Let's Talk About American Raccoons

[@danirizary6926]

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.

[@Biiku_]

That was me, my bad. Thought I was home.

[@barbiincognito13]

Did you close the cupboard door? 😂​@@Biiku_

[@barbiincognito13]

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❤

[@steggopotamus]

​@@Biiku_dude, you have a furry butt

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Never doubt the ingenuity of the Raccoon Federation!

[@BAD46660]

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.

[@dawnschoeller788]

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! 😮

[@lisasmith7066]

😂😂😂😂

[@theCommentDevil]

We had some here that actually unscrewed bird feeders in order to get them down

[@brianjones9780]

This is why they're one of my favorite animals. They have a squad mentality like the penguins from that movie Madagascar

[@bootsmith8016]

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.

[@jenniferburns2530]

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.

[@LifesGuardian]

Very smart little buggers.

[@gregharris3202]

They are smart little tricksters

[@josephcernansky1794]

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!!

[@kirstencorby8465]

LOL I had a cat who used to do that.

[@DustyQatun]

​@@josephcernansky1794what the fuck is wrong withyou

[@fcon2002]

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.

[@TimmyTheNerd]

Also from SoCal. Specifically the Inland Empire. Didn't know they were called raccoons until I was 16. Everyone I knew growing up called them trash pandas.

[@thehapagirl92]

The raccoons here in SoCal are sneaky fucks! I’m in Anaheim and I’m genuinely shocked there haven’t been any raccoon mishaps at Disneyland with the cats they keep there to keep the mouse population down😂

[@sonozaki0000]

@@TimmyTheNerd I'm from the IE too, I knew they were called raccoons but until around 14 I thought it was just a type of cat LOL

[@prometheus5997]

Wait until this guy finds out about opossums

[@LindaC616]

Lol, right!?

[@harrymaciolek9629]

Opossums are cool, even if they are ugly. Plus they eat ticks!

[@RatKindler]

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.

[@prometheus5997]

@@RatKindler there is one that lives on my college campus. I see it walking around every now and then

[@prometheus5997]

@@harrymaciolek9629 I’ve seen some fairly cute ones

[@oh2sail]

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.

[@misseli1]

They seem like characters out of a cartoon

[@HappyLife693]

Wow. They are great at teamwork.

[@whirving]

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.

[@thomashaapalainen4108]

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.😅

[@HappyLife693]

@@thomashaapalainen4108 ohhh snap!!

[@Data-qj7mo]

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.

[@calvinkatt662]

I wonder if the dead raccoon was the mother of the two other raccoons.

[@Data-qj7mo]

@calvinkatt662 idk, maybe. They were all full grown though.

[@chey7691]

​@@Data-qj7mo They do remember their family, even after years.

[@eno6712]

​@@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.

[@Data-qj7mo]

@@eno6712 Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the information.

[@YungStinkyWinky]

Fun fact correction: raccoons don’t ’wash their food’. Their paws are extremely sensitive but less so when dry and rough, so they like to handle new things in water to soften up their paw pads so they can ‘learn’ about the food or whatever better. They are also neophilic (they actively seek new experiences, unlike most critters who fear new things), so they do this with everything they can get their hands on to learn more about it.

[@benf91]

To add a second correction even though I'm sure somebody mentioned it already, there's no raccoons in Hawaii, either.

[@justincameron9123]

If the phrase "washing one's food" were ever to be true for an animal with sub-human intelligence then I would assume they weren't doing it because they know about sanitization. Humans only discovered sanitization a few centuries ago. So by all means it was washing its food

[@tominmo8865]

@@benf91 Once they get their hands on a US map, they will scheme how to get there. And succeed.

[@benf91]

@@tominmo8865 I know this is a joke but it's not going to land for anybody who knows Hawaii. We're 2,500 miles away from the mainland, so somebody would have to bring one here on purpose, and being that it's a sensitive tropical island ecosystem, they take that stuff very seriously. My friend orders houseplants online and they won't ship a bunch of stuff here. And still she's had packages not get delivered. If you bring a pet here, there's a four month quarantine because we don't have rabies, either.

[@Kenvie2000]

I was under the impression the putting water in food was to do with them typically having salivary glands that underproduced saliva and the water helps the food go down easier

[@scheru]

I genuinely cackled at your "RACCOONS CAN CLIMB TREES" epiphany. It never occurred to me that anyone might not realize they could do that.

[@nogames8982]

I was surprised by that also. I mean, where do you think they live most of their time? Up a tree.

[@glahtiguy]

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.

[@MaggieLiz]

@@nogames8982 he's talking midwest, it's my understanding there aren't many dense patches of trees there.

[@nogames8982]

@@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.

[@bripa3890]

​@@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

[@lairdcummings9092]

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.

[@simpleitsdanny]

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

[@khdur]

This makes me think of the Lutefisk cure for Coons living under the porch.

[@angelacrabtree2847]

They will also lure predators into the water and climb on their heads to drown them.

[@benda18]

Trash panda is the correct name

[@harvbegal6868]

I heard about my aunt's little dog getting messed up by one. Yeah, those claws slice and dice.

[@Cindolintoe]

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.

