Do raccoons eat or travel in packs?

Raccoons are best known for their black mask around the eyes, as well as their intelligence and highly inquisitive nature. Go beyond that and you will find home owners who have had encounters with raccoons on their property tell you of how these creatures are so adaptable, geniuses at accessing some of the most secured places and skilled at foraging for food from different sources. Raccoons will live in almost any place that they can adapt to their needs, provided it has a reliable source of food and water nearby. They are regular visitors to homes where they can enjoy food for pets and chicken when you have not secured it, before turning on the tap to have a drink and pick a fruit from the garden on their way to their den.



Information about the life of raccoons, especially there social life, is complex and faceted. While raccoons were previously thought to be largely solitary, mounting evidence seems to indicate otherwise. Male raccoons in places with a low population will tend to lead solitary lives, always walking and hunting on their own. However, in places where their population is moderate to high, these males will tend to live in loose packs of four to six, primarily to guard their territory against invading males during mating as well as to better enhance their protection against predators. Raccoons will also eat together in large numbers provided there is sufficient food for these numbers to enjoy without the outbreak of a fight,. Males can also be found sitting together when resting or playing.

However, females have been indicated to be much more social than their male counterparts. It is not uncommon to find several female raccoons living in the same den, hunting and eating together for majority of the time. However, all female raccoons love to live on their own when they have young ones to raise and will normally break away during this period to raise their new bones. It is also indicated that some male raccoons are hostile even to young ones, which forces the females to raise them separately until an age when they can defend themselves on their own.

Young ones will stay in the den until the age of ten weeks before they can start venturing out to play around and explore the environment. However, they will live close to their mother for up to between thirteen and fourteen months before they start moving away on their own or to find new company. With this in mind, we can conclude that raccoons are loosely social – they live and travel in packs for convenience, and the packs are not tightly knit. However, some of the raccoons will be overly solitary, especially some males. Read more: Raccoon Control, how to get rid of raccoons, Raccoon Feces, How to get raccoons out of the ceiling.