24 May 2021 – Invasive Species Week 2021
They may not be a fixture in our local parks or countryside but experts at the Mammal Society are concerned that raccoon dogs have the potential to become a problematic invasive species in Britain.
A member of the fox family, raccoon dogs (pictured) are wild animals which are native to Japan, Siberia and China. In previous years, the animals have been brought into Britain as exotic pets; however, it is now illegal to buy or sell one in this country.
As well as having a reputation as the escapologists of the mammal world, raccoon dogs are very adaptable, a troublesome combination which means that if a raccoon dog is released or escapes from captivity, it is likely to thrive, as they have done in some other European countries where they are considered a pest.
In the Horizon Scanning study, funded by Defra and with the GB Non-Native Species Secretariat (GB NNSS) (published December 2019) invasive non-native species were reviewed. The aim of the review was to identify those species which were not yet present in the wild in Britain but could arrive and have the potential to have most negative impact. Of 243 species reviewed, two mammals were included as high risk in the top 20 list, they were the raccoon and the raccoon dog.
Helen Roy, principal scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and one of the authors of the study, explains why the two mammals have the potential to cause so many problems. “We assessed many, many potentially invasive non-native species for inclusion on the horizon scanning list. Raccoons and raccoon dogs, were ranked within the top 15 most worrying invasive non-native species on the horizon because of their impacts on biodiversity, both feed on a variety of small animals but they also transmit a number of diseases to humans. Therefore, they are both a concern to nature and people. The top 15 also included plants, such as the two-leaf water milfoil, and invertebrates, such as the Asian hornet. Making such predictions about invasive non-native species is important to inform biosecurity and particularly approaches to prevent the arrival of these damaging species in the first place.”
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Posted On: 24/05/2021