[@carlamarlene2927]

My husband had a raccoon n tells that if you want to frustrate your raccoon give it a sugar cube

[@gammaboy4568]

@@carlamarlene2927 cotton candy just straightup disappears, it's just lighter sugar.

[@Factsnotfox]

​@@gammaboy4568There are hilarious videos of this on KZbin. The raccoons just look confused.

[@packetgeek]

A neighbor dropped off 4 cubs, claiming that their mother had been hit by a car. We raised them. Three eventually went wild but the fourth decided she liked the easy life and hung around the house. I spent that Summer wearing sleeveless sweatshirts that were thick enouch that her climbing up onto my shoulder (even when I didn't want her to) didn't leave scratches. She turned into this giant 30 pound monster. My father's running joke was when solicitors would come to the door, he'd whistle and tell the person "you should run". ~Fifteen seconds later, this giant, asthmatic (she was very fat) furball would come scampering around the corner, wheezing as she went. Whoever was at the door never stuck around.

[@Accountdeactivated_1986]

That’s adorable. Are they good pets? They’re cute but the ones that live in city’s are MEAN. Maybe living in the city has hardened them. But I’ve been chased down the alley near my apartment running from a hissing raccoon at night. They sure don’t scamper off in fear like other critters do. How fun to have a pet raccoon though!

[@pattischult9401]

This is the funniest visual ever!! Thank you for sharing! 😂😂😂

[@flanny701]

@@Accountdeactivated_1986 a bit of a late reply to your question, if you keep them as outdoor pets that just stick around and hang out when your outside they can be nice pets. If you intend to treat them like an inside dog they make for terrible pets and will get into everything not locked tight as well as if they become bored they become destructive.

[@Tasarran]

@@Accountdeactivated_1986 I used to rehab them (raise babies to be released into the wild), and I raised at least 40 from bottle-babies, many from before their eyes opened. They're very friendly and loving when they are babies, but almost every single one of them went 'wild' a month or two after they start eating on their own. Once they hit puberty, every one I ever had would not let me touch them anymore. When I would go to get them when it was time to be released, I would put on a thick coat and a set of long, thick 'rose-cutter' gloves that go all the way to the elbow, because grabbing them would get you bitten and scratched like crazy from all four feet. These are young coons under eight pounds. I would not want to tussle with a 20-pound adult; they are like the worst of a giant cat and a medium dog combined.

[@sunshine3914]

@@Tasarran Can confirm. My bf’s dad found an orphan & brought it home. It was a novelty (like any young critter), but 3 months later the oldest boy went to it out of the outdoor enclosure, & had his arm shredded. The raccoon made it to freedom.

[@Will_Parker]

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

[@mcmackj]

One of my favorite GIFs! The poor critter, though. 😂

[@danirizary6926]

White bread is fun too.

[@OrsonBuggy1958]

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.

[@muleb384]

@@Curmudgeon2 That isn't correct. The only mammals that lack salivary glands are dolphins and the like. Look it up for yourself :)

[@CoffeeCakeCrumble]

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.

[@alicerudolph8106]

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.

[@PhantomQueenOne]

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.

[@sydneyhammer2052]

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.

[@gsgaming6976]

❤

[@KarlLind]

😢❤️

[@kirstencorby8465]

That is so sweet, my gosh.

[@bronco1199]

Very sweet

[@derealized797]

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.

[@tomgray8512]

The city of Ottawa Canada instituited a composting program. Kitchen waste was to be put in special racoon-proof bins that they had designed. It had a special hard platic top with the racoon-proof latch. Within a week of the bins being put out for the public, there were were videos of the racoons opening them

[@c.a.g.7707]

I guess it's kinda like trying to squirrel-proof a bird feeder.

[@lilymoncat]

Racoons: Challenge accepted pinkies.

[@pattischult9401]

I hate to laugh, but that's sad.

[@Falconlibrary]

I stored bird seed in a metal chest with two latches so the raccoons couldn't get at it. I watched through the window as one raccoon studied the latches, then flipped each one open and threw back the lid. I padlocked the latches for his next visit. He was FURIOUS.

[@McFlingleson]

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.

[@Volyren]

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.

[@MrBendylaw]

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.

[@huitrecouture]

That's HILARIOUS. No it's not rabies, they're just drunk!

[@cassieporter9262]

@@Volyren I have to disagree. Good janitors don't knock over trash cans.

[@Volyren]

@@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.

[@lochnessmonster5149]

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.

[@PK-pp3lu]

The shit was a warning to have food next time or else

[@fictionalgeographic]

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

[@PuddilyOops]

That was an FU for hoarding your peanuts 🦝

[@rengarcia5189]

You've never seen an animal use shit and puke as a weapon like the Trash Pandas do.

[@Agiantpansy]

Are you sure that was a raccoon, did you see them? Sounds like textbook Florida-man behavior to me.

[@HillbillyArchmage]

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.

[@stevenr5534]

Yes! Don't feed the animals. And keep a watch so that the animals don't just help themselves.

[@Variety_Pack]

They'll bamboozle you with a show and then eat your lunch!

[@silver1step]

Racoons are basically yogi bear but like for real life. They will run a show & dance to steal your picnic basket.

[@FrogsForBreakfast]

Not only will they steal from you, but they are much more likely to get hit by a car.

