Raccoons are impressive little creatures and are worth getting to know better by learning all about them. Here are our 5 fun facts about raccoons!
Raccoons have incredibly sensitive front paws with lots of nerve endings, giving them extra advantage when feeling around in their environment. In fact, a raccoon’s front paws have more than 10 times the nerve endings than a human hand has. Even more interesting is that 3/4 of the sensory processing portion of a raccoon’s brain is dedicated to touch!
Raccoons' hind feet can swivel a full 180 degrees, allowing them to twist their feet backwards. This makes them incredibly agile climbers, giving them an acrobatic advantage, allowing them to climb down trees head first with ease.
Raccoons are quite talkative creatures with a broad range of vocalizations for communicating with one another. From purring and whining to growling and hissing, they have quite a varied language at their disposal to get their point across.
Raccoons have an incredible memory. Once they learn a particular route or figure out the solution to a problem, they can remember it for years! This makes them brilliant puzzle solvers who are very quick to catch on.
Raccoons have a peculiar habit called “dousing,” which refers to the fact that they prefer to dunk their food in water before eating! Though it might seem that they are washing their food, the truth is that they don’t dip their food in water for sanitary purposes (in fact, they often poop in the very same water cx). Scientists suspect that raccoons really practice dousing because water enhances a raccoon’s sense of touch, helping them gather the most information possible about the object they are holding and determine if their food is safe to eat.
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