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Urban Raccoon Behaviour, or URB

(51 posts)

Started 4 months ago by SmartsyArtsy
Latest reply from pugloverinsunset

SmartsyArtsy

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Lots I don't know about raccoons. I just went out with Lillie and suddenly saw a raccoon crossing the street toward us. I scooped Lillie up and am puzzled that the raccoon came within 3 feet us walking quite nonchalantly. Lillie saw it and barely reacted as if it was just one of the area cats. I watched it walk right over to my front door, poking around the plantings, then jumping up on a bucket, where it stayed as I walked back. I pushed Lillie inside, then noticed that there was a cat watching the raccoon. The cat was about 8 feet away.

Was the raccoon's behavior toward me, Lillie, cat peculiar? Was Lillie's or the cat's behavior peculiar?
I'm thinking back to a similar meet with a fox (in VT). animal Control ended up capturing it because they suspected it was ill and not acting like a healthy fox.

Posted 4 months ago #
VeganBiker

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SA - they are active at night and often walk past humans and cats, but not my dog. He once got hold of a very big raccoon, early in the morning in our yard and it was a struggle to get him to stop killing it!
Probably nothing wrong with the raccoon you saw. We often used to have them sleeping in the bushes and trees in the yard until we thinned out the foliage.

Posted 4 months ago #
shelley

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We had one that hung out under our porch with the neighbors cat, seemingly coexisting peacefully. There were large piles of raccoon droppings all around that AP cleaned up when he blocked off access.

Another neighbor had several that hung out on her front porch and one that charged people approaching her front door. I would consider them unfriendly and definitely something to avoid contact with

Posted 4 months ago #
Mondoman

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I seem to remember a gang of raccoons that were attacking people and pets a few years ago somewhere nearby.

Posted 4 months ago #
BuffaloHawk

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Mondo

That sounds like a Monty Python sketch:)

Posted 4 months ago #
dsomers

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It was very sad, but a group of racoons killed a friends dog on a small island down in Gig Harbor area a few years back. The dog was a tough, but old Aussie. He had run down to chase off the racoons that were in his yard down on the edge of the water. In the tussle they backed him into the water and would not let him out. Puget Sound is pretty cold even in summer. The dog finally collapsed from hypothermia. My friend found him when he got home from work later and a neighbor, an older woman, described the scene. She felt horrible but helpless to intervene given what she saw. And no one else was around on the island to help.

As sad as that is, my friend and I both admire racoons. They are strong, adaptable and pretty intelligent animals. Not to be trifled with, but filling in niches in the city environment and doing quite well at it.

Mondoman. That does sound like a Monty Python Sketch. I have visions of leather jackets and a pack of fags rolled up in the sleeves of their white, short sleeve T-Shirts as they stroll the streets...casual yet threatening! Perhaps the music from West Side Story playing in the background! <grin>

D

Posted 4 months ago #
pennygirl

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Up in Hillbilly land (the corner of 8th and I think 100th) there were a few raccoons that were out of control. One day the cops (believe it or not) and animal control showed up to try and corner one of them. Anyway, it turned out he had some sort of weird disease that can be spread to other animals. Don't remember what. That's all I have.

Posted 4 months ago #
Apple

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The disease might be leptospirosis (not sure on spelling). Very bad for dogs and people. Transmitted by poop. My vet makes my dog get a shot for it. Guess my dog will be protected from it. I will probably get it when I have to give her a bath after she rolls in racoon poop.

Posted 4 months ago #
dsomers

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And now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky's revival, ah
Oh yeah, yeah

Posted 4 months ago #
neudl

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Be careful cleaning up that raccoon feces. Raccoons carry a roundworm that is spread through contact with their feces that (quite literally) can burrow into your brain. It's estimated that 80% of raccoons carry the roundworm.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/RaccoonLatrine.aspx

Posted 4 months ago #
h2o_girl

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It does sound like Monty Python, but it was true:

http://www.magnoliavoice.com/2010/08/04/raccoons-attack-dogs-family-in-magnolia/

Posted 4 months ago #
biophile87

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Apple, distemper and roundworm too. Zoonoses is one of my favorite words. And topics.

I used to care for raccoon babies when I rehabbed, and one season all my babies got distemper. I was heartbroken and devastated to have 34 babies put down. There really is no treatment or effective vaccination for them. I would go home covered in streaks of neon green raccoon diarrhea. It was terrible. Also had poop fly into my mouth and eyes while cleaning cages. I invented so many isolation protocols to interrupt transmission to no avail. The disease was rampant.

