Ten Things I Like About... Podcast

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.

Tanuki: Reproduction

Summary: Let’s talk babies! The reproductive cycle of the Tanuki is simple but interesting! Join Kiersten as she walks you through the seasonal changes that brings Tanuki pups.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com
Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org
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.
The fifth thing I like about Tanukis is their reproductive cycle. Like many mammals, raccoon dogs enter eastru only once a year; therefore, they bear young only once a year.
In the last episode we discovered that tanuki are monogamous, meaning the male and female mate with only one partner each year. In some populations these bonds may last year after year, where as other populations may only stay together one year.
Now, as we all know, before mating comes courting. So let’s start there. I’d love to tell you how they court each other with elaborate dance, vocalizations, or hide and seek, but we just don’t know. Not much research has been done on wild populations courting behavior. I’m unsure why. It could be either no one focused their research on the topic or it is difficult to find and observe courting behavior in the wild. 
From captive individuals, we have learned that scent-marking and male female interactions increase before the female ovulates. She is courted by three to four males and an up turned U-shape tail indicates that the male is interested in mating and may also play a role in determining dominance. Reluctantly, that’s about all we know about raccoon dog courting.
Once the male and female have determined they are a fit couple, they will mate. This behavior typically happens in early March and gestation lasts approximately 60 days. Pups are typically born sometime in May. This is not coincidence, listeners. It’s perfectly timed so that pups are born when there is abundant resources available. Nature, man, it is perfect.
For populations that hibernate through the winter, breeding season begins just after they wake to warmer temperatures. 
After the female is pregnant, the couple will find a burrow to call home. They will move into an abandoned badger or fox den and make it their own, and why not, quick move in and minimal energy output. Toward the end of gestation, the female will remain in the den while the male hunts for food and brings home dinner. 
Typically five to seven pups are born in each litter.  The young are altricial at birth, meaning they are born with closed eyes, very little hair, and the inability to care for themselves. They are covered in black fur without the mask facial markings. At nine or ten days, the pups eyes open and teeth emerge around fourteen to sixteen days. They will wean around 30 to 40 days, but until then they rely on mom for milk. By weaning time, their facial markings are evident making them look like miniature versions of their parents. 
While mom stays in the den with the pups, dad hunts for food bringing home the bacon, as they say. Once the pups are weaned, they transition to solid food and mom leaves the den. After being cooped up with her young, she goes out to hunt while dad take over parental duties. She will bring back food for the pups and until they are ready to leave the den male and female will trade off hunting and pupsitting duties. 
By about three months, they pups are the size of young adult raccoon dogs. Four month of age brings hunting lessons. The pups will follow mom and dad and learn how to hunt by watching their parents. At nice to eleven months, the pups will be full grown and out on their own. 
By the time they leave the company of their parents, they are sexually mature and the following spring, they will most likely be looking for mates of their own. We are not sure how long raccoon dogs live in the wild, but in a study of trapped tanuki the oldest males were approximately 5 and 1/2 years while the females were 7 and 1/2 years. Of 320 captured individuals, 68.4% were younger adults. It’s not terribly surprising tha these mammals mature at such a young age given that they may only live 5 to 7 years. 
In captivity, tanuki have lived to just over 14 years. 
That concludes this episode about the reproductive cycle of the tanuki. Thank you for listening because raccoon dog reproduction is my fifth favorite thing about this intriguing mammal.
 
  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.

