Amphibious Nazi Raccoons Menace Sweden

[mongers]

Stolen from The Register, if only for the headline:

http://m.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/24/raccoon_menace/

Amphibious Nazi raccoons menace Sweden

Hermann Göring's furry stormtroopers poised to strike

By Lester Haines

Sweden is bracing for an amphibious assault by a considerable force of raccoon dogs and raccoons, poised to cross the Öresund strait which separates the country from neighbouring Denmark.

Raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) are native to east Asia, where their populations are actually declining, but they have made themselves right at home across Scandinavia and continental Europe. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are native to North America.

The raccoon dog was introduced into Latvia in the 1940s, and rapidly invaded neighbouring countries, penetrating as far south as Italy.

Two breeding pairs of raccoons were released outside Kassel, Germany, in 1934, with the authorisation of Hermann Göring's Reich Forestry Office, with spectacular results. The country now hosts a population of up a million, and another release from an US airbase in France in the 1960s gave the animals another vital base of operations.

Denmark has already fallen to both species, and the Swedes now fear they will make the short 4km swim across the Öresund straight to Skåne to conquer yet more territory. Bertil Nilsson, wildlife officer at Skåne's County Administrative Board, told Sveriges Radio: "They're good swimmers. And besides, they could also use the bridge as a possible crossing. But neither the open sea nor high waves are going to scare them off."

He chillingly added: "It's really very serious, they're spreading very quickly in Denmark."

That Sweden will fall to the raccoon dog and raccoon seems inevitable. The former is already menacing the country from Finland, where a substantial population has made short work of indigenous wildlife. Nilsson explained: "In Finland the large wetlands areas are all but emptied of ground-nesting birds and frogs."

A monitoring camera operation along the Sweden-Finland border has now been extended to Öresund, in the hope of stemming the tide. Nilsson concluded: "There's nothing wrong with the species. We just don't want them here." ®

Bootnote
UK tabloid The Sun reported on the raccoon threat to Europe back in 2004, illustrating its "furry blitzkrieg" warning with a rather splendid photo, as you can see here.

[The Brain]

We know how to deal with Nazi coons.

[HVC]

A million from descended from one mating pair? Theyre the hillbillies of the racoon world.

[Barrister]

Pfft - if Alberta can keep out the Norway rat, then surely Sweden can keep out the raccoon.   

[HVC]

Sounds more like the rats are smart enough to stay out of Alberta

[Barrister]

Sounds more like the rats are smart enough to stay out of Alberta

No - it is thanks to the brave men and women of the Rat Patrol. :worship:

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3441

[Malthus]

A million from descended from one mating pair? Theyre the hillbillies of the racoon world.

If they were lesbian nazi racoons, we would not be having this problem.

[Razgovory]

Perhaps they can fight those Stalin crabs.

http://jonathanturley.org/2008/08/28/blitzkrabs-europe-threatened-by-nazi-raccoons-and-stalin-crabs/

It seems someone else made this connection as well.  I feel slightly less special.

[jimmy olsen]

A million from descended from one mating pair? Theyre the hillbillies of the racoon world.

Two breeding pairs, plus an infusion (of unknown size) of new blood that landed in France in the 60s.

[HVC]

The article makes it sound like the French population is divided from he scandi one