This is a stuffed raccoon, but I was more interested in discovering that the Germans call it a Waschbär, which translates directly as ‘wash-bear‘ which I find is really rather lovely.
A raccoon is a raccoon because English borrowed the word from the Powhatan people of Virginia, who called the animal ‘aroucoun’ or something similar. By the time anyone thought to ask what the word actually meant or whether it was entirely optimal, the Powhatan language was largely gone, and ‘raccoon’ just meant the mask faced thing that raided rubbish bins.
The Germans, by contrast, encountered the animal later and through a different route, mostly through trade goods, specimens, and the general European obsession with cataloguing the natural world. When they needed a word, they didn’t borrow from anyone. They looked at what the animal actually does. Raccoons are notorious for their habit of wetting their food before eating it, dunking things in water and washing their little paws compulsively. So someone decided that was definitely a wash-bear or ‘Waschbär’. Problem solved.
Although the initial theory falls apart here, as it has since been discovered that raccoons aren’t washing their food, they’re making it wet as that enhances their sense of touch. Anyway, I think it’s the right name for the wrong reason, but there’s something honest about that. And, once again, I think I need to get out more rather than thinking about why the Germans and English have different words for an animal.