Charlie Catches a Cat-Napping Critter in His Photo of the Week

Charlie’s Photo of the Week shows even Warren County’s wildlife loves our historical sites

I’m at the Allamuchy Freight House, checking inside the building with Ross Bockbrader, an Environmental Commissioner who has offered to help me work on a project that will allow the wooden window covers to be easily opened and closed. Turning around to walk out, I observe a raccoon sleeping above one of the sliding freight doors! I have always said, “our History Sites are also our Nature Sites.” HERE IS PROOF!!

Raccoons and Their Kin – Family Procyonidae*

The procyonid family, with six genera and 18 species worldwide, is a diverse group, ranging from the lesser pandas of Asia to the olingos of Central and South America. Most species are found in tropical parts of the New World. Only three species are found in the United States and Canada, all with fairly long, ringed tails. They are good climbers, tend to be social, and have blunt cheek teeth, an adaptation to their varied diets. The Common Raccoon is distinguished by its black-and-white striped tail and its black face mask. The smaller Ringtail has a longer banded tail and a light-colored eye ring. The White-nosed-Coati is the least distinctively marked of the three, with faint rings on its longer, thinner tail. The Common Raccoon and Ringtail are both nocturnal, while the White-nosed-Coati is abroad during the day.

Common Raccoon – The Common Raccoon’s habitat includes various wooded and wetland areas and along wooded streams. Often found in the cities and suburbs as well as rural areas, its range is from southern Canada through most of the United States, except for portions of the Rocky Mountains, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.

Native only to the Americas, the Common Raccoon is nocturnal and solitary except when breeding and caring for its young. An accomplished climber, it can ascend a tree of any size and is able to come down backward or forward. Few animals can descend a tree headfirst; the raccoon does this by rotating the hind foot 180 degrees. On the ground, this animal usually walks, but it can run and is a good swimmer. During very cold spells, the raccoon may sleep for several days or even a month, BUT, it does not hibernate. It may be out during warmer periods of winter and sometimes even forages then, but it does not need to feed, as it stores a third or so of its body weight as fat and can survive the entire winter without eating.

Omnivorous, the Common Raccoon eats grapes, nuts, berries, pawpaw and black cherry, grubs, grasshoppers and crickets, voles, deer mice, squirrels, and other small mammals, bird eggs and nestlings. It spends most nights foraging along streams and may raid Common Muskrat houses to eat the young and to prey on rice rats nesting in the muskrats’ walls, afterwards taking the house for its den. The raccoon swims in woodland streams, prowling for crayfish, frogs, worms, fish, dragonfly larvae, clams, turtles, and turtle eggs. In urban areas, they knock off lids of garbage cans. Their nimble fingers, almost as deft as a monkey’s, can easily turn doorknobs and open refrigerators. In fact, the animal’s name is derived from ‘aroughcoune,’ an Algonquin Indian word meaning “he scratches with his hands.”

If water is conveniently close, this animal appears to wash its food, a trait reflected in its species name, ‘lotor,’ which means ‘washer.’ The raccoon’s objective, however, is not to clean, but to knead and tear at it, feeling for inedible matter that should be discarded. Raccoons are known for communal denning–up to 23 raccoons have been reported in a single den, but usually only one adult male is present. Foxes, bobcats, coyotes, owls, and other predators undoubtedly kill many young, but automobiles, disease, and accidents are probably the main cause of death.

NOTE: most hunting dogs will chase a raccoon into a tree where it can be shot, and sometimes a raccoon will lead a dog into a stream or pond and swim away. A hunting dog can swim faster and catch up to the raccoon, HOWEVER, the raccoon is a furious fighter and can defeat a single dog!!

Young are born in Spring and open their eyes at about three weeks, they clamber about the den mouth at seven or eight weeks and are weaned by late summer. At first, the mother carries them about by the nape of the neck, as a cat carries kittens, but soon she leads them on cautious foraging expeditions, boosting them up trees when threatened, and attacking predators ferociously if cornered. Some young disperse in Autumn, others may remain in the den until the female drives them out upon expecting a new litter.

*Information for the above article was taken from National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals.