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In today's video, it's time to talk about another animal that is native to North America: the raccoon.
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I met a guy with a pet racoon. It quickly manipulated all the childproof latches put in place for their toddler. Once I saw it waddle into the kitchen, opened a childproofed cupboard, took out a box of Cheese-its, tucked it under its arm, then waddled away while using the other paw to stuff Cheese-its into its mouth. I was legit impressed.
That was me, my bad. Thought I was home.
Did you close the cupboard door? 😂@@Biiku_
I'm in the Great Lakes region and where I live we love them! They are a known part of our local wildlife, beloved and prepared for because they are crazy smart! Our locals come right up for snacks and pets, but they are very socialized so I don't know that that's always the case, or safe. Glad you got to meet one up close, they get a bad rap❤
@@Biiku_dude, you have a furry butt
Never doubt the ingenuity of the Raccoon Federation!
I have actually watched a raccoon stand on top of another racoon and turn a door knob to open a door to get them into a building's kitchen.
My brother’s neighbor caught them in his garage stacking paint cans in order to climb up to the dog food on a high shelf. They are smart and crafty! 😮
😂😂😂😂
We had some here that actually unscrewed bird feeders in order to get them down
This is why they're one of my favorite animals. They have a squad mentality like the penguins from that movie Madagascar
I believe it; one unlatched our ice chest, opened it, opened a carton of eggs inside it, and cracked and ate a number of eggs leaving almost clean shells neatly nested.
When my husband first started gardening he had a huge problem with raccoons ransacking his garden at night. He asked his grandpa what to do since fencing and traps weren't working. He asked if adding a net covering the garden would help. Grandpa shook his head and said that we'd just have to grow enough food to share. I've found a deep respect for raccoons and enjoy all their fascinating quirks.
My parents had been having the same issue in their garden. They tried a bunch of things, including setting up a little electrified wire around the area, all to no effect. Eventually they just gave up and started recording the racoons for their entertainment.
My granny used to say to always plant three times more than you think you need because the bugs and animals will eat the extra.
You can handle racoons with one single evening spent outside every two or three months? My old job working for circle K for example. I spent all night awake watching my yard cameras, when they showed up I'd run home and "remove them" usually got about three months before a new one moved in. You can absolutely stop lol 😂 they don't like .22 air rifles much.
@@sueharviel6510 my mother was the age of a lot of your great grandmothers (born 1918) and she used to say four times more. Both us and the wildlife appeared to have plenty.
One of the most disturbing sounds you will hear in the middle of the night, the violent screams raccoons fighting over a bird feeder. Right up there with the haunting sounds of great horned owls, and the howls of packs of coyotes from multiple directions almost like they are competing to see who's pack is louder getting especially loud at the sound of ambulance siren.
Listen to a fox scream. Talk about a scary sound to hear in the middle of the night when you're alone!
There is nothing worse than the scream of a wild boar, though! When i was a little kid, we were all awakened in the middle of the night to what sounded exactly like our neighbor screaming bloody murder. My mom called over there and the neighbor said no, it was just a boar in their yard 😂. Mountain lion screams are pretty awful, too.
NOTHING sounds as eerie a fox screaming!
I once lived near a sea-urchin processing facility, local raccoons living off the inevitable alleyway spills. They'd run around the neighbourhood with urchins seized like footballs from one clan to the next, traversing the "thieves highway" of house rooftops, warring all night over those prize urchins. And the poor urchin is yet alive; a slothful life of grazing kelp beneath the waves playing through its mortal brain as it rolls down a house roof onto a concrete driveway, security lamp clicks on and more raccoons converge, snarling.
I've heard a big cat of some sort scream in Arizona. Either a cougar or a jaguar and I'd never tell them apart. Heard the wolves in Montana and came upon two grizzlies fighting in Alaska while doing some mining work. For bears I had my Henry .45-70 just in case. I'm not much of a gambler. lol
Wait until this guy finds out about opossums
Lol, right!?
Opossums are cool, even if they are ugly. Plus they eat ticks!
Opossums only recently migrated up to Toronto, so when I saw one on my security camera I didn't know what it was. It looked like a giant rat. I eventually figured out that it was an opossum and have since seen them several times. They still seem like exotic immigrants to me.
@@RatKindler there is one that lives on my college campus. I see it walking around every now and then
@@harrymaciolek9629 I’ve seen some fairly cute ones
I had an encounter with a raccoon while camping in western Pennsylvania. He limped into my campsite and looked at my daughter as if to say "feed me, a poor disabled animal." She gave him part of a hot dog bun, which he snatched, ate, and then scampered off with no sign of the limp. No doubt he used this ruse regularly.
Very smart little buggers.
They are smart little tricksters
I've seen that same "raccoon" at the intersection in my town!! Has an old, ragged coat on and a rough beard too! Even has a sign too! "Disabled...homeless and hungry...any little bit helps." Tricky buggers, those "racoons"! They'll do the darndest things to CON you out of your stuff!!
LOL I had a cat who used to do that.
@@josephcernansky1794what the fuck is wrong withyou
Trash pandas are adorable but also wicked smart & mischievous
South Dakota resident here. A friend of mine has a pet raccoon she has raised since it was abandoned by its mother 2 years ago. They can live upwards of 30 years in captivity…good thing she has the time and energy to take care of it.
Wow neat! 😎
I genuinely cackled at your "RACCOONS CAN CLIMB TREES" epiphany. It never occurred to me that anyone might not realize they could do that.
I was surprised by that also. I mean, where do you think they live most of their time? Up a tree.
Most people are surprised at how well they swim, I don't think I've met anyone that didn't know they were little gymnasts.
@@nogames8982 he's talking midwest, it's my understanding there aren't many dense patches of trees there.
@@MaggieLiz you don’t have to have dense patches of tall trees. Just trees in the neighborhood are enough for raccoons if the trees are big enough. or even just a few trees along the river side. I see a lot of them in places like that. Doesn’t have to be a huge, dense forest at all. But I’m sure there are a few that don’t live near many trees at all, they’ll find a place to be. Kind of like coyotes, they are everywhere now.
@@MaggieLizdepends where in the Midwest. Im from Wisconsin and its nothing but trees for the most part. Wisconsin, michigan and Minnesota are pretty much continuous forest outside the major cities
20 years ago, I was riding back home from Sprint car races with a friend in his old truck. We were on a 4 lane highway with sparse traffic and came upon a dead raccoon in the road. Beside it were two healthy raccoons trying to wake it up and drag it out of the road. We stopped right there, he put his hazards on, and againt better judgment we got out and approached the raccoons. We both got about 4 or 5ft away and stopped. They saw us. One of them ran up to me and fucking looked up at me while tugging on my pantleg with its little hands. I know they're not human, but damn it, they certainly have some human-like traits. I took its behavior as a plead for help, so we carefully moved the dead raccoon off the highway, and they ran up beside it, but safe now. While sad, it's one of my favorite memories.
