When the lights go down in cities across North America, another world is revealed, populated by shady little characters that live alongside us, but exist in the margins. These pint-size problem solvers are smart, adaptable and omnivorous, and they love a good challenge. Welcome to the world of urban raccoons. With their busy little hands, they can do what other would-be urban animals can’t — open doors, get into attics, and raid secured trash cans. And they are especially fond of big cities, like Chicago, New York, and Toronto — the raccoon capital of the world. In cities everywhere, wherever they’ve been introduced, they have done very, very well.

Following a family of urban raccoons over the course of six months, and using high-definition cameras and intensive GPS tracking systems, “Raccoon Nation” reveals new insights about a species that is far more elusive and wily than most people ever imagined, and more destructive.

It seems that the more obstacles you throw in their way, the smarter they get. In an effort to outwit raccoons, we may be pushing their brain development and perhaps even sending them down a new evolutionary path. One biologist who has been studying raccoons for 25 years believes the city life is in fact cultivating “über-raccoons,” ready to take over the world. Only time will tell just how advanced this “nation” of urban raccoons will become. Raccoon Nation premiered Wednesday, February 8 at 8/7 c.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• Raccoon kits stay with their mothers for up to a year, during which time they are taught different survival skills. How do you think a raccoon mother could teach things to her young?

After watching the video:

• Describe how the raccoon mother taught her young to enter the barn. Explain what she did in order to successfully get the last kit inside the barn.
• Discuss the role that raccoon mothers play during the first year of their kits’ lives.

Background Essay:

Scientists have long reflected on the question of what knowledge and behavior is determined by nature (genes and inheritance) and what is acquired by nurture (upbringing and environment). Some believe animal behaviors are primarily determined by evolution, while others believe that external factors play a major role in modifying animal behaviors.  Although the debate continues about whether nature or nurture plays a more important role in determining animals’ behaviors, most scientists agree that a combination of inherited and environmental factors contribute to species’ behaviors. Scientists believe that mothers can play a critical role in helping their offspring to develop and have found that young who spend time with their mothers through their development are generally smarter than those that don’t.

For more information, go to:

• Raccoon Fact Sheet

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Reproduction and Heredity
  • The characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of traits. Some traits are inherited and others result from interactions with the environment.
• Regulation and Behavior
  • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
  • An organism’s behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species’ evolutionary history.

Grades 9-12:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The Behavior of Organisms
  • Organisms have behavioral responses to internal changes and to external stimuli. Responses to external stimuli can result from interactions with the organism’s own species and others, as well as environmental changes; these responses either can be innate or learned. The broad patterns of behavior exhibited by animals have evolved to ensure reproductive success. Animals often live in unpredictable environments, and so their behavior must be flexible enough to deal with uncertainty and change. Plants also respond to stimuli.
  • Like other aspects of an organism’s biology, behaviors have evolved through natural selection. Behaviors often have an adaptive logic when viewed in terms of evolutionary principles.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• Two Canadian scientists conducted a study in which they tracked the movements of raccoons in Toronto, Canada. What do you think they could learn from that type of study? What questions could they answer?

After watching the video:

• Discuss why Dupuis-Desormeaux and MacDonald decided to embark on this project and what they wanted to find out.
• What were the main findings of the study? What were some surprises that the scientists discovered after reviewing the data? What conclusions did the researchers make, based on the information they discovered about the raccoons’ territory size?
• In order to conduct this study, the researchers trapped, sedated and placed radio collars on 5 raccoons. What do you think about this methodology? Do you think scientists should place tracking devices on animals in order to gain more information about their behavior? Explain your reasoning.

Background Essay:

In the past 70 years, raccoon populations have dramatically increased in urban areas, including major cities like New York, Chicago and Toronto. Until recently, however, scientists had limited knowledge about how raccoons survive in cities. Thanks to modern technology, they can now track movements of different species and analyze their behavior patterns. In a ground-breaking study, highlighted in the video segment “Observing the Secret Lives of Raccoons,” Canadian biologists Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux and Suzanne MacDonald explored raccoon behavior by placing radio collars on five raccoons in Toronto. The radio collars provided the researchers with GPS locations for the raccoons every 5 to 15 minutes, while previous studies were only able to gather GPS data every 3 to 5 hours. As a result of the frequent readings, Dupuis-Desormeaux and MacDonald were able to gain new insight about where raccoons spend their time. They discovered raccoons don’t usually cross major roads and they tend to have small territories which are, on average, the size of about three city blocks.

