U+72F8 "狸" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character

U+72F8 "狸" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character that primarily represents the concept of a "wildcat" or "raccoon dog" in East Asian languages, particularly in Chinese and Japanese, where it is also known as "tanuki" in the latter. In Chinese, it often refers to a type of fox like creature or a badger, and it appears in classical literature, idioms, and modern compound words such as "狐狸" (fox) or "狸猫" (leopard cat or masked palm civet). The character is composed of the radical 犭 (dog) on the left, indicating its association with animals, and the phonetic component 里 on the right. It holds cultural significance in folklore, such as the shape shifting "tanuki" in Japanese mythology, and is used in various contexts from zoology to traditional stories.