A raccoon of southern Central and South America, living in forests and grasslands near water. It is active from dusk through the night and into the early morning.
Its back has dark fur mixed with black and tawny hairs, while the underside is pale. Dark markings around the eyes form a mask against the white muzzle.
Around Las Baulas Marine National Park in northwestern Costa Rica, cameras at garbage containers repeatedly recorded crab-eating raccoons. Videos from 2021 were first mistaken for northern raccoons, then re-identified with expert help in 2025. The 2021 and 2024–25 monitoring periods yielded 70 independent detections.
One video showed an adult female with three cubs, and other footage showed raccoons eating discarded food. Most detections came from containers near mangroves or estuaries. Their nighttime activity overlapped with northern raccoons at 0.82, placing both species in the same coastal places.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Cameras at garbage containers around Las Baulas Marine National Park recorded 70 independent crab-eating raccoon detections across 2021 and 2024–25. Review of earlier footage helped confirm the species. The report documents the species’ repeated presence at these refuse sites during the two monitoring periods.