Tanuki: Social Structure

Summary: How social are tanuki? Do they hang out in packs like wolves or solitary like a fox? Join Kiersten as she dives into the social structure of the raccoon dog.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes:
Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com
“Latrine utilization and feces recognition in the raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides”, by I. Yamamoto. Journal of Ethology, June 1984.
Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org
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.
The fourth thing I like about Tanukis is their social structure. Canids have a variety of different social structures, from family packs like wolves, monogamous pairs like coyotes, and solitary lives like foxes. Today we’ll take a closer look at the raccoon dog’s social activities.
Tanuki are, genetically, more closely related to foxes than any other canine, but their social structure is more closely related to coyotes. We are still learning about these understudied animals, but what we know so far shows that tanukis pair off during the breeding season. Once they have paired off, it appears that they may stay together year round. If not closely together in distance they appear to at least share a home range. 
Telemetry data shows that tanukis remain in pairs or in small groups within the same home range throughout the year. A home range is a space that an animal can be consistently found that includes hunting grounds, a water source, and a denning site. Non-migratory animals typically remain in their home range for their entire life as long as all resources that they need continue to be offered in that home range.
During breeding season a male and a female tanuki pair off and will share a denning site to raise their offspring together. We will delve into reproduction and rearing the young in the next episode. 
As stated before, it is unclear whether mated pairs remain together throughout the year but there is evidence that they remain together when they are sleeping or resting. Some populations that live in colder regions will actually hibernate together. Pairs will endure the coldest times of the year in a den with their mate. By the way, tanuki are the only canids that hibernate, that we currently known of, anyways. 
As we’ve discovered in previous episodes, there are differences in behavior based on the location of the tanuki populations. There is no evidence that tanuki live in groups, consistently, in Finland. They will live in pairs with their young offspring, but do not stay together once the young are old enough to survive on their own. Here, the mated pair will stay together in their home range throughout the year. 
During the breeding season, in Finland, the mated pairs home ranges never overlap with other mated pairs. Outside of breeding season, some overlap can be seen but only peripherally. The home ranges of mated pairs is pretty stable, fluctuating with the seasons probably due to resource availability, but for the most part they utilize the same space year round. Juveniles that have left their birth home range and have yet to pair off with a mate, have much larger home ranges than mated pairs. This is due to searching for an acceptable home range and a mate of their own.
Japanese tanuki also appear to remain in pairs throughout the year, once they have mated. There is evidence that these bonds last for multiple years. Again, they will live with their young until the offspring are ready to head out on their own. Unlike the Finland populations, some Japanese individuals may return to their natal home range, that is where they were born, after they reach maturity. 
It is interesting that telemetry research shows tanuki from two different populations live in pairs and small groups for at least a portion of the year, because whenever they are seen by humans they appear to be alone. There are very few reports of seeing raccoons dogs together. I’m not sure what exactly what to think of that, but it’s an intriguing mystery. Don’t you think, listeners?
When I find out that animals are solitary or live in small groups, one of the behaviors that I always want to know about, is communication. All creatures need to communicate with others of their own kind, but how do they do it? Raccoon dogs have several ways to communicate with each other. 
Vocalizations are one way that tanuki communicate. They whine, whimper, and mew which are vocalizations that are often associated with friendly greetings or submissive interactions. They can also growl when threatened, but they do not bark. 
Body language is important to tanuki as with other canids, but raccoon dogs do not appear to use tail wagging as a form of communication. Most other canines will use tail wagging to communicate various intentions, but as far as we know the tanuki does not.
The tanuki does communicate in a unique way. They have social latrines. Yes, I said social latrines. This is a common spot where many tanuki will use the restroom. They urinate and defecate in these social areas, not at the same time, but in the same space. They will sniff the area each time they visit and appear to pick up some information from the piles of excrement. Other canids often use scent marking from urination and defecation to announce their territory boundaries, but tanuki use these latrines to pass information between family members and unrelated tanuki. We need to do much more research on these social latrines to determine what kind of information is passed at these social hubs.
Well, that’s all for the social behavior of the raccoon dog, we have a lot more to learn, but my fourth favorite thing about this canine is their social structure. 
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.

Tanuki: Diet

Summary: What are Tanuki eating? Join Kiersten as she discusses just what raccoon dogs are eating in the wild.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com
 
