The Raccoon Dog

The tanuki is a raccoon dog, but not all raccoon dogs are tanuki.

Sorry, I wanted to clarify that right up front, because I see this mistake made all the time. The word tanuki refers to the Japanese subspecies, not the entire species, which has a range quite a bit larger than just Japan.

You may be reading this thinking, “Koryos, I don’t know what a tanuki OR a raccoon dog is, can you please show me a picture.”

Ok.

Photo by Tim Ellis.

Be careful. It’s cute. (Photo by Tim Ellis.)

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