The urban legend goes that they were introduced to the country by Nazi commander and war criminal Hermann Göring.
Labelled as “bandits,” due to the distinctive black strip across their eyes, they regularly make headlines for breaking into hospitals, zoos, power plants and even homes, leaving little trails of destruction behind. Raccoons are loved by some, despised by others. Some feed them nearby their homes and others keep weapons ready at their disposal. But in Germany they hold a reputation that exceeds any. Their arrival in the country holds a myth that has gone on for years. Yet archival research and modern ecological studies now tell a different story.
In Germany, most states allow raccoons to be hunted year-round, and the number killed has quadrupled since 2005, to more than a quarter of a million.
He found that an application was indeed made to the Prussian hunting office to release two pairs of North American raccoons near the Edersee, a reservoir near the city of Kassel, to “enrich the fauna”. “There is no indication anywhere that politicians – such as Göring, as a member of the Nazi Reich government – had any influence on the decision,” said Leicht. As far as harming native species goes, raccoons are being framed for a crime there’s little evidence they have committed, said Michler, who has led a decade-long research project in Müritz National Park, the largest and longest European field study of its kind. “We always need someone who’s responsible for all the evil in the world,” she said. Torsten Reinwald, spokesman for the German Hunting Association, said that some scientific studies contradict the Müritz National Park research and find negative impacts on native biodiversity.
the view spread far and wide While local forestry officials cast doubt on these stories. Leicht set out, using archival research, to see what really happened. The application was made during the time that Göring was in charge of forestry and hunting, but Leicht found no sign that Göring had been personally involved. “The file clearly shows that the entire process was merely an administrative matter. it does not mean they are a disaster for wildlife too While they may have caused destruction in the cities. “There are a lot of silly stories going on here in Germany about raccoons – and not enough real research behind it. That’s a big problem. However, their ecological impact needs to be studied. Raccoons’ ability to climb and swim means that they can get almost anywhere. In the US, where they are native, growing raccoon numbers in certain areas have been linked to declining numbers of songbirds. In Europe, studies have indicated that raccoons eat waterbird eggs, and rare European pond turtles. They can also carry parasites that can harm humans. Reinwald pointed to research from the Goethe University Frankfurt, which found that raccoons eat amphibians and their eggs.
One morning in April 1934, the records show, the animals were released from two crates to the south side of Lake Edersee near Vöhl, around 50km (30 miles) to the south-west of Kassel. By sampling the DNA of more than 400 raccoons across Germany, Frantz found evidence of two further significant releases, leading to populations with different gene pools in eastern Saxony, near the Czech border, and in the Harz Mountains, in northern Germany. Such a small group could lead to severe genetic abnormalities due to inbreeding.
In the end, Leicht’s archival research showed that the raccoons were let loose before an application was signed.
Today, Kassel is called the “raccoon capital of Europe” with an estimated urban population of around 30,000 of them. This population grew and grew. The expert wanted to understand if today’s population really sprang from just those two small starter populations.
