Invasive species: a group of bone washes detected in urban areas of Mallorca

A herd of wash bones (Procyon lotor) has been spotted wandering around an area of Mallorca, near urbanized areas. In the images, you can see four or five specimens being surprised in the middle of the night by a car, which they even managed to block.

The video, shared on the Instagram account Elinagourmet, comes at a time when bone washer catches have reached record numbers: COFIB captured 638 during 2024, above the 546 in 2023 and far from the 13 recorded in 2013. According to COFIB manager Miquel Puig native species and can transmit zoonotic diseases to humans - and warns that its "complete eradication is very difficult."

Catches of fish washing in Mallorca increase: from 13 in 2013 to 638 in 2024

The proliferation of this species began to be detected in 2006. Puig explains that the arrival of the wash bones in Mallorca was due to a trend. "They bought them, and after a while they started to abandon them and found them in the fields," he explained a few months ago in a statement to ARA Baleares.