Depending on your point of view, we are either fortunate or cursed with an abundance of wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. Most of these animals have lived on the earth longer than modern humans, and certainly longer than any of us have lived in Magnolia.
Can we coexist with all this wildlife? I'd like to think so, so long as we use a little common sense and dispense with the urban legends.
I'm a lover of wildlife, as is my wife. We put out food and water for the birds, cats, dogs, raccoons and any other critter passing by. Our yard is frequented by a variety of birds, neighborhood cats and the occasional opossum.
Our other visitors are raccoons. There's a legitimate concern that feeding raccoons can make them too familiar with people, setting up potential confrontations, but that's not been our experience. We know and respect the fact that they are wild animals. If I step outside when they are around, they scatter into the bushes - and that's how it should be. We don't try to tame them.
Our view is that generations of raccoons have wandered through our backyard for centuries, long before it was our backyard. Having been traced back at least 2 million years, the raccoons - and other animals - have a legitimate claim to the land. This is their territory, and they aren't going to go away. Raccoons in particular are very adaptive.
I can tell you that in more than 13 years, amounting to three or four generations of raccoons, we've never had a problem. Oh, they'll knock over a planter or a garden decoration, but they've never destroyed anything. They come by, stare in the back door, have something to eat and continue on their way along an ancient path known only to them.
The name raccoon comes from the Algonquian Indian word arakun, meaning "scratches with his hand." The species name, lotor, is Latin for "washer" and refers to the raccoon's habit of washing food with its front paws.
Some myths about raccoons need to be set straight. Perhaps the most common is that regarding rabies. The Center For Disease Control (CDC) has never reported a case of raccoon-transmitted rabies in the state of Washington.
The incidence of raccoon rabies is limited to the east and the southeast, and has been in decline for ten years. There is only one report of a possible transference of rabies from a raccoon to a human, again in the southeast, but the CDC states that the individual's exposure history was unknown.
That doesn't mean you should try to pet a raccoon - they are wild animals, and they will react like one if approached. Cornered, they become fierce fighters. Admire them and let them be.
Raccoons are omnivores, meaning they will eat almost anything they can find: fruit, berries, bugs, fish, crayfish, garbage, and small rodents. However, they do not prey on cats and dogs.
In fact, they can get along quite well with cats, as we have witnessed in our backyard. Generally, though, they avoid each other.
Raccoons do not actually wash their food in water, or anywhere else for that matter. What they're doing when they submerge their food is identifying it with their very tactile little hands; the water connection goes back to when there were forests and streams, and much of their food came from those streams.
They mate in the winter, usually in the December through February time frame; about two months later, a litter of two to four kits are born, blind and helpless. In six to eight weeks, the offspring will venture with mom out of their den, often high in trees, to begin learning their food route.
Dad, by the way, is an absentee father, having done his job during the winter.
Raccoons are clever animals, and their little hands can open doors, pull back roof shingles and access areas that other animals can't get to. They are great climbers, able to scurry up drain spouts or hop from the branch of a tree to the roof of a house (keep branches pruned away from the house).
Attics, chimneys and crawl spaces make great nesting areas. It's important to have good hardware cloth (wire mesh) over vents as well as caps on the chimney.
And they know garbage collection days. You will see them running around in certain neighborhoods based on the garbage truck schedule. Be sure to secure your garbage can with a snap closure on the lid or other raccoon proof device (bungee cords work well).
Like people, you might encounter an aberrant raccoon that doesn't follow the rules. If so, you can contact Seattle Animal Control at 386-PETS. But remember, relocating animals disrupts nature's genetic balance, and many relocated animals don't survive because they have to fight to establish themselves in another animal's territory.
I feel fortunate to share my world with natures wonders, but if you don't feel that way, a few simple precautions will insure that you don't have to share too much of your world with them.
Mike Davis is a freelance writer living in Magnolia.[[In-content Ad]]
