They’re nocturnal. Seeing one roaming around in broad daylight is generally a dead-giveaway that its rabid.
“They’re nocturnal. Seeing one roaming around in broad daylight is generally a dead-giveaway that its rabid.”
I’ve seen lots of raccoons out during the day ... peacefully minding their own business.
In a residential neighborhood in the middle of summer in the middle of the day I saw a skinny raccoon walking around in a wonky kind of way. I called animal control and reported it to a lazy sounding employee. She did not seem very concerned but said she would report it.
The raccoon was walking towards an apartment complex where I knew that children played outside. So I followed the raccoon in the hopes that someone from animal control would show up. The raccoon did not take kindly to me tailing it and turned the tables and started following me. It creeped me out. I left the vicinity and never saw animal control.
I thought so too but if people feed them during the day they alter their sleep patterns.
Not necessarily. Raccoons are highly susceptible to canine distemper which occurs when raccoon populations explode. They're often seen in the daytime, wandering aimless in circles.
Back in the early 90's, my dad was the chief ranger of a metro park north of Detroit and I and a few buddies used to play their golf course every other Sunday morning. On two consecutive golf outings, we saw up to 6 raccoons on the course just wandering around.
Dad said he would drive the park road and shoot the coons along the highway and let the park maintenance dispose of them.
The coons out in that area had become so over populated that once the virus set it, it quickly spread throughout the population and that was simply nature's way of controlling them.
It's just a cyclical phenomenon and will happen again in due time........