Conducting research with wild species poses unique challenges for researchers, since they need to gain information about the animals in their natural environments, without negatively affecting the animals or interfering too much with the species’ activities. The “Three R’s” of animal research, originally outlined by scientists William Russell and Rex Burch in 1959, provide guidelines for humane research and experimentation with animals. The “Three “R’s” include “replacement” (replace animals with microorganisms, metazoan parasites or plants in research studies, whenever possible), “reduction” (use the minimal number of animals possible to conduct the study) and “refinement” (use the most humane and least invasive techniques possible).  Current research with wildlife incorporates modern technology and techniques to conduct research in a way that results in minimal discomfort or distress for the species.

Through their study, Dupuis-Desormeaux and MacDonald successfully gathered data about the behavior of raccoons at night in cities, rather than in a lab environment, zoo, or other controlled setting. The VHF signal transmitted by the radio collars made it possible for the scientists to gather data without having to re-trap the raccoons and remove the collar each time they wanted to download information.

For more information, go to:

• The Three ‘R’s of Russell and Burch
• Three Rs Microsite: Wildlife Research
• NC3Rs – Wildlife research
• Raccoon intelligence at the borderlands of science
• Raccoon Fact Sheet

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:
Content Standard E: Science and Technology
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings about Science and Technology
  • Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides principles for better instrumentation and technique. Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed. Technology also provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science as a Human Endeavor
  • Women and men of various social and ethnic backgrounds—and with diverse interests, talents, qualities, and motivations—engage in the activities of science, engineering, and related fields such as the health professions. Some scientists work in teams, and some work alone, but all communicate extensively with others.
  • Science requires different abilities, depending on such factors as the field of study and type of inquiry. Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity—as well as on scientific habits of mind, such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, and openness to new ideas.
• Nature of Science
  • Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.
  • It is part of scientific inquiry to evaluate the results of scientific investigations, experiments, observations, theoretical models, and the explanations proposed by other scientists. Evaluation includes reviewing the experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations. Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists.

Grades 9-12:
Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings about Scientific Inquiry
  • Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used.

Content Standard E: Science and Technology
Fundamental abilities and concepts that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings about Science and Technology
  • Science often advances with the introduction of new technologies. Solving technological problems often results in new scientific knowledge. New technologies often extend the current levels of scientific understanding and introduce new areas of research.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science as a Human Endeavor
  • Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise. Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. Pursuing science as a career or as a hobby can be both fascinating and intellectually rewarding.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• Large numbers of raccoons are now found in cities. What are some reasons you think raccoons survive well in cities?

After watching the video:

• Describe traits, features and/or skills raccoons have which help them survive well in cities.
• Explain how the number of raccoons in cities has changed over the past 70 years.
• Describe some differences between country and city raccoon populations.
• In the segment, it is stated that raccoons, as a species, are possibly becoming smarter as a result of moving into urban environments. Explain this statement.
• Describe some similarities between humans and raccoons.
• Discuss how raccoons, as a species, have changed as a result of living in cities.

Background Essay:

Raccoons originally lived in the tropics and foraged along riverbanks. They then migrated northward in North America, adapting to new territories and expanding their diet. Raccoons are very successful at adjusting to a variety of climates and environments. Raccoons now live as far north as Alaska and in many major cities, including Toronto, Chicago and New York.

Raccoons stay with their mothers for up to one year, during which time their mothers feed, teach and protect them. Scientists believe that animals which spend time with their mothers through their development are, generally, smarter than those that don’t. Raccoon moms teach their young how to survive in urban environments, including how to increase their pace in order to safely cross over a road. Cars are the number one cause of death for urban raccoons. Therefore, learning how to safely cross roads and/or avoid busy streets is an important survival skill. Until recently, scientists knew very little about how raccoons survive in cities. In a recent study, Canadian scientists Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux and Suzanne MacDonald discovered that raccoons in Toronto have a very small territory size and, on average, tend to live in a three-block radius. This indicates that urban raccoons are able to find shelter, food and water without going too far. The study also found that raccoons tend not to cross major highways.

Cities are relatively new environments for wild species and, in order to survive in urban settings, animals must be extremely flexible.  Raccoons are especially well-suited for cities because of their body sizes, sharp sense of smell, omnivorous diet and nimble hands, which can open up doors and containers. They can find food anywhere. Urban food sources, such as garbage and pet food, bring together different species that might not normally be in close contact, making it easier for diseases to spread from one species to another. Raccoons have transmitted diseases– such as raccoon round worm, trichinosis and rabies– to dogs, horses, humans and other species.

