The masked bandits RACCOONS

By Sara Scudier

Ohio certified volunteer naturalist

Overturned garbage can with the lid missing? Missing fruits or vegetables? Sounds in the chimney? You might have a raccoon problem.

The raccoon, Procyon lotor, is a small, bear-like animal with a highly arched back, flat feet, dense, soft brown and black fur, a long, bushy, light and dark “striped” tail and a characteristic dark “mask” fur pattern on its face. Raccoons are 2 to 3 feet long, 9 to 10 inches tall and weigh between 10 and 30 pounds. Males are typically bigger than females.

Raccoons have very sensitive front paws, and they use them to search and evaluate food. This behavior is often misidentified as a food-washing behavior – in fact, the “lotor” of the raccoon’s scientific name means “washing” in – but it is really just the raccoon’s response to hunting for food at night.

Their back feet are larger than their front. Their common gait is a shuffle-like walk, but they are able to reach speeds of 15 miles per hour on the ground.

Raccoons climb with great agility and are not bothered by a drop of 35 to 40 feet. As well as being excellent climbers, they are strong swimmers, although they may be reluctant to do so, as they do not have waterproof fur.

During extremely cold, snowy periods, they will sleep for long periods at a time, but do not hibernate. Their metabolic rate and temperatures remain constant, and they live off of their fat reserves, losing as much as half their body weight.

Primarily a solitary animal, the only real social groups raccoons form are that of mother and young.

They rely on other animals to make their dens and will co-opt tree holes and ground burrows of a great variety of other species.

Raccoons don’t travel any farther than necessary, only far enough to meet the demands of their appetites. They readily live in dumps, sewers, culverts and even in the crawl spaces under buildings.

Their nocturnal foraging habits, their ability to move about in furtive, secretive ways and their wide range of food preferences allow them to readily co-exist with humans in both urban and suburban habitats.

Raccoons will eat whatever food is available. They are consummate omnivores.

When they lose their fear of humans and move into urban and suburban areas, they can cause problems by feeding in garbage cans, establishing dens in chimneys, tearing off shingles or fascia boards to enter an attic or wall space, causing damage to gardens and fruit trees, and raiding poultry houses. They also may carry fleas, ticks, lice, distemper, mange, rabies and canine and feline parvovirus.

These problems can be reduced or eliminated by making the habitat less favorable to raccoons by removing sources of food, water and shelter. This includes removing pet food and water during the night, keeping the yard clean and woodpiles stacked neatly and securing garbage cans and their lids so they can’t open or tip them over.

Excluding raccoons may be the most successful strategy to prevent or eliminate their damage to buildings, poultry and gardens.

To learn more about raccoon issues, go to http://go.osu.edu/masked.