Inokashira Park Zoo puts a lot of effort into exhibiting animals native to Japan. This time, we'll introduce Japanese Badger and Raccoon Dog.

Japanese Badger belongs to the weasel family and inhabits Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and has been confirmed in the Musashino City area where our park is located. Raccoon Dog belongs to the canid family and inhabits Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and although their numbers have decreased, they can still be seen in urban areas such as Tokyo's 23 wards and Yokohama City.

Badgers and Raccoon Dog are animals that originally lived in village forest and have long been familiar to humans. However, sometimes people look at them side by side and get confused, wondering, "Which is which?" So, to help you feel more familiar with them, let's learn the differences between badgers and Raccoon Dog together.

Japanese Badger	Raccoon Dog

First, let's look at their appearance. Their body shapes are similar, but the badger is a little stockier.

When viewed from the front, badgers have a vertically elongated black pattern around their eyes and a prominent large nose. In contrast, Raccoon Dog have a horizontally elongated black pattern around their eyes and their noses are not as large as badgers'. Also, badgers, which dig tunnel-like burrows underground, have sharp claws on their feet, while Raccoon Dog' claws are hardly noticeable.

Furthermore, I'd like to share some differences between badgers and Raccoon Dog that I've noticed as a zookeeper. Surprisingly, the animals often observe visitors closely, and sometimes even seem to be trying to gauge their reactions.

When this happens, badgers stick their noses out to sniff, while Raccoon Dog perk up their ears and listen carefully to sounds. I think this reflects the unique characteristics of each animal's ecology. Badgers have small ears that make it easy to pass through their burrows, but they have an excellent sense of smell and use their long claws to dig in the soil and find and eat earthworms and insects. Raccoon Dog, on the other hand, have large ears that collect sounds, and they are adept at picking up even faint sounds by moving their ears from side to side.

Our badgers and Raccoon Dog are on display in adjacent enclosures. Besides what we've shown here, there are many other differences and characteristics between them, so please try to discover them when you visit!

[Inokashira Park Zoo Animal Care and Exhibition Staff, Kyoko Uchibori]

◎Related News
・ Badgers digging, badgers cooling off (August 21, 2021)

(September 26, 2023)