Raccoons use their sense of touch to find food, as opposed to the majority of animals, who either use their senses of sight, sound, or smell. Their front paws are extremely agile and have nearly four times as many sensory receptors as their back paws, which is similar to the proportion of human hands to feet. When they are feeding at night, they need to be able to distinguish between items without being able to see them. Raccoons can increase their sense of touch by a process known as dousing. In reality, animals are soaking their paws to stimulate the nerve endings, even though it may appear to people that they are washing their food. A raccoon can feel more than it would otherwise be able to because water on its hands provides it additional sensory data to work with, similar to how light does for human eyes.
What can you do to keep raccoons away? Leaving pet food outdoors is a sure way to attract a local raccoon. Trash cans are another lure for these masked bandits. Use locking lids, or keep your garbage secured in the garage. Bird feeders are easy pickings for raccoons, so clean underneath the feeders daily, or consider taking them down at night.
Is raccoon feces harmful to humans? Raccoon droppings may carry several potentially dangerous diseases. Recently, however, raccoons have been recognized as the main host for an even more dangerous parasite called Baylisascaris procyonis. This is a disgusting roundworm that can cause extremely serious disease conditions in humans.
Can baby raccoons survive without their mother? Baby raccoons rely on their mother for a long time. They wean gradually after about 12 weeks in the wild, but remain with her for close to a year, and den with her over their first winter. So, a fluffy little 8 week old, eyes-open baby, although mobile, is still totally dependent.
In order to stock fur farms, the first raccoons were sent to Europe in the 1920s. Many raccoons escaped and started a new population in the wild thanks to an unintentional bombing and some bored farmers looking to spice up the local wildlife. Raccoons are now regarded as an invasive species in Europe.
The animals were even sent to Japan. Their journey there began more virtuously: Rascal the Raccoon, the wholesome star of the anime animation, was a childhood idol among Japanese kids in the 1970s. Children clamored for their own pet raccoons, and at one time Japan was importing almost 1500 of them each month. When these pets became too large for families to properly care for them, many of them naturally ended up back in the wild.
Raccoons are one of the few extinct species that have profited from the spread of humans. Despite the devastation of much of the creatures' natural habitat over the past few decades, populations in North America have skyrocketed. Raccoons are versatile enough to thrive successfully in suburban, urban, and rural settings. Raccoons scavenge for trash and pet food in residential areas while eating birds, insects, fruits, nuts, and seeds in woodlands. Some raccoons forage in areas where people live and then spend the day sleeping in the woods. Others live in buildings, both occupied and unoccupied.
Do raccoons come out when it's raining? Researchers have shown that weather conditions may affect the movement of Austin raccoons, and they enjoy coming out immediately after the rain has stopped. Similarly, the movements of Texas raccoons are not hindered when it drizzles slightly, however, they can be shut inside their dens when the rainfall is very heavy.