The raccoon dog is a small mammal native to East Asia. She combines the features of several animals at once, but her appearance and lifestyle do not fully coincide with any of them. Where does the raccoon dog live? How does she look? You will find all the details about this unique animal in our article.
Not to be confused with raccoon
This animal got its unusual name from its amazing resemblance to a raccoon. Both have thick coats, a thin, long nose and characteristic black spots on the muzzle, by which they are usually recognized.
If you look closely, you can see that the appearance of animals is different, and they belong to completely different families. For example, a raccoon is a representative of raccoons. His ears are longer and bigger. The paws of the animal are similar to the palm of a person, thanks to them he can climb trees. His shorter, less dense coat makes his body look slimmer.
The raccoon dog belongs to the canine family. She is also called the Ussuri fox, the Japanese call her tanuki, andEvenki people - Mangut. Its coat is denser and denser, its paws are similar to those of a dog and are adapted only for walking on the ground. The main difference between the species is the tail. In a raccoon, it is long with black transverse stripes. In the Ussuri fox, he repeats the color of the body.
Raccoon dog description
The size of the Ussuri fox is average. It grows within 60-80 centimeters and weighs 5-10 kilograms. The body of the animals is long and stocky, and the paws are short. The tail usually reaches 15-30 centimeters in length.
The color of the raccoon dog is heterogeneous. As a rule, it is gray-white or brown interspersed with black hairs. Paws, tail and tummy are much darker than the upper body. The nose is always light, and the eyes are surrounded by black spots. Sometimes among them there are completely white individuals with a reddish tinge with a black tip of the nose and eyes.
Dense long dog fur is thin and fluffy with a dense undercoat. In winter, he allows his mistress not to freeze at a temperature of even -25 degrees. In the cold season, the color becomes lighter, in summer it acquires dark brown shades.
Area
This dog is native to East Asia. Initially, it lived in the forests of the Amur region, the Japanese Islands, the Korean Peninsula and northeast Indochina (indicated in orange on the map). In Russia, the raccoon dog was found only within the Amur region and the Ussuri region, which is why its middle name comes from.
Nowthe range of the species has expanded significantly and covers most of Europe (green on the map). How did the dog end up on the other side of the mainland? In the 30s of the XX century, it was brought to the countries of the Soviet Union as an animal for hunting. In the Asian part of Eurasia, the conditions for it turned out to be unsuitable, but the western territories came up perfectly.
Today, the Ussuri fox is found not only in the countries of the former USSR, but also in Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, Sweden, France and Germany. Some countries consider its spread a real problem, as it carries many diseases that are dangerous to humans and other animals.
Features of behavior
The lifestyle of a raccoon dog is semi-nomadic, so it does not stay in one place for a long time. In search of food, she comes out at dusk and continues to be active all night. During the day, the animal sleeps, choosing some secluded corner.
Ussuri dog rarely runs and mostly walks. It is rather slow and in open areas becomes easy prey for its natural enemies. That is why it lives in forests with dense and high undergrowth, in thickets of swamps, floodplain meadows and shrubs. The pattern on the face helps her disguise.
The raccoon dog is preyed upon by foxes, wolves, lynxes, stray dogs, wolverines and even large birds of prey. Because of the skin and fur, they become frequent victims of man. She has few chances to escape, and she decides to confront the enemy only as a last resort. When the dog is driven intoangle, she can show her teeth and respond with all the aggressiveness. More often than not, she chooses the simpler and more effective method, pretending to be dead and confusing the attacking beast. She "comes to life" only when she feels that the danger has passed.
Singing dog
Raccoon dogs have an interesting set of sounds. You can't hear barking from them. When in a bad mood, for example, when in danger or fighting for a female, they growl.
However, most often they hear dreary whining sounds, more reminiscent of the singing of a bird than the voice of a canine representative. Such a signal is usually used for friendly purposes and is a common method of communication between them.
What does she eat?
The raccoon dog is a carnivorous mammal and prefers meat. But by the nature of nutrition, it is rather omnivorous, and the hunter from it is not very important. The diet of the animal varies depending on the season. In autumn, the dog is more likely to gather, in the summer it eats both vegetable and protein foods. In early spring and winter, it absorbs everything, including garbage.
She enjoys eating berries, mushrooms, vegetables, cereals, acorns and plant roots, traveling up to ten kilometers to find them. Among animals, frogs, small rodents, and beetles become its prey. Large and too fast prey is not available to her, but sometimes the dog manages to watch for a black grouse or a pheasant, ruin a couple of other people's nests.
Winter sleep
Of all the representatives of the canine family, no one hibernates, except for the Ussuri fox. During periods of activity, she does not use permanent housing and certainly does not build it herself. But hibernation is a more serious matter, and the “home” must be reliable. For a long sleep, she chooses abandoned burrows of badgers, foxes or other animals. She uses rock crevices, small ravines, haystacks, hollows under windbreaks or firewood as shelters.
She rarely engages in self-construction of housing. The raccoon dog burrow is a tunnel from one to three meters long, at the end of which there is a chamber. They often dig nests under large stones or stone mounds, providing them with several entrances. Finding a living hole is not difficult: the ground near it will certainly be trampled, and there will be leftovers and excrement nearby.
Preparation for hibernation begins in autumn and early winter, and the dream itself lasts from December-January to February-March. By that time, the animal needs to increase the layer of subcutaneous fat by 20-25%. Not gaining the right amount, it risks not surviving the cold winter. During hibernation, its metabolism decreases by about 25% and gradually recovers with the onset of warming.
During the warm winter, when there is no frost, the raccoon dog can wake up and go to the surface in search of food. In Primorsky Krai and places with a similar climate, it hibernates only during periods of great frost, snowstorms and snowstorms.
Social behavior and reproduction
Early spring immediatelyafter the first warming in dogs, the rut begins, but they form pairs in the fall. During the period of searching for a partner, males become very aggressive and often come into skirmishes with each other.
Raccoon dogs are pregnant for 60 days. At this time, they do not wander, but find permanent housing until the offspring grows up. On average, 5-6 puppies are born to one female, but sometimes up to 16 are born. The cubs appear blind and helpless. They weigh only 100 grams.
For the first few months, the mother spends all her time in the hole with her children, and the male takes care of her. Later, they come out in search of food in turn. Growing up, puppies learn all the important skills from their parents in order to start an independent life by the end of autumn. Raccoon dogs live in nature for about 5 years, in captivity this number is approximately doubled.
