Young raccoon does not speak of martial virtue and steals the sleeping dog badger

Since experts from the Belarusian Academy of Sciences entered the Nalyboki Forest for ecological research, interesting stories about the animals in this forest have been circulating among the people. ", but also the red fox, dog badgers, raccoons, and other "small faction of the fight".

But compared to the open and honest fight between lynx and forest wolves, the "small clan fight" between a raccoon and dog badger seems to be much more interesting.

Although there are no large predators such as lions, tigers, and leopards, there are many small and medium-sized predators such as Eurasian lynx, forest wolves, foxes, and, of course, brown bears living in the Nalyboki forest in Belarus.

For example, the Eurasian lynx will take advantage of the warm period from April to September when the wolves tend to act alone to attack them, and the raccoon will take advantage of the dog badger's hibernation and slumber to attack and kill them.

Overall, the interspecies competition here is fierce, but also exciting, as they say, where there are people, there are rivalries, and the same is true in the animal world.

European Forest Wolf

Badger is not a dog, but a raccoon is a real "dog"

The dog badger is not a canine, but a skunk, and in China, it is also known as a badger.

The main reason why people often confuse the dog badger with the pig badger is that their noses are somewhat similar, and they both look convex from a distance, but one of the biggest differences between the two is their noses.

In the whole weasel family, the dog badger's body size is medium to large, the form is relatively fat, the head is small and the neck is thick, the coat is relatively rough, and the head hair color is black and white.

In the "badger" family, the most famous should belong to the "flat-headed brother" called honey badger, honey badger has a "life and death look lightly on the notorious", the reality of the honey badger character is indeed so Even in the face of the lion, but also dare to take the lead in the attack.

Although the dog badger is also a member of the "badger" family, both the character and fighting ability, and the honey badger are not in a class, in the Nali Poki forest, often by the adult Eurasian lynx, forest wolves, and other predators crowded, and thus be killed.

Honey badger

The raccoon is a kind of canine, and I believe that people who like to watch Japanese anime will not be unfamiliar with this creature, which is the prototype of the "civet cat".

In the past, many people thought that the prototype of a "civet cat" in Japanese manga was a raccoon, but it was wrong. The main reason for this misunderstanding is that raccoons are very misleading in appearance, and they look just like small raccoons from a distance.

However, if you look closely, you will find that there are still some differences between raccoons and raccoons. The raccoon is morphologically closer to the dog, after all, it is a member of the canine family.

The average weight of a raccoon is only 6.5-7 kg, which is not even as big as the one that comes out of hibernation in spring. However, the raccoon has a series of tricks that allow it to successfully trample the badger underfoot in the forest.

For example, raccoons will attack a dog badger alone in a group, or block the ventilation holes of the dog badger's burrow during hibernation and smother the dog badger's family to death.

Like most canids, raccoons live in packs and usually hunt small rodents in packs in the forest. Dog badgers, on the other hand, tend to be more active alone or in pairs, both in the spring, summer, and early fall.

A single raccoon is no match for a dog badger, but a group of raccoons can easily handle a dog badger. In March 2018, Vadim Sidorovich, an expert from the Belarusian Academy of Sciences involved in ecological research, found "evidence" of raccoon attacks on dog badgers in the forest.

Judging from the traces of the scene, a dog badger was feeding one kilometer away from its den, and then encountered two raccoons attacking together.

The two raccoons soon forced the dog badger away from the small spruce tree, and although the raccoons were slightly injured and bleeding throughout the battle, they were unwilling to give up this "two-on-one" opportunity and continued to pursue the dog badger.

Young raccoons don't talk about martial arts, but rather sneak attacks

If "two against one" is not a good idea, it is a common thing in martial arts, within reason, for example, there are often male and female warriors who fight against a warrior, and even more, there are seven monsters in Jiangnan who never fight against one, and others do not say anything. But the raccoon's next move is a bit of a non-martial arts virtue, using their innate advantage to sneak up on the dog badger family.

