Raccoons are mammals with a distinctive black mask over the eyes and rings on their bushy tails. Raccoons weigh from 10 to 30 pounds and are two to three feet long. Raccoons are salt and pepper gray and black al-though some appear washed with a yellow color.

Habitat

Raccoons are commonly found in areas with water and trees. Raccoons den in hol-low trees, ground burrows, brush piles, muskrat houses, barns, abandoned buildings, dense clumps of cattails, haystacks or rock crevices. Raccoons also live success-fully in urban areas.

Habits

Raccoons are omnivores. This means they eat both plants and animals. Plant foods include all types of fruits, berries, nuts, acorns, corn and other types of grain. Animal foods are crayfish, clams, fish, frogs, snails, in-sects, turtles, turtle eggs, mice, rabbits, muskrats and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds. Raccoons normally breed in February or March. Gestation period is about 63 days. Most litters are born in April or May. Only one litter of young is raised each year. Average litter size is three to five kits. The young open their eyes at about three weeks and are weaned between two and four months. The female, called a sow, and her young will usually remain together for the first year and the young will often den for the winter with her. The following spring the yearlings go off on their own.

Raccoons are nocturnal. This means they are most active at night. Adult males, called boars, travel an area of three to 20 square miles. A female raccoon will travel one to six square miles. Rac-coons do not hibernate, but they do "hole-up" in dens and become inactive during se-vere winter weather.

Raccoon populations are made up mostly of young animals. In the fall, one-half to three-fourths of the raccoons are less than one year old. On very rare occasions a raccoon can live to be 12 years old in the wild. North America

Geographic Range

Raccoons are found throughout the United States. However, they are not found at the higher elevations of mountainous regions and in some areas of the arid South-west. Raccoons are common in the wooded eastern part of the United States.

Preventing Damage Done by Raccoons

The best way to prevent damage by raccoons is to keep them out of an area. Fence them out by using an electric fence turned on at night. Store garbage in cans with tight fitting lids. Cans should be secured to a rack to keep raccoons from tipping them over.

To keep raccoons out of chimneys, fasten a heavy screen or cap designed to keep birds and mammals out of the chimney.

It is difficult to scare raccoons away by modifying their environment or by using devices to scare raccoons. There are no repellents that work to persuade raccoons to stay away from an area. Because they have a fairly large territory, a neighborhood or community-wide effort may be needed to solve raccoon problems. First step is to remove sources of food, water and shelter. Do not feed raccoons!

Raccoon Legends and Folklore

The name raccoon comes from the Algonquian Indian word arakun, meaning "scratches with his hand." The species name, lotor, is Latin for "washer" and refers to the raccoon's habit of washing food with its front paws.

In the United States, raccoons have been harvested for fur through regulated trapping. Raccoon fur harvesting generated $400,000 in 1934 and $5.1 million in 1980. The raccoon is the most economically important of all the fur-bearing animals harvested.