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My friends and I were walking along the park and we saw about 6 raccoons. There was an old man that came by and sat on a bench and threw some food over to the raccoons. The raccoons were definitely trying to get the most food, but for the most part it seemed civil for a while, until one of the raccoons, the only one of the 6 that didn't have a tail, started becoming aggressive. He made angry sounds and seemed to bully two of the raccoons away from the food and drive them away. He also hit and swiped at approaching birds (seagulls and geese) that tried to wander their way towards where the food was.
Basically, that tailless raccoon seemed to have issues. The other raccoons seem friendly towards other raccoons and humans, but that raccoon was such a badass. Made hissing sounds and was an all around bully.
What causes this behavior? Is it because the mean raccoon didn't have a tail?
My friends and I were walking along the park and we saw about 6 raccoons. There was an old man that came by and sat on a bench and threw some food over to the raccoons. The raccoons were definitely trying to get the most food, but for the most part it seemed civil for a while, until one of the raccoons, the only one of the 6 that didn't have a tail, started becoming aggressive. He made angry sounds and seemed to bully two of the raccoons away from the food and drive them away. He also hit and swiped at approaching birds (seagulls and geese) that tried to wander their way towards where the food was.
Basically, that tailless raccoon seemed to have issues. The other raccoons seem friendly towards other raccoons and humans, but that raccoon was such a badass. Made hissing sounds and was an all around bully.
What causes this behavior? Is it because the mean raccoon didn't have a tail?
No, it is not because the so called "mean raccoon" didn't have a tail. Correlation does not mean causation.
Animals have a pecking order and when in groups often have roles. When humans introduce food to animals it often changes the natural behavior had the raccoons foraged for naturally occuring food sources. Clue: don't feed the wild animals.
No, it is not because the so called "mean raccoon" didn't have a tail. Correlation does not mean causation.
Animals have a pecking order and when in groups often have roles. When humans introduce food to animals it often changes the natural behavior had the raccoons foraged for naturally occuring food sources. Clue: don't feed the wild animals.
So true. Someone I know has a friend living in Northern California. He's sort of a hermit type of person and found friendship with the animals on his large parcel of land. He began to feed a family of raccoons. They liked their feeding time. Well, not too long after a lone dog wandered onto the property. The raccoons being very territorial, killed that big dog and ate every inch of him. His remains were found the following day. I had no idea that raccoons would do something like that.
Oh wow. On retrospect, I think the old guy just intended to feed the birds, but when the raccoons approached him, he threw some food their way not knowing the dangers.
Thankfully we hightailed out of there when that raccoon started swiping away and making angry sounds when confronting one of the raccoons that tried coming back to the food area.
We saw the old guy getting up too, so hopefully he left asap!
No, it is not because the so called "mean raccoon" didn't have a tail. Correlation does not mean causation.
Animals have a pecking order and when in groups often have roles. When humans introduce food to animals it often changes the natural behavior had the raccoons foraged for naturally occuring food sources. Clue: don't feed the wild animals.
I don't know a lot about raccoons but it may be possible that whatever caused him to lose his tail (such as being in a trap and needing to bite off his tail to survive) or being abused may have caused him to be "angrier" than he was before that happened. I know that I would be pretty grumpy after those situations. LOL
I don't know a lot about raccoons but it may be possible that whatever caused him to lose his tail (such as being in a trap and needing to bite off his tail to survive) or being abused may have caused him to be "angrier" than he was before that happened. I know that I would be pretty grumpy after those situations. LOL
Excellent point about not feeding wild animals.
Aside from companion animals that are bred and trained to interact with humans and read their moods or emotions, I try not to be an anthropomorphist. YMMV
Anthropomorphism or personification is any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to other animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities.
Aside from companion animals that are bred and trained to interact with humans and read their moods or emotions, I try not to be an anthropomorphist. YMMV
Back in 2005 we had squirrel proof bird feeders. Every morning we were missing some of the black oily sunflower seeds. My wife thought that it was a squirrel that got up early – squirrel proof bird feeders are not really squirrel proof. I told her that it was a nocturnal – because I did not think that squirrels got up before the sun rose. Every time I got up in the night I would shine a flashlight on the bird feeder. We finally found our culprits. We set up a security system that would notify us when the raccoons were at our feeder.
My wife started hanging out the window and taking pictures in the middle of the night. She also loved to play with the pictures and started a blog: Marie's Raccoons Most of the picture have at least one real picture. Some are entirely real pictures.
And yes; we saw many cases of a dominate male or a female with young that would not leave others eat. We even watched a standoff with a large raccoon and a four point buck – neither wanted to give up.
Most of the pictures were taken at only four or five feet from the bird feeder. The window was about five feet from the ground and the bird feeder was about five or six feet high. The raccoons became accustomed to the camera's flash. Opossum's are a little harder to shoot with the camera.
Coons are cute in the way they beat up on each other at the food bowl. They slap each other on the top of the head trying to deny food to each other. This "angry" coon seems to be the only one doing what is natural to them in your story. I'm more surprised the other ones were not doing it to.
lifelongMOgal is correct that they have a pecking order but those lower on it do try their best to move up. They don't really fight, it's mostly like "hey I am here now and you should know better" hit they give each other.
I prefer not shooting either raccoons or opossum with a camera. A gun is much better.
I find neither raccoons or opossum cute - they are nasty, snarling, trash diggers.
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