The bandit mask
The black mask may cut down glare and help it to see at night.
Northern forest
Raccoon
Procyon lotor
A grey, cat-sized animal with a black mask across its eyes and a bushy, ringed tail.
- Size
- About 60cm long, plus the tail
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Woods, wetlands and towns across North America
Scurries after you, stopping to feel about. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Raccoon
Good to know
Six things about the raccoon
Clever hands
Its front paws are almost like hands. They can open jars, latches, bins and doors.
Seeing by touch
A raccoon feels for food under water with its paws, which are even more sensitive when wet.
Washing its food?
It looks as though it washes its food. It is really feeling it carefully.
A good memory
Raccoons can remember how to solve a puzzle three years later.
City living
Raccoons do very well in towns, where there are more of them than in the countryside.
The real thing
Photos of the raccoon
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Raccoons come out at night. Look along streams and round bins, and for hand-shaped prints in mud.
How to help
In North America, people keep bins shut and pet food indoors so raccoons stay wild. Raccoons kept as pets in Europe have escaped and become a pest.
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