[@achimdemus-holzhaeuser1233]

And don't show them Yogi Bear Cartoons.

[@YCIGAFSN]

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.

[@KnightlyNerds]

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.

[@jerelull9629]

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.

[@whatabouttheearth]

​@@jerelull9629 Dogs for squirrel hunting? I've only known of dogs to be used for hunting racoons

[@pong9000]

But everybody knows dogs lose their minds for squirrels.

[@rachelclark6393]

Yeah I had a racoon stuffed animal named 'curious the raccoons, and my grandfather ( a country boy from the Carolinas moved to the big city) used to tease me about his past " 'coon hunting" in his youth with his trusty dog.

[@Joose]

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.

[@vincedibona4687]

Ain’t no other kind of party than a trash panda party.

[@joesickler5888]

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.

[@stephenlocilento649]

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.

[@ClyDIley]

Yep, thats Gary

[@tony8570]

Camp attebury memories

[@jasonbeck6104]

Seeing this side story made my morning... 😂😂😂

[@veprstreak3041]

That’s Army tired, when you sleep through a raccooning

[@stephenlocilento649]

@@veprstreak3041 true that!

[@yawnberg]

If you haven't learned about opossums yet, please do. They are remarkable; the unsung heroes of American urban wildlife.

[@tomhalla426]

Possums look like giant rats in dim light.

[@bryancorrell3689]

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.

[@-Keith-]

They can carry a lot more diseases that are pretty bad for humans too.

[@bugvswindshield]

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.

[@jakeaurod]

They also spread worms, like Baylisascaris procyonis.

[@Leightr]

@@mi2lq933 And ducks too.

[@sorryifoldcomment8596]

I love raccoons, but I'm not responsible for maintaining my apartment complex's dumpsters so I just get to laugh at them, at how they awkwardly freeze when we make eye contact, followed by them awkwardly scrambling back without breaking eye contact...I love how they move, adorable.

[@Foolish188]

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.

[@Slowplaymae]

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.

[@Broken_robot1986]

I've always had good experiences with them, they always seem to have a positive attitude, and who doesn't love little hands?

[@josephwilliams1915]

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.

[@matthewfors114]

that is new england for ya

[@LordOceanus]

That is very wholesome

[@AndromacheNY]

I love raccoons. so so much. ❤

[@Chris_Toney]

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.

[@CraigerAce]

I live in SW FL also. We had a ton of coons around here, until the coyotes moved in. Frankly I don’t miss them. Peace. Out.

[@catherinelevison3310]

They’re not afraid of people. They don’t run away, they stand their ground. I think of them as mini Grizzly bears.

[@MoonbeamGardener]

That is a great description.

[@sorryifoldcomment8596]

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.

[@flushmastercyclonis186]

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.

[@Steve-ev6vx]

.22

[@cheriestl]

Sitting around a campfire once, a raccoon scratched my back, presumably to ask politely for a s’more.

[@katheryns1219]

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.

[@stephenbonaci4831]

Raccoon Dance Party is my new favorite raccoon story!

[@blackbearish]

musical trashpandas.

[@nathangamble125]

"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?

[@katheryns1219]

@@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.

[@blackbearish]

@@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.

[@peccant]

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.

[@paradisepipeco]

They do tend to be more polite in Canada.

[@angelousmortis8041]

With claws and fangs and are smart enough to open locks that foil toddlers.

[@BrendanBeckett]

@@paradisepipeco Believe me they will still ruin your day if the trash isn't secured.

[@paradisepipeco]

@@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._

[@BrendanBeckett]

@@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 KZbin comments and you'll see much more toxic jingoism from the Northern side.

[@gutz369]

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.

[@ldcraig2006]

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. 😡

[@GangstarComputerGod]

I had that issue with squirrels and yes it will drive you insane

[@HealthyDisrespectforAuthority]

@@GangstarComputerGod my barn cat took care of the attic squirrels around here. He wouldn't be close to a match for a raccoon though.

[@stephensmith1118]

you need to remove the squirrels they tend to eat electrical cables which can lead to a fire

[@jerelull9629]

Squirrels are the forgotten rodent, not quite annoying/dangerous enough to be eradicated. Raccoons aren't far behind, as far as I'm concerned.

[@ldcraig2006]

@@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).

[@denisebrooks4513]

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.

[@LindaC616]

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

[@CDCI3]

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.

[@canisblack]

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."

[@ljosephdumas3113]

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. 🦝🦝🦝

[@robertveith6383]

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.

[@robwalsh9843]

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.

[@saratemp790]

Wow.

[@PaulGuy]

Tbf, black bears are kind of bear-sized raccoons already.

[@nerfherder4284]

Racoons are actually related to bears, not rodents like rats.

[@darter9000]

How about a 100 raccoon sized bears instead?

[@robwalsh9843]

@@darter9000 those are bear cubs, and they're cute, but I've seen the damage they can do, so I'll politely decline.

[@MontgomeryWenis]

Racoons broke into my house twice last summer. Just tore a hole in two different window screens and helped themselves to my cat food. My cats just sat there and watched them.

[@sarahbrown2789]

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.

[@Phlebas]

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.

[@sueharviel6510]

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.

[@FeedMeSalt]

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.

[@ut000bs]

@@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.

