Raccoon

It is mostly nocturnal, with some normal daylight activity. It uses habitats including forests, wetlands, farms, suburbs and cities, especially near water and tree cover. It feeds on fruit, nuts, insects, crayfish, eggs, small animals, carrion and human food when accessible.

Raccoons investigate food with highly sensitive front paws and are strong climbers and swimmers. Urban individuals learn quickly where food is predictable.

Raccoon forepaws contain dense touch receptors, and wetting the skin can make tactile information especially useful while feeling for food.

As omnivores, raccoons consume fruit, nuts, insects, crayfish, carrion and many other foods, moving seeds and nutrients across forest, wetland and neighbourhood edges.

The front paws are so touch-sensitive that a raccoon can identify objects without seeing them clearly, especially while foraging in water or darkness.

Mating — mainly January through March, later in the north.
Gestation — about 63 days.
Kits — usually 2–5 are born in a protected den in spring.
Dependency — kits begin leaving the den after roughly 8–10 weeks and remain with the mother through much of their first year.

• Secure rubbish, pet food and compost to avoid teaching raccoons to visit homes for meals.
• Cap chimneys and repair attic openings after confirming no dependent young are inside.
• Keep dogs and cats from close contact; raccoons are a rabies vector species.
• Drive carefully at night near streams, wooded corridors and culverts.

• A raccoon out in daylight is probably rabid. Mothers and other healthy raccoons may forage by day; rabies concern depends on abnormal neurological behaviour, not daylight alone.
• Raccoons wash food because they require clean meals. The behaviour is better explained by tactile exploration with sensitive paws than by hygiene.
• Feeding raccoons is harmless because they already live near people. Predictable feeding can crowd animals together and reduce normal distance from people and pets.