Raccoon Research Paper

The raccoon is an omnivorous mammal and is the largest of the Carnivora family with a length of 16 to 28 in. and a weight of 8 to 20 pounds. The coat of the raccoon is looks like salt and pepper and mostly consists of a dense and insulating fur that protects it from very cold weather is called underfur. The most eye catching feature of the raccoon is its mask, this mask makes the animal look like a bandit. The diet of the raccoon mainly consists of invertebrates, plants, and vertebrates; Along with the occasional trashcan. When there is limited fresh vegetation in a raccoons area it will most likely eat human food, but most of the raccoons diet consist of what is called sweet food; This sweet food is mostly birds, eggs, fish and shellfish, frogs, fruit, insects, snakes, nuts, and seeds. The raccoon is a very intelligent animal and when it comes to food the raccoon has developed an unusual habit, raccoons will clean their food in water before they eat it, but when there isn’t water close by the raccoon will still clean its food by rubbing it on a clean surface to remove debris. A large number of raccoons are stuck by cars every year, the strange thing is that they are usually feeding on road-kill, this means most drivers won't even notice they’re there. Raccoons originally lived in deciduous and mixed …show more content…
Out of the 22 there are four of the subspecies that can only be found in Central America and the Caribbeans; These raccoons were once thought to be part of their own species all together. Another 15 subspecies are probably the hardest to recognize any difference with only slight color changes of their coat, along with their size. Only two subspecies are wide spread, these are the Eastern Raccoon and the Upper Mississippi Valley Raccoon; Both share similar coats and can be found in a lot of North America, but the Upper Mississippi Valley Raccoon can be found in Canada all the way down to