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More and more raccoons are living in the Curonian Spit. The locals meet the animals on the ferry across the Curonian Lagoon, in the settlements of Preila, Pervalka and Juodkrante, and in Nida itself. Seliome, who lives in the latter, recounts the first encounter with a raccoon.
“It was night and I live next to the forest. I went to the window, I see my eyes shine. I slept through the night, watching, in the morning still huddled in a corner. Beautiful, the coat is dark with light and the eyes are black, ”says Seliomėja, a resident of Nida.
PHOTO GALLERY. Raccoons that are widespread in North America have settled on the Curonian Spit:
However, these beautiful animals are not as innocent and playful as they seem. Specialists call raccoons an invasive species that does not fear our climate and fear that newcomers will destroy native wildlife. Raccoons in particular liked chicks.
“We certainly have examples of protected areas in other countries that, if established, the chances of other species are very low. Because they can reach everything, both the tree and the ground, and buried. They are smart and agile and they have no natural enemies here, ”says Aušra Feser, director of the Curonian Spit National Park Directorate.
Therefore, the residents of Curonian Spit are already asking for the help of hunters. And these solve raccoon traps. It is true that only a few get stuck.
“One thing they are smart, they are active at night and in the appendix settlements. It is forbidden to hunt in the settlements or to use any weapon ”, says the hunter Sigitas Šveikauskas.
However, not all experts agree that raccoons pose a deadly threat to our wildlife. Employees who have been raising raccoons at the Klaipėda Zoo for many years explain that while raccoons are omnivores, they are lazy. It is much more convenient for them to find food in human settlements than to hang around in the trees in search of chicks of birds.
“He will live at home, he will eat dog food at night, he will put all the noise away, he will be able to live in the attic, he will be able to stay in the dining room, in the ventilation shaft. He, although wild, does not fear man, but causes discomfort. So that he would go hunting some birds, ”said Edvardas Legeckas, director of the Klaipėda Zoo.
It is true that experts disagree on how raccoons living in North America were found on the Curonian Spit. There is only one thing clear: there are no human beings here.
“It was just a time when they were freely marketed, in supermarkets, in pet stores. Easily imported from the Czech Republic, Poland. There, the approach is different. People see ads about these raccoons when they think they are a very good animal, but their character changes when they mature sexually. Won’t you easily take it in your hands and where to put it? ”Says E. Legeckas.
The zoo director says raccoons often run away. Remember a story when an outgoing family brought a raccoon to a cage by the river, and that night he unhooked the cage door himself and the family, who woke up in the morning, saw the animal looking at them mockingly from across the river. .
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