Does Australia or New Zealand have grey squirrels or raccoons ? in the wild ?

I am wondering if North America's most famous invasive species has invaded your country ? they are taking over EuropeDoes Australia or New Zealand have grey squirrels or raccoons ? in the wild ?
No squirrels or raccoons in this country.





For our Aussie 'furballs' or animals go to ::::


http://www.australianfauna.com/australia鈥?/a>Does Australia or New Zealand have grey squirrels or raccoons ? in the wild ?
No, neither of us have grey squirrels or raccoons in the wild, but we both have o'possums. In Australia they are protected, but in New Zealand they are a noxious pest which destroy our native forests.
Neither squirrels nor raccoons have been introduced to Australia - yet. We have plenty of other imported pests including rabbits, hares, foxes, cats, dogs, pigs, buffalo, horses, camels, donkeys, goats, cane toads, starlings, indian mynas, blackbirds, pigeons etc etc. We really don't need any more
Definitely NOT raccoons!


Squirrel? No we don't - at least not that I know of.








Thanks for the two points
Australia definately does not have squirrels or raccoons. I am fairly sure NZ doesn't have them either.
They are not here in New Zealand as far as I am aware.


As Islands, it would be very difficult for them to get here and our border security is very tight when it comes to pests etc.
There is apparently a small area around Perth Zoo that has feral Palm Squirrels living in it. I have seen suggestions that the Palm Squirrels have now been wiped out, but the WA government is still looking for them, so maybe they are still out there.





Grey Squirrels were previously introduced in Melbourne, but appear to have gone extinct.





Unlike other introduced species, both types of squirrel have apparently struggled to live in the native Australian environment. They were able to survive only in the cities and suburbs where there were parks and gardens with plenty of introduced plant species for them to feed off.
no, however we have our own invasive species (read bloody pest) called a possum. They eat the eggs of our native birds and rip to shreds the bark and leaves of our forests grrrrrrr!!


(I am from New Zealand).
definately not in New Zealand...I remember when living in the UK and I had only been there a couple of days before I saw my first squirrels....yes the grey ones...I was completely fascinated by them as we have nothing like them here.





I was teaching science in schools there and we watched some little clips about how the red squirrel is now retreating to only small areas of the UK now, while the grey squirrel is now rampent and rapidly expandings its habitat.....even tho they are sooooo cute and I watched them for hours...I can see they are a problem.





New Zealand and Australia have pretty stringent biological security and would not allow them to enter and would get rid of them all if they did arrive.
My husband is an Aussie in the US, and I remember the first time he had ever seen a squirrel here, he couldn't stop looking at it. As it turns out, he had never seen one before. He said they don't have squirrels anywhere in Australia.