Today I Learned

[DaveC426913]

I wonder if a similar can be said about Germany. Raccoons have been counted as domestic animals for about a century here, and there are cities with considerable populations.

I wondered about this. What do you mean by domestic?

Donning my Googles, I see that the EU has legally classified raccoons as an "invasive alien species". There are legal restrictions on keeping them, even if found in an urban area.

I suppose, informally, they might be tolerated and accepted, like we accept squirrels?

 

[fresh_42]

Beware, many raccoons in the US have rabies.

It's a good thing that rabies has been virtually eradicated in Germany thanks to large-scale vaccination campaigns.

 

[symbolipoint]

I wonder if a similar can be said about Germany. Raccoons have been counted as domestic animals for about a century here, and there are cities with considerable populations. On the other hand, there is still a chance that foxes will win the race on self-domestication. I mean, what worked for cats ...

The response makes me wonder about possible vocabulary definitions differences between English and German. Like some words do not always translate exactly the way someone thinks it does; or the way "domestic" is used could be a regulational way of using the word.

 

[fresh_42]

I wondered about this. What do you mean by domestic?

In Germany, the spread of the raccoon began in 1934 with the release of four animals at Lake Edersee in Hesse. Further releases occurred after a bomb hit a fur farm in Wolfshagen (Märkisch-Oderland district). A negative impact of this invasive species on native species in Europe cannot be ruled out.

According to the Kassel Regional Council, nearly 28,000 raccoons were killed in Hesse during the 2015/2016 season, more than half of them in the Kassel administrative district. More than 18,000 were killed by hunting with firearms, and another 7,800 by trapping. Approximately 1,800 died due to traffic or disease.

Donning my Googles, I see that the EU has legally classified raccoons as an "invasive alien species". There are legal restrictions on keeping them, even if found in an urban area.

I suppose, informally, they might be tolerated and accepted, like we accept squirrels?

This is domestic, and raccoons are no longer a neobiota. We also have greater rheas living in the wild, and we have wallabies and rose-ringed parakeets, too. The kangaroos survived several winters, which is the criterion to count as a domestic species, but I don't know whether they made it until now.

Personally, I hope for some Keas to escape ...

 

[fresh_42]

The response makes me wonder about possible vocabulary definitions differences between English and German. Like some words do not always translate exactly the way someone thinks it does; or the way "domestic" is used could be a regulational way of using the word.

I used it to mean "inland" in contrast to foreign.

 

[pinball1970]

T.I.L

RIP Jimmy Cliff 1944-2025

 

[DaveC426913]

In Germany, the spread of the raccoon began in 1934 with the release of four animals at Lake Edersee in Hesse. Further releases occurred after a bomb hit a fur farm in Wolfshagen (Märkisch-Oderland district). A negative impact of this invasive species on native species in Europe cannot be ruled out.

According to the Kassel Regional Council, nearly 28,000 raccoons were killed in Hesse during the 2015/2016 season, more than half of them in the Kassel administrative district. More than 18,000 were killed by hunting with firearms, and another 7,800 by trapping. Approximately 1,800 died due to traffic or disease.




This is domestic, and raccoons are no longer a neobiota. We also have greater rheas living in the wild, and we have wallabies and rose-ringed parakeets, too. The kangaroos survived several winters, which is the criterion to count as a domestic species, but I don't know whether they made it until now.

Personally, I hope for some Keas to escape ...

Yes, I read all those facts.

Perhaps domestication means something different there than here.

I mean, while coons may be ubiquitous, they seem to be no more domesticated than, say, city rats.

 

[fresh_42]

Yes, I read all those facts.

Perhaps domestication means something different there than here.

I mean, while coons may be ubiquitous, they seem to be no more domesticated than, say, city rats.

I haven't checked, but I said domestic as in domestic politics, not domesticated as for goats.

Raccoons are a domestic species in Germany, not a domesticated species. Cats are an example of a worldwide self-domesticated species. The news about raccoons in North America was that they are possibly on a similar way, and I added foxes, which - in Europe - also transmit to an urban species.

 

[symbolipoint]

The word is now making more sense.
Domestic - what is found living in a place
Domesticated - selective breeding selectively bred to develop a specie in a form that serves our purposes.

 

[DaveC426913]

Domestic as an antonym of imported, not as in an antonym of wild.
Got it!

 

[Hornbein]

Today I realized that fahrenheit taken literally is the abstract noun "the activity of driving."