Raccoons are medium size adaptable furbearers with a masked face and ringed-tail. Average weights are 9 to 20 pounds, but larger in the north where weights up to 62 pounds have been reported. Fur color varies from dirty blonde with darker guard hairs to reddish and darker colors. The hind legs are longer than the front ones, creating a hunched appearance when running.
Raccoons are widely distributed across the U.S. where they use varied habitats from streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands to forests, prairies, farmland, and urban areas. Home ranges vary by habitat from 15 acres in urban environments to 12,000 acres in prairies. Raccoons den in hollow trees, ground burrows, brush piles, muskrat houses, barns, buildings, clumps of cattails, haystacks, and rock crevices. They are omnivores eating fish, crayfish, mussels, fruits, grains, small animals, birds, and muskrats. Coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, owls, eagles, and fishers prey on raccoons. Breeding occurs in January in the north to March in the south. Litters average 2 to 5 young, up to 8. Females breed their first year, males at two years of age.
