Raccoons are native to North America but were introduced to Germany in the 1930s when the head of a local forestry association decided to release four of the tiny terrors
Football fans flooding into Germany for Euro 2024 may expect to contend with disgruntled locals, rival supporters or even the German police - but there's one more foe of which they must be wary.
This move earned them the moniker 'Nazi raccoons', as the infamous Hermann Goering - commander of Hitler's fearsome Luftwaffe during World War II - was in charge of forestry and nature conservation at the time of their introduction. onto the banks of the Eder river close to the Edersee Dam They have earned a reputation for sneaking into people's homes and settling in their lofts, or lounging on balconies in apartment buildings.
The German city of Kassel, close to the dam where the raccoons were first released in the centre of the country, is known nationwide as the animals' 'hometown' and has leaned into the joke, marketing itself as the raccoon 'capital of Europe'. Some 200,000 raccoons were caught and killed last year by hunters and pest control firms, who in the absence of firearms use traps to snare the cheeky mammals
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