[@KiKiQuiQuiKiKi]

@@sueharviel6510I wonder if that’s whatever God intended❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

[@ShadoeLandman]

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.

[@LindaC616]

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

[@TechnicolorMammoth]

I think you used to live in Heaven.

[@Dfarrey]

I'm American, and I love raccoons. My sister raised an orphaned raccoon when I was younger, and he was a great little weirdo.

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

@@LindaC616 Wow, they ride the train?

[@caroljo420]

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.

[@paulnormandin5267]

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.

[@ScottHarlow-y3m]

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!

[@HealthyDisrespectforAuthority]

I wish fire ants were their main diet preference.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

No that would be Mountain Lions

[@pamelasimone5084]

They have long memories and if one feels slighted, he may one day get revenge.

[@stevethepocket]

@@ScottHarlow-y3m There's a video that gets reposted all the time where some wiseguy gives a raccoon cotton candy with the same result.

[@boballen9095]

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.

[@goaliecalledmike]

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. 😊

[@LeafBoye]

Remember when he found fireflies?

[@Zyra19]

Trash pandas are adorable but also wicked smart & mischievous

[@jonathannelson103]

Found the New Englander.

[@Zyra19]

@@jonathannelson103 Nope, never been there

[@jonathannelson103]

@@Zyra19 I'd just never heard anyone outside of New England say "wicked smart".

[@michaeltaylor5939]

"Trash panda" was only amusing for about 5 minutes 20 years ago.

[@jathompson37]

They actually are related to pandas.

[@JoeCensored]

The cutest, most frustrating, and clever animal ever.

[@EvelynNdenial]

my sister had a racoon once. it was the cutest thing i have ever seen, it would ride the dog around the house and when you sat on the couch it would get up there and play with your hair. it would also occasionally do little front flips, the fat little thing curling up and flopping forward onto its back.

[@coranova]

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💙

[@adamtedder1012]

Same here. We have about 30 of em.

[@mdnghtwlf]

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.

[@billyyank5807]

Do ya'll know how toxic raccoon poop is? You should probably look into that,especially if you have pets!

[@adamtedder1012]

@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.

[@coranova]

@@adamtedder1012 same! They only deficate away from our house!

[@kandreasworld4374]

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.

[@figurativelyliterally9796]

That sounds so charming ❤

[@NocturnalDoom]

Thank you for sharing ❤ I came here for this comment. It feels like most people just don’t appreciate them at all.

[@AnaLucia-wy2ii]

They’re so cute. ❤ But it’s not cute if they get into your garbage.

[@653j521]

You catch feral cats you get fixed? Maybe not entirely happy about the whole thing? :)

[@huwhitecavebeast1972]

As an American I fully agree with all this. Raccoons are wonderful animals. I just saved one with a broken leg last week.

[@deepwaters7242]

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.

[@billyyank5807]

Yea,they have thumbs!!

[@aaronburkeen6409]

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.

[@Uufda651]

Laurence, the thing about raccoons climbing? That's like their main thing. Well, that and getting into the trash. We haven't been hiding it. If you come visit Minnesota, at the Minnesota Zoo there's a raccoon exhibit that is legitimately staged as: the outside porch of a log cabin, fake trees, and trashcans.

[@Fooma777]

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.

[@NormalPersonCommenting]

I imagined that in Hank Hill's voice

[@estherheyer2863]

I was out camping and had racoons rip a hole in my tent to get to the ice chest. Next night I put it in the truck but the window wouldn't go all the way up. They got in the truck and left mustard footprints everywhere from a mustard packet they opened

[@anitawindbigler7100]

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 ..❤

[@1crazypj]

I moved to Florida from Britain 25 years ago. Our cat at the time brought a complete racoon family (3 of them) to the back porch to share his food (cat was a bit crazy, herded the ducks on pond across the street as well, brought a kitten home 3:00am one night, etc) The largest racoon was at least 3 ft high.

[@ewhartiii]

I used to live in Temple, Tx. in a rental house with a swimming pool in the back yard. One night while a few of us were swimming, momma raccoon came by on the patio with 4 babies. I thought it was cool until I got out of the pool and had to search for my sandals which they took halfway across the yard. Later, I took a video of them right outside of the sliding glass doors of the bedroom. A few months later, I was smoking out on the back porch and heard a crunching, so I looked and saw one of the grown babies eating the cat food we had out for a couple of strays that hung around the house. This raccoon came to be known as Rocky. There was also Percy the 'Possum whom I rescued from the pool, who lived under the house.

[@IanWard]

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.

[@Ampelmannchen42]

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.

[@justinhaynes9972]

Also known as trash pandas here in Texas. Also I have racoons moving around my house every night here in the middle of Houston, TX. My cats hiss and swipe at them and they just sit there unphased.

[@2MuchPurple]

I have a lot of experience with raccoons, which I made the mistake of feeding a few years ago. They never forget that!

[@LindaC616]

😅

[@linhager12]

And bring friends and relative later lol lol lol

[@linhager12]

😂😂😂😂 love your videos. Thank you

[@M.E.M.O.10-50]

Oh, dear god. Please, people, don't feed the raccoons!

[@drew.168]

We have a mom that comes to our back door every year with new kiddos

[@laner.845]

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.

[@uDaniels]

you combat... weather?