City raccoons live longer and have more offspring than raccoons in the country. City raccoons are thriving, and some overrun cities are trying to grapple with the damage they cause on homes and other property. Kassel, Germany has the largest raccoon population in Europe, with up to 100 raccoons per square kilometer. In Kassel, raccoons have caused a lot of property damage. Upon observing the raccoons, scientists discovered that 70% of the time, raccoons caused damage or entered homes by going up drain pipes. Scientists created drain pipe protectors to prevent raccoons from climbing up the pipes. Raccoons learned how to pass over the protectors, leading scientists to create new protectors that were harder for raccoons to navigate. Raccoons are always looking at how they can solve problems and overcome new challenges to reach specific goals/rewards. Even though something might initially be an obstacle for raccoons, they will often find a way to overcome the challenge.

For more information, go to:

• Raccoon Fact Sheet
• Wildlife Damage Management Series: Raccoons
• Raccoons
• Nerves Frayed in Toronto over Roaming Raccoons

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:
Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Regulation and Behavior
  • All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.
  • Regulation of an organism’s internal environment involves sensing the internal environment and changing physiological activities to keep conditions within the range required to survive.
  • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
  • An organism’s behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species’ evolutionary history.
• Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
  • Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.

Grades 9-12:
Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Biological Evolution
  • Species evolve over time. Evolution is the consequence of the interactions of (1) the potential for a species to increase its numbers, (2) the genetic variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes, (3) a finite supply of the resources required for life, and (4) the ensuring selection by the environment of those offspring better able to survive and leave offspring.
• The Behavior of Organisms
  • Organisms have behavioral responses to internal changes and to external stimuli. Responses to external stimuli can result from interactions with the organism’s own species and others, as well as environmental changes; these responses either can be innate or learned. The broad patterns of behavior exhibited by animals have evolved to ensure reproductive success. Animals often live in unpredictable environments, and so their behavior must be flexible enough to deal with uncertainty and change. Plants also respond to stimuli.
  • Like other aspects of an organism’s biology, behaviors have evolved through natural selection. Behaviors often have an adaptive logic when viewed in terms of evolutionary principles.

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science and Technology in Local, National, and Global Challenges
  • Humans have a major effect on other species. For example, the influence of humans on other organisms occurs through land use—which decreases space available to other species—and pollution—which changes the chemical composition of air, soil, and water.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• In the 1970s, the Japanese began importing raccoons so people could adopt them as pets. Many of these raccoons were then released into Japan’s forested areas. What do you think are some potential consequences of these actions?

After watching the video:

• Explain why thousands of people in Japan started adopting raccoons in the 1970s. Discuss factors that have contributed to the increased numbers of raccoons in Japan since the 1970s.
• Describe the current raccoon problem in Japan and what people are doing to solve it.
• Explain why people released raccoons into the forest, and whether you think they anticipated the damage that raccoons have caused.
• Mammalogist Mieko Kawamichi has been hired to kill over 10,000 raccoons each year in order to reduce the raccoon population in Japan and protect the sacred temples and shrines. What do you think about this approach to the situation? Explain your reasoning. Can you think of another way to solve the current problem without killing the raccoons? Describe your solution.
• People started adopting raccoons as pets after watching the cartoon Rascal the Raccoon. What do you think the creators of a TV show or movie could do to prevent people from going out to adopt the species featured in the program? Do you think the creators of media programs have a responsibility to warn people of the potential dangers related to adopting animals as pets?

Background Essay:

Raccoons, which are not indigenous to Japan, have damaged more than 80% of Japanese temples. The forested areas of Japan are currently overrun with raccoons and, as a result, Japanese authorities have adopted a “zero tolerance” policy, killing over 10,000 raccoons each year in efforts to reduce raccoon populations and minimize damage to temples, shrines, and native wildlife.

Japan is not the only country with raccoon problems. In the early 1930s, a few raccoons were released in the German countryside outside Berlin to amuse hunters and, in 1945, about two dozen raccoons escaped from a local fur farm. Since that time, the raccoon population has multiplied and now Germany has approximately 1 million raccoons, the largest raccoon population outside of North America. Kassel, in Central Germany, has the largest raccoon population in Europe, with up to 100 raccoons per square kilometer. German authorities have tried different strategies to deal with the raccoon problem, including killing raccoons and creating drainpipe protectors to prevent raccoons from climbing up them and causing damage to homes. Germany and Japan are still trying to find the best ways to deal with their raccoon problems.

