Kooky For Tanuki: 25+ Adorable Pics Of The Japanese Raccoon-Dog That Influenced The Super Mario Brothers
Okay everyone, meet the Tanuki! It's a breed of wild dog that lives in Japan and closely resembles a raccoon. Fun fact - it's the only species of dog that hibernates in the winter! Although this pupper may look like our favorite trash pandas, they do have a few differences. The main differences are that raccoons have large, bushy tails, and tanuki have short, stubby tails. Also, the paws of a tanuki are more dog-like, whereas raccoons have tiny little hands!
We might have just found our new favorite animal, and we think we're not alone! This unique animal is so cute that it actually influenced Nintendo, where they added a special power-up in Super Mario Brothers 3 to Mario, allowing him to obtain a magical leaf that turned him into a Tanuki-Mario, dressed in an absurdly cute Tanuki costume, complete with ears. Scroll down to see these adorable doggos below, you won't regret it!
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Not only are they adorable and they give Mario superpowers, but they're also fluffy! So round, so floofy, very friend-shaped, they must be friends. At least we hope they are. Not that we're thinking about stealing one….no, not at all…
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To be fair, he looks like a raccoon in this costume, but he's supposed to be a tanuki. Everything we just explained about tanukis not having large, bushy tails, Nintendo just decided to throw away. Don't ask us why.
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