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.
This is episode three and the third thing I like about raccoon dogs is their diet. I actually do enjoy some of the same foods that raccoons dogs eat, but what I really like about their diet is how varied it is depending on their location.
As mentioned before, Tanuki are classified as omnivores. Omnivores are animals that eat both meat and veggies. This is exactly what the Tanuki does. Let’s look at what often determines the kind of food animals eat, their teeth.
Tanukis are canids, which is the family of animals that include wolves, foxes, and domestic dogs. These animals usually share the same kind of dentition, or structure and layout of teeth. Most canids are classified as carnivores, even though many do eat fruits and vegetables at some time during the year.
Takunis have six incisors in the top jaw and six incisors in the bottom jaw. They have two canines, top and bottom. They have four premolars, top and bottom. And two to three molars, top and bottom. This gives them a total of 42 to 44 teeth. This is a typical amount for a canine. In canids, the premolars are carnassial teeth. These are essentially modified molars that are sharp to help shred and tear meat. The carnassial teeth in the Tanuki are reduced compared to other canids and their molars are larger. This pattern speaks to their omnivorous diet.
In the previous episodes we discussed a few differences between the indigenous Japanese populations and the introduced Finnish populations. We will continue this comparison with their teeth, because there are noticeable difference between the different populations, so much so that scientists can determine the origin of a raccoon dog by inspecting their teeth. Whoa! That’s exactly what I thought, too!
The case study I’m referencing measured 65 skulls from Finland raccoon dogs and 104 skulls from raccoon dogs in Honshu, Japan. They took 22 different measurements of adult teeth and skulls. The skulls of Finnish raccoon dogs were larger both overall and in relative body size than those of the Japanese population. Mandible width and jaw height were the most useful measurements in determining location of each raccoon dog with a 100% correct classification. 
The mandibles of the Finnish raccoon dogs are more robust with a more powerful jaw than those of Japanese origin. Japanese individuals have a longer snout with longer tooth rows than the Finnish specimens. Molars of the Japanese raccoon dogs are larger in relation to skull size versus the Finnish Tanuki. What do these differences in skull and tooth morphology tell us about these creatures? Excellent question, listeners! It tells us what they are eating. 
So what are Tanuki eating in the wild. As we just discovered, it appears to depend on where they are located. I find that fascinating! They are the same animal but their diet varies depending on what habitat they live in. It shows how adaptable they are and this is certainly an attribute they share with the North American Raccoon, after whom they are named. 
Tanuki, in general, are ominous, which means they eat both meat and vegetation. The percentage and type of food varied depending on Japan versus Finland. As we just determined, Finland raccoon dogs have slightly larger jaws meaning their massater muscles are larger which in turn mean they probably eat more meat and possibly larger prey than Japanese Tanuki. 
How do researchers determine what animals in the wild are eating? Poop! A lot of poop. Scientists, often undergraduates eager to get into the sciences, collect lots and lots of feces. You have to note the area where it is found, the date, time of day, and any other factors that might be important, such as the weather. These samples are then returned to the lab were they will be processed and someone gets to dissect an awful lot of poo! 
In this case study the researchers determined that thought the year the diet of raccoon dogs, whether in Finland or Japan, varies. This is most likely due to natural resource fluctuations. In Finland frogs, lizards, and invertebrates are commonly eaten in summer and autumn. Fish are eaten in late winter. Berries and fruits are eaten in late summer and autumn. If we look at food resources in percentages we see 56% of mammals, voles and shrews being very popular, 34% were bird remains, 8% were frogs or lizards, 20% fish, 51% invertebrates, 89% plants, and 49% carrion, which is dead, decaying animal matter.
A note on the most common bird remains found in Finland raccoon dog feces, the Common Eider, a type of duck found in coastal waters, and eggs were most often found in Finland’s raccoon dogs feces. It is not believed that at the time of the recording of this podcast that the predation of the Tanuki on the Common Eider in Finland detrimentally impacts their populations.
Let’s take a look at the diet of the Japanese populations. In Japan, Tanuki diet has been studied in different habitats. For the most part, it follows the same pattern as the Finland population with invertebrates fruits, rodents, birds, frogs and fish. In the subalpine zone diet consisted of 90% insects mainly Coleoptera, which is the family that includes a lot of beetles, and these were seen year round. 58% included earthworms except in the cooler months of January to April. Berries and seeds made up 49% of the diet. These were also seen year round with a lower amount in January to April when fewer plants are producing berries and seeds. 46% of the diet consisted of small mammals, January to June. 
In mountainous regions diet consisted of 78 to 100% of Coleoptera insects in spring and summer, Orthoptera in autumn, that’s grasshoppers and crickets, and Hemiptera, which includes the True Bugs, in winter. Fruits are eaten year round with a percentage of 77 to 100%, except in May. This is may be because the fruits are just ripening at this time. From April to December, crustaceans, such as Japanese freshwater crabs, make up 28 to 71% of the diet with fish at 9 to 27%, birds 8 to 21%, small mammals 7 to 25%, carrion consisting mainly of sika deer and serow, aka goat-antelopes, at 10 to 37%. 
In the countryside, insects seem to be the most important food resource year round with available fruits such as persimmon supplementing the diet in autumn and early winter. 
In urban and suburban areas, raccoon dogs will feed mainly around human dwellings and have included garbage into their diet. No surprise there! Any animal that has adapted to living in human dominated areas has taken advantage of our propensity to create a lot of trash. Garbage was found year round at a percentage of 72%, with insects, mainly beetles, at 46%, persimmon fruit at 30% in spring and summer, earthworms at 24%, birds at 21% in winter and spring, and Myriapoda, millipedes and centipedes at 11% year round.  
This may have been a bit more specific than you expected in our talk about diet. But I found the differences and similarities across the populations interesting enough to highlight the percentages. Plus, someone did a lot of poop scooping and dissection to get this information, so I thought I’d spread the information around as far as possible. No pun intended. 
Once again I think this episode shows the adaptability of the Tanuki and makes them an even more fascinating canine. Thanks for hanging in there to the end, listeners, because my third favorite thing about this unknown canine is their diet.
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.

