Raccoons

Raccoons Earl Plato

Want to get a good nature reference book? I invested again in a Bennet&Tiner book, The Wild Woods Guide . I still have the old 1985 edition. This newer edition is extremely well illustrated and the two men’s writings are both informative and interesting. Love the book? Yes. On a recent drive the back way to Dunnville along the Grand River Road we counted at least fourteen road kills. Skunks, squirrels, rabbits, opossum and six raccoons. Why so many raccoons? I thought that they were intelligent animals. I read from my new book the following: “Raccoons are extremely bright.” So tell me why they become roadkill apparently so easily. Tiner goes on to say, They repeatedly beat dogs, cats and foxes in animal IQ tests.” How many foxes do you see as roadkill? Raccoons are every where. They are one of our more numerous wild animals in North America. Shreer numbers may be one reason for their deaths on the roads. Locally our new raccoon-proof green boxes have deterred visits to our road side garbage pick- up. It was at Longmeadow farm west of Ridgeway that I and my dogs had two encounters with these black-masked animals. First was Sheba, our Border collie, a bright animal, who met a young raccoon on the long drive way near the pony barn. I watched in amazement as the little dog surrounded the small raccoon and systematically wore it down. Darting in and out Sheba did the poor raccoon in. Three years later after Sheba had died of cancer I had an aggressive Black Labrador named Benji. Walking in the lower fields of Longmeadow a large buck raccoon had descended a tree and approached Benji. Wrong move. I had read where big male raccoons can take on a dog and win. Ferocious sounding he lunged at Benji. In ten minutes the raccoon was dead. Like a counter boxer Benjii would strike the big raccoon each time he lunged. Not pretty but effective. A male ‘coon’ can weigh up to twenty pounds or so. This was a large male. Benji didn’t like some of my daughters’ boyfriends. She didn’t even want them to get out of their cars! Hey, that’s an intelligent dog. Not even a pet raccoon could do that!
My fear of raccoons stems from the rabies that attacks them. A rabid raccoon will act disoriented so avoid them and report the incident to the S.P.C.A. Keep your garbage in raccoon-proof containers.