Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Follow Following. Useless Etymology Join 61 other followers. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. No one knows exactly why raccoons occasionally dunk food taken in or near water before eating it. Many naturalists believe raccoons derive some information from handling the food underwater, which may cause them to accept or reject it.
Raccoons are adept climbers and, being nocturnal, they spend most of their daylight hours in trees. On warm, bright days they like to sun themselves while lying flat on horizontal limbs, in squirrel leaf nests or curled up in the crotches of trees. Then at night, they descend in search of food. They travel, feed and hunt almost exclusively on the ground. Most raccoons have central home dens as well as others scattered about their feeding ranges.
Adult home ranges are about a mile in diameter, greater when food is scarce. An ideal den or nesting site is a hollow in a large tree trunk or limb, but raccoons also use old woodchuck burrows, caves, rock crevices and abandoned farm buildings.
Raccoons have short, stout builds. Like bears, they are plantigrade flat-footed , walking on the sole of the foot with the heel touching the ground. Raccoons are strong swimmers. A raccoon makes a variety of sounds, including barks, hisses, a wailing tremolo, a churr-churr noise often given while the animal is feeding, and a piercing scream of alarm or fear.
By late autumn, raccoons have eaten enough to produce a heavy layer of fat that helps sustain them until spring, although they eat whatever food they can find in winter. They do not store food. Unlike woodchucks, raccoons are not true hibernators; they den up and sleep soundly when temperatures fall below about 25 degrees, but emerge at different times throughout the winter during warm spells.
They are considerably leaner by spring, having burned up much fat. Breeding takes place in January or February. Following a 2-month gestation period, young are born in March and April. Usual litter size is 3 to 5 young, with 4 the average. Cubs weigh about three ounces at birth, are covered with yellow-gray fur and have faintly banded tails.
After about 19 days their eyes open, and when four weeks old they begin to accompany the female on short feeding forays. The male usually stays with the female after mating and until babies are born, and may help rear the young. By the time the young mature, however, the father has usually gone off on his own.
Most yearling females breed at this time, but males of the same age probably do not breed for another year. Archived Questions Goto Qn.
Are a raccoon and a coon the same thing? Currently voted the best answer. Yes and no. I can be short for raccoon and a connection to the Whig political party , but it is also a breed of dog. The Maine Coon Cat, native to the state of Maine, is the official state cat. Known for its hunting skill, it has a rectangular body, large body structure, and a long flowing coat. Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email.
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