Raccoon dog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raccoon dog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides, from the Greek words nukt-, "night" + ereutēs, "wanderer" + prokuōn, "before-dog" [but in New Latin used to mean "raccoon"] + -oidēs, "-oid"), also known as the magnut[2] or tanuki, is a canid indigenous to east Asia. It is the only extant species in the genus Nyctereutes. It is considered a basal canid species, resembling ancestral forms of the family. Among the Canidae, the raccoon dog shares the habit of regularly climbing trees only with the North American gray fox, another basal species.[3][4][5] The raccoon dog is named for its resemblance to the raccoon (Procyon lotor), to which it is not closely related."

'via Blog this'