Like the dog badger, raccoons need to hibernate, but not so much because raccoons hibernate for a shorter period and do not hibernate to the same degree of maturity, which roughly means that raccoons hibernate later than dog badgers and wake up earlier, which gives them enough time to operate.

We can imagine a scenario in our mind where a dog badger lives in the forest, puts on its fall fat early in the fall, digs its burrow, and then goes to sleep as a family. The raccoon is lazy and finds the dog badger's den, which still has space inside, so it moves in without saying "hello".

Since the dog badger slept to death during the whole process, it didn't find the intruder, and the raccoon didn't want to fight because it had reached its hibernation period, so it didn't go down on the sleeping dog badger.

When early spring came, the raccoon took the lead in waking up from hibernation. When it took a look at the dog badger family still sleeping, the raccoon with a plan in mind ran to the ground and started to rake the dirt into the cave, blocking all the ventilation channels between the dog badger's sleeping room and the ground.

As the air inside the cave gradually became cloudy and the concentration of carbon dioxide became higher, the dog badger family gradually lost consciousness and went to a more peaceful place.

Scientists in 2005-2011, a total of 711 research studies, found three similar cases of dog badger death, these dog badgers are not trauma nor like the natural death of old age, the environment around the cave is intact, and all the causes are shown to be asphyxiation death.

According to tracking data from wireless collars, around late November in Belarus, signs of dog badger activity almost disappeared, indicating that they had entered hibernation. It was not until the end of February of the following year that dog badgers were recorded as being active for a few hours every 10 days or so, and by mid-March activity became much more frequent, remaining essentially every 2-4 days, with regular outings indicating that dog badgers were beginning to wake up from hibernation.

The raccoon, on the other hand, is relatively active throughout the winter, only going into its hole to hibernate when it is particularly cold, but by mid-February, no matter how bad the outside world is, it will be out and about frequently. It is this time difference that gives raccoons enough opportunity to strike.

Fishing lynx on the other side of the ocean

This is a skunk that lives in North America, but compared to the "big guy" like the dog badger, the fisher marten is a bit small, only 3.5-6 kg even for adult males, and even smaller for females at 2-2.5 kg.

The Canada lynx, although not the largest in the genus Lynx, but the size of the relative fishing mink, is too big, and most can reach 5-18 kg. In the open, the fishing marten is no match for the Canada lynx, but the fishing marten is also good at sneak attacks.

Since 1999, zoologists conducting ecological research in Maine have been discovering more than one or two cases of Canada lynx being slaughtered by mink. During 12 years of observation and research, more than a dozen similar incidents were found in four towns in Maine, indicating that mink do have a knack for dealing with Canada lynx.

After an in-depth study, zoologists found that there were few signs of struggle at the scene where the fishing marten killed the Canada lynx, indicating that the Canada lynx was hit by the fishing marten at once in the vital parts of the situation.

According to several examples, after careful investigation and analysis found that the original fishing mink kill Canada lynx phenomenon mostly occurs in winter, the fishing mink will take advantage of the cover of heavy snow, from behind to follow the lynx, wait until the lynx lying down to rest, it will attack, a bite on the throat of the lynx.

Because the Canadian lynx was not prepared in advance, coupled with the bite is the vitals, so they struggled a few times then suffocated and died. From the scene, the footprints of the fishing mink and the lynx are connected to the footprints of the lynx, and indirectly support the experts' inference.

The raccoon and the fisherman's marten used a less glamorous way, but from their point of view, it is a good example of how to make a big difference with a small one. Perhaps this is the wonderful thing about the animal world, there is no absolute right and wrong, standing at different angles, you can find different answers, and all this is based on the premise that there are birds in the sky, fish, and shrimp in the water, and animals in the forest, so that we can perceive the wonders of nature, perhaps this is the true meaning of protecting animals and nature.