Common Raccoon

Also known as

Coon, rattoon, cat, European wildcat (Holmgren 1990)

What is the scientific name?

Procyon lotor

• Pronounced PRO-see-on LOW-tor
• What does it mean? "Before dog washer." Procyon is a combination of two Greek words; pro, meaning "before" and kuon meaning "dog." Dogs are thought to have descended, in an evolutionary sense, from an ancient ancestor of the raccoon family. The raccoons were thought to have evolved first, so raccoons are "before dogs." Lotor is a New Latin word which comes from the Latin word lavo, meaning "I wash." This refers to the raccoons reported habit of "washing" its food (see below for more information on this habit).

Where are they located? How many subspecies are there?

Raccoons are present throughout the United States except for portions of the Great Basin (Kaufmann 1982). There are 25 subspecies of the raccoon in North America. P.l. pacificus is present in the western and middle portions of Oregon while P.l. excelsus is in the eastern portion. The other subspecies are: P.l. auspicatus, P.l. crassidens, P.l. dickeyi, P.l. elucus, P.l. fuscipes, P.l. grinnelli, P.l. hernandezii, P.l. hirtus, P.l. incautus, P.l. inesperatus, P.l. litoreus, P.l. lotor, P.l. marinus, P.l. maritimus, P.l. megalodous, P.l. mexicanus, P.l. pallidus, P.l. psora, P.l. pumilus, P.l. shufeldti, P.l. solutus, P.l. vancouverensis, and P.l. varius (Hall 1981).

Where do they live?

Usually wherever water is available. Including swamps, marshes, forests, farmlands, and even residential areas. They tend to avoid habitat consisting mainly of large open fields (Kaufmann 1982).

What do they look like?

The raccoon is well known for its "Lone Ranger" black mask, which is bordered by light gray. The raccoon's bushy tail has four to six alternating dark and light rings (Whitaker 1980).

How big are they?

Males are between 25 and 38 inches in total length, females are between 23 and 36 inches (Lotze and Anderson 1979). Males weigh an average of 14 pounds and females an average of 13 pounds. There is great variation depending on locality. For example, the average weight of five males from Florida was only about 5 pounds. One of the heaviest raccoons ever recorded weighed 62 pounds (Lotze and Anderson 1979; Kaufman 1982).

How long do they live?

On average, raccoon live between one and three years (Lotze and Anderson 1979). One of the oldest raccoons in the wild was estimated to have lived 12 years, 7 months (Haugen 1954). In captivity they have been known to live up to 17 years (Lotze and Anderson 1979).

What do they eat?

Raccoons are omnivorous and opportunistic, they eat almost anything available. Although their diet includes animals, raccoons usually depend more on plants for survival. They eat fruits such as grapes, cherries, and apples; nuts such as acorns, beech nuts, hickory nuts, and walnuts; other plant foods include wheat, oats, millet, fungi, and grasses. Animal foods include rabbits, gophers, squirrels, young muskrats, birds such as woodpeckers and ducks, and the carrion of animals such as deer (Kauffman 1982).

Interesting notes: Raccoons sometimes dip their food in water, grasping it and rubbing it in a way that makes them look like they are "washing" their food. Do raccoons actually clean and wash their food? Studies have been performed to scientifically investigate this behavior. Characteristics of food items were considered such as size, texture, shape, and smell. Some of the food was even coated with sand. All experiments pointed to one conclusion, sometimes they place their food in water and sometimes they don't! But when they do place their food in water and make their "washing" motions, it has little to do with any of the factors mentioned above.

It is suggested by researchers that this "washing" behavior be called dousing, since raccoons may not "wash" their food, but they certainly dip it in water often enough (Lyall-Watson 1963). Why do raccoons sometimes douse their food? It has been suggested that they cannot salivate well and need to moisten the food. However, raccoons have since been shown to have normal salivary glands. It is thought that the dousing behavior is something that only occurs only when raccoons are held in captivity. Their normal foraging behavior, which sometimes includes searching stream banks and dabbling their hands in for food, is thought to become retarded when they are deprived of natural feeding conditions. While this is basically a theory and we may never really know why they douse their food, it does explain how the dousing often serves no real purpose. Sometimes they douse other things than food and to a ridiculous degree. One captive raccoon held at the London Zoo carried her new born to water and doused them so often she actually drowned them (Lyall-Watson 1963).