Tanuki - Where are you?

Summary: Where are tanuki found? Join Kiersten as she looks at the range of the Japanese raccoon dog.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com
 
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.
  Last episode I introduced you the Japanese raccoon dog, the tanuki. In this episode we’re going to talk about where they can be found. Which I s the second thing I like about them. You may be thinking, it’s a Japanese raccoon dog, so what more is there to discuss. They’re from Japan. You are right, listener, but that’s not the end of the story. Let’s take a deeper dive into where the tanuki can be found.
The native range of the raccoon dog covers much of China, northeast Indochina, Korea, Amur, and Ussuri regions of Eastern Siberia, Mongolia, and Japan. 
The earliest known ancestors of the raccoon dog are 3.7 million years old. Fossils of a subspecies was found in Europe 4 million years ago. Nyctereutes megamastoides, a large ancestor of raccoon dogs, lived in Europe while another subspecies, Nyctereutes sinensis lived in China during the Pliocene era and the early Pleistocene era. The distribution of this animal decreased during the Pleistocene. Nyctereutes megamastoides went extinct and Nyctereutes sinensis decreased in size. The later Chinese species evolved into the modern species we know today.
The ancestors of todays residents of Japan probably colonized this area between 0.4 Ma and 12,000 years ago using the Sakhalin or Korean peninsulas. When the Japan Sea opened approximately 12,000 years ago the modern tanuki became isolated from other subspecies. These individuals began to adapt to a mild marine climate.
Another subspecies evolved in Russia adapting to much colder climates. Their fur caught the eye of humans who introduced them to European parts of the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century. As many introduced species do, the raccoon dog spread quickly and was detected in Finland in the 1930s. The Finnish population peaked in the 1980s and has remained stable. Raccoon dogs are currently among the most numerous carnivores in Finland.
The two different populations of raccoon dogs have evolved to be distinct from each other in size and behavior. We’ll talk more about these differences in future episodes. 
  Where within these two distinctive populations, Japan and Finland, can we find the raccoon dogs? In Japan, they can be found all over the country, but they can be classified into mountain types and village types, at least in the satoyama habitat where their home range use was studied. The mountain type where found to favor secondary forest and herbaceous areas. The village type was found in agricultural landscapes. Within both of these types, the least favorite habitats were the cedar plantations and the most favored were rice fields. Much like this mammals, namesake, the North American raccoon, tanuki can be found in urban areas as well. Within urban cities, they are found most often in areas with forest cover.
In Finland, the tanuki uses different habitat seasonally. In southern Finland they used a barren heath habitat in all seasons, while they used moist heath habitat in late summer. Lake shore were all popular in both summer and autumn where food resources were plentiful regardless of the season. Water is also useful when these mammals encounter domestic dogs. They often run into the water to get away from the dogs.
Rock piles on barren heaths provide great denning options during breeding season. When young are able to leave the den in mid-summer, parents will take them into meadows and abandoned fields. In late summer moist heath fields attract these omnivorous creature with abundant berries and insects. Autumn leads the raccoon dog to pine forests in search of abundant berries and into human cultivated gardens.
I found it interesting that these two populations used available habitat and resources in different ways. It shows how adaptable these creatures are. It speaks well of their continued survival in an ever changing world. It also, once again, shows a similarity with their namesake, Procyon lotor.   
That’s it for this episode of the Tanuki. I know we got a little scientific in this episode but my second favorite thing about this critter is where they are found and that could only be described with a little fossil talk. Thanks for hanging in there.
 
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.