I wonder if the dead raccoon was the mother of the two other raccoons.
@calvinkatt662 idk, maybe. They were all full grown though.
@@Data-qj7mo They do remember their family, even after years.
@@Data-qj7mo" full grown " can be a yearling who survived the winter. The Mothers are often very Fat and well fed even after pregnancy, they don't hibernate and are great at feeding themselves . They are very Human like, I honestly think they might be one of the more intelligent animal . Which Is kinds annoying.
@@eno6712 Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the information.
We abandoned our garden shed after a family of raccoons nested in there. Our bikes and the lawn mower were in there. My parents would borrow the neighbors lawnmower rather than go in there. Every night they would climb out of the shed, climb the drain pipe and scurry about on roof outside of my window. You haven't experienced true terrorby waking up at 2am and have 10 pairs of eyes looking in your room. The closest panic I've experienced since then is walking out of my office building in Philadelphia, only to see a rat the size of a French bulldog eating the remains of a hot dog. I think it waved me. Now where I live, I get regularly chased by wild turkeys and occasionally by an alpaca (there's a ton of alpaca farms nearby and they escape). Sometimes these critters fight each other which is wild. The house across the street has a trampoline in their front yard and the turkeys and alpacas fight over it. Ninety percent of the time the turkeys win, probably due to the sheer number of them.
so do the turkeys and alpacas jump on the trampoline after winning the fight? lol just thinking that would be funny to see
As a lifelong American, I can confirm, racoons are an enigma even to those of us that have experienced them for our entire lives.
I woke up one night to find 5 raccoons in my kitchen. They had managed to open a window, open the refrigerator, and they were emptying it out, by passing the food piece by piece to each other and out the window.
They seem like characters out of a cartoon
Wow. They are great at teamwork.
Were the raccoons "talking"? I've seen them chatter to each other and the cadence and variation of the chatter sounded like speech. I had always passed this off as a tall tale until I actually saw it. It was a mother raccoon with a bunch of kids (whatever juvenile raccoons are called) and they came rolling down the hill through some ivy and onto the path in front of me. I was sitting down, it was dark and they didn't notice me. The mother raccoon started chattering, chastising the little ones to behave and follow. The little raccoons were jabbering away to each other too. It just seemed like speech, not random at all.
I had the same thing happen . A mother and her babies. The fact it was a mother with babies scared me not knowing how she'd react to me around them. Me and my 20lbs maincoon just stood there as they all looked up and slowly left through the screen door they busted open. The mother left with two fist fulls of dry cat food.😅
@@thomashaapalainen4108 ohhh snap!!
My family has adored raccoons since before I was born. My great-great-uncle was a logger in Mississippi. He once fell a tree in which a mother raccoon was nesting. She died on impact, but her babies survived. They had not yet opened their eyes, so he kept one and gave the other to my mom. The very first thing either of the babies saw was a human, so they acted much like any other pet. They are, in fact, little menaces. But they're also highly intelligent and just quirky and cute enough that they're endearing. I have endless stories about the kind of stuff my mom's raccoon did, but my favorite is that it did not understand that ice cream would melt under water. So my mom would give it a scoop of ice cream, which it would then carry to the sink, wash, then look on in bewilderment as its ice cream went down the drain.
My husband had a raccoon n tells that if you want to frustrate your raccoon give it a sugar cube
@@carlamarlene2927 cotton candy just straightup disappears, it's just lighter sugar.
@@gammaboy4568There are hilarious videos of this on KZhead. The raccoons just look confused.
The "arukun" origin is sooo cute i heard the discription and shared it with my mum and we both vehemently agreed "they've got lil hands!!!"
I had a pet racoon when I was 2 years old. He stayed with us until he was about 15 years old. He used to sneak into the house and sleep in my crib with me. He also would open the kitchen cupboard door, pull out a fresh box of cat food, gnaw it open and spill it out for himself and the three cats.
We found abandoned ones in our garage. We bought a playpen and raised them on catfood and bananas that they adored. They went on their way when they were older, and visited every once in a while. But when we moved, they came back to say goodbye and on breaks between loading the truck they would climb in our laps and let us pet them.
❤
😢❤️
That is so sweet, my gosh.
Very sweet
I've befriended the raccoons in my neighborhood, or at least, starting a few years ago i began leaving scraps and leftovers out for a pregnant racoon. She became very tame, trusting me a lot, and every year when she had new babies she would introduce them to me. So now she's gone off, not sure if she'll be back, but she left 3 of her now grown up offspring behind. Since she left they've become more comfortable with me. if i turn the light on in the back room i see them pop out in the yard to look inside at me, if i go out they all run over to greet me, follow me around acting playful. Mostly during the colder months i try harder to leave food out for them, they love grapes, they're always friendly and respectful never making a mess or anything. My point was never to make them dependent on me for food. I just wanted them to feel safe, i know some people aren't as friendly towards them, and i know certain things are good to have in their diet so... just trying to help them a little bit. They're going to eat trash anyway, but i try to offer healthier stuff along with it. fruits and nuts, helps through cold months.
The idiom "barking up the wrong tree" originated in the early 1800s in America, when raccoon hunting with dogs was popular. The term was originally used literally to describe when a raccoon would trick dogs into thinking it was in one tree when it had actually escaped to another.
I heard the story as hunting squirrels, since they're light enough to jump from tree to tree using the longest, lightest branches. The dogs properly identified the trees they climbed from the ground, but didn't follow their Arial escape to the next tree.
@@jerelull9629 Dogs for squirrel hunting? I've only known of dogs to be used for hunting racoons
But everybody knows dogs lose their minds for squirrels.
We live in a heavily wooded area on the gulf coast of the US (Gulf of Mexico). Every evening raccoons come through our yard. We started putting out dry dog food for them. They do carry parasites (through no fault of their own) so we occasionally add Ivermectin (yes, that Ivermectin) to the food to keep them healthy and avoid that they spread deadly parasites to other animals and birds. They are remarkably smart and well behaved. We consider them a part of our outdoor pet family.
When I was I kid, my mom loved raccoons. I grew up in a house with full of raccoon pictures and figurines.
They’re not afraid of people. They don’t run away, they stand their ground. I think of them as mini Grizzly bears.
That is a great description.
