"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...

> http://video.pbs.org/video/2192070266/
>
>
> I guess mine are "country raccoons" LOL I cannot keep a bird feeder.
> I've tried several times. They tear it down. I had one that hung on
> three chains connected with S hooks to the feeder itself and joined
> together with a ring at the top. It hung from a shepherd's hook. They
> knocked it down and stole the chains! (after eating the bird seed, of
> course). WTF would they want with chains?! (Insert mental Image of biker
> raccoons wearing leather vests and chains.)
>
> One night I was sitting here typing away when I heard a noise on the
> patio. I flipped on the patio lights, pulled back the curtains and found
> FIVE raccoons staring back at me! Then I spotted another one, then
> another one, descending upon my patio like a military invasion. LOL
> Where's the food?! I scatter seed on the patio during the day, but no more
> hanging feeders for me. Squirrels don't bother me but raccoons can be
> very destructive.
>
> I was cat sitting for a neighbor last week. She left a bunch of grapes in
> the fridge with a note saying "take them". I don't like grapes. I didn't
> want to just throw them out so I put them on the patio that evening. The
> next morning, no grapes. Fresh fruit! I suppose this will make my patio
> the "go to" raccoon café.
>
> Jill

They do usually travel in small groups. And apparently when one finds a new
food supply, all the ones in the area soon learn about it.

I don't usually sit and watch shows at the computer, but the show was
fascinating... I've seen them around here and wondered about them.

It said raccoons have up to 20 "nests" they use (they are big on fault
tolerance and redundancy, and backups). They usually prefer sheds and
garages.... There was a cutesy cartoon in Japan in the 70s "Rascal the
Raccoon" and people imported them to have as pets. (They are not native to
Japan.) Now thousand year old Buddhist temples (mostly of wood) are being
ravaged by the descendants of the raccoons people released into the wild.
There are no natural predators in Japan... The cutesy cartoon apparently
ended with the raccoon in the show being released out into the wild, so when
people who had bought them as pets couldn't handle them when the grew to
adults and would bite and claw and weren't so cute anymore, they did like
the cartoon-- and set them free into the wild.

They are agile climbers and often climb up drainpipes. In nature, they
generally make nests up in trees... Even if you put things on the drainpipe
to stop them, they figure out how to get around them. (Though a hunter in
Europe has devised something they seem to not be able to get around. Yet.)
They are very smart and the more obstacles put in front of them, the smarter
they get from solving the problem. They are very good with their hands
which is why some think they are also very smart and good at overcoming
obstacles. Also they have a low center of gravity like sumo wrestlers-- in
other words have big butts-- so that is how they topple over garbage bins,
etc that seems they shouldn't be able to... They are omnivores and eat just
about anything and enjoy dumpster diving.