Tanuki - Japanese Racoon Dog

Summary: A raccoon that’s a dog? Not exactly. Join Kiersten as she introduces you to the Tanuki.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes:
Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com
 
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.
This is the first episode of a new series and I’m excited to introduce you to the tanuki, the Japanese raccoon dog. The first thing I like about this animal is its existence. 
So, what exactly is the tanuki? It’s called the raccoon dog, but it’s not really a raccoon or a dog. Nyctereutes procyonoides is not related to raccoons, but it is in the dog family. Tanuki are canids and they are most closely related to foxes, but continuing research on this topic may show that they are related only to themselves. We’ll have to wait a see what the future brings for the Tanuki family tree. For now they remain canids related to foxes.
Looking at them, you can completely understand why they got the name raccoon dog. They have a masked face just like a raccoon, they are small and fluffy, like a cute dog. But they are not domesticated canids, they are a wild animal. 
They have dark facial markings that surround the eyes and taper down the cheeks, like a raccoon. Their fluffy coat is yellowish brown, and while they do have a long tail, it is not ringed like a raccoon, just a yellow-brown like the rest of its coat. It has short limbs covered in black or brown fur. They have a heavy body, small snout with a thin, delicate muzzle, and rounded ears.  
If this description is making you need to see this cutey for yourself, take a moment to search for an image of them online and be prepared to fall in love. If you’re driving while listening to this episode, please wait until you’ve reached your destination.
The tanuki is not a big animal. They are approximately 20-26 inches, or 50 to 65cm, in length. Their tail is 5 to 7 inches, or 13 to 18cm, long. They weigh around 17.5 pounds, or 7.5 kg. This is probably another reason they got the name raccoon dog, as this is the approximate size of an average raccoon.
There is no discernible size difference in males verse females, but there is a difference in sizes throughout subspecies.
Tanuki are indigenous to Japan, southeastern coastal Russia, and eastern coastal China. Indigenous means that they are native to these areas. Today they can also be found in areas of Europe where they were introduced for human uses. I’ll go more in depth with this topic in a future episode.
Raccoon dogs are largely nocturnal, but can be seen foraging at sundown and sunrise. They are generalists when it comes to their diet and are classified as omnivores. Omnivores are animals that eat both proteins, such as meat, and vegetation. Depending on where they live, their diets vary slightly. In their native ranges they tend to be more frugivorous, that’s eating fruits, and vegetarian; while, in their introduced range they tend to be more carnivorous. 
Raccoon Dogs are incredibly adaptable, much like the North American animal that shares their name, and can be found in various habitats. They do tend to favor scrubby forest areas where they can easily disappear in low growing plants and food resources are plentiful. In Japan they have adapted to a more urban existence and due to the mythology of the raccoon dog in this country, they seem to be surviving. Don’t worry, I’m dedicating a whole episode to the mythology of the Tanuki.
I hope this first episode has you as excited about the raccoon dog as I am because my first favorite thing about them, is 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.

