Common Raccoon Dog

About this species

Diet

Omnivorous; animal prey and plant material

Habitat

East Asian temperate landscapes

Range

Native to East Asia; introduced widely in Europe

The common raccoon dog is a stocky, short-legged canid with a fox-like body and a dark facial mask that recalls a raccoon. The resemblance is superficial: it is a member of the dog family and is most closely related to foxes, not raccoons. A long, dense coat gives the animal a heavy outline, particularly in winter. It differs from the Japanese raccoon dog, Nyctereutes viverrinus, which current treatments recognise as the only other living species in the genus. The account consulted supplies no reliable species-wide measurements for inclusion here. (Wikipedia, general species account)

This East Asian canid consumes both animal prey and plant material. It is unusual among canids because it can climb trees and undergoes winter dormancy or hibernation in cold parts of its range. The native subspecies account places the Ussuri form in the Russian Amur and Ussuri regions, northeastern China, and North Korea, while introductions created a broad European range. central Asia was not explicitly named in the biological page opened for this entry; national occurrence rests on the Mammal Diversity Database checklist, so no central Asian habitat, behaviour, or viewing site is asserted. (Wikipedia, general species account; Mammal Diversity Database)

Description: Wildlife of Korea guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)