Overview

• Authorized trappers in Gironde report 275 captures between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, with numbers still rising.
• Local teams have modified cage doors with anti-return devices and use marshmallows as bait after raccoons learned to lift standard latches.
• Scientists say several thousand raccoons now live in Gironde, with major concentrations also in the northeast and established pockets in other regions.
• Introductions trace to a 2000s escape from an exotic farm in Cadaujac and earlier pets kept by U.S. military personnel in the Aisne.
• Officials and conservationists cite risks to crops, poultry, and native wildlife, plus potential disease transmission, noting rapid spread driven by high reproduction and a lack of predators.