Raccoons

Outdoor Professsor's Tips

Hello, I'm the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com/

Here's your outdoor tip on raccoons.

With that white fur around its black mask and a stripe that runs from its forehead to nose, who can’t help by smile at the sight of a raccoon—a robber in the woods.

The raccoon’s toes are as flexible as your hands for it to grab and hold on to food—sometimes washing its meal off in the water—looking like a little person handling the food—only how many toes (or fingers) do they have? (I’ll give you several quiz questions such as this one. Keep track of your answers and find the correct answers at the end of this podcast.) They have outstanding climbing ability being able to forward up trees as fast as they can go backwards.

All these things go together to make baby raccoons adorable to the average person and whenever a young one is found alone in the woods, it is sometimes adopted by a human family—“to save it.” Things go okay in the human environment until the little guy becomes a big guy who bites and has the ability to climb about anything thing in sight and tears up the house.

I used to work for a nature center outside a major city. People often came by dropping off their “orphaned” wild animals for the Center to take care of. Small raccoons were one of our biggest problems. We would try to release them back in the wild hoping they would fend for themselves. Unfortunately, this seldom worked. As baby raccoons, they were used to being fed by humans and after we released them, they continued to hang around the Center. They were furry little bandits that would run up to people, jump on them, and even bite park visitors out of frustration because people were no longer their submissive caretakers. We had numerous visitors who complained about raccoons being overly aggressive and harassing people. The unwanted guest raccoons required resources we did not have. There was little we could do but to take the raccoons miles away to release them or to keep them in captivity—a harsh lesson for anyone trying to rescue a baby animal in the wild—don’t do it. If you find a wild animal you think is injured or orphaned—don’t approach it. Contact your local wildlife or law enforcement officers to handle the situation.

Raccoons are found throughout most of the Americas into southern Canada. Wooded areas near the water are their preferred habitat. They make their dens in trees or abandoned burrows, caves, sewers, or abandoned structures. Opportunistic feeders, they eat fruits, nuts, berry, rodents, eggs, crayfish—or will invade corn fields—and specialize in trash cans if they are available. It is not unusual for raccoons to forage around campgrounds for food and invade campers’ food left in the open. It is here their masks make them fitting robbers of any food in right. They like using #2 _________ to soften their food or to clean away foreign objects.

Raccoons are solitary animals exploring mostly at night. The exception is that mother raccoons stay with their young for several months after they are born. A little over a couple months after breeding, the female givess birth to a litter of #3_______________young. The babies can stand after four weeks in age and start foraging for their own food after nine weeks. The mother carries young like a kitten and the young hangs around the mother until they are about one year in age.

They do not hibernate, but may sleep in their dens for several months during cold weather. Their vocalizations include growls, snarls, hisses, and screams.

There are three major disease threats provided by raccoons. The most widely identified is rabies and surveys have shown it to be one of the top wild animals to carry this disease. Almost any animal can get rabies and it is usually fatal. The best protection from this disease for your pet is #4_____________. Symptoms of this disease are seizures, lethargy, and disorientation. These symptoms are very similar to the frequently seen distemper and only lab tests can properly diagnose. As with any wild or unfamiliar animal, never closely approach it.

When seeing a raccoon wandering and acting #5 ____________ with a runny nose and eyes, it is most often distemper. This is not a threat to humans, but it is a threat to our pet dog. This is an important reason to keep your dog’s vaccinations current.

A parasite in raccoons that can be a threat to humans is roundworm—a serious case can even be fatal. It is thought that the majority of North American raccoons carry raccoon roundworm in their #6 ____________. Human contamination is not likely because of the main cause is the ingestion of raccoon fecal matter that is at least 30 days old. This has happened in some cases where contaminated firewood is put in the mouth of a child or older person. It is rare to have this parasite transferred to a human, but it is another good reason to not keep a “pet” raccoon in the house. Also, be careful in disposing raccoon feces from a structure or around your house.

Raccoons are an important part of our ecosystem and do not deserve their historic position of a frontier hat or coat. Despite being nuisances sometimes, they are clever and cute robbers in the outdoors.

Quiz Answers

1. The raccoon’s ____________ toes are as flexible as your hands for it to grab and hold on to food
   a. three
   b. six
   c. four
   *d. five
2. They like using #2 _________ to soften their food or to clean away foreign objects.
   a. saliva
   b. urine
   *c. water
   d. tree sap
3. A little over a couple months after breeding, the female give birth to a litter of ________________young.
   a. 1-2
   b. 8-9
   *c. 4-6
   d. 10-12
4. The best protection from this disease for your pet is ____________.
   *a. vaccination
   b. a large collar
   c. a neck bell
   d. distilled water
5. Seeing a raccoon wandering and ____________with a runny nose and eyes, it is most often distemper.
   *a. disoriented
   b. running away
   c. jumping in the air
   d. sniffing the ground
6. North American raccoons carry raccoon roundworm in their ____________
   a. bite
   b. breath
   *c stool or feces
   d. fur

This is the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com/

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References-Additional Reading

Raccoons | Fun Facts
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/nature/raccoons-fun-facts

Raccoons | Common Raccoon Diseases
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/nature/common-raccoon-diseases

Raccoon - Procyon lotor
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/raccoon.htm

Nature Quotient.
eBook @Amazon.com

Outdoor Professor’s Tips: Exploring the Wonders of Nature
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