Not my generation of raccoons...They always back down, just slowly. I usually have to give them a chance to run away first, because they'll freeze when they see humans. But, when they realize I do in fact need to use the dumpster and I'm not walking away, then they go scrambling back into the trees. In fact, they've spooked me by running away all of a sudden before I notice them. I'm just trying to throw the trash away and suddenly a raccoon comes bursting out, desperate to get away. All of the raccoons I'm talking about are definitely related though. Might be more docile genes passed down? If they didn't back down and if they caused tenants problem, then apartment management would have had to crack down on their population. Our huge sprawling complexes here have been in the same place with the same dumpsters & tree area for at least 50 years...so maybe the company did some quelling of the raccoon population decades ago, accidentally leaving alive a couple who were well behaved and hid from humans, setting them up to enjoy all the food and have all the babies, passing down their sissy genes while also socializing them to be afraid of humans...resulting in generations of raccoons that still have a flee response, despite never being personally attacked by humans? I got to witness a mom raising 5 babies like 2 seasons ago, all the way until they were adult size and for a bit looked like a scary gang of raccoons all running around after one another lol (usually only see 1-3 at a time)...all of whom were surrounded by raccoons who always fled from humans 24/7. I mean, it sometimes takes them awhile when they get so Fuckin fat they can hardly move. 😂 So it can feel like they're not actually trying to avoid you...but if you stop and wait, you'll realize they are leaving because of your presence. They're just so fat they struggle to move fast lol. The raccoons that live next to me are ridiculous haha. Hopefully they stay chill, because I will absolutely not tolerate any aggression from creatures I'm constantly within a couple feet from.
Unlike grizzlies, the common trash panda doesn't do so well if you give it a good whack with a shovel. They tend to vacate the area rather quickly after that, assuming they retain the physical capacity.
.22
Sitting around a campfire once, a raccoon scratched my back, presumably to ask politely for a s’more.
I heard a story one time about a guy who had had raccoons getting into his trash, and one day he realized that they were just rummaging through the trash to find his discarded alcohol containers to drink the dregs off the bottom, so he started leaving those on the ground next to the trash can and the raccoons left his trash alone after that, and then one day he happened to go outside at exactly the right moment to see 4 or 5 raccoons come up to his trash can to get his empty alcohol containers and have a drink together and then quietly leave.
I feed 3 now, and one is chill with petting and wrestling. Same thing. Got tired of my trash being spread around, so I just put my leftovers out for them. Now, they know to come inside if its raining. I put the food just inside the cat-door. 2 eat and enjoy the dry towels, and one just mud-foots it through the house, hops on the couch, watches tv and looks at me like "my chicken nuggets ain't gonna oven themselves, bro." The other 2 eat and leave, unless its storming. But they'll wait it out by the door. I lucked out. Mine are really chill and respectful. And they pay for their food. They bring me shinies. Mostly soda tabs and tin foil, but some coins, too. Theres 2.35$ in their college fund, after 2 years. I think Stumpy could get a job at NASA with a proper education. Yep. He'd be the best janitor at NASA.
Later that same gang of raccoons were busted in a tri-state drug sting. Lacking the ability to operate pipes and lighters, they'd been dealing weed to the neighborhood kids in return for 'assistance'. Thankfully, it stopped there and seemingly didn't make it out to the wider raccoon population.
That's HILARIOUS. No it's not rabies, they're just drunk!
@@Volyren I have to disagree. Good janitors don't knock over trash cans.
@@cassieporter9262 as long as he's fed, neither does he. Not like he has a lot of applicable skills. I mean, he knows how to operate a cat remotely with a laser pointer, as long as the button is taped down. Much like us, raccoons apparently like running them into walls the best. Not sure how you'd translate that ability into work. Oh. Wait. Stumpy can teach high school.
I saw a raccoon in Central Park in Broad daylight just swaggering along the grass like he was on his lunch break from a midlevel office job.
I saw a racoon in the middle of a city. He walked down the sidewall at a leisurely pace. When he got to the street, he ran across the street at top speed. When he got to the side walk again, he slowed own to his former pace.
The fact they wash their food is what gives us the amazing videos of them accidentally losing their cotton candy whenever they try to eat it lol
One of my favorite GIFs! The poor critter, though. 😂
White bread is fun too.
We had a few come around for awhile.. I would throw them sugar cubes and they would take them down to the creek to wash them.. They were surprised when their paws were suddenly empty.
@@Curmudgeon2 That isn't correct. The only mammals that lack salivary glands are dolphins and the like. Look it up for yourself :)
Fun fact, they're not washing it. The pads on their paws experience hightened sensitivity in water. They're actually super-feeling what they're holding to understand what it is.
My late Dad told me that he'd tried to put a stick through the lid handles of his two old-fashioned metal trash cans to deter raccoons. He later saw a raccoon pull out the stick, break it in half, and toss it aside, before digging into the trash.
They don't like chilies or mint. To keep them out of the trash blend up the hottest chilies you can find with water and brush it on the inside of the trash can lid (not where you touch it). You could do this with dried pepper flakes, but you have to add water as well. You can do the same with mint. The strongest mint you can find, or mint extract. Spread in the inside of the lid. If they get into bird food, put chilli flakes (like the kind that pizza places have) and mix it with the bird food (I have a five gallon pail for my bird food) not many raccoons in the center of town where I live) so I don't need to. You don't need a whole lot, but mix in very well. Birds can't taste the chilies, and it doesn't bother them at all. Raccoons, after a taste will more than likely leave it alone. Like all mammals, raccoon's bodies react to the capsaicin in the chilies. Wear food safe gloves when you mess with chilies! Don't put mint in bird food, it can be toxic... to even humans. That's why extract is in very small bottles.
They aren't washing their food. They are attempting to soften it.
i had a pet trash panda for a summer before she decide to find a new home in the woods. we never tried to domesticate her and she would come and go as she pleased.
My favorite raccoon incident: As a kid, I was riding with my parents on a brief sightseeing drive through part of the Great Smoky Mountains. A large van in front of us was slowly cruising along, the family inside pointing out all the wildlife to their kids, sometimes throwing treats to them. A pair of raccoons, just off the road on the passenger side, was practically putting on a show for the tourists as they played and begged for food. The van stopped to feed them. Meanwhile, we watched a third raccoon make a fast scramble in through an open window on the other side of the van, behind the driver; and then immediately come diving back out the same way, with what looked to be a full unopened bag of jumbo marshmallows. As soon as he did, the first two raccoons ran off to join him. Don't feed the animals, folks.
Yes! Don't feed the animals. And keep a watch so that the animals don't just help themselves.
They'll bamboozle you with a show and then eat your lunch!
Racoons are basically yogi bear but like for real life. They will run a show & dance to steal your picnic basket.
Not only will they steal from you, but they are much more likely to get hit by a car.
And don't show them Yogi Bear Cartoons.
On a camping trip in Florida, we had raccoons unzip our tent and eat our bag of peanuts. Next time we left the tent we used bailing wire to tie the zippers together out of reach of the racoons. They got inside anyway and because they found no food this time, they took a shit on my dad's sleeping bag. They're bloody relentless.
The shit was a warning to have food next time or else
So polite, I've lived in Florida 30+ years and normally see them slash through the fabric of the tent wall and crawl on through
That was an FU for hoarding your peanuts 🦝
You've never seen an animal use shit and puke as a weapon like the Trash Pandas do.
