Raccoons are adaptable and intelligent animals that live in wild and urban environments nationwide. While many view them as irritating pests, they are an interesting species with unique characteristics. Here are 17 facts about raccoons everyone should know.
Unique Appearance of Raccoons
A-Z Animals explains that their distinctive “mask functions much like a football player’s glare-reducing eye black.” The black fur allows them to absorb light, making it easier to see clearly in bright light and reducing glare at night, improving their nocturnal vision.
Omnivorous Diet
Raccoons are omnivores with a varied diet, including fruits, nuts, insects, small mammals, and birds in the wild. They are also known for consuming human food waste in urban areas. Their eating habits change with the seasons; they prepare for the winter by eating more in the fall.
Affinity for Water
Although they are not aquatic animals, raccoons are excellent swimmers and often live near water sources in the wild. Water bodies are crucial for a raccoon’s diet, providing them with fish, snails, and worms.
Social Structure
Raccoons are mostly solitary animals, but females will live in communal groups, especially when raising young. Males are solitary, with larger territories that may overlap with several females, and they tend to avoid other males.
Life Cycle
Raccoons breed in the late winter and have one litter annually. After a 60-day gestation period, they usually give birth to two to five kits in the early spring. The kits are born deaf and blind and are completely dependent on their mother for the first few months.
The Sounds of Raccoons
Raccoons can make over 200 sounds, with hisses, whistles, screams, and growls, each serving a unique communication purpose. They can purr like cats and bark like dogs when they are excited or stressed. Mothers and kits also have a unique communication system, with kits making chirping sounds to call their mothers.
Nocturnal
Raccoons are primarily nocturnal, with heightened senses of touch and hearing that help them navigate and forage in the dark. However, the Toronto Wildlife Centre notes that they can also be active during the day for a variety of reasons, including when there is an available food source and if the area has competition from other nocturnal animals.
Raccoon Tracks
Raccoon tracks are distinctive due to their front paws resembling tiny human hands. Their tracks can often be found near water bodies and garbage sources, with a diameter of two to three inches across.
Predators and Threats
Bears, bobcats, owls, coyotes, wolves, and snakes prey on raccoons in wild areas in North America. In urban settings, cars and human activities pose the most significant threats to their survival.
Raccoons and Rabies
Raccoons are infamous for being one of the primary wild carriers of rabies in North America, accounting for 35% of rabid animals. They usually die within 1–3 days of becoming infectious. Many Americans assume raccoons active in the daytime are rabid, but most are looking for food.
Urban Adapters
Raccoons have successfully adapted to urban environments in North America, and urban raccoons tend to be larger and have a higher survival rate than their rural counterparts due to the wide availability of food sources. National Geographic argues that raccoons “possess many qualities suited to city life, from their nocturnal nature, which helps them avoid run-ins with people, to their wide-ranging diet.”
Behavior Throughout the Year
Raccoons don’t hibernate in the winter, but they can enter torpor, a dormancy state where they slow their metabolism and sleep in their dens. Torpor only lasts a few weeks, unlike hibernation. In spring and summer, rearing young takes precedence for females.
Dens
Raccoons are known to be adaptable when choosing their dens, which can be in tree hollows, abandoned burrows, or attics and chimneys in urban areas. They also usually have multiple den sites at a time.
Intelligence and Problem-Solving Skills
According to Britannica, “raccoons are intelligent and inquisitive animals.” They possess remarkable problem-solving abilities and can apply past experiences to help them adapt to new situations and challenges.
Raccoons and Human Interaction
Raccoons can be a nuisance in urban areas. They set up dens in houses and pull down garbage cans when searching for food. Buying a lock for garbage can lids, placing heavy weights on them, and storing them in garages or sheds can help deter raccoons.
Conservation and Control: Balancing Raccoon Populations
The IUCN currently considers the North American raccoon to be a least-concern species. Urban wildlife management strategies in the U.S. include sterilization programs and habitat modification to limit their spread.
Raccoons in Pop Culture
Raccoons appear in the mythology of Native Americans and are the subject of many folk tales nationwide. They’re often depicted as cunning but endearing characters, and in the past decade, Rocket Raccoon has been a prominent character in Guardians of the Galaxy.
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