Germany is calling for decisive action to curb the spread of raccoons, which are negatively affecting local species. In this regard, it is proposed to pay a reward for killing the animals. This is reported by Spiegel.
In the 2024/25 hunting season, 284,220 raccoons were killed, according to the German Hunting Association (DJV). This number is more than double the figures of the last decade, and compared to twenty years ago, it has increased tenfold, or 1,100 percent.
Despite regular shooting, the number of animals continues to increase, and they are now found in all federal states of Germany. Hunters are demanding that politicians take clear responsibility for controlling the invasive species. DJV reports that raccoons inhabit more than two-thirds of the country’s hunting grounds, and in some regions up to 90% of the territory.
Despite intensive hunting, these animals remain numerous, and their population continues to grow. Raccoons are now found in all federal states of Germany. The largest increase was recorded in Brandenburg – 43,694 individuals (+10,585), Saxony-Anhalt – 33,681 (+5,126), North Rhine-Westphalia – 33,672 (+3,649), Lower Saxony – 32,771 (+7,286) and Hesse – 41,147 (+4,258), reports, in particular, the Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine newspaper.
According to hunters, shooting helps protect biodiversity. Raccoons are known for their voracious appetites, and they prey on frogs and chicks in particular.
“A raccoon eats everything from a frog in a pond to a chick in a tree,” says Helmut Dammann-Tamke, president of the German Hunting Association.
Politicians are proposing radical solutions – the CDU’s spokeswoman for hunting policy in Baden-Württemberg, Sarah Schweitzer, advocates paying bounties for raccoons killed and introducing other measures:
“What is needed now is a working group with effective measures to combat invasive species – the year-round abolition of the closed hunting season, as in Baden-Württemberg, nationwide approval of night vision technology and the introduction of a species conservation bonus for each raccoon killed.
Last year, attempts to limit the spread of raccoons led to a legal dispute in Hesse between hunters, animal rights activists and the authorities. Similar discussions about controlling the number of raccoons also took place in the Czech Republic about a decade ago.
On May 8 last year, the European Parliament lowered the protection status of wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected”, making it easier to shoot them in regions with problem populations.