Slime Mold: Conservation, Control, and More Cool Facts

Summary: Want more cool facts about slime mold? Who doesn’t!? Join Kiersten for more unbelievable facts about slime mold.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes:
“Slime Molds: No Brains, No Feet, No Problem,” Science Thursday. PBS. https://www.pbs.org
“100 million years in amber: Researchers discover oldest fossilized slime mold,” University of Gottingen. Science Daily. https://www.sciencedaily.com
“Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov
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.
The last episode of Slime Mold has arrived. It’s bitter sweet for me because I have loved researching this organism but I’m also excited about which  creature will come next. We’re going out with a bang though, the tenth thing I like about slime mold is that there are so many more cool facts about it!
Before we delve into the the amazing facts we haven’t yet discussed about slime mold, let’s talk about conservation and control.
Slime mold is not in any need of conservation methods at the time. The species that we know about are all doing well. There is plenty of places for slime mold to thrive and some species, like the Dog Vomit Slime Mold, are doing better than ever because of our need to use mulch on our landscaped gardens. This is good news for this organism, but we have to keep in mind that disappearing habitat like forests and wetlands means that all creatures that rely on these areas are at risk. As we change the landscape around us to fit our needs, we take away habitat that these organisms rely on to survive. That does include slime mold.
Many people contact local gardening clubs and college extensions to ask how to control slime mold that they find in their gardens. The only thing you need to do, is scoop out the mulch that is growing on and throw it out. Slime mold doesn’t harm plants that it is near or on. Most of the time it dries out and goes away before it can damage any plants that you might find it on. So control is a moot point, really, and after listening to this series, I hope you get excited about the slime mold you find in your backyard!
Okay let’s talk about some of the other cool facts about slime mold. 
If slime mold gets torn apart it can reform! The protoplasm of slime mold allows it to be separated and reform again when the pieces get near each other. Each tiny bit is interchangeable. Every individual protoplasm unit of slime mold can become a vein or limb-like projection that reaches out in the direction the mold wants to travel. There are, however, organelles inside the slime mold that are unable to do this. They are fixed as organelles and never change. 
It does beg the question can you kill slime mold? “It’s hard to say,” says Tanya Latty, an Australian researcher studying slime mold. There is a beetle that eats slime mold, but can it eat enough to kill an individual glob? “We don’t know if they eat enough of the body to make a difference,” continues Latty. “You could lose half of the biomass and it wouldn’t matter. It would just reorganize itself and be like, “I’m fine!” End quote. 
If you can’t kill slime mold, how long can it live? Excellent question, but we have no idea how long slime mold can live. When it dries out its called a sclerotia and it can survive like this for up to two years and still be revived with a little bit of moisture. As of the recoding of this podcast in 2024, a zoo in Paris has a slime mold currently on display in its plasmodial form that they acquired in 2019. That’s five years of living as a protoplasm. 
How long has slime mold been on earth? British and German scientists estimate that slime mold may have evolved 600 million years ago. In 2020 researchers discovered the oldest fossilized slime mold. It was a 100 million year old sample preserved in amber. 
For organisms without feet, slime mold can travel some long distances. When in its plasmodial form the blob can travel one inch an hour (I may never complain about rush hour traffic again!), but it’s not this form that allows them to travel all over the world. When reproducing, the spores are released into the air and have, somehow, travelled on the wind around the globe. There are slime molds with identical genetic structure found in the United States and New Zealand. That is an amazingly long way to travel on the wind!
Speaking of genetics…during the RNA editing phase slime mold genes make uncommonly large numbers of corrections. They are continually making changes to its original plans. Jonatha Gott of Case Western University says, “As it’s making a copy of the DNA, it changes it. It’s incredibly precise and incredibly accurate. If it does’t do this, it dies. It’s a really crazy way to express genes.” It also makes it incredibly interesting to scientists developing ways to cure cancer.
I have no doubt that the list of cool facts about slime mold will continue to grow as we learn more about this unbelievable organism. I’m glad I was able to share some of the cool facts we currently know about slime mold with all of my listeners because that’s my tenth favorite thing about slime mold.
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 in two weeks for a new series about another misunderstood or unknown creature.    
 
(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.

Slime Mold: Make Good Pets?