Although raccoons are not native to Japan, the cartoon Rascal the Raccoon, which aired in Japan in the 1970s, inspired individuals to adopt baby raccoons as pets and, as a result, Japan imported thousands of raccoons from North America. After keeping raccoons in their homes and seeing how violent and destructive they could be, thousands of families got rid of them by releasing them into the forested areas of Japan, as was shown in one of the scenes in the cartoon.

Other TV shows and movies featuring animals have similarly inspired people to adopt pets and then, after realizing that the animals weren’t as cute and cuddly as in the program, get rid of them.  This trend is often referred to as the “101 Dalmatians Syndrome” (or “101 Dalmatians Effect”) since thousands of families adopted Dalmatian puppies after the release of the popular movie “101 Dalmatians,” and then, after finding they were difficult to take care of, brought them to animal shelters and/or abandoned them. Within a year of the 1996 release of that movie, there was a 25% increase in Dalmatians at shelters and rescue organizations. Movies such as Legally Blonde and Beverly Hills Chihuahua, as well as Taco Bell commercials featuring a talking Chihuahua, led to increased popularity of Chihuahuas, and Along Came Polly led to increased interest in ferrets.

In recent years, in order to prevent people from running out to adopt a species featured in a show, media and animal rights organizations have distributed information about animals and encouraged families to conduct research before selecting a pet. For example, for the 2000 release of 102 Dalmatians, the Humane Society distributed information about the challenges of owning Dalmatians and Disney included a message at the end of the movie, encouraging responsible pet ownership. Similarly when the movie G-Force, featuring computer-generated guinea pigs, was released in 2009, animal rescue groups created information discouraging families from adopting guinea pigs, and statements were included in the movie’s promotional materials and website encouraging people to think carefully and conduct research before adopting pets.

For more information, go to:

• Raccoon Fact Sheet
• Hordes of raccoons invade Germany
• Why It’s Never “Just Fiction”
• We’ve come a long way, baby — Disney’s “102 Dalmatians” encourages moviegoers to consider pet adoption carefully

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Populations and Ecosystems
  • The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid rates. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystem.

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Populations, Resources and Environments
  • When an area becomes overpopulated, the environment will become degraded due to the increased use of resources.
• Natural Hazards
  • Human activities also can induce hazards through resource acquisition, urban growth, land-use decisions, and waste disposal. Such activities can accelerate many natural changes.
  • Natural hazards can present personal and societal challenges because misidentifying the change or incorrectly estimating the rate and scale of change may result in either too little attention and significant human costs or too much cost for unneeded preventive measures.
• Risks and Benefits
  • Individuals can use a systematic approach to thinking critically about risks and benefits. Examples include applying probability estimates to risks and comparing them to estimated personal and social benefits.
  • Important personal and social decisions are made based on perceptions of benefits and risks.

Grades 9-12:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The Interdependence of Organisms
  • Human beings live within the world’s ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology, and consumption. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly affected.

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Natural and Human-Induced Hazards
  • Human activities can enhance potential for hazards. Acquisition of resources, urban growth, and waste disposal can accelerate rates of natural change.
  • Natural and human-induced hazards present the need for humans to assess potential danger and risk. Many changes in the environment designed by humans bring benefits to society, as well as cause risks. Students should understand the costs and trade-offs of various hazards—ranging from those with minor risk to a few people to major catastrophes with major risk to many people. The scale of events and the accuracy with which scientists and engineers can (and cannot) predict events are important considerations.

Are human beings, in an effort to outwit raccoons, actually making them smarter and unwittingly contributing to their evolutionary success? Are the ever more complex obstacles that our fast-paced urban world throws at them actually pushing the development of raccoon brains? In this film, scientists from around the world share their thoughts and work to explore this scientific theory. Attempting to do something that has never been done before, they closely follow a family of urban raccoons as they navigate the complex world of a big city. Buy the DVD or Blu-Ray. Raccoon Nation premiered February 8, 2012. (Video limited to U.S. & Territories.)

Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Procyonidae
Genus: Procyon
Species: Procyon lotor

Size and Weight: The adult raccoon is a medium-sized mammal and the largest of the Procyonidae family.  It averages 24 to 38 inches in length and can weigh between 14 to 23 lbs., or more, depending upon habitat and available food. The male raccoon, or boar, is slightly larger than the female, also referred to as sow. The young are called kits.

