Overview

• A ministry spokesperson confirmed that the Schonzeitenverordnung will be amended to allow hunting of raccoons year-round apart from breeding females.
• Landesjagdverband plans to map population hotspots such as Rems-Murr-Kreis and deploy high-intensity hunts in those areas.
• Goethe University wildlife biologist Norbert Peter says lifting the closed season is the most effective way to curb numbers but that full eradication is unlikely.
• Nabu-Landesverband argues raccoons are unsuitable for hunting and urges installation of electric fences and nest-protection collars instead of lethal measures.
• Raccoons first released in the 1930s have flourished with few predators and annual culls in Baden-Württemberg rose from 6,322 in 2022/23 to 9,174 in 2023/24.