Summary: Looking for an easy care but unusual pet? Slime mold might be just what you’re looking for! Join Kiersten as she talks about slime molds as pets.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
“Slime Molds: No Brains, No Feet, No Problem,” Science Thursday. PBS. https://www.pbs.org
The Slime Mould Collective, https://slimoco.ning.com
Carolina Biological Supply Company, https://www.carolina.com
Slime Moulds: The University of Warwick, Life Sciences, https://warwick.ac.uk
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’ve reached the penultimate episode of slime mold and it’s kind of an odd one, although, most of these series has been odd. The ninth thing I like about…well I’m on the fence about whether I truly like this, so let’s say the ninth thing I’m going to talk about slime mold is people keeping it as a pet.
This is may be the most unusual creature to keep as a pet, but I guess you could get attached to this little rule breaker. It seems they might be easy to feed, a few oats can go along way, they don’t need a large space to roam around, and they don’t need a lot of light. Keeping the proper temperature and humidity levels might be the most difficult task, but let’s see what some slime mold pet owners have to say.
The University of Warwick in Coventry, England has instructions on the L  Ife Sciences page for how to keep slime mold alive. It’s fairly straight forward. The slime mold they talk about is our old friend Physarum polycephalum, aka The Blob. This is the species most commonly used in laboratory experiments and was the focus of most of the intelligence studies we talked about in the last episode. 
According to the Warwick guide to looking after your slime mold, it really is fairly simple. You can keep your slime mold in any waterproof container. They use petri dishes at the university, but any plastic tub is sufficient. It will need a source of moisture, so a damp piece of kitchen towel works just fine. Having a supply of oats on hand is a must, but you don’t need much more than that to feed your slime mold. You can feed it every few days, but be sure that you do, or it might make like Harry Houdini and escape imprisonment. 
If the slime mold gets hungry it will figure out a way to slip out of it’s tub and look for the nutrients it needs. It also doesn’t like to hang out on old food, I’m really who does, so when you feed it you want to put it to one side so it moves around it’s enclosure. Exercise does keep you healthy. 
If you’re looking for a pet that doesn’t need a lot of clean up, your in luck with slime mold. You’ll need to clean up the piece of substrate it’s living on at least once a week. You can lure it to one side for food and remove the paper it’s laying on with a new piece. This actually does sound kind of fun. When you’ve had enough of slime mold parenthood, you can just let if dry out in the dark and it goes into a sort of torpor. The dried up slime mold in called a sclerotia. It can stay on this state for almost tow years. Then it can be woken up by re-dampening the paper and feeding it oats again. Sounds pretty fool proof to me!
But, just like any living creature, there are problems that can arise. I find it interesting that Warwick University offers a troubleshooting guide to slime mold. Makes it sound like a computer program not a living organism. None the less, it sounds like good advice.
As mentioned before, you may have an escape happen. If you do, they say you can just lure it back into its enclosure with some yummy oats. 
If you’re slime mold becomes smelly or moldy, more so that usual I guess, then it may have become contaminated with something. You can coax a bit of it onto a new piece of paper and move it into a new container. The rest of the slime mold and the old container will need to be bleached.
If your slime mold turns brown or gray, remember healthy blobs are typical a yellow color, or becomes runny. I have bad news. It’s dead. You’ll have to start over with a new colony, after an appropriate mourning period, of course.
If your slime mold develops black spots and stops moving. Mazel tov, you’re a parent! Your slime mold was probably exposed to too much light and has moved onto the next stage of its life, making spores. That’s it for this colony of slime mold. You’ll have to start over again.
I take back what I said before, this does seem like a pretty easy pet to have, although on long vacations you’ll need to have a pet sitter. Do they have a slime mold option on Rover?  
While doing research for this episode I found a website called The Slime Mould Collective. Mold spelled mould, the European spelling. There were people asking questions about slime mold from all over the world. Could be a good way to bond with someone from across the planet. Slime mold, bringing us together. Stranger things have happened.
If you have other pets, such as fogs to cats, keep in mind that while slime mold is not toxic to them ingestion of the slime mold could cause some tummy troubles. The earthy smell that slime mold produces when it’s healthy might attract your four-legged furry friends, so for everyones sake, especially your carpet, keep your slime mold in a secure space away from your other pets.
There are two ways to obtain your slime mold. You can collect some from your garden or you can order some from online providers. The Carolina Biological Supply Company will ship you a slime mold started kit for about $53 US dollars. This is aimed at the science class so it comes with sclerotia for five slime mold starters, 10 Petri dishes lined with agar solution, and one Physarum plasmodium plate. 
Collecting some from your garden will be a lot less expensive, but I’m hesitant to do that. After everything I’ve learned about slime mold intelligence how could I take it out of its natural habitat. For all we know, it could know that it’s no longer living in the wild but stuck in a plastic butter tub in someone’s kitchen. You may be shaking you head right now or laughing out loud, but just think back to the last episode where we talked about all the things slime mold can do without a brain. The next thing we discover about slime could that it has consciousness. I wouldn’t put anything past this amazing little organism.
Thanks for sticking with me to the ninth episode of slime mold, listeners, I may have to revise what I said at the beginning of this episode and say my ninth favorite thing about slime mold is that you can keep it as a pet. I may just go order some right now!
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 slime mold.    
 
(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.