[@johnnychopsocky]

​@@uDanielsLive through enough storms in Tornado Alley and you'll feel pugilistic towards weather too

[@jaredragland4707]

​@@uDanielsTornadoes ravaged the Midwest again, just this week, and you ask if the weather has it coming?

[@randalmayeux8880]

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.

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

I think they were volunteering to help you with dinner.

[@pong9000]

In which country is the most literate and well-spoken, relegated to second-class citizens?

[@MicheleSanders]

I am American and am proud to tell you that I ADORE raccoons, Lawrence! They are intelligent, resourceful, adaptive, cooperative, clean and in every way appealing! Also I have never had raccoons rummage through my garbage but then I have kept the bins in the garage or used locking lids on the bins. In any case I respect them by not feeding them and just leaving them alone to just be them. Thanks for another great video! 🦝😊

[@bintheredonethat]

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.

[@kharma7755]

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.

[@joshuastrawser9160]

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.

[@sugarskull2392]

😂😂😂

[@Nannaof10]

😂😂😂

[@cloudsn]

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.

[@aliciahoverson]

😂

[@SplotchTheCatThing]

An animal smart enough to be stupid :D

[@jasondubois3399]

I spent a year living on an army base in Southern California from March 2021 to March 2022. I got to know my local population of raccoons fairly well. For a while there was some kind of plumbing problem in the mess hall and so they simply fed us outside, and the raccoons had to be chased off multiple times each morning. Because they were living in close proximity to humans, they got relatively comfortable with us and I was once even able to convince one to accept food out of my hand.

[@parkermae]

There is a channel here run by an old Canadian man named James Blackwood who feeds upwards of 30 raccoons (depending on the year or season) on his property and makes sure they get plenty fat before hibernating. He uploads pretty frequently.

[@Baalek1]

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.

[@IllustriousCrocoduck]

Look kids, check out these humans. Sometimes they escape their pen...

[@gordonv.cormack3216]

I live in southern Ontario, and have grown to be more tolerant of racoons that I once was. There are a couple that live under my neighbours' shed and I don't think I'll bother to tell them. In the past I've encountered racoons when camping -- they knocked my steel, latched cooler on the ground and when I threw a shoe at them they weren't alarmed. When I threw the second shoe and hit one, they wandered off indignantly. Then there was the racoon who had her pups on my fireplace flue. They were kind of cute in a homely sort of way but the pest control person said he had to put them where mom would find them or she would pester me forever looking for them. Then there were the ones that could open my garage door, and then open the garbage cans in the garage and help themselves. An electric garage door opener solved that particular problem. Currently, they don't cause me too much of a problem. Chipmunks dig up my yard, but they are cute. Coyotes howl and wake me up at night but what can you do? Skunks smell bad but only if you threaten them. All in all, I'm OK with the fauna in Ontario. it isn't poisonous and it won't eat you. So what's the problem?

[@poochiew.9302]

What's the problem? They broke into my friend's attic when I was a kid. They got on our roof and brought fleas to my dogs and in turn my cats. The carry roundworms and are vicious.

[@diwi1942]

Rabies carriers

[@harveywallbanger3123]

Raccoons are riddled with diseases, including infectious roundworm eggs in basically 100% of their feces. I used to remediate "raccoon latrines" in people's attics in a biohazard suit. You're risking your life to breathe the dust from their droppings, and they shed ticks all over the place as they wander around. Any omnivorous mammal that does a lot of scavenging is going to be full of parasites and diseases that are dangerous to humans. Even a vulture is less unhealthy to be around than a raccoon.

[@tech6hutch]

@@poochiew.9302 they burned our crops, poisoned our water supply, and brought a plague upon our houses.

[@richardwallace853]

The problem is: raccoons are not only not afraid of humans, but seem to hold them in a kind of pitying disdain.

[@thedeviouspanda]

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!

[@AtlasJotun]

I didn't leave my chickens out. The coons figured out how to open the coop door and decapitated the girls to get to their eggs. Beheaded all four of my chickens to get two or three eggs. The 'cute' coons get shot on sight now. I only wish I knew if I got the one that killed my Golden Girls (they were named after the characters in the old show).

[@wasntme3651]

We have roughly 30 come in everyday that we feed. Once they trust you they are very friendly little fellas.

[@kevinmcfalls945]

I feed several groups of homeless cats. That is all one needs to do in order to see (and interact with) plenty of raccoons. I film groups of raccoons almost as often as I film the cats. The younger ones are fearless. They'll come right up and stand on my boots, pawing at my jeans, begging for cat food, which isn't really all that good for them.

