Animals

The Raccoon is a medium-sized mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of 40 to 70 cm (16 to 28 in) and a body weight of 3.5 to 9 kg (8 to 20 lb). The raccoon is usually nocturnal and is omnivorous, with a diet consisting of about 40% invertebrates, 33% plant foods, and 27% vertebrates.

Raccoons are large mammals, most often seen dead on roadsides or at night going through garbage cans. They are shy creatures, active at night.

Raccoons are often thought to be close relatives of weasels, but they are actually more closely related to pandas.

Their fur is grayish brown with black markings. Raccoons are easily identified by the black mask on the face and a bushy tail with four to six black rings.

Raccoons den in hollow trees, fissures in rocks, caves, or burrows (usually old fox, woodchuck or skunk burrow). They almost always live near water. They will also move into a muskrat house.

The original habitats of the raccoon are deciduous and mixed forests of North America, but due to their adaptability they have extended their range to mountainous areas, coastal marshes, and urban areas, where many homeowners consider them to be pests. As a result of escapes and deliberate introductions in the mid-20th century, raccoons are now also distributed across the European mainland, the Caucasus region and Japan.

Raccoons are omnivorous and eat almost anything, including: nuts, berries, acorns, leaves, grasshoppers, crickets, grubs, worms, dragonfly larvae, clams, wasps, salamanders, frogs, crayfish, snakes, turtles and their eggs, bird eggs and nestlings, fish, voles, and squirrels. They often eat garbage scraps and at times have been seen eating dead animals on the sides of roads.