Slime Mold: Intelligence

Summary: Can an organism without a brain be smart? You bet! Join Kiersten as she discusses some of the smart things slime mold can do.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes:
“Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov
“Eight smart things slime molds can do without a brain,” by Alissa Greenberg. Nova, September 21, 2020. Https:://www.pbs.org
 
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.
It’s time for episode eight, listeners, and this is all about something I never thought I’d say in the same sentence as slime mold. The intelligence of slime mold is the eighth thing I like about this unbelievable organism.
We have established in previous episodes that slime mold has no brain, nor does it have any nerve clusters or ganglia of any kind that can organize impulses to indicate a creature that can make decisions, but this is exactly what slime mold can do.
Before we jump in, I want to touch on how slime mold travels. As you remember, there are two phases of slime mold, one is stationary and the second is mobile. The plasmodium is the mobile state of the slime mold. The plasmodium is a multinucleate mass of protoplasm that results from the fusion amoeba-like, motile cells. This is the feeding, creeping stage of this organism. They remain in this form when resources are abundant. This is the form that scientist study a lot and this is how we found out just how smart slime mold is. What exactly is it that makes us say slime mold is smart? 
In the senses episode, we discovered that slime mold can smell food. They then pulsate in the direction of that food, but the really amazing thing is that it can choose the best food for them. In laboratory experiments, slime mold will reach out appendages in the different directions of offered food items. These food items are not the same quality. Slime mold, before even touching the food, will decide which one offers the best nutrition value and then concentrate its efforts on that food source. For a brainless organism that’s pretty amazing, can you believe that?
The next incredible feat of slime mold has to do with obtaining the food. When put into a maze with oats, slime mold loves oats, at both the entrance and the exit of the maze, this mold will stretch itself along the maze to find the shortest path in which it can eat both supplies of food at the same time! It can perform this amazing feat with 37 different points. To let you know, the number of possible ways to connect 37 points starts with an 8 and ends with 54 zeros. Slime mold can figure out the most efficient way to eat at all 37 points at the same time! I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do that.
Slime mold can also remember where they’ve been. In these food experiments, researchers noticed that the slime mold rarely retraced a previous path. They started to wonder if the slime mold was remembering where it had been? Turns out, it was. When it travels down a path it leaves behind slime, like actual slime, similar to a snail trail, that tells the mold it has already been there so don’t bother. Brilliant!
We’re going to stay in the realm of memory but throw in habituation. Have you heard of habituation? If not, habituation is when you get used to something you don’t like but doesn’t really hurt you. It’s like getting used to an annoying noise. Advanced organisms are great at habituation but what about slime mold? You got that right! Slime mold can habituate to adverse stimuli. 
In a laboratory experiment, researchers placed oats on the other side of a bridge. To reach the food slime mold had to cross the bridge. Typically, the mold could reach the food in about a hour. Researchers placed salt on the bridge. Slime mold is not fond of salt. It doesn’t hurt it, that we can tell, but the slime mold doesn’t like it. This slowed the progress of the mold to ten hours, but once it got across the bridge it got the oats. It was rewarded with a treat for crossing the salty bridge. The next day the researchers repeated the setup. How would the slime mold react? Surprisingly, the slime mold crossed the salty bridge again but faster this time. The next day, the crossing time decreased again. The slime mold remembered that if it crossed the salty bridge it could reach the yummy oats, and essentially toughed it out, habituating itself to an adverse stimulus. 
If none of this has convinced you that slime mold is out of this world, I’ve got one more for ya. Slime molds can teach other slime molds what it has learned! Take that in for a moment. After the salt experiment results, the researchers started to wonder if slime mold might be able to share this information. I mean, why not? This organism has broken all the other rules. 
A little background here. If you take two slime molds and  place them next to each other they will combine to make one slime mold. Over time, these researchers discovered that if they let slime mold that had learned to tolerate salt interact with other slime mold that had not habituated to salt for approximately three hours, the new slime mold tolerated salt without having to go through the habituation trials! My mind just exploded! Slime mold is essentially teaching other slime mold. 
This organism surprises me every single episode! My eighth favorite thing about slime mold is its incredible intelligent abilities.
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 slime mold.    
 
(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.

Slime Mold: Research Subjects

Summary: What can we learn from studying slime mold? So much! Join Kiersten as she discusses some of the more recent studies involving slime mold.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
“Slime molds as a valuable source of antimicrobial agents,” by Vida Tafakori. AMB Express, 2021; 11:92 doi:10.1186/s13568-021-01251-3.
“Slime Mold Leads to High-Tech Research For Stetson Computer-Science Students.” June 16, 2021. Stetson Today: The New Site of Stetson University. https://www2.stetson.edu
“Using a ‘virtual slime mold’ to design a subway network less prone to disruption,” Tyler Irving, University of Toronto. Phys Org News. https://phys.org
 
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp