A family of raccoons recently broke into an Airbus factory and caused chaos for the operators building the A220 aircraft inside, which sources say was taken over by the black and white fuzz-balls. It is not quite the plot of Madagascar but I feel the producers would do well to copy this storyline for film number 5.
A total of five baby raccoons were counted running around the factory while the mother was spotted climbing up the landing gear of the aircraft. It’s uncertain where the summer holiday destination of the family was intended to be, but the family were not allowed on board and were relocated to a safe area.
As well as climbing over the aircraft, sources told CNN that urine and chewed wires were also scattered around the factory, sparking a huge clean up job from the airline.
“A guy came face to face with the raccoon, after having entered the plane,” a factory worker admitted to the aforementioned news outlet. Another commented that “we had to open everything back up to inspect”, as raccoon invasions are not taken into account during team training sessions.
Raccoons are native to North America and are part of the Procyonidae family, along with coatis and kinkajous. They are incredibly intelligent, social animals and have a reputation as notorious scavengers; despite originally coming from forested areas, they have made urban settings their home across the States, regularly being found rifling through goodies like a hippie at a record store, looking for the leftovers of humankind.
The harmless creatures have distinctive black bands across the eyes (adding to the ‘pesky criminal’ reputation) as well as hugely dextrous front limbs causing symptoms of uncontrollable cuteness-rage for many humans. They are however, considered pests by some despite being largely insectivorous, sweeping up their territories of insects and other small critters.