Tanuki: Social Structure

Ten Things I Like About... Podcast

Summary: How social are tanuki? Do they hang out in packs like wolves or solitary like a fox? Join Kiersten as she dives into the social structure of the raccoon dog.

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean

Show Notes:

Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com

“Latrine utilization and feces recognition in the raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides”, by I. Yamamoto. Journal of Ethology, June 1984.

Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org

Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

Transcript

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Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

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Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

The fourth thing I like about Tanukis is their social structure. Canids have a variety of different social structures, from family packs like wolves, monogamous pairs like coyotes, and solitary lives like foxes. Today we’ll take a closer look at the raccoon dog’s social activities.

Tanuki are, genetically, more closely related to foxes than any other canine, but their social structure is more closely related to coyotes. We are still learning about these understudied animals, but what we know so far shows that tanukis pair off during the breeding season. Once they have paired off, it appears that they may stay together year round. If not closely together in distance they appear to at least share a home range.

Telemetry data shows that tanukis remain in pairs or in small groups within the same home range throughout the year. A home range is a space that an animal can be consistently found that includes hunting grounds, a water source, and a denning site. Non-migratory animals typically remain in their home range for their entire life as long as all resources that they need continue to be offered in that home range.

During breeding season a male and a female tanuki pair off and will share a denning site to raise their offspring together. We will delve into reproduction and rearing the young in the next episode.

As stated before, it is unclear whether mated pairs remain together throughout the year but there is evidence that they remain together when they are sleeping or resting. Some populations that live in colder regions will actually hibernate together. Pairs will endure the coldest times of the year in a den with their mate. By the way, tanuki are the only canids that hibernate, that we currently known of, anyways.

As we’ve discovered in previous episodes, there are differences in behavior based on the location of the tanuki populations. There is no evidence that tanuki live in groups, consistently, in Finland. They will live in pairs with their young offspring, but do not stay together once the young are old enough to survive on their own. Here, the mated pair will stay together in their home range throughout the year.

During the breeding season, in Finland, the mated pairs home ranges never overlap with other mated pairs. Outside of breeding season, some overlap can be seen but only peripherally. The home ranges of mated pairs is pretty stable, fluctuating with the seasons probably due to resource availability, but for the most part they utilize the same space year round. Juveniles that have left their birth home range and have yet to pair off with a mate, have much larger home ranges than mated pairs. This is due to searching for an acceptable home range and a mate of their own.

Japanese tanuki also appear to remain in pairs throughout the year, once they have mated. There is evidence that these bonds last for multiple years. Again, they will live with their young until the offspring are ready to head out on their own. Unlike the Finland populations, some Japanese individuals may return to their natal home range, that is where they were born, after they reach maturity.

It is interesting that telemetry research shows tanuki from two different populations live in pairs and small groups for at least a portion of the year, because whenever they are seen by humans they appear to be alone. There are very few reports of seeing raccoons dogs together. I’m not sure what exactly what to think of that, but it’s an intriguing mystery. Don’t you think, listeners?

When I find out that animals are solitary or live in small groups, one of the behaviors that I always want to know about, is communication. All creatures need to communicate with others of their own kind, but how do they do it? Raccoon dogs have several ways to communicate with each other.

Vocalizations are one way that tanuki communicate. They whine, whimper, and mew which are vocalizations that are often associated with friendly greetings or submissive interactions. They can also growl when threatened, but they do not bark.

Body language is important to tanuki as with other canids, but raccoon dogs do not appear to use tail wagging as a form of communication. Most other canines will use tail wagging to communicate various intentions, but as far as we know the tanuki does not.

The tanuki does communicate in a unique way. They have social latrines. Yes, I said social latrines. This is a common spot where many tanuki will use the restroom. They urinate and defecate in these social areas, not at the same time, but in the same space. They will sniff the area each time they visit and appear to pick up some information from the piles of excrement. Other canids often use scent marking from urination and defecation to announce their territory boundaries, but tanuki use these latrines to pass information between family members and unrelated tanuki. We need to do much more research on these social latrines to determine what kind of information is passed at these social hubs.

Well, that’s all for the social behavior of the raccoon dog, we have a lot more to learn, but my fourth favorite thing about this canine is their social structure.

If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.

Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.

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This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.