For the Love Of Nature, Art and Bad Humor
A Comic Gallery of Creative Expression in the Pursuit of Knowledge
Raccoon
Common Raccoon, Northern Raccoon, Trash Panda, Procyon lotor
Greek meaning of raccoon - dog like
Powhatan meaning of raccoon - animal that scratches with its hands
Aztec meaning of raccoon - one who takes everything in its hands
The common raccoon is one of the most
common mammals in North America.
They’re common everywhere.
Raccoon Fun Facts
Their mask is most likely
for night vision
Dark colors absorb light so the dark fur around a
raccoon's eyes reduces glare and helps them see.
Just like when athletes apply black under their eyes.
It’s not to look tough and cool.
They have high IQ levels
They learn from past experiences, are super adaptable
and can demonstrate critical problem solving.
Like other intelligent animals, they can be trained
to dance and clap and were once used for lab testing alongside rats and monkeys. But they were so clever
and strong-willed that they frequently escaped and
were difficult to work with.
Their paws are like hands
Their hands are dexterous, super sensitive and equipped
with five long fingers just like humans. They don’t
have thumbs so they can’t grasp stuff like humans do,
but they can climb trees, open shells, seeds, doorknobs and handles, jars and smelly garbage cans with no problem.
They’re nocturnal,
opportunistic omnivores
They sleep during the day and eat at night.
Just like your teenage cousin.
Their menu includes invertebrates, vertebrates, plants...pretty much anything around that's easy and available. Including bird seed, pet food,
dead-stinky-stuff and trash.
They don’t hibernate
The further north a raccoon lives, the more it
chubs up for winter. It lives off that chub til Spring.
Male raccoons (boars) are
bachelors for life
Raccoons breed once a year.
Then females (sows) rock the single mom life.
Providing all the food, shelter, lessons and nurturing
for their babies (kits not kids) without any help from dad.
They don’t mate for life or expect child support.
They’re sometimes trouble
Besides getting into pet food, bird feeders and
making a mess of our trash cans,
they sometimes poop in pools.
They like to poop in shallow water to hide their poop
from predators. The first few pool stairs are
perfect for poop stashing.
They’ve also been known to be aggressive towards
domestic pets and can carry several canine diseases.
But this is only a problem when they find food
in our yards and stick around too long.
Securing trash, pet food and not feeding them helps keep raccoons in the wild where they belong and helps prevent them from turning into foaming-at-the-mouth,
clicker-like, rabid raccoons.
Raccoons can live nearly anywhere
You can find them in forests, mountains, wetlands, parks, neighborhoods, cities and your backyard. As long as there’s food, water and a place to sleep they’ll be there.
There might be one in your attic right now.
Their population has increased
along with humans
Despite the destruction of their natural habitat
they’ve adapted quite well to urban settings. Where many other species have struggled with changes to their environment, raccoons continue to shine as clever survivalists in an ever changing human world.
Raccoons are only a nuisance when
we set them up to be
As urban sprawl continues so will co-existing with raccoons.
They're resourceful, adaptable and sometimes feel invited to live in our attics because of all the easy food around.
But we can all do our part to keep them independent of human food and shelter by raccoon-proofing our trash cans, pools, homes and properties.
Let's make raccoon-secure homes as common
as the common raccoon!
