Animal Removal: Interesting Facts About the Wild Raccoon

If you've ever had wild raccoons around your home or are having a problem with them currently, calling a professional animal removal service is your best course of action. While cute and fluffy, these creatures can be extremely dangerous. If you have young children or pets who roam outside, the presence of raccoons in the area could make the environment unsafe for them. Under no circumstances should you ever attempt to pet or approach a raccoon, as the results can be unpredictable at best. Having said that, they are interesting creatures to say the least. Here are some unusual facts about the raccoon.

In Latin, the raccoon's name is Procyon Lotor, which translates to "washer dog". This is in spite of the fact that these creatures are closer to the bear family than the canine family. They acquired their English name through a translation of an old Powhatan term, which read as "aroughcun" or "arathkone", depending on who was doing the writing. Some linguists have traced back the root of the word to a Native American phrase meaning "one who rubs and scratches with its hands", something any observer of the raccoon will instantly recognize as characteristic of the species.

In some cases, it is this tendency to use their front paws that leads unwise observers to attempt a closer examination, as it can be reminiscent of a squirrel's behavior, or even a human. Once again, it must be stressed that you should call animal removal services if you have a problem with raccoons around your home.

Most professional animal removal services are highly familiar with the raccoon, as their populations can be quite dense in urban areas. In fact, many estimates put their urban populations at a much higher density than their rural populations, an interesting reversal when it comes to natural wildlife. Most observers attribute this to the fact that raccoons have grown very skilled at using the trash of humans as a potent source of food. If you want to provide a welcoming home for the creatures around your home, you may need to do little more than leave your trash cans outside and unprotected.

A raccoon can easily be identified by sight, but identifying them by sound can be quite a bit trickier. This is because they have an enormous array of possible sounds, each of which may be made in a given circumstance. They have been known to purr, scream, whinny, and growl, with such sounds often closely resembling other common animals.