We also lost some big cats to that distemper epidemic, as lions and tigers are susceptible to canine distemper as well.

In reading SA's original post, I get the sense that dominance was at play here. Seems like the raccoon was the established dominant organism for the dynamics at that moment, and the other animals were calm because they were submissive. Cat usually defer to raccoons (as pointed out on a recent Nature episode on PBS on raccoons).

dsomers, that is an amazing story. Speaks to the intelligence of the raccoons, and so sad.

Posted 4 months ago #
BuffaloHawk

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I used to love this when I was a kid.

http://www.nwf.org/kids/ranger-rick.aspx

Posted 4 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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Bio, interesting theory. The dominance was so subtle. Lillie is not usually so calm in a dominance situation.

dsomers, sad story.

I do know that as capable as they are, they cannot (at least not in the late 70s) get into Tupperware.

Posted 4 months ago #
Mondoman

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I think the raccoon gang must wear striped shirts and eye masks.

Posted 4 months ago #
iPlod

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If cats, dogs and raccoons are calm around each other, don't worry, the pecking order has already been worked out.

neudl is right about raccoon feces. Nasty stuff and they deposit it in the weirdest places you wouldn't think to look. Be careful.

Posted 4 months ago #
Corvus

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Aren't those Beagles, Mondo?

Posted 4 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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Will do ploddy-- how ya bean?

Posted 4 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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Will do ploddy-- how ya bean?

Posted 4 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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Will do ploddy-- how ya bean?

Posted 4 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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Posted 4 months ago #
Corvus

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Beagle Boys...

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/234/f/b/The_Beagle_Boys_by_zombiegoon.jpg

Posted 4 months ago #
seattletree

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The raccoon gang just went by on 63/9th.... scared the beejeezus out of us. I didn't grab my glasses for the 2am pee break and thought I saw a (putty cat) and a large one at that, walking across the sidewalk towards us. I should have tuned into that part of my brain that thought that was pretty weird "the cat usually doesn't come this close". I watched with a smirky face as the dog took off after that "cat" figuring to see kitteh and doggeh running happily down the block for a little late night "chase and tag". Dog runs up to large animal and imagine my surprise when the big kitteh hissed like no cat I have evah heard. omg... it was a raccoon. I had just sent my dog to his doom... No longer wearing smirky face and my heart in my throat I ran to the dog/coon mix and pulled doggeh backwards to safety. I will nevah laugh at the large slowly ambulating cats in the dark again...

Posted 3 months ago #
Walt

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seattletree, I'm not so sure kittens are happy when chased by your dog.

Posted 3 months ago #
Ballardemician

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Since this subject last came up my pup sent another raccoon to its maker. That's 5 stencils on his fuselage. I would very much rather he didn't tussle with raccoon (hate to see the raccoon suffer, don't want my dog injured or diseased, etc) but he's become sneaky -- he know's he's not supposed to go after them so when I let him out (after taking a look around from the door for critters) if he gets on a scent he acts casual until I turn my back then goes for it. This last time he ground the pads on his feet raw and bloody scrabbling with a coon on the concrete. Anyway the dog is a total sweetheart but an obsessed maniac when it comes to biting raccoon -- probably bred into him in rural Mississippi where he was originally stray. Maybe there is some sort of aversion therapy he could be subjected to? He's only been bit back once and those little gashes on his face didn't seem to concern him at all. I'm surprised the raccoon keep coming in the yard, not like there's food or anything of interest.

Posted 3 months ago #
pennygirl

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Ballardemician...

If they have decided that your yard is a Raccoon latrine they will keep coming back, food or not :-)

Posted 3 months ago #
great idea

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when I think of the local raccoons, I think of John Belushi stumbling out of my shrubbery, scratching his belly, belching loudly then moving along non-chalantly.

Posted 3 months ago #
iPlod

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Ok, that was funny.

Coons look non-nonchalant, uh- huh, but look again. Their eyes are always on you the perceived threat.

Posted 3 months ago #
oldguybc

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Our raccoon pack commandeered our neighbor's hot tub, think warm water toilet (bidet?) for animals... the thought gives me the willies...

They put chicken wire over the top but it did no good whatsoever...

Posted 3 months ago #
great idea

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did they grow mustaches and wear robes when they took over the hot tub?

I could see some great raccoon orgies in many of our backyards.

I recall seeing a few getting hot-and-heavy on the roof of Adams Elementary one morning a few years ago.

