By Steve Karnowski / Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — A raccoon that became an internet sensation by scaling a 25-story office tower in downtown St. Paul was safely trapped Wednesday and released back into the wild.
The raccoon looked a bit bedraggled but healthy after it was caught before dawn atop the UBS Plaza. Technicians took the caged raccoon down a freight elevator to a truck, according to Wildlife Management Services, which provides animal control services for St. Paul.
“It’s definitely a healthy raccoon. It’s in good condition. It’s eating normally,” said Christina Valdivia, the company’s general manager, who accompanied the technicians to the rooftop.
A raccoon scurries up the side of the UBS Tower in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
The animal was later released on private property near the Twin Cities suburb of Shakopee.
The raccoon’s adventures caused a stir on social media as it scaled the tower Tuesday, with many Twitter users voicing concern for its safety or joking about the drama as its seemly death-defying climb was livestreamed by several broadcasters. Valdivia said her mother-in-law saw it on the news in Chile.
A raccoon scales the side of the UBS Tower in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
The animal made it to the roof early Wednesday, where traps baited with cat food were waiting.
Minnesota Public Radio, which broke the story and closely followed the raccoon’s climb from its headquarters less than a block away, branded the animal #mprraccoon.
Among those riveted was Suzanne MacDonald, a raccoon behavior expert at York University in Toronto.
“Raccoons don’t think ahead very much, so raccoons don’t have very good impulse control,” she said, admitting she could barely sleep she was so worried about the animal. “I don’t think the raccoon realized when it started climbing what it was in for.”
A raccoon scrambles along a ledge on the side of the Town Square building in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Initial speculation was that the raccoon climbed to a lower part of the building, frequented by pigeons, in search of bird eggs. But workers who tried to lure it down with a wooden ramp likely just scared it, said Phil Jenni, executive director of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota.
So it did what raccoons do when they’re stressed: it climbed.
It’s not unusual for raccoons to climb fairly tall trees and other structures, according to MacDonald and Jenni, though neither had heard of one climbing such a tall building before.
MacDonald said one raccoon grabbed attention in 2015, after climbing 699 feet (213 meters) up a construction crane in Toronto. It safely climbed down on its own.
A raccoon stretches itself on the window sill of the Paige Donnelly Law Firm on the 23rd floor of the UBS Tower in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Jenni said the outpouring of concern online was encouraging, but he noted it’s often best to leave wild animals alone.
“The narrative that developed was this raccoon was stranded and needed rescuing. I’m not sure that was true. It was behaving like a lot of raccoons do,” he said.
Video of the #mprraccoon making it all the way up to the roof of the UBS building where there is potentially live traps with food. The raccoon has gone 2 days without food or water!! pic.twitter.com/v7rU2OkCTH— Keith Schubert (@keithsch94) June 13, 2018
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