Are you sure that was a raccoon, did you see them? Sounds like textbook Florida-man behavior to me.
A family of five raccoons live in yard. They are super cute, but I don't mess with them. One time, we startled each other as I was taking out the trash. He hissed at me and, having previously been on 18 months of antibiotics due to a domestic cat bite, I held up my hands and slowly inched my way inside. This is their property, I'm just living in it. Fun fact, though. Raccoons are also crepuscular, which means especially in the summer, we share the yard at sunset. When we don't accidentally startle each other, we're happy enough to do our separate tasks in relative proximity. I sometimes toss out a bit of cat food as I go inside during these times so they might come to see me as a friend, rather than a squatter. They have been long entrenched in my landlord's ramshackle bones of a shed, so it's not like feeding them will encourage them to move in. They've been tenants longer than me, after all. So, maybe one day, I'll have five little trash pandas for friends. Until then, I just have to make sure I'm home when my groceries get delivered, because the absolutely will eat everything otherwise. They even unscrewed the jar of peanuts I kept on the porch for squirrels....
We live here in NH - absolutely love our raccoons we've got a whole family living under our shed in the back yard and enjoy seeing them all the time up on our deck.
When I was a girl growing up in New England, one of the perks of having Wendy’s for supper was the raccoons. Let me explain… in true American fashion when the parents were too tired to bother with a home cooked meal we would pop through the Wendy’s drive through and then pull into a spot in the parking lot to eat, and at this Wendy’s their dumpsters backed onto a large open natural area, so we would, as a family, be sitting at dusk, eating our fast food and watching the family of raccoons that were also sitting there, at dusk, eating their fast food and watching us! Even as a kid I saw the humor in the situation and we were a pro-raccoon family so we would make up stories about the raccoon family and sort of mystery science theater their antics in the dumpster. If you’ve ever seen Linda Belcher’s love for their raccoons it was quite similar, and while we weren’t quite as creative with names, we stuck to r names like Ricky and Rachel and Rebecca and stuff, I for one love our little trash bandits here in North America! Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I've always had good experiences with them, they always seem to have a positive attitude, and who doesn't love little hands?
That sounds awesome, hahaha. My aunt had a pet raccoon. It was blind and abandoned. I loved that raccoon. I used to play video games and feed him cheetos hahahaha. He would climb all over the couch and cuddle.
that is new england for ya
That is very wholesome
I love raccoons. so so much. ❤
Coming into the kitchen in the middle of the night to find a momma raccoon with her three babies chowing down on the dog kibble is not fun at all. They had let themselves in through the doggie door.
I don't have a dog, but I hear that there are doors that can be activated by a tag on your dog's collar. So your dog is the only one getting in
I mean... That SOUNDS fun. I promise you, I would have stopped, tried to slowly move to a sitting position, and watched them if I hadn't already scared them off.
I don't have a doggie door. Stories like this are why I never will. I've had my own poor experiences with them which make me die a little inside every time I hear or see somebody calling them "trash pandas."
My father grew up in Kentucky in the 1920s-30s. He had a pet raccoon (as well as a pet ferret), so I've always had a soft spot for the critters - even when they smashed my trash. 🦝🦝🦝
You can't continue to not have any changes with your doggy door, or this will happen again, or some other unwanted creature will get inside.
I've raised raccoons in Ontario, Canada. They are an impressive creature. So intelligent and able to get into almost anything. They will eat literally anything. They try to be scary, if threatened, but honestly they are pretty silly if you watch them. I love watching them pad the ground with their little hands and wash their food ☺️
They have opposable thumbs, and they USE THEM.
😅
Beware cute hitchikers wearing masks!
That’s what makes them extra scary.
They actually don't have opposable thumbs, its quite obvious if you've ever been near them and watched them grab onto things. They are dexterous but lack that ability as of yet. Also something that takes only a few seconds to look up instead of spreading nonsense like its fact.
In our feed mill, we can tell when a raccoon has come in to eat the stray cats' food--the water dish is cloudy from the raccoon having washed his hands in it.
Trash Pandas used to live under my mother's deck, right in the middle of a town of 30K people. We have pictures of my nephew as a toddler, matching hand-to-paw with baby raccoons through the back kitchen door. Raccoon are intelligent, adaptable, and intensely curious. Equipped with excellent hand-paws, and surprisingly strong, they can get into pretty much any casually-closed container you can name; Special security is required. Oh, and those hand-paws? Freddy Krueger would be proud - they've got nasty sharp claws on them. Do NOT piss off a raccoon - you WILL regret it.
Ive seen a video on the many black hands coming out from the deck… threw me off till I found out they were raccoons.. nightmare fuel forsure
This makes me think of the Lutefisk cure for Coons living under the porch.
They will also lure predators into the water and climb on their heads to drown them.
Trash panda is the correct name
I heard about my aunt's little dog getting messed up by one. Yeah, those claws slice and dice.
biggest issue with raccoons is that they have no fear of humans... it's scary when you swing a broom at an animal that's less than one tenth your size on your deck and stomp your feet and scream at it... and it just sits there looking at you, and will just go back about rummaging through your garbage can
While camping I had a racoon literally rip through the side of my tent to get at a pack of granola bars. A friend (also camping) watched a racoon saunter right up to a plate of food he had set next to his chair, grab it by its front paws and drag it away. He was so bemused by the racoon's audacity he didn't even try to stop it.
The cutest, most frustrating, and clever animal ever.
When I was a kid, we had four cats. They used to go in and out through the cellar. One day one rattled the cellar door latch (sat on a shelf to reach) to be let in. A minute later the second did the same. Then the male scratched at the door. He never learned to rattle the latch. I let him in. Then the fourth scratched. I was pleased because he usually just sat on the top step and waited for someone to realize that they hadn't seen him in a while. It was a huge raccoon, it walked in, looked up at me and then made a noise, the cats responded, and he went into the kitchen and joined them in eating. When he was finished, he went back to the door and waited for me to let him out. Found out later that the closest neighbor was feeding him, but was on vacation.
American who loves raccoons here. They are so cute and so smart. They are elusive though, I've only seen a live one once. It was large too. People need to change their habits to accommodate bears, raccoons, javelinas, etc. You can't leave food out and be mad something ate it!
I recently developed a new level of respect for Raccoons after a pair of them chased each other around the trunk of a tree just outside my window late at night, grunting and vocalizing at each other. I've always thought of them as slow, lumbering critters, but imagine two squirrels chasing each other up and down a tree, then imagine two twelve- or fifteen-pound raccoons doing the same thing at the same speed. It was honestly a little bit scary how fast they could move.
My ex and I actually raised a raccoon. His mom abandoned him in our yard. He was honestly a really entertaining pet to have. Once he was fully grown though, we let him come and go as he pleased. He eventually showed up with a bunch of friends. We knew better than to feed them, but every now and then they'd all show up and just kind of hang out.