Posted 3 months ago #
iPlod

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I bean great, smartsy. Normally from cans but occasionally soak them overnight.

Posted 3 months ago #
iPlod

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I bean great, smartsy. Normally from cans but occasionally soak them overnight.

Posted 3 months ago #
iPlod

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I bean great, smartsy. Normally from cans but occasionally soak them overnight.

Posted 3 months ago #
iPlod

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Posted 3 months ago #
pennygirl

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3 bean soup?

Posted 3 months ago #
Edog

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I prefer a three way five alarm chili.

Posted 3 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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Mr iPlod, Mock me, will you?

5 alarm chili coming up this weekend. I'm inviting the raccoon gang over.

Posted 3 months ago #
Nehalennia

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This is the time of year when young raccoons leave their mother and stake out a place for themselves, and start mating. And raccoons get aggressive during mating season. With the males being after hot babes and the females looking for a date with a big protective raccoon boy, be extra vigilant. Raccoons are pretty habitual as far as routes they take to find food, but with young raccoons looking for their own territory they are all very willing to put up a fight with about anyone, including you and your dogs and cats.

Posted 3 months ago #
Cate

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Years ago, working in a summer camp in the CA mountains. Sitting on the steps of a very rustic cabin. A raccoon pushes through my legs to get out from under the cabin. Scares the s**t out of me but the raccoon didn't seem bothered at all. I don't like raccoons.

Posted 3 months ago #
miss julie

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I grew up in a rural area with plenty of raccoons and then lived in an urban area for years where I never saw a single one. I was quite taken aback after moving here and observing the nonchalant behaviors of the neighborhood raccoons. I think I posted about it awhile back. I guess it's just how the local raccoons roll.

Posted 3 months ago #
Hill Dweller

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Beginning last Spring, we went from occasional raccoon visits to the persistent daylight frolicking and foraging of an entire family or two of the little bandits. Piles of s@#$t everywhere, plus snarly encounters.
Turns out the neighbor had been feeding raccoons. Another neighbor, whose small dog was severely mauled by the little bastards apparently dropped a dime on the guy; at least I understand the feeding has stopped. Lots less raccoon visits now, which is good, as the trap and remove cost is quite high, on the order of $150 per animal.

I hate the little bastards.

Posted 3 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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My mother tells me there are roaming gangs of raccoons in Brooklyn now. I never saw one there all the time I lived there.

Posted 3 months ago #
allisonw

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Tough to get rid of. One thing I learned is that they can't jump high from a standstill. No more low windows open at my place. Zoiks.

Posted 3 months ago #
kj

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This is an interesting Nature (PBS) show about urban racoons (and a little about their country cousins). The part about what's happening in Japan (where they didn't exist until the past few decades) was especially surprising.
http://video.pbs.org/video/2192070266/

Posted 3 months ago #
Nehalennia

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That's a really good documentary. The Germans deal with raccoons with their German efficiency. Raccoons live in the city because there's food here, and lots of it. They live here because we give them a habitat, and until we take their opportunities to thrive away, they are here to stay.

Posted 3 months ago #
VeganBiker

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kj - I watched that fascinating documentary and as I am partial to raccoons, and all wold animals I really like the idea that they are adapting to the urban environment but not so happy that they are getting sick from eating our leftovers!

Posted 3 months ago #
VeganBiker

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SA - my daughter now lives in Brooklyn and after I watched the documentary mentioned by kj, I told her about it and she said that there were raccoons living on her apartment building roof! She is in the Sunset Park area.

Posted 3 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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I just hope they don't start having turf wars. When I grew up in south Brooklyn, Sunset Park gangs used to intrude and set off West Side Story-like battles.

Posted 3 months ago #
VeganBiker

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SA - I believe that unlike humans, raccoons are very secure in their territorial boundaries, unless humans interfere. So they stay where they are and enjoy the pickings until some human changes everything.

Posted 3 months ago #
BuffaloHawk

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foxes running rampant in London

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/10/16917658-infant-attacked-by-fox-in-london?lite=

In response to the startling attack, London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, said more must be done to tackle the problem of urban foxes.

At night time, it’s not unusual to see the animals in the city scavenging for food.

Posted 3 months ago #
pugloverinsunset

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Yesterday there were 2 huge racoons casually strolling by my house around 7:30pm... going right down the sidewalk on 32nd near 67th!!! Not hurrying, just taking thier time. Obviously my cat was not let out for awhile.

Posted 3 months ago #