Raccoon Territorial Behaviour

If you’ve got a raccoon problem, learning about their habits and behaviour can go a long way in helping you better understand and in turn avoid these curious creatures from claiming your home as their own. Whether they’re getting into your attic or raiding your garbage can, raccoons can be hard to live with, especially if you don’t know much about the way they live. Learn more about the territorial behaviour of raccoons with these helpful tips and informational tidbits:

1. Their habitat – Raccoons aren’t very social creatures. Aside from raising their young until they’re old and strong enough to go off on their own, and aside from mating, for most of their lives, raccoons live solitary lives. Their habitat is dependant on the following factors: the availability and abundance of food and water, the number of females in surrounding areas, and the size of the territory.

They prefer dark and warm spots in forests, cozy hollowed out trees, a dense brush, and wooded areas. They also like the comfort and security of sewer drains, attics, crawlspaces, and the dark spaces beneath a home.

2. Their food habits - Raccoons will eat anything and everything, so be sure to keep your food sources stored properly and your garbage lids secured tightly. As omnivores, raccoons like to rely on everything from nuts, fruits, and plants to insects, worms, small animals, and fish for their sustenance. Expectant mothers are known to have voracious appetites.

3. How they mark their territory - When raccoons mark their territory, they usually rub their behinds on it. Raccoons have special anal glands that secrete a substance that signals to other raccoons that that’s their territory. They also use urine and fecal matter to mark their home turf.

4. They communicate through scent - Raccoons communicate through the scents they leave behind. A typical territory for a male raccoon reaches up to 7 square kilometres in coverage, and should another raccoon cross his territorial path, he’ll be able to identify through scent markers left behind.

5. Those curious communal latrines - Raccoons share communal latrines. These are usually found alongside trails, by logs, or on tree branches and stumps. The theory is that raccoons use this as a way of avoiding and being aware of overlapping territories.