Raccoon Dog - Tanuki

Hi Guys!!

Finished this a couple of days ago for a friend, as a little thank-you card... I haven't had time to upload it before, so here it is now!! When I was a kid, we had a couple of Raccoon Dogs in the local zoo, and I was fond of them... every time we went there, I'd spend a lot of time in front of their enclosure... and when we went with the drawing teacher, I'd choose to draw them first

This cute little fellas have had a difficult life... they're native from East Asia, but are really endangered there, because of various factors, among them hunting and urbanization... in the 1930s, a lot of them were introduced in USSR for their fur, which led to a huge increase in their population... subsequently, they have settled in Scandinavia, Baltic countries and a lot of other countries in Europe (as far as Belgium and Switzerland)... In many of these countries, they have been considered as a threat to the ecosystems and, so, some governments have taken measures to control their population... this story can be told about other species, too... I think I'll never get how, collectively, we can make such blunders and then try to repair it in a way that seem a bit contradictory...

Apart from that... isn't it an adorable plushie?

Made with:
various colored pencils