Toronto is one of the unique cities – we have such a variety of animals that adapt to the environment, manage to find food and shelter. Raccoons… They are cute and smart – they open garbage bins, taps, locks… and can appear in some really unexpected places. They can be seen in downtown crossing the busy road, roaming streets early morning on the garbage day, sleeping in one of the big trees in someone’s backyard…
This raccoon family appeared late May. First we noticed them digging around the compost bin for insects or warms… Mother and two little ones slowly moved around and ignored the humans who brought the camera and light. That day we did not get a chance to film them. Raccoons went under the fence and to the neighbor’s lawn… Few days later in the evening we tried again… Raccoons were already there. Some cat’s food, camera and very calm approach did the job! It is so amusing to see how they use their little hands… raccoons are very curious and can come quite close to people.
Some interesting facts we found (but could not confirm) about raccoons – their “hands” have great number of nerves and when they “wash” them in the water it increases the sensitivity – may be this allows to better “feel” the food? The black fur around the eyes helps to absorb the light thus making the night vision better… We found that the best way to deal with them is to let them live their life and not to disturb when we see them peacefully resting in the tree or browse around late evening.