<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/19/raccoons-german-city-kassel-wild-population-europe-aoe>
"In Kassel, everyone has a story about raccoons. Some struggle with a family of
them that moved into their roof and simply will not leave. Others recount how a
picnic in the park turned into an ambush as gangs of the black and white
animals, known in Germany as
Waschbären, raided the food. Almost everyone
seems to have a neighbour who feeds them, to the annoyance of the entire
street.
“We are the raccoon city. They are everywhere,” says Lars, a Kassel resident,
as he tends his allotment by Karlsaue park in the fading light.
“When it’s a bit darker, they will come out. I sit here in my garden at night
and the raccoons come. If your bag is here, they will steal your banana or
something,” he says. “They have no predators, so they are the chiefs. They can
do what they want. We love them but we also hate them.”
While no one knows the exact number, there are thousands of raccoons in this
central German city, a hotspot for the estimated 1.5 million that live across
the country.
The omnivorous mammal, native to North America, was brought to Nazi Germany in
the 1930s for fur farming, but escaping animals and intentional introductions
helped establish a large wild population in the years afterwards. Today, they
are increasingly spotted across Europe, with sightings in France, Denmark,
Poland, Italy, Austria and elsewhere.
“It is clear that the raccoon is spreading very rapidly across western Europe,”
says Daniel Willcox, a co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) small carnivore specialist group. “It’s going to be very
difficult to control – but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
