Figure 1 – Juvenile raccoon, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2018.

You may have heard the admonition “to always have your camera with you.” I was reminded of this yesterday when this juvenile raccoon, Procyon lotor,  and three of its sibs (that’s one of the sibs right behind him) took a rapid jaunt across my patio. That’s “rapid” not “rabid”. I barely managed to compose and take the image of Figure 1 before they all scampered off. This was taken through my sliding glass doors; so I was no more than five feet away. An important point if you don’t have glass between you, is to not mix with a raccoon. They have very sharp teeth and, if cornered, will not hesitate to use them.

I wish, of course, that he had been looking up into the camera. Also I have chosen to do this in black and white, because, well, raccoons are black and white.

I’ve got to quote the late, great Roger Tory Peterson”

‘We don’t have to go to wild places to find wildlife. A surprisingly wide range of species can be found in our cities and towns, from familiar animals like the raccoon to more exotic ones like the mountain lion.”

It raises the important point that raccoons are becoming increasingly intelligent as they solve the puzzles that we present to them. So if you are worried about the world evolving to “The Planet of the Apes,” think again…

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 188 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/150th sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.