Raccoons are highly adaptable omnivores found across North America, known for their distinctive masked appearance. Their success is largely attributed to a flexible diet that allows them to consume nearly anything available, from dense forests to bustling cities. This includes a wide range of plant and animal matter, which fuels their foraging behavior.
The Diverse Natural Diet of Raccoons
Raccoons in the wild maintain a varied diet, with food choices shifting depending on the season and local availability. During spring and summer, their diet focuses heavily on invertebrates, such as earthworms, insects, snails, and aquatic creatures like crayfish and small fish. This high-protein intake supports their active lifestyle and the needs of raising young.
In the fall, raccoons focus on consuming high-calorie plant foods to build fat reserves for winter. This seasonal shift includes a reliance on nuts like acorns and beechnuts, grains, and ripe fruits and berries, such as wild grapes and cherries. Although classified as carnivores, plant foods can constitute the majority of their diet year-round, demonstrating their generalist feeding strategy.
Small vertebrates and eggs are a consistent part of their diet. Raccoons prey on small mammals like mice and voles, amphibians such as frogs, and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds. Access to water is important, as aquatic food sources like crayfish can make up more than half of their summer diet in wetland areas.
Foraging Habits and Dexterity
Raccoons are primarily nocturnal, foraging extensively under the cover of darkness, sometimes covering up to 2.5 kilometers in a single night. Their most remarkable physical trait is their highly sensitive front paws, which possess a high density of mechanoreceptors, making them extremely tactile. These dexterous, five-toed paws allow them to grasp and manipulate objects, effectively using their hands to “see” in the dark or in murky water.
The behavior often described as “washing” food is actually a way to enhance sensory perception. When their paws are wet, the sensitivity of the nerve endings increases dramatically, sometimes by as much as 100%. By dunking and rolling an item in water, the raccoon gains extensive tactile information about the food, helping it identify the object and differentiate between edible and non-edible parts. This action is driven by an instinct to explore and process their environment through touch, not cleanliness.
Adapting to Urban Food Sources
When raccoons move into human-populated areas, their opportunistic nature leads them to incorporate readily available urban foods into their diet. Discarded food scraps from garbage cans become a primary food source, offering a calorie-dense and easily accessible meal. Their intelligence and dexterity allow them to bypass simple container lids and latches, often turning over cans or prying open unsecured bins.
Pet food left outdoors is another major attractant, as both dry kibble and wet food provide a concentrated and predictable source of nutrition. Bird feeders, especially those with spilled seed on the ground, are often targeted. In the fall, they actively seek out produce from gardens and farms, showing a fondness for energy-rich crops like corn, fruits, and melons. The convenience of these urban food sources often outweighs the effort required to forage for traditional wild fare.
Securing Property Against Raccoon Feeding
Preventing raccoons from feeding requires removing easy food access points, which is the main factor attracting them to residential areas. Secure outdoor garbage cans using locking lids, heavy weights, or strong bungee cords fastened to the handles. Odor control is also important; since raccoons have a keen sense of smell, double-bagging food waste and regularly cleaning cans reduces their attraction.
All sources of pet food and water should be brought indoors before dusk. Bird feeders should be removed or made raccoon-resistant, such as by mounting them on poles they cannot climb. To deter them from gardens, motion-activated lights or sprinklers can startle the animals away. Compost piles should be kept in secure, critter-proof bins with locking lids, or food scraps should be contained to prevent scavenging.