Welcome to Brainstuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum here. In June of nineteen, a couple in a small village in Nottinghamshire, Great Britain, woke at four am to an eerie sound. They ventured out and discovered an animal that had never seen before, hissing and attacking a goat on their farm. After rescuing the goat, they took a photo of the beast and promptly posted it online.
The animal was four legged and fluffy. It moved like a dog, but had a face and markings like a raccoon. It turns out their unwanted visitor was a tanuki, sometimes called a raccoon dog. To learn more about these unusual critters, we talked by an email to Jennifer Andrew, a member of the carnivore team at Zoo Atlanta. She helps take care of Zoo Atlanta's to Tanuki, Thor and Loki. Zoo Atlanta is just one of two zoos in the United States that houses tanuki. The other is the home a
City Zoo. Andrew explained Tanuki are dogs. Genetically and morphologically speaking, they get the nickname raccoon dog. Primarily because of their similar coloring and coat patterns. The only other true similarity to raccoons is that they occupy the same niche as raccoons do in nature, even though they live on different continents. Tanuki range in size from about one point five to two ft long that's about point four five to point nine meters, with a tail adding another six inches or
one point five meters. They wait anywhere from eight to twenty two pounds around three and a half to ten kilos. Their fur can be golden gray to reddish brown, but their shoulders, legs, and the tips of their tails are black, and their facial markings are similar to a raccoons, including the black mask around the eyes. They're originally from Eastern Asia, including Japan, which is where the word tanuki comes from
and where the animal is a cultural icon. Images of tanuki have appeared in everything from folklore and literature to anime and advertising. The mythological versions, sometimes called bucket tanuki, are spirit creatures, tricksters, and shape shifters that love gold, and are often depicted with a big belly and a particularly large scrotum. Many modern Japanese businesses display statues of
tanuki to represent prosperity and good luck. Tanuki, the animals, not the spirits, were brought to northern and eastern Europe due to fur farming back in the nineteen twenties. It's believed some tanuki managed to escape and began to live and breed in that region. The habitat they're most comfortable living in would typically be described as forested, everything from deciduous trees to evergreens, but they can live in urban and coastal areas. They like living near water when they're
in the wild, Tanuki aren't too picky about meals. As foragers, they'll eat anything from frogs, birds, and rats to berries and carrion that is ved animals. Tanuki have also been known to for rirging garbage cans or pick over road kill in areas inhabited by humans. But zoo life is
a little different. Not only are tanuki given different food to eat, including kibble, hard boiled eggs, veggies, and fish, but because they're naturally foragers in a non foraging setting, their caregivers look for ways to make feeding time a little more challenging, Andrew said, but we like to scatter their diet throughout their habitats to encourage natural foraging behaviors.
They also enjoy interacting with problem solving enrichment devices that encourage behaviors such as biting, chewing, ripping or shredding, smelling, digging, and dragging. Tanuki in the wild, especially those living in climates with harsh winters, can enter a state called torpor. During torpor, tanuki conserves energy by reducing their activity, and thus can survive on little or no food for days
or weeks. Andrew said, if weather is mild, tanuki may wake for short periods of time to forage, but otherwise they're at ativity level is significantly less during torpor. Severity of torpor behaviors is also dependent on how well the tanuki faired during the fall when they entered hyperphasia. Hyperphasia is when an animal's appetite increases in response to an environmental or biological que In this case, tanuki enter hyperphasia
in the late summer or early fall. They consume more food, gain weight, and grow their winter coats in preparation for the winter ahead. Andrew says tanuki living in captivity also go through torpor, but the activity level and dietary needs vary. Depending on where they live and how harsh the weather is. She added, we even see behavioral differences between individuals. Thor always seems to undergo torpor more deeply than Loki, even
when winters are milder. Both Loki and Thor will usually get up once a day during torpor to check their territories and have a small bite to eat before returning to their preferred resting location, which can change from day to day. Andrew is quick to point out that tanuki are wild animals and despite appearances, they aren't much like dogs. She said, Tanuki eat a varying diet, including raw meat, are naturally skittish, are very stinky, and have other needs
that generally can't be met in a human household. They're also classified as an invasive species in the United States and throughout the European Union, so it would be illegal to keep one as a pet. However, she describes the atlantis tanuki littermates and brothers thorin Loki as fun guys to work with. She said they're mischievous and are interested in interacting with their environment and enrichment opportunities. During the majority of the year, they can also be interactive with
animal care team members. However, they mostly like us because we bring them food. They do tolerate care team members being in their territory. However, they do not attempt to interact with us in ways that domestic dogs would, and we respect that preference. As wild animals, they will approach care team members for feedings, training sessions, or to inspect our work in their territory, but otherwise as they choose
not to interact with us. Loki and Thor arrived at Zoe Atlanta together and lived in the same habitat for many years until recently, when they began giving behavioral signs that they didn't enjoy each other's presence. They're now living in separate habitats in the zoo. Andrew said this is normal behavior for tanuki, as generally only male female pairs stay together long term. Tanuki typically mate for life, forming monogamous pairs that share in foraging and in the care
and feeding of their offspring, called pups together. The mating season occurs in the spring. Gestation lasts about nine weeks. The litter averages about six pups. Sadly, their lives in the wild don't usually last long, just eight to ten years. Today's episode was written by Patty Resmussen and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other curious topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff
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