Ain’t no other kind of party than a trash panda party.
Coyotes got my cat. Then a couple weeks later a coon came limping up. All messed up from the coyotes. I started feeding him cat food and he got better. He’d hang around too and I named he Ricardo. Then one day he came pawing at my slider and i yelled to my girlfriend omg I think Ricardo is pregnant. So she became Ricarda and soon I had 3 coons hanging around. I caught the baby’s in the pool once, and I ever caught the baby’s and a small possum eating cat food out of the same bowl I’d left. That one threw me through a loop. Edit: And is the story of how I misgendered a raccoon for nearly a year.
I was a Diesel mechanic in the Army back in the 90’s. We sometimes used the back of our Deuce & a Half truck as a place to sleep while drilling in the woods. Two mechanics would be in sleeping bags on top of the work benches, the third on a cot on the floor between the benches. One night I was on the bench sleeping & woke to what sounded to me like a person with a higher pitched voice mumbling and grunting in their sleep. When my eyes adjusted I realized that the biggest damn Raccoon I’d ever seen was sitting right on the chest of my sleeping Staff Sgt enjoying a bag of chips someone left out! It liked the chips so much it was making happy noises. I froze, afraid to make a noise or move & freak it out. This went on for 5-10 minutes before it turned around and walked right out of the truck. The Sgt. slept through the whole thing.
Yep, thats Gary
Camp attebury memories
Seeing this side story made my morning... 😂😂😂
That’s Army tired, when you sleep through a raccooning
@@veprstreak3041 true that!
I live in Southern California. Occasionally we have a raccoon or 2 in our backyard. Also had a coyote once. You have now met an American who likes raccoons. My parents are from Kansas farm country. When a raccoon is seen out there it often gets shot. Something I'd never do.
I’m American and I love Raccoons 😊 but I love animals in general. My mom has a raccoon that lives behind her house and he comes to her door for food and will take it from her hands! She lives on protected wetland and has all kinds of animals visit her.
Plenty of people in the US like raccoons, but there are two main reasons they are disliked: 1 - They can turn a trashcan into a disaster area. If humans eat it, so will raccoons. And they'll happily scrounge for our leftovers. 2 - In the US they are one of the main vectors for rabies (along with bats and skunks.) Worldwide dogs are overwhelmingly the most common vector, but we actually do a pretty good job vaccinating them here. Rabies in humans is very rare in the US (low single digits each year,) but it's not something you want to mess with. Treatment is very effective if done early, but once symptoms appear it's close to 100% fatal.
They can carry a lot more diseases that are pretty bad for humans too.
3- They will brutally murder all of your chickens.
um, ya.... about 5 people die of rabies in the USA per year. Most years none from a raccoon. You have a much greater chance of being killed by a human, lighting, gator, deer, rattle snake, falling off a ladder. etc. 1.5 people die in volleyball accidents per year. What I'm saying is...fear mongering is horrible trait.
They also spread worms, like Baylisascaris procyonis.
@@mi2lq933 And ducks too.
They're sometimes called "trash pandas." We had them in our attic, years ago. They'd gotten in through the vent openings in the soffit. We had a company come and trap them, and when they were sure they'd gotten all of them, they boarded over the vent opening (not a smart idea, as that can lead to dry rot in your attic). Anyway, it wasn't too long before the raccoons were back, and since we're poor, we couldn't afford to have the removal company come back. So we bought some live-traps and caught them ourselves. They'd worked their way down the walls and ended up in our basement. We took them out to a forest preserve a few miles away and released them. That was fine, for a while. Then the squirrels came. You have no idea how annoying it is to have wildlife tap-dancing over your head at 2 in the morning. 😡
I had that issue with squirrels and yes it will drive you insane
@@GangstarComputerGod my barn cat took care of the attic squirrels around here. He wouldn't be close to a match for a raccoon though.
you need to remove the squirrels they tend to eat electrical cables which can lead to a fire
Squirrels are the forgotten rodent, not quite annoying/dangerous enough to be eradicated. Raccoons aren't far behind, as far as I'm concerned.
@@stephensmith1118, we did. We had a windfall tax return about six years ago that allowed up to get them removed, and get the trees they were used to access the roof taken down (the trees were dying anyway, so it was a safety issue as well).
Just a quick note, when the Spanish were exploring the Gulf Coast of the state of Mississippi they were checking out one of the barrier islands just off the mainland when they first encountered racoons. The Spanish thought this was some type of cat. To this day the island is still called Cat Island.
I remember one time I was walking home past a school yard. I had the distinct feeling I was being watched. I looked over at a few garbage cans in the school yard and there was a huge raccoon sitting on top of one. He looked at me, scowling, as if to say "What are you looking at?" Later, I lived in a house with an apple tree in the backyard. We had a big Chesapeake retriever and one day, we went out to the yard to see why he was barking. There was a whole family of raccoons in the tree eating apples and they were hissing at our dog. We brought him in the house, so they could get down and away.
Racoons are one of the toughest animals in nature. They are also remarkably intelligent and pretty much anything you can think of to keep them out they will figure out and defeat. I had a friend that found a baby one and brought it home. When it grew up, he taught it to open the fridge (her tied a cloth to the door handle that hung down) and get him a beer. The best part was he would sit on the floor and put one front paw on the top of the can and pull up the tab with the other. You had to take the can at this point or end up with a drunken racoon. Amazing animals. Apart from some rare examples though, they generally don't make good pets as they tend to be highly destructive and will reduce your furniture to component parts for their own amusement.
The book "Rascal" (on which the Disney movie of the same name was based) is an example of the rare occasion when an orphaned baby raccoon can become a good pet. And your assessment of their natural intelligence is correct. I remember one scene early in the book where the author described how he gave baby Rascal a sugar cube which the raccoon then tried to wash like it was ordinary food only to be perplexed when it dissolved in his tiny "hands". Rascal never repeated that mistake. Smart!
I wish fire ants were their main diet preference.
No that would be Mountain Lions
They have long memories and if one feels slighted, he may one day get revenge.
@@user-ez6vk2bw7q There's a video that gets reposted all the time where some wiseguy gives a raccoon cotton candy with the same result.
I love how Laurence occasionally just finds a unique American animal, hyperfixates on it enough to make a video (much to our delight), and then just keeps marveling at the differences between Britain and America until he finds the next fascinating American animal. Please never stop doing this. 😊
My vet had raccoons. I got to manipulate babies he was deworming (preventative). Awesome. The videos of his raccoons at home were great.
I worked at a bookstore for three years in the 90s. There was just me, the manager, and a quiet bookkeeper in the back. Later, the police raided the place and it turned out that the bookkeeper was actually three racoons in a trench coat. The store was obviously shut down. But I want to know why on your side of the pond it was called a Mackintosh instead. I later met up with those racoons in the park to reminisce. Their names are Burberry, Oilskins, and Gabardine. They're not good conversationalists, obviously, but they're excellent and finding cheap lunches in the park.
