Wild Animal Neighbors: Sharing Our Urban World

Wild Animal Neighbors: Sharing Our Urban World — page 5
CHAPTER 1 THE RACCOON IN THE TRASH CAN ANYTOWN USA WHEN YOU THINK OF WILD ANIMALS INVADING THE BACKYARD WHAT IS THE FIRST IMAGE THAT COMES TO MIND IF YOU LIVE IN NORTH AMERICA CHANCES ARE IT'S THE FAMILIAR MASKED FACE BELOW Raccoons are a nuisance They raid our garbage cans come through pet doors to snack from the cat's dish or snatch a pizza from the kitchen counter when our backs are turned We worry that they might carry rabies But at the same time raccoons are well pretty adorable How did raccoons come to be the familiar creatures raiding our garbage cans Raccoons probably got used to human beings well before Europeans came to the Americas The word raccoon is borrowed from the native Powhatan word raugroughoun By the time settlers began cutting down forests to plant crops the raccoon was already accustomed to raiding the garbage piles on the edge of villages perhaps even stealing fish from the fish traps the Powhatan set in local streams In the wild a raccoon will claim a home range It will patrol this territory looking for food and mates and defend it against other raccoons It may make several dens throughout its home range often using the former burrows of foxes or woodchucks or a hollow tree