Having won the battle to tackle Tokyo’s population of giant, ravenous crows, the city’s authorities are now embroiled in an even tougher campaign: to rein in another animal menace, the North American raccoon.
The number of raccoons caught in the capital every year has increased fivefold over the past decade, according to media reports, amid concern about the damage the animals are inflicting on the local ecosystem.
Municipalities in western Tokyo have responded by setting traps and launching hotlines for residents who spot crop damage or witness the animals entering their homes.
The omnivores are not native to Japan, where they are one of 156 species on an environment ministry list of invasive alien creatures that also includes black bass, fire ants and snapping turtles.
The Mainichi also cited reports of raccoons feasting on the endangered Tokyo salamander, officially deemed at risk of extinction as a result of decades of destruction to their natural habitat.
In Niigata, on the Japan Sea coast, raccoon captures have risen sharply since 2018, while in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, where the animals are thought to have established themselves as long ago as the late 1970s, they have been blamed for causing millions of yen’s worth of agricultural damage.
The original article contains 476 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 57%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Having won the battle to tackle Tokyo’s population of giant, ravenous crows, the city’s authorities are now embroiled in an even tougher campaign: to rein in another animal menace, the North American raccoon.
The number of raccoons caught in the capital every year has increased fivefold over the past decade, according to media reports, amid concern about the damage the animals are inflicting on the local ecosystem.
Municipalities in western Tokyo have responded by setting traps and launching hotlines for residents who spot crop damage or witness the animals entering their homes.
The omnivores are not native to Japan, where they are one of 156 species on an environment ministry list of invasive alien creatures that also includes black bass, fire ants and snapping turtles.
The Mainichi also cited reports of raccoons feasting on the endangered Tokyo salamander, officially deemed at risk of extinction as a result of decades of destruction to their natural habitat.
In Niigata, on the Japan Sea coast, raccoon captures have risen sharply since 2018, while in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, where the animals are thought to have established themselves as long ago as the late 1970s, they have been blamed for causing millions of yen’s worth of agricultural damage.
The original article contains 476 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 57%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!