Shanghai's raccoon dogs find urban coexistence 'sweet spot'
City's residents learning to live with wild animals previously thought of as pests
Their results showed that raccoon dogs were either sighted during field investigations or reported by residents in 102 of the communities surveyed, with the distribution density at an average of 0.41 raccoon dogs per hectare. This represented the lowest levels recorded in the past four years, indicating that the issue of high raccoon dog densities in residential community environments from four to five years ago has improved.
In comparison, the density of wild raccoon dogs in areas like the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi province, the Taihang Mountains in northern China, and Sichuan province in Southwest China is typically below 0.1 raccoon dogs per hectare. Their density in Shanghai is comparable to that in the wild.
Zhao Xi, a leading member of the research team, said residents are beginning to understand that raccoon dogs are nocturnal and have little overlap with human activity times. "They have very low proactive aggression toward people, therefore many residents have come to accept their presence in the city," Zhao said.
The latest survey indicates a shift toward positive sentiment, with residents' emotional inclination toward raccoon dogs rising to 3.06 on a 5-point scale (where 1 is least favorable and 5 is most favorable). This represents a 25 percent increase since 2022, a trend mirrored by the fact that nearly 80 percent of residents now find the animals tolerable — up from just 50 percent three years ago.
