10 Fascinating Facts About Raccoons

Whether your surroundings include towering trees or city skyscrapers (which they’ve been known to climb), raccoons are likely part of your neighborhood wildlife. These highly adaptable creatures can thrive in both rural and urban settings, across varied climates. Here’s more about the clever masked bandits you may not know.

1. Their distinctive hands give them their name.

Raccoons possess some of the most agile hands in nature, as anyone who’s had their garden, cooler, or trash can raided by one can attest.

Native Americans were the first to observe their distinctive paws. The term raccoon comes from the Powhatan word aroughcun, meaning “animal that scratches with its hands.” The Aztecs coined the name mapachitli, meaning “one who takes everything in its hands.” Today, mapache is the Spanish word for raccoon.

2. They come in different breeds.

There are three living raccoon species in the genus Procyon worldwide. The most common is Procyon lotor, the familiar raccoon found in the United States. Other species are located farther south, primarily in tropical regions.

3. Their masks serve more than just a stylish look.

Those black markings across their eyes aren’t just for creating the illusion of bandits. The iconic black masks actually play a vital role in helping raccoons see clearly.

The dark fur acts like the black eye stickers athletes wear during games: It absorbs light, cutting down on glare that would otherwise cloud their vision. At night, when raccoons are most active, the reduced peripheral light helps them see contrast more clearly, which is crucial for navigating in the dark.

4. One even made its home in the White House.

It’s not every day that a White House pet begins as Thanksgiving dinner, but that’s the story of Rebecca, the raccoon who spent part of President Calvin Coolidge’s term at the White House. At the time, raccoon meat wasn’t an uncommon feature at American dinner tables. However, after meeting the live animal, Coolidge decided he’d rather adopt her than make her his meal.

Rebecca quickly became a beloved member of the family, receiving an engraved collar for Christmas, participating in the annual Easter Egg Roll, and often accompanying the president on walks around the White House grounds. While having a wild animal as a pet may seem strange by today’s standards, it wasn’t unusual at the time, as Coolidge also had a bobcat, a goose, a donkey, two lion cubs, an antelope, and a wallaby among his many pets. Rebecca fit right in.

5. Thanks to humans, they’ve spread across the world.

Raccoons first made their way to Europe in the 1920s, brought over to populate fur farms. However, after some accidental releases and a few adventurous farmers eager to shake up the local wildlife, many raccoons broke free and established their own wild colonies. Today, they are considered an invasive species in Europe.

Raccoons even made it to Japan, though their arrival there had a much more charming origin: In the 1970s, Japanese children were captivated by the adorable protagonist of the anime series Rascal the Raccoon. The demand for raccoon pets skyrocketed, with Japan importing as many as 1500 raccoons per month at one point.

Inevitably, many of these pet raccoons were released back into the wild as they grew too large for their owners to manage. Japan has since banned the importation and ownership of raccoons, but the descendants of those early imports have spread to 42 of the country’s 47 prefectures.

6. Raccoon populations have skyrocketed.

Raccoons are one of the few species that have actually thrived thanks to human expansion. In North America, their numbers have soared in recent decades, even with the loss of much of their natural habitat.

Raccoons are highly adaptable, surviving in rural, urban, and suburban settings. In forests, they’ll feast on birds, insects, fruits, nuts, and seeds, while in residential neighborhoods, they’ll scavenge for garbage and pet food. Some raccoons forage in human-populated areas before retreating to the woods to rest, while others make their homes in buildings—both abandoned and occupied.

7. City raccoons may be more cunning than their country relatives.

Scientists consider raccoons to be quite intelligent, but those living in urban areas might notice that the local raccoons possess an extra level of resourcefulness.

This could be because city raccoons often have to outsmart human-made obstacles. When Suzanne MacDonald, a psychologist and biologist from York University in Toronto, tracked city raccoons with GPS collars, she found that they had figured out how to avoid busy intersections.

A follow-up experiment strengthened the idea that raccoons who live in proximity to humans are better at solving unconventional problems. MacDonald set up food-filled garbage cans in both urban and rural areas. While most city raccoons easily figured out how to open the complex lids, rural raccoons failed every time.

8. We nearly had raccoons in labs instead of rats.

At the dawn of the 20th century, raccoons were almost the chosen animals for scientific experiments. Believed to be some of the most curious and intelligent creatures, they were seen as perfect candidates for studies in comparative psychology.

Although raccoons were involved in several psychology experiments at the turn of the century, their time in labs was short-lived. Unlike rats, they were difficult to breed and maintain in large quantities. Plus, they had the inconvenient habit of chewing through cages, stealing from researchers, and hiding in air vents. Despite an attempt by one researcher to breed a more docile strain, raccoons’ future in the lab was short-lived.

9. They “see” using their hands.

While many animals rely on sight, sound, or smell to hunt, raccoons use their sense of touch to find food. Their front paws are highly dexterous and have roughly four times more sensory receptors than their back paws—similar to the ratio of human hands to feet. This enables them to identify objects by touch, which is essential for feeding in the dark.

Raccoons can enhance their sense of touch through a behavior called dousing. To human observers, it might seem like they are washing their food, but in reality, they are moistening their paws to activate their nerve endings. Just as light helps humans see, water on a raccoon’s hands provides extra sensory input, allowing them to feel more acutely than they would otherwise.

10. They’re adept problem-solvers.

Give raccoons a challenge, and as long as food is part of the equation, they’ll usually figure it out. They've demonstrated this repeatedly in backyards, campsites, and labs. In the early 1900s, ethologist H.B. Davis presented 12 raccoons with a series of locks to open. To access the treats inside, they had to work through hooks, bolts, buttons, latches, and levers, with some boxes featuring multiple locks. In the end, the raccoons managed to unlock 11 of the 13 mechanisms.

In 2017, scientists put a group of raccoons to the test with Aesop’s Fable test. The classic tale, where a crow drops stones into a pitcher to raise the water level, has become a standard measure of animal intelligence. The raccoons were placed in a room with a water-filled cylinder and marshmallows floating on top, with stones scattered around them. To reach the treats, they needed to raise the water by dropping in stones. After observing the method, two of the eight raccoons replicated the behavior, while a third took an unexpected route and knocked the entire setup over.

A version of this article was originally published in 2018 and has been updated for 2024.