If you’ve noticed your trash has been opened up and distributed across your lawn then this might be as a result of raccoons. They eat various plants and animals such as mice, nuts, fruits, and human food, to find this food they can go through your garbage. Then again raccoons have been seen washing food. It is a very bizarre thing for an animal to do and I had to figure out what was going on.
Raccoons can be seen putting their food in water and then rolling it around. It seems like a bizarre sight for a raccoon, which will eat garbage, to wash its food. The actual reason they do this is to figure out what the food actually is. They have sensitive paws which help them determine what the food is, wetting the food makes it easier for them to determine what they have.
What do raccoons eat?
Raccoons are omnivores that’s why they are able to eat almost anything in your garbage. These animals eat anything that humans eat, they will basically eat anything that can enter their mouth.
This includes grasses, berries, fruits, insects, frogs, earthworms, crayfish, small mammals, eggs, small birds, and nuts. If necessary they will also eat other dead animals, they are not picky eaters. They are opportunistic feeders in a sense that whatever source of food they come across will become their favourite meal
Raccoons can carry diseases such as rabies and aren’t the cleanest animals around. Because they eat out of the garbage washing the food seems counter-intuitive to their way of life
Relationship with water
Raccoons, just like any other animal, need water to live. It is part of one of their basic needs of food, shelter and water. They might be drawn to your home as it is a relatively easy target to get to these needs, often finding ways into your homes by scaling fences
If they’re in need of water raccoons will drink from anything such as fountains, pools, objects used for decorative use, dishes left outside. If it’s been raining they will drink from clogged gutters, left out tires and other standing bodies of water
Raccoons sensitive paws
Raccoon paws are very interesting. They have fleshy paws with 5 fingers and a claw on each finger. If you can get close enough to see them you’ll notice that they have tapered fingers and long nails. They use their paws like primates, they can hold objects but they do not have thumbs so they can’t grasp as humans can. Though these paws allow them to acutely manipulate objects using the claws to lift
Their hands evolved over time as raccoons evolved around the rivers and lakes of South America. These paws helped them find food buried in mud, underwater and slit as they are sensitive and could sense food
Raccoons and eyesight
Raccoons have very bad eyesight and are also colour blind. This is compensated by their amazing sense of hearing, their amazing sense of smell and lastly their sensitive paws. This is what they use when trying to forage for food and they do it very well because they cannot see the food they have found they use their sensitive paws to get the job done.
The sense of touch enables them to process sensations as signals enabling them to see things with their hands. In addition, they are nocturnal thus they have a good way of seeing at night.
What’s really going on?
Because they have to spend a lot of time trying to find food when they eventually find it they roll around in the front paws to determine exactly what it is. In addition, the dampening of the paws increase the sensitivity
Scientists were baffled at this habit. And noticed that the raccoons would wash meat more than they would wash plants but didn’t seem interested to wash off things filled with dirt.
If the raccoons had access to water they would dunk the food then alternate the food in their paws as if they performing something that resembled a washing movement. Initially, most scientists thought these animals did this because they lacked saliva glands and wetting it helped to add moisture to the food. Doing this would aid the raccoon as the water would cause the food to moisten up a bit. It was thought that this procedure would improve the experience of eating
The nerves of the paws they are sensitive to touch. They wet the food to excite the nerves improving the experience, this gives them greater information as to what they eating
They are not afraid of water or other animals
Raccoons are very strong, so much so that if necessary or if attacked they can become more dangerous and aggressive. It has been reported that some raccoons were able to climb on dogs and force them underwater in a fight. Eventually drowning the dogs with its strength. Many outdoor magazines show the fights between dogs and raccoons.
If you have a raccoon problem on your property then I recommend you get rid of them. they can carry a variety of diseases that can affect humans. Click this link for a variety of types of products to get rid of them, from repellents to traps to baits. This article explains what you can do if you come into contact with them.
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