[@LetsSingTheDoomSong]

I raised several raccoons throughout my childhood while growing up in the middle of absolute nowhere on a 1200 acre farm. They were hands-down the best pets ive ever had (my crows are a close second. INSANELY awesome animals!) The babies' mother had died and i took them in when their eyes were still closed. I'd wake up in the middle of the night to bottle feed them and get them to go to the bathroom. They were so adorable, intelligent, and mischievous little pricks 😂 (same with my crows). The raccoons would scamper onto my lap and pat all around my face with their velvety hands, and always tried to shove them into my nose, mouth and ears, looking for goodies 😂 They'd purr like cats while napping on my lap by the barn, and they also eventually got along with the farm dogs and cats. The last raccoon I raised, i was in tenth grade and he was the absolute best. I'll NEVER forget getting off the school bus and seeing him passed away further down the driveway. I was in such shock i hoped he was just napping. Turned out my dad accidentally hit him with the tractor. That was the first time I ever experienced true, physically painful heartbreak; I remember feeling as if my heart actually had a gaping hole in it 💔 I was so devestated but tended to never cry in front of family, so I'd hold it in and break down in the shower, and this lasted for months. You experience the pain of death VERY early in life if you grow up on a farm, but this one hit me in a completely different way. I still miss the ever-loving shit out of my "wild" pets, and will always remember them so fondly.

[@Nphen]

At 20 likes, surrounded by little anecdotes with hundreds of likes, this is possibly the most underrated comment I will have ever tried to highlight. What an amazing yet heart-rending story.

[@Syphrianna]

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.

[@aaronwilliams1249]

Correction: I believe the only state where they are not found is Hawaii, not Alaska. I also used to have many of them in my backyard, but having dog food out there helped a lot. Mothers would bring their kits along, and I'd watch them play. I've never had any issues with them getting into my trash or tearing up my garden. Still, they will tear up lawns and flowers looking for grubs if food is not otherwise readily available... maybe it was the dog food that protected everything else. I had a couple of kits that would take food from my hand. The reason they appear to wash their food has to do with the fact that their most important sense is their sense of touch, and wetting their paws enhances that. When the kits took food from my hand, they also seemed to feel over my hand. Watching them it becomes quite evident that they rely heavily on their sense of touch as they seem to feel about.

[@Arkimedus]

I did some digging and apparently raccoons are not native to Alaska or Hawaii, though they are now present in both states.

[@cmay7429]

I'm in Eastern Texas, and we have tons of raccoons. They're actually more native to warmer climates, so more the southern part of our continent, down into South America. I think they're absolutely adorable, and they've never caused any huge issues in my personal experience, but I've also always lived where there were pockets of their natural habitat. I've had them peek in my windows at night, seen them on my neighbor's roof, and had them hang out in my backyard. You can also occasionally see them slipping into neighborhood sewers at night. My grandma used to feed them, along with her outdoor cats, in the evening. They would all share. I've even had them approached me when I called kitty kitty though I have never made it a point to feed them. They can fight with cats and dogs and cause a lot of damage. They're cute, but can indeed be ferocious. My understanding was they don't have salivary glands to help them with chewing, and that's why they dunk their food.

[@willausterman3104]

They are an invasive species in Hawaii and have established breeding populations. There have been attempts to introduce them in Alaska, but they have all failed with no sightings of wild raccoons in many years.

[@yuikl0zx]

@@Arkimedus Hi, Hawai'i resident here. Raccoons will occasionally stow away in shipping containers and end up in Hawai'i (where they are considered an invasive species and are captured as soon as possible). However, there is no breeding population in the state. I grew up in Michigan and love the little guys, but they don't belong here and would be devastating to a fragile environment already severely impacted by invasive species.

[@truthteller880]

I love the little guys. I grew up rural and even I only ever saw any twice in the wild. Once was a group of kits at the edge of the woods, and once was in a parking lot near a dumpster.

[@blutoactual230]

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...

[@jenniferdyke3335]

We once pulled four baby raccoons out of our family room ceiling. Their mother had entered our house via a roof vent and crawled through our walls until she found what she felt was the best location to give birth and raise her babies. I fed the babies until we found a local wildlife rehab place and could take them there to be raised and released. After that, new raccoon-proof roof vents meant we never had trouble with them again (in the house). Later that summer, though, I was in our bedroom when I heard splashing outside our window on the flat roof of our family room. It turned out to be a set of five, young raccoons playing in water from a recent rain. Pretty cute.🦝❤

[@oscardiggs246]

It’s remarkable how much damage trash pandas can do when they get in the attic. We had one get in the same way.

[@DuncSargent]

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.

[@scottwooster4102]

My favorite Lost in the Pond video to date. Cheers!

[@julief8777]

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.

[@TeamTigerAdv]

Wow neat! 😎

[@MrJimheeren]

30 years? That a lot longer then expected. I believe in the wild they only live till like 5 or something

[@deborahmichalak8991]

We got our last cat when he was a kitten and my son saw a raccoon had him in her mouth! My son scared the raccoon away, and she dropped the kitten. My son brought in the kitten and he had a few little bites on him, but the kitten survived and is now our almost 2 year old cat, Slizzie!

[@KairuHakubi]

was she holding the wee kitten by the neck scruff? I wonder if she was just collecting a baby.

[@mgkleym]

@@KairuHakubi Racoons are known to attack cats usually over food.

[@leahmollytheblindcatnordee3586]

We had a cat the was slashed by a raccoon. That ended her time outside.

[@AMKB01]

@@KairuHakubi racoons are known to eat kittens. 😞

[@KairuHakubi]

@@AMKB01 to be totally fair, so are cats. it's a harsh world out there. Cats are also known to adopt raccoons and i bet the reverse can happen too.

[@cameroncox2739]

Texan here. We used to have a heckin' chonker of a raccoon who would hang out on our front porch in the middle of the day with our old cat. It was bold enough that it would take treats from your hand and sit by us on the porch swing. Chill critter overall.

