Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Raccoon

Procyon lotor lotor

Description:

The body is stocky, with a broad head, pointed snout, and bushy tail with 5-7 blackish rings and a black tip. The fur is long, coarse, grizzled brown-grayish or blackish. The face has a black mask across the forehead, eyes and cheeks. The adults weigh 10-25 pounds and are about 28 inches in length. The breeding season is from January to March, and the litter size is 2-8 born in a den in April or May with ears and eyes closed. They may be dormant in winter dens, but there is no true hibernation. They are primarily nocturnal, with peak feeding before midnight, but there is much seasonal and individual variation. Longevity in the wild is up to 16 years, although most die by 2-5 years. They may use the burrows of muskrats, red and gray fox, groundhog, skunk and opossum.

Notes:

Caught raiding the trash cans. :-)

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

1 Comment

lori.tas
lori.tas 10 years ago

Little bandit, caught in the act.

s.eric.preston
Spotted by
s.eric.preston

Leesburg, Virginia, USA

Spotted on Oct 4, 2013
Submitted on Oct 4, 2013

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Raccoon Raccoon Raccoon Raccoon

Nearby Spottings

Mallard American toad Raccoon Groundhog
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team