Long brindled black-brown body fur with black facial mask, sleek black legs, and black fur on upper side of tail. Apparently, raccoon dogs prefer to forage in woodland with an abundant understorey, especially of ferns.
Individuals spend most of the night searching for food.
They begin to forage within two hours of sunset, break about midnight, and are active again until sunrise. Communal feeding has been observed among neighbours, though they normally are seen foraging alone. These were distributed unevenly within the home range. Ikeda suggests these may play a role as landmarks and points of information transfer. Hibernates in semi-torpor.