[@lisaKittylove2010]

Lawrence, I love your channel. In one of your posts you mentioned doing tours of America’s national parks. I would love to watch those videos.

[@kizmo2317]

I did my fellowship in Houston TX in the 90's. My buddy and I lived a block away from the Astrodome. On Friday evenings, we would take a couple of quarts of his excellent home-brewed blueberry wheat beer and sit in a couple of folding aluminum chairs by the dumpster in his apartment parking lot, watching the 17 giant raccoons that lived in the adjacent lot raid the dumpster. We were almost close enough to touch them, but we didn't bother them, and they didn't bother us. More fun than a barrel of monkeys. Man, those were good times.

[@sr-7none196]

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.

[@donreid6399]

Listen to a fox scream. Talk about a scary sound to hear in the middle of the night when you're alone!

[@MayimHastings]

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.

[@drcovell]

NOTHING sounds as eerie a fox screaming!

[@pong9000]

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.

[@ut000bs]

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

[@bjs301]

My mom was an emergency room nurse in the 1960s. She dealt with raccoon attacks more often than you'd think. People loved to keep them as pets, but they definitely ain't good pet material. As bad as raccoons are, things can always be worse. For several years they overtook a camping area we used to frequent. Then the skunks moved in and chased them out.

[@kuramacon]

People taking in wild raccoons are definately a problem. A raccoon must be domesticated from birth, and as such only select sanctuaries are even allowed to put any up for adoption.

[@russellkeeling4387]

I've also seen several different people try to make raccoons pets. They are very cute when they're little but they grow up to be aggressive intelligent animals with no fear of humans. They are filthy animals, not clean like everyone seems to believe.

[@christopherconard2831]

At a campground I stayed at in Indiana the raccoons learned to work with the skunks. Campers would chase away raccoons, even in groups. But they'd flee the area immediately as soon as the first skunk showed up. Sort of skunks as stormtroopers in the initial assault, followed by the trash panda army. People were also warned to keep something heavy on top of coolers. They had figured out these were vaults full of tasty treasures. They also learned how to pick the locks some came equipped with.

[@tjk3430]

@@christopherconard2831 I went out to my yard at night once and stopped to look at the night sky. About 4 feet away was a skunk and it made a startled motion but decided not to spray me after I backed up slowly. I think spraying is a last resort for them.

[@abbiebeast]

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.

[@tehwicked1]

I'm an American, love your channel, and grew up in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. I had a pet raccoon as a kid. I still love them. They climb everything. Be well and take care.

[@cathleenc6943]

I work at a horse barn. I was sitting on the porch of the office there one night, having been busy until after dark, when all of the sudden a huge raccoon comes out from behind the vending machine to eat the cat food we put out for our barn cat. He was literally 4 feet from me and I actually got a couple photos of him. We try to feed the cat in the mornings now so that the raccoon gets less of his food.

[@violetlight1548]

At my grandparents' old place, once there was this horrid smell coming from the fireplace. A raccoon had shat down the chimney! My aunt still laughs about it, saying she can picture the raccoon up on the roof sitting on top of the chimney with a newspaper (I guess these days it would have a smart phone).

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

I'm picturing the raccoon having to crawl down the chimney because it dropped it's phone. Where'd a raccoon get a cell phone? From the trash of course.

[@AudraK]

The neighborhood I grew up in was a small peninsula surrounded by marshland and every night we would sprinkle out a bowl or two of dry cat food. We would get anywhere from 2 or 3 at a time to up to 13 at a time. It took years but eventually you could tell which ones grew up on the cat food diet and which didn’t. You’d see mama come up with her new babies. And watch them get used to you watching them from the window. They will forever be communal cats in my heart. Forever living outside but still being a member of the family. I still wait for the day that my dad tells me that he has finally won the trust of the group and brought them inside the home.

[@LazarusXavier]

I literally had to cut a hole in my office drywall yesterday because a mama raccoon had found a way into the attic, chewed through the vapor barrier, and dug out the insulation in the wall four feet down and then lined it with the vapor barrier scraps and put her four babies in it. Ugh. We had to put holes all in the attic, soffit and walls before we finally located them. What a mess. That said... I had no idea how frickin cute month old raccoon babies are when you hold them. I almost wanted to keep them... Then i remembered all the destruction mama caused and immediately drove them all thirty minutes away and let them out in some woods, lol.

[@christopherfoote1284]

Laurence, I have had a lot of exposure to raccoons in my life. Within the past few years I was tasked with trapping the wild raccoons that lived around my parent’s rural home. I used live traps that didn’t hurt them and once I captured one, I would take it and release it back into the wild several miles from my parent’s house. I discovered that each raccoon that I trapped had its own individual personality. They ranged from scared to angry to inquisitive to downright friendly. It was a joy to do this. Why was I trapping them and relocating them? They would come through the cat door into the garage each night and gobble up the cat’s dry food.

[@AaaaNinja]

But raccoons are territorial, pest control says it's more humane to dispatch them because they will be maimed by other raccoons who find a stranger in their territory. It creates chaos in the carefully-balanced hierarchies of the raccoons who already live in other areas to just dump strange raccoons into their home.