I feed our raccoons every evening on our patio. We've been doing this for almost 6 years. They always bring their babies to meet us in the spring💙
Same here. We have about 30 of em.
We've been doing it for about a year now. We've got 2 distinct families, and they even get along fairly well with our outdoor cats. The runt of one of litters gets his own bowl by my leg so he doesn't get bullied and if I don't put his food out soon enough he'll come tug on my pants leg.
Do ya'll know how toxic raccoon poop is? You should probably look into that,especially if you have pets!
@billyyank5807 not sure about others but most raccoons do not deficate in the places they eat. Our raccoons have never pooped in our yard. They go to the woods in back. Even so we boil water and add some bleach and clean the area ever so often.
@@adamtedder1012 same! They only deficate away from our house!
Fun fact. In South America there once existed a now-extinct raccoon species called Chapalmania that was comparable in size and strength to the American black bear. Speaking as someone who has had to deal with bears and raccoons raiding my kitchen, I don't want to even imagine having to deal with bear-sized raccoons.
Wow.
Tbf, black bears are kind of bear-sized raccoons already.
Racoons are actually related to bears, not rodents like rats.
How about a 100 raccoon sized bears instead?
@@darter9000 those are bear cubs, and they're cute, but I've seen the damage they can do, so I'll politely decline.
When I was a child (1950's), our neighbor had a pet racoon, which he kept on a leash. His pet could undo the leash and would come over to our house and wash his hands in our bird bath. As a 6-year old, I found this highly entertaining.
Back in the 80s, my Dad brought home an orphaned raccoon. 2 babies were beside it's dead mother. His friend took the other baby. We raised him for awhile then released him to my grandparents wild property. A definite highlight of my childhood.
My aunt had a racoon, which was small, silvery and pretty, so she'd take it to parties. When they got home, she would find other women's shiny objects in her purse. She eventually gave it to a studio in Hollywood, and it was the raccoon on the Beverly HIllbillies. She had another one, a big male, who liked to get into the toilet and flush it. Instant spa! Once I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to hear our low hanging windchimes ringing like crazy. I looked out the window and saw a racoon banging on the chimes. Then it started dancing to the noise and then made a somersault. Some nights later, I caught four of them doing it.
Raccoon Dance Party is my new favorite raccoon story!
musical trashpandas.
"I looked out the window and saw a racoon banging on the chimes. Then it started dancing to the noise and then made a somersault." Are you sure you weren't dreaming? This is one of those stories that is just on the edge of plausibility. Are raccoons actually agile enough to do a somersault?
@@nathangamble125 Oh, I was not dreaming at all. I was shocked myself. And yes, they're very agile, and they were obviously having a great time.
@@nathangamble125 i think they are. they have flexability that is astonishing. also isn't their intellegence meant to be akin to that of a three year old child? something like that.
I am an American and I luv Raccoons. I have a family of them living under my porch along with a family of groundhogs and an opossum. I put cat food and left overs on the porch with fresh water and they leave my trash cans alone. Stray cats in the area come up to eat as well. Everyone gets along and I catch the feral cats and get them fixed. Everyone is happy. There is nothing cuter than watching the raccoons babies climb about and explore the porch for the first time each year. One baby once picked up a river rock and used it to knock on the door until I answered it because the food bowl was empty. They are very sweet and very smart.
That sounds so charming ❤
Thank you for sharing ❤ I came here for this comment. It feels like most people just don’t appreciate them at all.
They’re so cute. ❤ But it’s not cute if they get into your garbage.
You catch feral cats you get fixed? Maybe not entirely happy about the whole thing? :)
As an American I fully agree with all this. Raccoons are wonderful animals. I just saved one with a broken leg last week.
Michigander here and I would say I see raccoons almost daily. I have a bit of a compost pile they like
You didn't mention that they're also known as "trash pandas." That seems like a fun bit of trivia that British people might not know.
They remind me of particularly bold and fearless toddlers. I had one stand next to our car and watch me as I chowed down on a burger in the parking lot at 3 am, as one does. Being enamoured, I rolled down the window and held part of my burger out to him... he walked up, gently took it with his little hands, moved back a step, and stood there to enjoy sharing a burger with me. No wonder they're a bit of a city mascot in Toronto.
They do tend to be more polite in Canada.
With claws and fangs and are smart enough to open locks that foil toddlers.
@@paradisepipeco Believe me they will still ruin your day if the trash isn't secured.
@@BrendanBeckett Good point. I have lived in bear country where that is required, where the raccoons aren't the biggest problem. Also, Canadians are indeed known to be polite, but in the food service industry, there is a saying that probably applies to furry trash foragers as well; regardless of their relative proximity to the 49th parallel..... *Q.* _What's the difference between a canoe and a Canuck?_ *A.* _A canoe can tip._
@@paradisepipeco Probably because (I'm guessing) tipping culture originated in the US, and Canada has a bit of European streak where tipping isn't a thing. I hate it myself, pay your workers! Tips should be for exceptional service. In any case as a Canadian I can say the polite stereotype isn't particularly true, at least not in major cities. We might say sorry if you bump into us but that's just our word for "hey what the fuck". And get any Canadian talking about US vs Canada in the KZhead comments and you'll see much more toxic jingoism from the Northern side.
I'm an American who likes raccoons. In the town I used to live in, they moved around town via the storm drain system, but they learned to be quite tame, and would go up to people sitting on their porches and beg for food, and if they learned to trust you, would even bring their babies to you. My cat made friends with one. The deer were really tame, too. And my cat also tried to make friends with the deer, but I discouraged it because I was afraid she'd get accidentally stepped on if a deer panicked and bolted.
I have seen them in the sewer system here, too. A family of them live near the university and would emerge from one sewer drain at 7:00 p.m. and walk about 30 m down to the next train and pop back in. But they could be seen in the trees on the cliffs and on campus
I think you used to live in Heaven.
I'm American, and I love raccoons. My sister raised an orphaned raccoon when I was younger, and he was a great little weirdo.
@@LindaC616 Wow, they ride the train?
Be careful. A friend of mine had raccoons coming in their cat door and eating the cat's food, but one day they killed his cat. So he sat on the kitchen floor overnight, and when the raccoon came in, he shot it. There are some people who won't be nice when you hurt their cat, and I'm one of them.
As an American, I can say that I love raccoons and have never met a fellow Yank who actually hates them. Sure, they can be a nuisance. But for the most part they're harmless. And hey, c'mon now, they're cute as heck and make great pets if raised from a very early age. And while India has monkeys that raid market stalls en masse and even kidnap human babies, the worst that most Americans have to fear from raccoons is an upset trash can.
