Animals killing their babies is quite a common occurrence in the wild. Pigeons kill their babies, sometimes before the bird’s hatch, squirrels kill their babies, but what about raccoons? Do male raccoons kill and eat their babies? This article looks into it 

Male raccoons do not kill and eat their own babies but they do kill babies that belong to other male raccoons. They do this to get the opportunity to mate with the female raccoon. 

Do male raccoons eat their babies?

Raccoons eat a variety of foods, they don’t usually have to suffer from a lack of food because almost anything they come across can be a food source for them. Killing babies that are meant to grow the population seems odd as well

So, the thought of them killing or eating their young doesn’t seem to make much sense. Yet, these animals will still kill raccoon babies. Here is why:

Why do male raccoons kill babies? 

It’s not that male raccoons will kill and eat their own offspring, raccoon males will attack and kill the offspring belonging to another male raccoon 

The reason why this happens has to do with sexual dominance. Just as with any other animal, raccoons want to pass their genes on so that they can populate the next generation. 

When a female raccoon loses her kit (her set of babies) she will go into heat and look for a male raccoon to mate with in order to create a new kit of raccoon babies which she can raise. Raccoon males know this 

Raccoon males will not kill their own babies, but he will kill off the babies fathered by another male raccoon. A raccoon who does this is called a boar raccoon.

This gives him the opportunity to create a kit of his own with the female raccoon and populate the next generation. 

Do raccoons stay together as a family? Don’t the fathers protect their offspring? 

Raccoon males do not protect their young, once he has mated with the female, he leaves her and the family to live alone elsewhere. This leaves the mother no choice but to raise the kit and protect them from predators and male raccoons.

Male raccoons will even go around and mate with multiple females during the breeding season, he does this in an effort to populate the next generation even more.

If a male breeds with a number of females, there is no way he can split himself and raise, as well as protect, a number of kits from boar raccoons. 

How does a female raccoon protect her kit? 

Female raccoons are left with the responsibility of protecting their kits from boar raccoons, even though female raccoons are smaller and weaker than male raccoons, they will try ther best to keep their babies protected. 

Hiding them: 

One way that mother raccoons protect their babies is by hiding them away from bore raccoons.

Mother raccoons are very selective when it comes to where they choose to hide their babies. The mother will hide them from the male raccoons as well as from other predators like owls, bobcats, and coyotes.

She may choose to hide them in deserted burrows, high in hollow trees, or in attics or barns if she’s in an urban area.

This article looks at where raccoons go during the day  

Fighting:

These smaller female raccoons may try to fight off any predators that try to harm her family, this includes fighting off any bore raccoons that she may see trying to kill her kits.

Raccoons aren’t very aggressive animals but their levels of aggression increase during the mating season and when their babies are being threatened.

Raccoon males know this and will mainly try to attack the kit if the mother leaves her kit unguarded. 

Avoiding male raccoons: 

After mating with one male raccoon the female will avoid other males during the breeding season and focus on raising her kit.

Male raccoons will all be on a hunt for more females to mate with, but the females are only able to raise one kit.

Avoiding male raccoons not only allows her to keep busy with her kit, but it also protects the kit from being killed by a boar raccoon 

Do mother raccoons ever leave their young?

Yes, raccoon mothers do leave their young. Raccoon mothers have to leave their young at night in order to collect food for them and feed them.

Raccoon babies are born blind and don’t have the ability to find their own food, thus, the raccoon mother will go out to eat more food so she can create milk for her newborn babies and find enough food to be able to feed her babies and herself when they grow older.

She can leave her babies alone for hours at a time while she goes out looking for food. 

The mother raccoon may also leave her young while she is out looking for a new nest site for her family to go to. This also usually happens at night, she does this at night because raccoons are nocturnal.

Doing this at night keeps predators from finding her as her dark fur helps keep her camouflaged. 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, raccoon males don’t eat their babies but they will kill the babies belonging to other male raccoons.

During mating season, competition for male raccoons to find a mate is high. Female raccoons will only raise one kit and males will try to mate with as many females as possible.

Male raccoons will kill the kit belonging to another male raccoon to get the female to go into heat and to get the female to want to mate with him. This allows him to populate the next generation.

Male raccoons abandon their family and thus cannot protect their kits from bore raccoons. Mothers protect their kits by hiding them, fighting off boar raccoons, and avoiding bore raccoons 

If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other raccoon related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Do Raccoons Climb Trees At Night?, Can You Smoke Out A Raccoon In Attic? , What are raccoons good for