Toronto has been called the raccoon capital of the world.
A raccoon managed to cut off electricity for thousands of people in downtown Toronto, Canada. The power outage also knocked out some traffic lights, disrupted traffic on an important metro line and left people stuck in elevators.
According to the power company Toronto Hydro, the outage was caused by a raccoon handling the company’s equipment in downtown Toronto. The raccoon died.
At its worst, around 7,000 electricity company customers were without electricity, he says Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC. The outage lasted a few hours. The news agency also reported on the problems caused by the unfortunate raccoon Reuters and CityNews.
A spokesman for the electricity company Baccega Rosa says that the heat radiating from power stations attracts animals. The company says that it takes the case very seriously and is looking for ways to avoid something similar.
Squirrels are the animals that cause power outages the most, says think tank Electricity Canada. After squirrels, Raccoons and birds do the most dirty work.
Other dirty jobs of basic bears
Toronto has been called the raccoon capital of the world.
Raccoons have caused trouble in Toronto before. British newspaper Guardian your list of cases. In 2017, Raccoons messed up subway traffic sneaking into the subway and surprised the air passengers peeking from the roof of the airport.
Professor Cameron Graham posted a video on Twitter (now X) of a raccoon peeking at passengers picking up luggage at the airport.
In 2017 Raccoons also made a nest to the interior ceiling of RBC bank, which is why the bank branch had to be temporarily closed.
A couple of years earlier in Toronto, a raccoon was caught on video stealing donuts from a cafe. In the CBC story is a video about a donut thief.
The same year the raccoon climbed more than 200 meters to the lifting crane. The employee took a picture of it on X.
Canadian CityNews wrote late last year that the city of Toronto has lost its decades-long battle against raccoons.