For what it's worth, where I lived years ago, a group of between 5 to 10 Raccoons quickly learned which day was garbage pickup day along an easily 5 mile stretch of a wide 4 lane city road that paralleled a freeway in California. Like most mixed business/residential areas, people are asked to bring their garbage cans out to the curb for pickup the next morning. Around 2am it was hilarious to see this gang of Raccoons, looking very reminiscent of East Side Story's Jets or Sharks roaming the entire width of the street and clearly owning it just looking for trouble, tipping over cans and making quite the mess while scavenging. Nobody messed with those Raccoons.
Raccoons are smart, bold and pushy. I once opened a "critter-proof" trash can lid in a national park only to find a raccoon inside. He immediately clambered out and started trying to get the sandwich I had in my hand. I wound up eating lunch in the car.
One time, I was staying with my brother in Austin, Texas. He lived about 15-20 min outside downtown Austin in a very tree heavy suburb. One night as I stole outside for a smoke, I happened upon what had to be about 15 raccoons all circling this one absolute UNIT of a trash panda (~30lbs minimum). It was hilariously spooky. Ever seen those ant death spirals? Think that, but raccoons. I unconsciously went “bwah” or some such noise and they all froze, looked right at me, and then scattered like fuzzy roaches, all except the Big One. He never moved a muscle, looking dead at me as if to say “bwah indeed, ya pink ape”. I had my smoke with him and the other raccs had started to creep back as I went inside, still unnerved but feeling like I’d achieved peaceful coexistence.
I imagined that in Hank Hill's voice
I'm in Southern California. Once, I was working on my motorcycle in the garage. At dusk, the night light was triggered. I turned around to find a large raccoon walk calmly past me. He continued through my carport, down the driveway, and stopped at the curb. He paused to look left-right-left and crossed the street to the neighbor's house. I can't even get my kids to do this.
I once bought a car from a guy that ended up being stolen!! Turns out the guy was just 3 racoons in a trench coat.
I've chased raccoons off of a porch far too many times. One decided to get brave once. He stood on his back legs and hissed at me, so I hit him in the head (not too hard) with a broom. Rather than run off, he grabbed the broom and tried to take it from me. He held on tight until I scooted him off the porch and then finally ran off into the night. Stubborn creatures.
😂😂😂
😂😂😂
Omg, once I caught a racoon trying to drag our sealed plastic container of dog food off the back porch and into the woods. So I grabbed a potato and threw it at it. I missed, and the silly thing took the potato and ran away with it.
😂
An animal smart enough to be stupid :D
We had one,named Ricky. A friend brought it to us as a baby, because moma had got hit on road. Our dogs didn't care as long as we told them an animal was a" baby". When got older ,we opened front door little bit daily, so it could go outside . At first, a sneek for a moment, each day a bit longer. It left one day, to not stay inside anymore. But came back to porch each night to rest. Scared people occasionally, but was never mean. We knew it lived on porch, on cold winter nights, we'd leave snacks . Ricky could have gotten in, but never tried. Just knew it was safe on porch. Even the cats& dogs weren't bothered ..❤
I love Raccoons so much. In Akron, where I live, they live in the storm drains and scurry around the streets at night. They also hang out with you if you go camping. Just adorable little buddies.
Im an American that loves raccoons I met a small family of them at my first real job taking out some trash. I know theyre largely considered a pest or roadkill species. But there seems to be a growing appreciation for them and opossums in some weirdo anarcho punk and folk punk spaces as a kind of mascot. Something about the plucky peaceful scavengers struggling to adapt in modern american cities seems to strike a chord with us weirdo eco punks. they've become lauded as beloved bandits and trash pandas
I worked at a lighthouse in northern California. We had lots of raccoons! We had pit toilets next to the cliff, and it wasn't uncommon to find them in the pits when it was super cold and windy. They also are very smart- they learned that if they stood under the "Don't feed the raccoons " sign, and waited for the humans to go click click with little metal things, that they would get treats. They learned to pose for the cameras! And they also knew that they could trap the humans in the kiosk/ticket booth, that we would throw out snacks in order to leave. The mother raccoons took advantage of this one in particular. They also can open some doors and latches and unscrew jars.
Yea,they have thumbs!!
That sounds like something monkeys would do. The locking people in and only letting them out when offered food. I hope they do not learn that this also works with cell phones.
One time standing in my parents kitchen I noticed 2 of them sitting on a tree branch about 12 - 15 away and level with the window. They were calmly sitting there and staring straight into the kitchen. I have no doubt they were blatantly casing the joint.
I’m an American, and I love raccoons. They are just about my favorite thing ever. I have been lucky enough to befriend a few of them. Don’t listen to the haters. Because raccoons are amazing.
There are several raccoons in my neighborhood. There is one raccoon in particular that is teamed up with an opossum making their rounds every night. They are both larger and very well fed compared to the other raccoons and opossums running around my area. The first time I saw the unusual team, I was driving home and about four houses away from mine, they were working together to tip a garbage can; they got it in a couple of shoves together. I found out that they trek from the woods behind my house (at around 11:00PM), across my back yard, down to the street between my and the neighbor's house. They make their rounds, raiding pet food bowls, trash cans and anything else they can find. At around 4:30AM to 5:00AM they come back across my yard and into the woods together; obviously gorged as they are moving slower and waddling with their full bellies.
I have a glass sliding door near my kitchen, and one night i got up and was on my way to get a glass of water when i saw both of my cats transfixed by something on the other side of that door. It was an entire family of raccoons, all pressed up against the glass, peering in at us.
Look kids, check out these humans. Sometimes they escape their pen...
I like raccoons. We’ve been feeding a handicap runt for 6 years now. It can’t use its back legs and is about the size of a cat but comes down every night for food.
Native Texan here, I absolutely love and adore raccoons! I’ve raised a few and rehabilitated them too, they are incredibly smart and mischievous but amazing in every way! Like a cat and a monkey put together
We had a pet raccoon when we were kids. We would get crayfish and what not to feed it what she would find naturally then moved her to the barn before she went back to the wild. Her name was tigs the racoon. She came back once more with her babies and we knew at that point she was going to be okay and doing well. Aftee that encounter she was off and free with family in tow
When I was in combat weather school, there was a resident raccoon at the dorms who was enormous from all the food the trainees fed him. We lovingly called him Fatass and always left him an uncooked hot dog at the end of the Saturday night BBQ for being so patient with all the food smells all night and hanging out on the edge of the woods just barely visible in the fleeting edges of the gazebo lighting.
you combat... weather?
@@noah4822Live through enough storms in Tornado Alley and you'll feel pugilistic towards weather too
@@noah4822Tornadoes ravaged the Midwest again, just this week, and you ask if the weather has it coming?
On raccoons being a nuisance: my sister once had a family of raccoons take up residence in her attic of the space between floors (don't remember which) and it became so much of an issue that she told everyone. When she moved work locations, her going away cake was in the shape of a giant racoon head.
