I have a wildlife zoo

Chapter 127 The Hybrid of Angel and Devil

Fang Ye finished placing the food tray and then saw the barrage of comments. He stroked his chin and said, "Someone is asking if this is a begging behavior. Begging behavior refers to the animal in the outdoor exhibition area not moving but approaching the edge of the exhibition area and waiting for visitors to feed it.

In this case, the visitors won't be able to see its natural behavior, and feeding could also be detrimental to its health, hence we must refuse to feed them.

Seeing the animal keeper coming over with food and reaching out for it isn't really considered begging behavior—it's just like when your mom has cooked a meal and is calling you to eat.

When raccoons eat, they hold their food with both paws, which indeed looks quite similar to begging.

This behavior can easily stimulate visitors' desire to feed them, as you can see from how fat they've become.

So, in our raccoon exhibition area, we use glass curtain walls to physically minimize the possibility of feeding."

With the confusion cleared up, another netizen asked, "Director, why doesn't this raccoon eat? It just keeps rubbing its food."

"Because they love cleanliness! The reason they're called raccoons is that they have a habit of washing their food in water before eating. Now that there isn't any water, they can only dry-clean."

"Is that really so?"

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Fang Ye laughed and said, "You're half right. The origin of the name raccoon does indeed correlate with what this netizen said—they really do like the act of 'washing.' In English, a raccoon is called a raccoon, which comes from the Native American language and means 'to scratch with the hands.'

However, raccoons perform the washing action not for the sake of cleaning.

Their most important sense is touch, especially in their forepaws, which are covered with a multitude of tactile receptors and nerve fibers, giving them high sensitivity to detect and assess the size, weight, texture, and temperature of their food.

A thin layer of keratin protects the outside of their paws; when soaked in water, this layer softens, increasing their tactile sensitivity. They use this process to select food, discarding the parts they don't need.

So, you might see raccoons washing not only food but also sticks or rocks—whatever random objects they can find; they're actually using this action to learn about the object's properties. Furthermore, raccoons can't distinguish between clean and dirty water. They often wash their food in muddy water, which only gets dirtier as they wash it."

Fang Ye then fetched a basin of water, placed it on the floor, and sure enough, when the raccoons found it, they each scooped up some food with both hands. They formed a circle around the basin and started to wash their food vigorously in the water!

Only after thoroughly and repeatedly washing did they finally put the food in their mouths and eat it.

Then they returned to the food tray, scooped up another handful, and repeated the cleaning process back at the water basin.

The netizens found it entertaining, "Haha, they've got OCD, can't feel comfortable without a wash!"

"Getting dirtier the more they wash—just like the red pandas, such clueless creatures."

Fang Ye shook his head and said, "That's not quite right. Raccoons may not have the best eyesight, but their intelligence is very high. Urbanization has posed a crisis for the vast majority of animals, but only a handful have benefited, thriving in the city like a fish in water, and raccoons are one of them!

They can memorize the map of their surroundings in their heads, actively avoiding busy intersections, choosing safer routes, and they also possess 3D navigation abilities. Aside from ground routes, they can use complex sewage pipe lines to move around freely in the city.

Scientists have tested that when faced with locks, bolts, buttons, and other mechanisms, raccoons can quickly master how to open them, even easily handling compound mechanisms, and remember how to open each different type three years later."

"Wow, so smart and cute, I really want to raise one."

"Uh, can raccoons even be kept as pets? Aren't they protected animals?"

Fang Ye pondered for a moment, "This kind of raccoon is the most common raccoon, called the northern raccoon. From the name, you can tell their original habitat is North America, not a native species of our country.

Our country has joined the Washington Convention (CITES), and non-native animals are protected according to the convention's list, but raccoons are not endangered—due to their extremely strong adaptability, they have become a plague in many countries and regions. Naturally, they are not included in the list, so legally there is no problem in raising them!"

However, I still do not recommend keeping raccoons as pets. These guys are not as cute as they look on the outside.

Raccoons have a very bad reputation in North America and are practically universally loathed. They can turn trash cans upside down, steal in groups, and because of their high intelligence, they can't be stopped from finding food, even if it is hidden.

Raiding refrigerators to steal eggs and the like is nothing for them; they make nests in ceilings and chimneys and lurk in all kinds of unexpected places to play hide-and-seek with you and cause damage.

Mischief is one thing, but wild raccoons have a high rate of carrying the rabies virus, as well as parasites like roundworms and ticks, which humans can easily contract upon contact. Also, if they scratch the cats and dogs in the house, they can likely infect them with rabies.

Therefore, in the United States, there are specialized pest control companies that come to catch and dispose of raccoons from homes.

In the 1970s, raccoons were only kept in some zoos in Japan. However, after Japan produced and aired an anime about a raccoon, "Rascal the Raccoon," everyone thought it was so cute, prompting a raccoon craze, with a large number of northern raccoons being imported into Japan as pets.

But as they were kept, the Japanese quickly realized that these creatures weren't so easy to take care of—fast, wild, and destructive to furniture. Especially when in heat, they can become very aggressive and attack people, so a large number of raccoons were abandoned in the mountains after a while.

Raccoons are very adaptable and, without natural predators, the rapidly breeding raccoon population brought serious problems to Japan.

This included damaging over 80% of Japan's ancient temples and other historic buildings, stealing grain crops, pushing out native animals from their habitat, entering residential areas to eat goldfish and cultivated fruits, and even on Hokkaido island, where raccoons cruelly bit off dairy cows' teats, causing serious losses to local farmers.

The raccoon problem in Japan still hasn't been resolved yet."

Netizens initially found it quite interesting, but after learning about the severe consequences caused by raccoons, they no longer saw the raccoons' adorable behavior of washing food as simply cute.

"Wow, are they really that terrible?"

"These guys are like little devils! Cute but causing such great harm, it seems you can't just keep them carelessly."

"I'm starting to dislike raccoons a bit."

"What's wrong with raccoons? Invading cities, isn't it because we humans have encroached on their natural habitats?"

"The raccoon disaster in Japan is entirely their own fault, breeding them because they're cute and then abandoning them."

Seeing the netizens argue, Fang Ye mused, "Actually, the relationship between humans and animals is not a simple matter of one retreating and the other advancing. It's like a seesaw, where it's not good if either side is too heavy. We need to find a balance and look for ways to coexist harmoniously.

Alright, I have something to do later, so I'm going to end the broadcast for today."

"Okay, goodbye Director!"