[@christopherfoote1284]

@@AaaaNinja I released them into a wildlife refuge that has hundreds of square miles of area that is rich with streams and a huge river. Plenty of room for them to find their own territory. This isn’t an urban or suburban setting.

[@gg-ky6mf]

Please do not ever relocate any wildlife species. They become disoriented, do not know where their food and water sources are and die. They can introduce disease into healthy populations and it’s also illegal in many states. The bigger issue is that the relocated animal may have babies and the babies die without their mother. Relocation is inhumane. The humane way is habitat modification and removal of food sources.

[@chriscolley2229]

This unfortunately is quite true . 😢

[@Moraenil]

The appropriate answer is to not have a cat door or feed cats where racoons can get to the food. It's simple common sense. Pet cats shouldn't be outside anyway if owners care about them at all. Between spilled chemicals (they love antifreeze), sleeping in car engines that kill them when started or run them over as they jump out, getting hit by cars when crossing the street, kids catching and hurting or killing them, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, bobcats, lynx, mountain lions, bears, aggressive deer/elk/moose, hawks, eagles, etc. ... outdoor cats rarely live more than a couple/few years as it's essentially a death sentence. There shouldn't be cat doors and dog doors are also perfect entryways for raccoons and other critters to get inside homes. Burglars can even get in through the larger ones. Anyone with these habits is just asking for trouble.

[@jaymeharl3270]

A few years ago, I lived on Indy's southeast side in an apartment complex surrounded by cornfields and woods. When Covid hit, I spruced up my patio, which was recessed into the building and shielded on 3 sides with 2 decks above it. During a rainstorm I could enjoy the space without getting wet....which evidently a raccoon knew before I did. The Rain was pouring down one day when very suddenly a raccoon comes zooming around the corner. I gasped, as one does, and the raccoon pulled up short and stood on its hind legs. We looked at each other in shock for about 3 seconds...then he turned and zoomed back around the corner.

[@valiumtwo]

I see them frequently. I live in a Dallas suburb. Early morning walks or close to sundown. I like them. Love seeing a mom and babies following behind.

[@Heterogeneity]

You have not met me, I am an American who has loved raccoons all my life. There was a nature magazine for children in the 80's called "Ranger Rick" which featured a forestry ranger cartoon character named Rick, who was a raccoon with big Steve Irwin vibes. I grew up in rural places where raccoons were commonly seen as vermin but I found them admirable and adorable for their cleverness, persistence, creativity, and long memories. I had a realistic raccoon plushie instead of a teddy bear.

[@zephodb]

I live on the west coast... When I was a kid my Grandmother lived up on a mountainside in Idaho, she used to have a ton of stray cats up there and she used to feed them catfood she'd buy from the store just so she could watch them outside... At one point in the 1990s Raccoons moved in and pushed all of the cats off the mountainside, then she just kept feeding them the catfood... They'd even bring her the kits to introduce them to her to make sure that she'd keep feeding the kits in the future. Here in town, literally on the west coast (I can see the ocean from here, I live in WA), there are Raccoons all over, they're in most of the parks and the places where you might eat fast-food parked out... They come out and beg at the parked cars.

[@chickenanon]

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!!!"

[@vaughngordon1095]

This is one of your most brilliant pieces on the web. You have outdone yourself. Outstanding work. For more about raccoons ask me. I wore the hat have some traipsing through my yard a neighbor feeds them and my garden suffers because the little buggers eat the best plants and leave the bugs to eat the rest. As for the garbage? Fasten the lid on the dustbin with something they cannot open.... like a padlock. Don't use a combination lock. Little crafty fat dexterous clever vermin will mess with it until it opens....

[@kd1841]

I live in the North Texas Metroplex. Raccoons sometimes clean up food left behind by my chickens. We have caught them on a game camera we set up to see who it was. But what you have to worry about is that some will murder chickens if you forget to close the coop door or they find a way in. They usually bite their necks, killing them but only occasionally will take a whole chicken away to eat it. So wasteful! I like them as long as they’re just cleaning stuff up. My friends (about 1/4 mile away) flock was murdered by raccoons. It was so senseless. But some large raccoons just love chicken! Great video ❤

[@rdaltry777]

As a resident of Washington, DC, these are the codes I use for sightings: Rat = Senator Mouse = Representative Cockroach = Lobbyist Raccoon = Political Appointee

[@stanwbaker]

Confessing I don't know which side is the code.

[@christopherrostad4099]

You forgot Potato = President

[@tamedshrew235]

No Snakes?

[@fa-q-2]

...🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣...

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

@@christopherrostad4099 Better a potato than a yam.

[@elainebelzDetroit]

I grew up in rural Michigan, and I love them! I don't like having them around here in the city, though, because they won't just dig through your garbage - they'll try to nest in your roof or other places you don't really want torn up and filled with their urine. Growing up, we had raccoons who came to our door begging for food sometimes. We did see our cat hanging out on a tree limb right next to a raccoon, so maybe they learned about human generosity toward furry creatures from her. You never know what house cats are telling raccoons when you're not around.

[@Tom_Cruise_Missile]

I think they probably saw cats being fed and thought "neat, these apes hand out snacks!"

[@lancethrustworthy]

Extra points for this one. Well done.