Excluding Rocky, the gun-toting hero of the old Beatles song, Bandit may have been the biggest name in the raccoon world. Tipping the scales at 72 pounds, three times normal size, Bandit made the Guinness record book as the porkiest raccoon of all time.
A regular at Ice Cream World in Walnutport, Pa., Bandit could often be found outside drinking a blueberry slush through a straw. “He was my best friend,” said former owner Pepper Klitsch, 48. She still hasn’t gotten over his death earlier this year.
Whip-smart, nearly as skillful with his hands as a safecracker, and curious to the point of walking right into your house, the raccoon is surviving and thriving where others struggle. Some, like Bandit, move in and take control of the remote.
Too close for comfort?
Raccoon attacks on people are rare. And though many people are so fond of them that they set out food, some experts say things have gotten too cozy between humans and raccoons. Most scientists agree that there are more raccoons in America today than when the Europeans first set sail for the New World.
Some raccoons become so dependent on french fries and doughnuts that it undermines their ability to survive in the wild. They also make life miserable for homeowners. Pregnant raccoons cause thousands of dollars in damage breaking into attics seeking a safe place to give birth. They consider the backyard water gardens so popular in Southern California to be their personal sushi bars, eating expensive koi as fast as homeowners can replace them.
So many urban raccoons carry a potentially fatal type of roundworm that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed it as an “emerging infectious disease” posing an increasing threat to human health. Scientists such as San Jose State biology professor Bill Murray say it’s time people stopped thinking of raccoons as cute masked fur balls and started thinking of them as pests.
“This is an animal that is causing a lot of destruction,” said Murray. “But very few people have a clear idea what wildlife is anymore. We’ve lost the ability to make pragmatic decisions” about how to control them.
Myth of food washing
“Raccoon” is said to come from an Algonquin Indian word, “arakum,” which means “He scratches with his hands.” Raccoons’ ability to manipulate their environment with their handlike paws is one reason humans have tended to anthropomorphize them. Almost two-thirds of the raccoon’s somatic sensory cortex is devoted to computing and evaluating information gathered by millions of receptors on the animal’s digits.
Essentially, the raccoon “sees” the world with his paws. That’s why they can manage amazing feats of dexterity, such as reaching deep into a log for grubs or breaking into basements and chicken coops despite the best efforts of humans to keep them out. Jill Giel, who rehabilitates injured raccoons at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary outside Sacramento, Calif., said her animals figured out how to use the lock on their cage to keep her out. They stopped when they realized “if they locked me out, their dinner was late.”
That superior tactile sense, rather than fastidiousness, explains the other behavior humans find so endearing. “They don’t wash their food,” said Erik Fritzell, associate dean of Oregon State University in Corvallis. “They put the food in water to enhance the feeling.”
That would explain Berkeley, Calif., freelance writer Joe Eaton’s surprise when he found a raccoon dunking his turtle Studs in the turtle’s water dish “like a doughnut in coffee. Studs appeared surprised as well, not to say traumatized,” Eaton wrote in Faultline, a Bay Area environmental magazine.
Studs, a three-toed box turtle that has belonged to Eaton for 25 years, survived the ordeal.
In the wild, a raccoon’s life can be nasty, brutish and short, rarely reaching 10 years. Besides predation, a major cause of raccoon mortality is canine distemper, which can decimate entire populations. With human help, they can do much better. Giel said some of her sanctuary animals have lived well into their teens.
Another factor in the success of raccoons, researchers say, is the decline of hunting and trapping.
How smart are they?
Any discussion of raccoons eventually comes around to their intelligence. Just how smart are they? Those who study them often find themselves admiring their resourcefulness, as well as their curiosity. More than one family has noticed raccoons watching them going about their daily routines.
Stan Gehrt, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University, said raccoons are deceptive because they all look about the same. “Some have a bad attitude about life. Others are mild-mannered.”
Their combination of cute and clever has led some people to try to breed raccoons as pets. Some, such as Bandit, take to a life of slushes and sleep. Raised around dogs, he even tried to bark like them, Klitsch said.
Most, however, turn wild about age 2, snarling and baring their teeth.
The raccoon’s intelligence can also make it an especially tough opponent for the homeowner who, fed up with seeing his lawn dug up and fish stolen, decides to declare war. Internet chat groups on raccoon problems are replete with expressions of desperation, admiration and befuddlement.
Pest control experts suggest trying to repel the creatures with cayenne pepper, wolf urine (where do I get that? one homeowner wondered), mothballs (one man got blood poisoning from filling up his chimney with them), and electric wire. One solution that worked for several raccoon warriors: putting out a radio tuned to an all-talk station.
But nothing seems foolproof.
Eaton, the Berkeley writer, recalled a science fiction novel about a parallel Earth dominated by raccoons. “Made perfect sense to me,” he noted in his Faultline article.
Washington Post photo
Raccoons are a rapidly growing nuisance across the country, pest control experts say.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
