Native to North and Central America, it has a black mask around the eyes and rings along its tail.
Slender fingers make its forepaws adept at handling food. Coat color varies from gray to brown.
Individual raccoons differ in the order in which they open doors containing food. In a study of wild raccoons in the United States, researchers provided a box with four kinds of latches. Every successful raccoon learnt more than one type. Rather than repeating exactly the same order on each visit, they switched between latches to obtain food.
The 2024 paper reported trials conducted from August to October in 2016 and 2017 in gardens and other sites in Laramie, Wyoming. A box contained 24 small doors, each with food behind it. Of 31 raccoons tested with the four-latch box, seven learnt multiple latch types. All seven opened three types, and five also opened the fourth. Sequences of door openings were more similar across visits by the same individual than between different individuals. Flexible switching between methods thus coexisted with individual styles of solving the task.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In guidance updated in 2022, British Columbia, within the raccoon’s native range, recommends managing access to human food and buildings to prevent conflicts. It describes keeping garbage inside buildings or sheds and securing bin lids. It also warns that relocating young without their mother can result in starvation. Avoiding deliberate feeding and accounting for dependent young are elements of local management where people and raccoons share a landscape.