![]() Not only that, some Web pages about tanuki actually feature pictures of raccoons. The Japanese name for the badger, an entirely different animal, is ana-guma. The tanuki’s English name is raccoon dog, though if you search for that term on the Internet you may be surprised, as I was, to find that lots of Americans call a dog used for hunting raccoons a raccoon dog! That old chestnut of mistranslations, tanuki as badger, is as well represented on the Internet as it is elsewhere. This rather stout, short-legged creature with its short, bushy tail is an atypical member of the dog family. In ceramic form it is even more widespread, perhaps even more numerous than the wild creature itself. The actual article can be viewed in The Japan Times’ archives at: BELOW STORY.Despite their playful nature, tanuki are wild animals and should never be kept chained up like in the photo above. Also, according to folklore, tanuki can change shape at will. This means that they copulate very frequently - and need large testes. Rather than being used as an impromptu drum, as Japanese folklore would have it, the scrotum is large because of high levels of competition among males for females. Special features: Tanuki don't usually carry bottles of sake, but the statues are correct about their biology in one important detail: testes size.They can even stomach poisonous toads, apparently producing huge amounts of saliva that dilutes the toad's poison. Tanuki are the classic omnivores, eating rodents, lizards, frogs, fruit, berries, insects and other invertebrates, including slugs and snails. Unfortunately for them, this can bring them into contact with dogs, from which they can catch dangerous diseases. They live in lowlands, forests and mountain valleys (up to 2,000 meters in altitude) and sometimes come into gardens looking for food. Real tanuki are not so easy to find, but are quite abundant from Honshu to Kyushu. Statues of tanuki, holding a bottle of sake, welcome guests arriving to eat. Where to find them: Standing at the door of many traditional restaurants in Japan. ![]() ![]() long and have distinctive stripes of black fur under their eyes, a bit like pandas. Description: Tanuki look a bit like fat foxes, with short legs and black and gray fur.Scientific name: Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus.Stories about Tanuki from The Japan Times
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