By no means heard of the Minnesota raccoon dog, either? We are fortunate – Twin Cities

CLOQUET, Minn. — It was early December 1981 when state Conservation Officer Lee Alderson discovered a dead animal along a road a handful of miles north of Cloquet, a critter no one particular had ever observed in Minnesota prior to.

The animal had apparently been struck by a vehicle. At 1st blush it looked like a raccoon, such as the masked face. But it was a bit distinctive, with skinnier legs and no stripe on the tail, and had some traits of a fox or dog.

It took a although prior to Division of All-natural Sources biologists figured out precisely what it was — an Asian raccoon dog, also named a Finn-raccoon or tanuki — and they weren’t content about the discovery.

Prized in Russia for their thick pelts, the critter is native to Siberia, Manchuria, Japan and other places of Asia, but also has been transported and released all more than, spreading in the wild across most of Europe, causing major complications for native species. Envision an all-new mammal in the Northland — with an insatiable appetite, that can breed like rabbits — abruptly multiplying.

Raccoon dogs feed on eggs from bird nests, fish, rodents and modest birds and animals as effectively as crops and nuts like acorns. And although they may possibly appear like svelte raccoons, they are not closely associated. They are a canine, of the dog family members, and will consume just about something they can, substantially like a bear. In addition, they are a human well being threat since an unusually higher quantity of the species carry rabies.

“At 1st no one knew how it got right here or exactly where it came from. We also didn’t know how numerous far more have been out there,” mentioned Bill Berg, a now-retired DNR wildlife biologist who worked on the case 38 years ago. “This is one particular far more of these points that, had we not got a manage on it, would have been an absolute disaster for Minnesota wildlife.”

Alderson snooped about, as very good cops do, and discovered a regional fur farmer who certainly had bought a number of raccoon dogs from a breeder in Wisconsin. Unbeknownst to any state officials, the fur farmer had imported some of the raccoon dogs to raise for their pelts and to sell breeding stock to other fur farmers.

The male raccoon dog had escaped from the fur farm a number of months prior to it was discovered, right after a storm broken the farmer’s pens. Wildlife authorities say it probably would have survived in the north woods just fine. Had far more of the critters escaped, northern Minnesota’s ecosystem may possibly have been altered forever.

“He produced it via one particular fairly extreme winter on his personal currently. He was in very good shape when he got hit,” mentioned Ed Boggess, retired chief of Fish and Wildlife for the Minnesota DNR.

In addition, raccoon dogs multiply speedy, with massive litters every year. They attain sexual maturity at just 9-11 months and can have anyplace from 5 to 10 pups, though some litters have been as massive as 19. In Latvia, exactly where 100 raccoon dogs have been released into the wild in 1948, their numbers exploded to more than 10,000 by 1963, out of handle and beyond eradicating.