Tanuki: Hunting

Summary: How do tanuki hunt for food? Join Kiersten as she shares some surprising behaviors that Tanuki use to catch prey.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean

 

Show Notes:

Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org

“Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) In the Community of Medium-sized Carnivores n Europe: Its Adaptations, Impact on Native Fauna and Management pf the population.”, by Katrina Kauhala and Rafal Kowalczyk. https://researchgate.net

Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

 

Transcript 

(Piano music plays)

Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

(Piano music stops)

Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

We’re more than halfway through Tanuki and the sixth thing I like about them is how they hunt and forage. Since tanuki are omnivores they do a little of both. I know we have talked about their diet already, but we’ll talk a bit more about how they find their food in this episode and we will also talk about what’s eating them. 

As you may remember from previous episodes, we don’t know as much about tanuki behavior in the wild as we should so this episode will be a bit shorter that average, but I will do my best to enlighten you on this episode’s topic.

We have already established that raccoon dogs are omnivores which means they eat both protein and vegetation.

Looking at the proteins that they eat, we can see a pattern. Raccoon dogs, regardless of where they are found, tend to eat similar proteins. Insects, frogs, bird eggs, shrews, crabs, fish, small reptiles, carrion, and human refuse. Can you see the pattern? They are all small prey items. What does this tell us? Raccoon dogs rely on their own capabilities to catch food. They do not hunt in packs, like some other canines, which means that they are restricted to hunting small prey or eating carrion. 

From radio telemetry studies that have been done in the last few years, we know that some raccoon dogs remain together in pairs throughout the year and we assume they hunt together. But this doesn’t mean they are going after larger prey together. These animals are approximately the size of red foxes, so two won’t be able to take down any larger prey than a single raccoon dog. 

Tanuki that live near enough to water will eat fish, crabs, and other aquatic life. I haven’t found many descriptive accounts, but it is known that they will dive under water to catch their prey. This truly surprised me because there are no other canids that do this to catch prey. I’d love to see some video!

They have also been seen catching fish from the shore using their paws to snag this slippery prey. This a unique behavior in the canid family, few, if any, other canines exhibit this hunting behavior. 

Raccoon dogs will also climb trees in search of food, which explains the bird eggs and the passerines, or songbirds, that are found in their feces. In Europe raccoon dogs have been blamed for the downswing in the populations of certain game birds, but no evidence has been found that supports this hypothesis. Eider eggs and meat have been found in the feces of Finnish raccoon dogs, but there is no evidence that they are hunting healthy eiders. It is postulated that they may have taken advantage of a disease that spread through this population of waterfowl. 

As of the recoding of this episode, there is no correlation between raccoon dog presence at the decline of bird populations in any habitat in which they are found.

When resources are low, Tanuki take advantage of human trash. We throw away a lot of stuff these critters can eat. It is not beneath them to take an easy meal where they can get it. 

When it comes to vegetation, tanuki will eat berries, fruits, flowers, seeds, bulbs, and roots of various plants. They love a little human garden and have no problems taking a nibble when they can. They are small and usually forage at night, so they can easily get in and out of areas without being seen. Their coloration, brown fur and black masked face, helps them blend in like little thieves in the night. 

Now that we know how they are finding food, let’s find out who hunts raccoon dogs. 

You’re not going to believe this listeners, but we don’t know what kinds of anitipredator behaviors raccoon dogs possess but we do know who eats them. I know, how can we know so much about this animal and also know so little. It really is amazing.

Raccoon dogs must worry about a plethora of animals that might be interested in hunting them including Gray wolves, Eurasian lynx, wolverines, Japanese Martens, golden eagles, sea eagles, Eurasian eagle owls, domestic dogs, and humans. Yep, that’s right humans eat these guys too. In Japan, tanuki are on the menu.

That’s all she wrote for this episode of tanuki. I’m glad you joined me for this one because how tanuki find their food is my sixth favorite thing about them.

If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 

 

Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.    

 

(Piano Music plays) 

This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.