NEED LOCAL HELP? We have
wildlife removal professionals servicing 95% of the USA. Click
here to hire a
local raccoon removal expert in your home town. Updated
2018. But read the below advice first!
With an appearance that makes us think of bears, and living the
lifestyle of an alley cat, raccoons aren’t actually related to
neither of them. The raccoon is a mammal that usually weighs
somewhere between 10 to 30 pounds, and is 2 to 3 feet long.
Their fur is of a grayish color with black on top, and some of
them may also present a touch (or more than a touch) of yellow
coloring. Their most distinctive mark, of course, is the black
bandit-like mask pattern they have around their eyes. With
really wide behinds, and a very low center of gravity, you could
say that raccoons have the constitution of a sumo wrestler. Due
to the way their bodies are built, and the way that they are
able to use their front pawns practically like primate hands,
raccoons are able to push and turn over objects that are way
heavier than their own bodyweight, as well as open or tear
intricate systems we put in place in order to protect our
property from them.
Raccoon mating season can be as long as from December all the
way through to June, but they usually tend to mate in the months
of February and March. With a 63-day gestation period, the
majority of female raccoons will give birth to a litter of about
three to five in springtime, during the months of April and May.
The baby raccoons start opening their eyes when they’re about
three weeks. When they reach four months of age, they’re already
cut off from their mother’s milk, although they will stay with
her for the entire first year of their lives. It’s kind of the
norm for young city and country raccoons to spend their first
winter cozied up with their mother in some warm attic. Raccoons
are excellent mothers, and with the arrival of their litter’s
second spring, the young usually go off to live their
independent life.
Contrary to popular belief, raccoons don’t actually hibernate
during wintertime, although they are less active. If they live
in northern areas where winter may be harsh, they can stay
relatively inactive for weeks and even months, using almost half
of the body fat they’ve accumulated during the year. It is not
uncommon for individuals that are not related, different females
with their respective young, and even unrelated males and
females with their young to den together in the same attic, thus
busting the myth that raccoons are solitary creatures. I mean,
they do like to keep within their own territory and don’t
usually overlap, but they’re not as solitary as we might think.
In southern areas, they may stay inactive for a day or two days
at a time.
In captivity, raccoons live long, sometimes for even more than
20 years. The life expectancy of the common urban raccoon,
however, is between two to three years. Most common causes of
death are viral diseases such as distemper, hunting, extreme
cold weather, and predators. And when I say ‘predator’ in
relation to city raccoons, I don’t mean any natural predators
such as foxes or coyotes who don’t venture so deep in urban
areas, I mean their only city predator, an artificial predator –
the car. And while traffic may be the number one cause of
raccoon death in big cities, it’s not unimaginable that these
intelligent animals will soon be able to forget all about death
by car. Gradually, raccoons have made their personal highway
system by navigating through the city’s sewers. Not only that,
but very much like free-ranging urban dogs, raccoons have
learned traffic patterns and how to safely cross streets, as
well as how to avoid heavy circulated streets when getting from
one point to another.
Raccoons are originally from the tropics, their natural habitat
being near riverbanks where they lived up in tree cavities or
down in ground burrows, coming out during the night to feed on
crustaceans and frogs. As time passed, raccoons started moving
north up the continent, colonizing almost all of North America,
making their capital in Toronto, Canada. Big cities like New
York or Chicago suited them just fine, and they even set shop in
Alaska, but they did keep away from extremely dry desert areas
and very high mountains. They adapted quickly and perfectly to
the urban and suburban lifestyle, successfully replacing borrows
and tree holes with crawlspaces underneath porches or sheds, and
chimneys or attics. And not only did they have no issue with the
transition from an aquatic diet to an omnivorous diet, but they
thrived on it. City life was so welcoming to raccoons that their
natural near-water habitat is now practically forgotten and
completely unmissed, it seems.
Wild species don’t evolve to live in cities. Faced with a novel
environment, only the extraordinarily adaptable and
opportunistic can thrive here. Raccoons came with a toolkit of
preset physical skills and smarts that made them adapt perfectly
anywhere in the world where they have been introduced, from
Japan to Germany.
Studies have shown the difference in behavior when it comes to
city raccoons versus country raccoons. While country raccoons
will tend to keep their distance from people and human activity,
being shy and withdrawn, city raccoons will most naturally
stroll on heavily circulated streets and densely populated
areas, showing little to no aspect of reclusive behavior.
The truth is that raccoon behavior is not that well known to us.
We might think we know all there is to know about raccoon
behavior, but new tracking and filming technologies bring
never-before-seen information every year, revealing more and
more about the resilience and intelligence of these animals, as
well as about the true manner in which they behave and live
their lives beside and among us.
Go back to the Raccoons in the attic
home page.
Read more educational articles:
What Is a Raccoon’s Mating Habits?
What Is a Raccoon’s Natural Diet?
Do More Raccoons Live in Urban Areas, or Wild Areas?
What Do Wildlife Rehabilitators Do with Raccoons?