Raccoons Can Be An Early Warning To Clean Up Before Bears Awaken This Spring
Diane Tipton, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Statewide Information Officer

Raccoons, with their ringed tails and little bandit masks are unmistakable. Unlike bears, raccoons don’t hibernate, so Montanans may experience a raccoon raid winter or summer.

These industrious creatures are intelligent, inquisitive, very adaptable and are excellent climbers. They eat fish, insects, small mammals, fruit, berries and corn—but like bears—they will seek out the easiest meal. If that meal is being offered on your back porch, around a barn or outbuilding or in your summer garden—a raccoon is sure to find it. Like a bear, raccoons will also eat pet food.

A raccoon can be a useful early warning system. If raccoons are giving you trouble now, they are pointing out areas that could also easily attract bears coming out of hibernation in late March and early April. Where a raccoon is feasting today a bear could be feasting in a month or two, so now is the time to make changes.

Another quality a raccoon shares with a bear is persistence. Take the visits campers and floaters on the Smith River sometimes experience. In one case, Aaron Berg, now a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks warden in Fort Peck, was working as a ranger on the river. Nightly visits by a raccoon at Camp Baker were becoming a real nuisance. Even after he showed floaters and campers how to properly clean up their sites and secure food, a raccoon still worked its way into coolers, tents, and dry bags and boxes. 

Berg tried using a standard trap baited with corn on the cob smeared in peanut butter, an irresistible combination to a raccoon. 

After losing his bait three nights in a row and failing to trap anything, Berg wondered if the raccoon was too big to be trapped in a standard raccoon and skunk trap with its 12-inch opening.

He borrowed a trap for larger animals like coyotes, domestic dogs, and critters of like size and set it with his popular bait. That night he caught the largest male raccoon he’d ever seen—easily 35 to 40 pounds. The creature was thriving all season on granola, sweets, and other high energy, fattening items that taste so good on a float.

Berg’s solution was to drive the raccoon across the river into the mountains about 30 miles away.  He painted its backside with some orange paint so he could identify it if it returned to Camp Baker.  Three days later, it was back.

It took Berg two tries before he once again trapped the husky raccoon. This time he drove it at least 50 miles away from Camp Baker.  The rest of the summer Camp Baker was raccoon free. 

At the end of the summer Berg camped down river. That night he heard a noise, opened his tent door and shined his flashlight on a large male raccoon with bright orange paint on his behind.

The moral of the story? It is easier to avoid nurturing a masked bandit than it is to discourage one after it has taken a liking to you. Taking action now will also ensure you are prepared when Montana’s bears begin coming out of hibernation the end of March.

For tips on living with raccoons, bears and other species, go to the FWP web site at fwp.mt.gov , look under Wild Things and click on Living With Wildlife.
 

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