Physical Features: The mask of black fur that covers its eyes is its most characteristic and familiar feature. One hypothesis for the dark fur is that it may help reduce glare and enhance the nocturnal animal’s night vision. The species has grayish brown fur, almost 90% of which is dense underfur to insulate the animal against the cold. Five to eight light and dark rings alternate on its tail. Because its hind legs are longer than the front legs, a raccoon often appears hunched when they walk or run. The five toes on a raccoon’s front paws are extremely dexterous, functioning essentially as five little fingers which allow it to grasp and manipulate food it finds in the wild as well as a variety of other objects, including doorknobs, jars, and latches. A raccoon’s most heightened sense is its sense of touch. It has very sensitive front paws and this sensitivity increases underwater. When able, a raccoon will examine objects in water.

Life span: In the wild, a raccoon has a life expectancy of about 2 to 3 years, but in captivity a raccoon can live up to 20 years.

Diet: The raccoon is an omnivorous and opportunistic eater, with its diet determined heavily by its environment. Common foods include fruits, plants, nuts, berries, insects, rodents, frogs, eggs, and crayfish. In urban environments, the animal often sifts through garbage for food. The majority of its diet consists of invertebrates and plant foods.

Geography: The raccoon is native to North America and can be found throughout the United States, except for parts of the Rocky Mountains, and southwestern states like Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. It can also be found in parts of Canada, Mexico and the northern-most regions of South America. During the 20^th century, the species was introduced to other parts of the globe, and now has an extensive presence in countries like Germany, Russia, and Japan.

Habitat: Originally raccoons lived in the tropics where they could be found foraging along riverbanks. Over time they moved north up the continent, successfully adapting to new territories and expanding their diet. Traditionally, they live in tree cavities or burrows emerging at dusk to hunt frogs and crustaceans while keeping an eye out for predators such as coyotes and foxes. Barns have aided their northern migration, offering refuge from cold northern winters, and now, raccoons have been found as far north as Alaska. The species originally kept to the deciduous and mixed forests of North America, but its impressive ability to adapt has enabled the animal to move into a wide range of habitats, from mountainous terrains to large cities. The first urban sighting was in Cincinnati during the 1920s. Raccoon populations do very well in urban areas, primarily due to hunting and trapping restrictions, a general lack of predators, and an abundance of available human food. The size of a raccoon’s home range varies depending on habitat and food supply. In urban areas, its home range generally spans about one mile.

Breeding and Social Structure: The animal is nocturnal, mostly foraging and feeding at night. Though previously thought to be quite solitary, there is now evidence that the species congregates in gender-specific groups. Mating season for raccoons falls generally anytime between January and June.  Most females begin reproducing around the age of one. The female has a 65-day gestation period and gives birth to two to five kits, usually in the spring. A mother usually separates from other raccoons to raise her young alone. The male does not participate in the raising of the kits. The black mask is already visible on newly-born kits. The kits stay in the den with their mother until they are between 8-10 weeks old, and will stay with their mother until they reach 13-14 months of age.

Risks: A raccoon has few predators though the animal has been known to be attacked by cougars, bobcats, and coyotes. Disease, infection, and run-ins with cars are generally the primary risks for the species.  Some of their diseases, including roundworm, trichinosis and rabies, also place people and pets at risk.

Additional Facts:

• The raccoon’s scientific name, Procyon lotor is neo-Latin and translates to “before-dog washer.”
• Christopher Columbus is the first individual we know of to have written about the species.
• The raccoon’s taxonomy has been debated over time. Carl Linnaeus placed the raccoon in the Ursus genus—first as Ursus cauda elongate (“long-tailed bear”) and then as Ursus lotor (“washer bear”). In 1780, Gottlieb Congrad Christian Storr created a separate genus for the species, Procyon, meaning doglike.
• The English word “raccoon” is an adaptation of a native Powhatan word meaning “animal that scratches with its hands.”
• In the winter, the raccoon does not hibernate, but can sleep in its den for weeks.
• A raccoon can run at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.
• The raccoon is a good swimmer and can stay in water for several hours.
• The species makes a variety of vocalizations including hisses, whistles, screams, growls and snarls.
• A series of studies in the mid-to-late-twentieth century show that a raccoon can remember solutions to tasks for up to 3 years.