but until very recently there has been no interest in domesticating it as a pet. It is considered an invasive species in many countries. For example, in Spain it is prohibited as a pet, as well as its trade or introduction into nature.
Even if their possession were legal, I would never advise adopting a Tanuki as a pet. If you continue reading our site, I will expose the arguments that support my opinion. And I think you'll be convinced that it's not sensible to have a raccoon dog as a pet Here's why:
Tanuki, the ancient dog
The Tanuki is the oldest wild dog breed on the planet. Leaving aside its morphology, which at first glance reminds us more of a raccoon than any dog, it is its habits that make it too difficult for it to live side by side with humans.
His habits are more like a badger or a fox than any other breed of dog. They are crepuscular and nocturnal, that is, their active periods follow each other at dusk and throughout the night, sleeping hidden during the day in their underground burrows.
Tanuki, the hibernating dog
The raccoon dog is the only canid that hibernates During the spring and summer it acquires fat to face the winter. The appearance of the vivarrino dog is very similar, especially in the appearance of its face, to a raccoon. However, they have nothing to do with each other. They have very long and dense hair, with mottled reddish-gray colors.
Like the vast majority of canids enjoys a double coat. A first woolly layer of a dull gray color. The upper layer is very showy, and the reason why the Tanuki spread from Japan to Europe.
If you look closely at a Tanuki hair, you can clearly see that it has several perfectly segmented colors. The root is greyish. the same color as its lower wool. Next comes the dominant color of the hair shaft, which is usually a pastel orange. Then, in the last third, it is a shiny black color, except at the tip which is an ivory white color.
The Tanuki Expansion
The tanuki is native to Japan, and it is not uncommon to find them swarming the Japanese urban outskirts in search of garbage. The tanuki is omnivorous and this is one of the reasons why it is not in danger of extinction, on the contrary.
In the last decade of the 1940s, tanuki began to be imported from Japan to Europe to set up farms destined for to the fur shop Many animals escaped from farms located in the former Soviet Union, Scandinavian countries, Poland, Germany and other Central European countries.
Currently in all these places the vivarrino dog has become an invasive species. With the aggravating circumstance that European tanukis are almost twice as big as Japanese ones.
The Pet Tanuki
Similar to foxes, the expectations of the raccoon dog as a pet are very slim. It is a very fearful animal, elusive and nocturnal, that remains petrified by fear when the lights of a vehicle focus on it. In Japan many of them die on the roads every year.
I believe that when, after thousands of years, a common animal has not been domesticated by man, it is because there are solid and multiple reasons for not having done so.
Customs of the Wild Tanuki
The dog in the wild is monogamous. It is not a violent animal under any circumstances It likes to live in small groups in wooded areas, in very sheltered burrows. During the spring the females give birth to 5 - 7 cubs, which are cared for by the parents while the females hunt.
Being omnivorous, they devour anything: birds, rodents, reptiles, berries, fruits or agricultural plants, carrion, garbage, and a long etcetera. In Japanese culture, tanuki are very present in their mythology, being considered animals that bring good luck
