Odd Racoon Behavior?

[Brandi]

I realize this isn't hunting or fishing related but it's wildlife related so I thought I'd post here. We live in the city, your standard neighborhood, where squirrels are plentiful and the occasional rabbit is out during the day and possums out in the evening but in the 10+ years I've lived here I've never seen a raccoon.

I'm used to seeing raccoons when I lived in the country and I know they are common in cities but this is the first I've seen one in our yard. I've seen the possums eating the cat food at night but tonight there was a big raccoon out there. We have a young cat out there so I wanted to run the raccoon off. I shined a flashlight at him from in the house but that didn't phase him, I tapped on the window but that didn't phase him so I went out thinking he would run away. I've dealt with more raccoons than I can count and I've never seen one that didn't run from a face to face challenge from a human at 5-6 feet but this one stood his ground. He didn't act aggressive but not backing down until I advanced on him yelling with a light on him and getting within a few feet. Even then he only backed up far enough to keep about 5 feet between us and then he'd face off again but never growled or bared his teeth or showed any of the normal raccoon signs of aggression.

What do you guys think? Just him trying to keep from getting chased away from his food or something more? I just want some others opinions because I do have my cat out there and there are a lot of other animals in the area. I've dealt with rabid animals before and I know how important it is to catch it fast but I don't want to cry wolf either. I'm leaning towards hungry critter trying to not get pushed off the food but I've never seen one stand up to a human before, hungry or not.

 

[SoonerP226]

Watch your back--he's drawing you out so the possum can shank you.

Seriously, though, I've heard reports about citified coons becoming less afraid of humans lately. Seems like that's what you ran into tonight.

 

[dennishoddy]

Urban raccoons have no fear of humans.

I'd take a 2X4 and make it fear me.

 

[aviator41]

Time to remind him why he needs to fear you and why your garbage is the wrong place to dine.

 

[dennishoddy]

If you live in town, a nice pellet gun can alleviate the problem.

Out of town......Have fun with what ever you have to put out massive carnage.

 

[Brandi]

I'm not worried about it as long as it's healthy, the outdoor kitty is going to an adoption center in the next few days so I figure once the cat food is gone, the raccoon will move on. I just wanted to get your opinion whether this seemed like normal city raccoon behavior, I'm only used to country raccoons and they definitely don't act like this.

As soon as I came in the house the raccoon came back. I went back out and the raccoon had no fear of me but also showed no sign of aggression so I guess it's ok.

 

[Lurker66]

I think it's just a city raccoon. He's prolly used to getting run off and lost his fear. Personally I'd kill the hell outta it, skin him out n boil his pecker.

Unless it's a her then I'd just kill her.

 

[Okie4570]

Pretty sure the people who lived where we previously, used to feed them. Couldn't believe how much cat food we were going through. Just happened to leave the house about 1am and ran 3 or 4 off at the door. Couple at the water dish, couple at the food bowl. The mousers would just sit a few feet away down the sidewalk and watch them........never saw any intereaction whatsoever between the cats and the coons........they seem to tolerate each other and leave each other alone.

 

[BadgeBunny]

Pretty sure the people who lived where we previously, used to feed them. Couldn't believe how much cat food we were going through. Just happened to leave the house about 1am and ran 3 or 4 off at the door. Couple at the water dish, couple at the food bowl. The mousers would just sit a few feet away down the sidewalk and watch them........never saw any intereaction whatsoever between the cats and the coons........they seem to tolerate each other and leave each other alone.

We had a coon and an possum that used to come up and eat at night. There are several older folks who leave cat food out for the entire neighborhood's cats to munch on whenever they feel the urge. You can sit out on the front lawn at dusk and watch the cats make the rounds ... Anyway, one of the neighbors called me one evening and said "Hey, I just saw a coon go over your side fence ... but that's not the funny thing ... you gotta come outside and see this." So ... outside I go and my three cats (at the time, we've lost one since then, RIP, Little Boy ) have that coon out in the middle of the street and are, for lack of a better term "herding" that racoon back down to the end of the block. They aren't pushing him hard, there's no hissing, no bushy tails, no posturing ... just the coon will take a few steps, turn and look to see if the cats are all still there and then amble a few more steps. The cats would stand up and match him step for step while he was walking but the second he stopped and turned to look at them they would sit down and look away ... Like they were just watching the world go by ...

The neighbor and I watched them until they had the racoon at the end of the block ... pretty fascinating stuff, the way critters interact ...

I hung some rain chains on the fence. Haven't seen the coon or the possum (or any evidence of them) in quite a while. Probably helped that I put up a kennel for the dogs and fenced them over on that side of the yard too ...

 

[Roseenflames]

I'd say that it's better to get rid of it at the earliest. I've experienced the destructive nature of these dacoits and I simply don't want to see them around. We have turtles as pets and for them we have a pond in our lawn. It was maintained well and has got rocks, plants and even some fishes inside the pond. In our locality there was couple of raccoons and people had complaints of stealing pet food and breaking into their kitchen, but I never gave thought that they could be a problem for the turtles. One day I saw one coon wandering around the pond, I scared him away and the very next day I thought of taking the turtles inside our place and left them in the tank for the night. In the morning I saw the pond was a mess; plants and fish half eaten and the whole pond was muddy. The raccoons came for the fish and the turtles. I was lucky that I could save the turtles.
The very next day I called up Hawkeye Birds & Animals Control Specialists in Mississauga and told them about the complaint. They came in and in no time they tracked the raccoons and relocated them to a different place away from our locality. Since then there were no issues because of raccoons, but still I take in the turtles by night fall.