I am an American and I love Racoons. When I was a boy I would meet them at night at a spot on the edge of a wooded swamp. I would bring bread to feed them and they would greet me. I would see their eyes lit up in the dark wood coming to greet me. They would climb up me - - not recommended as I later learned they carry rabies - - and were quite affectionate at my sight. They are clever; mischievious; funny; social and i find them fascinating. They do get into your trash but so do bears and they are better able to break into the cans and arent as affectionate. I have a friend who had a pet door in their house. One night he came down stairs and there was a large racoon at his piano. He started to play and was clearly fascinated byh this human device. He played a bit and then finding he couldnt quite play the music he wanted he wandered out through the door he came in. Few animals are that clever. You can find racoons in American forests or woods and if you bring some bread and are patient you can meet them. A warning however, once you become friends with them it is hard to let them go. I was 12 when I first made friends with them and I still miss them when I think about it.
My dad threw a baby racoon in the crib with me and most of my social abilities were provided by that racoon.
When my hubby was in the 4th grade, his classroom had a raccoon as a pet. It was usually friendly, but one morning my hubby walked into the classroom and was immediately mauled by the class pet. It's been nearly 40 years since it happened, but he still has the scars. I personally love them, as I'm a night owl and have often seen them crossing my back yard fence or hanging out in the oak tree, but if the hubby sees one, he freaks. They're adorable and intelligent, but can be extremely vicious.
I can't wait until you encounter your first opossum 😂
Those bastards are mean
@@lasersights they kind of have to be to survive the rest of America's ecology. Australia's possums are cute. America's possums are survivors.
Had a baby one hiss at me while it walked away in to the woods. Pretty funny, cute, and menacing all at once.
Not at all. They just smile a lot@lasersights
@@dj-kq4fzI have one as a pet living in my house. She's housebroken and awesome
You’ll likely find Floridians have unique perspectives on raccoons (as anyone could probably expect). We still have plenty of the population that are annoyed by the trash pandas, but they are being outpaced by many other non-native species. My experience with raccoons have been mostly positive and fully adorable. I once saw a raccoon near a campsite sitting upright eating Doritos out of a bag with one hand(paw), just like one might see a human while watching tv.
As a kid I adopted a redbone hound mix. It has tons of small scars on its head. I asked my dad about it ....he said..."raccoon probably did that"... That gave me a huge respect for the ferocity of the average raccoon.
Hi Laurence! When I was homeless in Fort Worth, Texas, I camped beside a railroad track, not too far from a creek. I was living in a makeshift tent. At night, whole families of raccoons would come to visit at night. They would rummage through my meager belongings, ostensibly looking for food. One evening I was awakened by a particularly large one standing on my chest. He was licking my nose! I sat up and he retreated. Meanwhile, his compatriots had absconded with my backpack, dragging it down the hill and scattering it's contents. Despite the fact that I rarely had anything for them to eat, they continued to be nightly visitors.
I think they were volunteering to help you with dinner.
In which country is the most literate and well-spoken, relegated to second-class citizens?
Occasionally, raccoons used to come into our house through our cat door and eat the cat food. I was awakened from a dead sleep by my wife screaming, only to find it was because she'd gone to the laundry room only to find 5 racoons munching on the cat food. 😂🙄
I may or may not have done the thing from the eyeglasses commercial where I thought my cat wanted in at night and almost let in a raccoon. More than once 😂
They love cat food.
I get the occasional skunk or raccoon in my sunroom through my cats' door, sometimes with their families. I never have to say more than a quiet, pleasant, "I think you should leave now," and they waddle right out.
The visual in my head is pretty epic. 😆
Uh-oh. Your house is on the list with the Raccoon Federation. You're doomed.
They are the smartest animal I have run across. We use a carabiner as a lock on chicken coops as they can figure out the latches. It is good Raccoons did not get the size and strength of bears or there would be hell to pay.
Reacoons, while having a reputation of trash looting and potentially carrying diseases, are actually adorable with the way they scurry and eat with there paws. I've seen them on my front porch one time through the big window of my door eating leftover food for the local cats. It was the most majestic thing I've ever seen and made me appreciate them more, especially with how chill they were.
We live in the forest/woods/bush and have catflaps on the doors. The property is enclosed with fences, so we only get opossums and raccoons for the most part. Over the years, these two species have learned that the flaps lead to food, warmth, and shelter. Because of this, we have also found these creatures happily snoozing on the furniture - beds and couches primarily. It definitely makes for a good bit more cleaning, but they've been "respectful" so far.
My friend Larry had a pet raccoon when we were kids. Larry's uncle Sewell lived with them. One day Sewell, who rode to work with my father, left his lunch pail in my dad's truck and I was tasked with returning it as they lived just down the street. Sewell was sitting in an easy chair with his feet on a hassock. As I was handing the lunch pail to him the raccoon came out from under the couch, stood on its hind legs, grabbed Sewell's big toe in both hands and bit it. Not only was it the most hilarious thing my nine year-old self had seen up to that point, but I learned several choice words that construction workers used...
I once lived in a subdivision of townhomes that had a mini Forest spread throughout it. Raccoons were a huge presence and a huge problem. There were raccoons that were so large they were the size of small German shepherds. For the most part, they ignored people. I remember cleaning off my deck that had some bagged trash on it and a raccoon kept trying to come up and get into the trash. I scared it off twice only to watch it come back a third time and stare at me as if asking for permission to go into the garbage. It became common during the winter to find raccoons hanging out outside of your back door looking to see if you're going to throw anything out.
Some friends and I rented a treehouse campsite in Southern Illinois. Down by the fire, we had left a stockpot with soup in it, and a lid on top to "keep the raccoons out". After hearing a lot of banging around it was clear it hadn't worked, so I went down to retrieve the pot and bring it up to the treehouse. After this, I woke my friend to say "I think the raccoons are here in the treehouse with us". I was told I was crazy and clearly imagining it. Still I grabbed my maglight and lay in bed trying to get more sleep. After hearing it again, I turned towards the side of my bed, pointed the maglight towards the center of the room and turned it on. Inches from me was the face of raccoon, with the light shining directly into its eyes. After this, it did run back down the tree, but it did come back up still a couple more times that night, and tried very hard to go through all the bags we had brought. We threw out the soup the next morning. The point is that these animals usually try to stay hidden, but in rare cases, they can become extremely brave. If just one person feeds the raccoons in a neighborhood or leaves a lot of food out, then you'll probably have to deal with these pests for multiple years after that point. In areas where they are not fed, they tend to not stick around, and you may live decades without interacting with them at all.
My dad had a multi-year war with a family of raccoons that turned over our trash cans. The raccoons were unqualified victors in that conflict.
And SOME place humans as the most intelligent species ...
My bird-feeder-loving father was at constant war with the racoons. He won every battle, but had no hope of ever winning the war.