Do raccoons wash their food before eating? 16 things you think you know about raccoons

Raccoons are one of the most common animals in Pennsylvania. They are regularly spotted nearly everywhere in the state. However, a great deal of myth and misconception has grown around the species.

Here’s a look at some of that mythology and the corresponding facts about raccoons.

Compiled by Marcus Schneck |

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Do raccoons wash their food before eating?

The short answer is no. The longer, and more interesting, answer is raccoons spend a lot of time around water, where they search for food by probing the nooks and crannies among the pebbles and debris on the stream, river or lake. When they find something that might be food, they roll it around in their front paws to determine exactly what it is.

The front paws of a raccoon are extremely sensitive and they use that sensitivity to identify potential food items. If a raccoon encounters a likely item at a distance from water, they will roll it around in their paws right there, without involving any water. It also will often rub its paws together when holding nothing. However, researchers have determined that wetting the paws increases their sensitivity.

Most observations of raccoons occur around water, leading to the myth that they wash their food before eating.

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Where can I get a pet raccoon?

In Pennsylvania, you can’t. The raccoon is among the species that you may not “import, possess, sell, offer for sale or release” under state law

Also, you probably would not be very happy with a pet raccoon. Baby raccoons are cute and even cuddly at times. However, when they reach maturity, they can be fierce, aggressive and bullheaded. As adults, they also are strong and capable of delivering serious injury.

And, all those cautions don’t even allude to the risk of rabies in raccoons.

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Are raccoons major carriers of rabies?

Raccoons are the No. 1 species documented with rabies in Pennsylvania, with a couple hundred cases or more each year. Skunks are No. 2, usually with less than a hundred per year. Foxes and bats are Nos. 3 and 4, each with a few dozen cases in an average year.

However, all those numbers are miniscule when viewed in the context of the hundreds of thousands of raccoons that live in Pennsylvania. Hunters and trappers kill more than a hundred thousand raccoons every year without causing a reduction in the population.

Raccoons also are common carriers of roundworms and leptospirosis.

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How did the raccoon get its name?

Raccoon is an English language adaptation of “arocoun,” the name by which Native Americans in the East knew the animal.

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How big do raccoons grow?

The average size of an adult raccoon is 28-38 inches in length, including about 10 inches of tail. A fully-grown raccoon weighs 10-30 pounds. Males are larger and heavier than females, and some males of 40 pounds have been recorded in Pennsylvania.

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How rare are raccoons in Pennsylvania?

Raccoons do much of their traveling between dusk and dawn, which means most people have no idea just how common the animals are in their neighborhoods.

However, raccoons are found everywhere in Pennsylvania. They are most often spotted near water, but they also inhabit mountain ridges and everywhere in between. They are highly adaptable and occupy nearly every human-dominated landscape, from farmlands through suburbia to our largest cities.

Beyond Pennsylvania, they are found coast to coast, in nearly every environment except deserts the highest elevations in the mountains of the American West.

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Is it true that raccoons will eat nearly everything?

Raccoons are complete omnivores, eating just about anything they can get hold of and into their mouths. That includes everything from grasses, weeds, berries, fruits and nuts to insects, earthworms, fish, frogs, crayfish, small mammals, eggs, small birds and carrion.

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If raccoons are nocturnal, why do I see so many of them exposed in trees in the daylight?

While raccoons are most active at night, they do enjoy relaxing in the sunlight on a warm day. And, the safest place for the agile climbers to do that is up a tree, where their primary predators are unable to stalk them.

They regularly spread out for a nap atop squirrel nests, along limbs and wedged into the crooks of trees.

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How far does a raccoon roam?

Most raccoons have a home range about a mile in diameter, larger when food is scarce. They generally have a central den within that home range, as well as several hiding spots they use regularly throughout that area.

A den might be a hollow tree trunk or limb, a small cave, a spot beneath an overhanging rock, an old groundhog burrow, an abandoned building or something similar.

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Do raccoons really drown dogs that attack them?

Raccoons are powerful swimmers and fierce fighters. They have been reported to climb atop dogs that pursue them into water, which could push the dog underwater to its death by drowning. Many classic outdoor magazine covers and art depict watery battles between raccoon and dog, usually with the raccoon on top and implied as the victor.

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What kills raccoons in Pennsylvania?

The leading cause of death for adult raccoons in Pennsylvania is the motor vehicle. Humans and their dogs are Nos. 2 and 3. Coyotes also kill significant numbers of raccoons each year.

Although mother raccoons are fierce defenders of their babies, infant raccoons fall prey to a wide range of predators, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats, owls and eagles. Parasites and disease also claim many raccoons.

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Do raccoons hibernate?

Raccoons are not true hibernators, but they will “den up” inside a den or similar cavity and sleep away large chunks of the day and night whenever temperatures drop much below freezing. Throughout the winter, the animals will alternate periods of dormancy with spurts of activity when temperatures warm a bit.

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How long does a raccoon need to grow into adulthood?

Raccoons breed in January or February, and females give birth in March and April, usually to litters of 3-5 babies. The kits, which are about 3 ounces at birth and won’t open their eyes for another 19 days or so, first emerge from the den with their mothers at about 4 weeks. Weaning begins at about 8 weeks. The young raccoons can be on their own by 3 or 4 months, although many family groups stay together through the young ones’ first winter.

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How long does a raccoon live?

In captivity raccoons have lived as long as 18 years and might manage 10 or more years in the wild. However, most wild raccoons last only 2-3 years.

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Why does the raccoon have a black mask?

While the black fur encircling a raccoon’s eyes has contributed to the animal’s reputation as a bandit or thief, the markings might serve a purpose beyond that part of its nature.

Some have offered the theory that the black mask acts to deflect glare away from the raccoon’s eyes, much like the eye-black does from athletes.

Others believe the mask might enhance the animal’s night vision.

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Some other Pennsylvania animals and things you might not know about them

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