Wild raccoon moves in with zoo raccoons. Allowed to stay.by law

[Demovictory9]

ld raccoon has moved into Heidelberg Zoo in Germany and keepers can't kick him out.

German daily Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung reported Friday that zoo staff recently discovered the uninvited guest inside the raccoon enclosure, where he seemed to be getting along fine with the seven original residents.


The newspaper reported that the interloper — nicknamed Fred — can expect free board and lodgings for life, because European Union rules forbid him from being released back into the wild.

Under a 2015 EU directive, raccoons are considered an invasive alien species that might pose a threat to European plants and animals.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-a-wild-raccoon-german-zoo-20190503-story.html
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[Karadeniz]

1. Squatter's rights in England.

[EveHammond13]

2. why are raccoons in the zoo in the first place?

what kind of zoo in this?

what's in the next exhibit - squirrels? sparrows?

this is a low-budget zoo.

[MineralMan]

3. It's a German zoo.

Raccoons are not native to Europe. So zoos there have them.

[EveHammond13]

5. how interesting. I did not know that.

[MineralMan]

6. Many European zoos have opossums too.

There are no marsupials in europe, either.

[Blue_true]

10. So, do wild ones show up because someone released a former pet into the wild?

Another thought. If the wild raccoon can get in, it can help the others get out. I wonder whether the zoo has figured out how it got in.

[tonedevil]

18. According to the article...

there were raccoon fur farms and raccoons being raccoons some escaped. The descendant of one of those escapees is who broke into the zoo.

[MineralMan]

20. The story I read said that the wild ones were escapees

from fur farms, decades ago. They're considered invasive species now. Raccoons are very successful at surviving around people.

[Retrograde]

16. The Amsterdam Zoo has skunks

as well as raccoons. The Dutch word for skunk is literally "stink beast".

[riverine]

4. The Dotard would call that squirrel a "rapist" and then deport him

if this happened in the Land of the Free.

edit: "raccoon" rather.

[Beringia]

7. If he was able to get in, how come the others couldn't get out?

[StarfishSaver]

8. Maybe no one wanted to leave - they just want to get in

It sounds like the zoo is THE place to be!

[Blue_true]

11. My first thought. nt

[lpbk2713]

14. One possibility ...

Fred climbed up a tree outside the racoon compound. Walked out on a limb over the compound and dropped down. The limb is too high off the ground for the others to jump to. Gravity is as much a barrier as a wall or a fence.

[Beringia]

17. That is plausible

I know animals have amazing capabilities to calculate how to get from point A to B. I used to throw nuts to squirrels from my 2nd floor window. One day a squirrel appeared at my window. He had to calculate how to climb up a tree, jump on the front side of the building, climb along a ledge and go to the inside of the corridor, then get to the 5th window down.

[keithbvadu2]

9. A wall would have kept him out. Or so we hear.

[Solly Mack]

12. :)

[TexasBlueDog]

13. Invasive species are a real problem...

There was a popular children's book in Japan in the 70s that featured a raccoon which led to the importation of thousands of cute little raccoons as pets. As any of you with experience with adult raccoons can attest they don't make the best pets. As a result the raccoon population exploded and has been a major problem ever since. The beautiful hundreds of year old temples are literally being eaten away.

Australia is dealing with 200 MILLION feral cats that have killed off 19 native species and endanger many more. They are currently dropping poisoned sausages from planes in an effort to reduce the population.

The southern waters of the US have become infested with Asian Lion fish which also threaten native species. There are efforts afoot to curb their progress and one documentary showed an intrepid diver offing them with a 9mm pistol and taking the remains to a local restaurant which cooked them up for he and his guests. There is also an invasive giant shrimp, also Asian, called the Tiger shrimp which has the decided advantage of being delicious. You rarely hear complaints about this shrimp.

The feral hog problem in the southern and southwest US isn't quite as much fun as the Lion and Tiger seafood invasiives. The hogs cause hundreds of millions of dollars in crop losses in the continental US as well as Hawaii oddly enough. These hog freely cross between the US and Mexico but I have seen nothing on their immigration status.

Of course kudzu is clogging waterways everywhere!

[pecosbob]

15. Grew up around Houston and watched the hydrilla overwhelm Lake Conroe and Lake Houston

You can't miss all the nutria if you drive I-10 between Beaumont and New Orleans. They've never been able to effectively control the population since their introduction in the 1930s.

[misanthrope]

19. The wild hogs are highly dangerous as well

Far more so than raccoons, cats, Lion fish or Tiger shrimp.

[librechik]

21. Vaccines and flea treatments all round! n/t