Why raccoons wash food

Raccoons often find themselves in the middle of a love-hate relationship with the general public. Some people love them for their adorable appearance, but the emphasis is on the word some. This has made many people consider them a nuisance. Raccoons are omnivores who feed off of plants and small animals, including mice. Over time, they have adapted to living near humans. Since they often find themselves in urban areas that lack fresh food, raccoons are often forced to become opportunistic eaters.

As a result, you can often find these little critters rummaging through garbage cans. One of the most puzzling things about raccoons is their food cleaning habits, resembling those of a germaphobe.

When raccoons find themselves eating near a water source, they have a tendency to dunk their food in the water and roll it around with their paws. Food washing, however, is not common among animals. From dry mouth to a saliva shortage, many have theorized many different reasons for this habit, but there is only one idea that studies approve of. The answer lies in their paws; more specifically, the nerve endings in their paws.

Raccoons wet their food to gather more sensory information. Although mother raccoons are fierce defenders of their babies, infant raccoons fall prey to a wide range of predators, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats, owls and eagles. Parasites and disease also claim many raccoons. Do raccoons hibernate? Throughout the winter, the animals will alternate periods of dormancy with spurts of activity when temperatures warm a bit. How long does a raccoon need to grow into adulthood? Raccoons breed in January or February, and females give birth in March and April, usually to litters of babies.

Weaning begins at about 8 weeks. How long does a raccoon live? In captivity raccoons have lived as long as 18 years and might manage 10 or more years in the wild. However, most wild raccoons last only years. Why does the raccoon have a black mask? Some other Pennsylvania animals and things you might not know about them.

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Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Ad Choices. Skip to Main Content. Report a digital subscription issue If you are being blocked from reading Subscriber Exclusive content, first confirm you are logged in using the account with which you subscribed. Published: May. The raccoons were shown a cylinder filled with water containing a marshmallow that was too low to grasp. Then, the researchers demonstrated that if they dropped pebbles into the cylinder, the water level would rise so that the treat was within the raccoons' grasp.

Two raccoons learned how to drop stones to get the treat. A third found an even easier way: she tipped over the tube to access the marshmallow more quickly. The researchers concluded that the raccoons were "innovative in many aspects of this task. Raccoons have five toes on their front and back paws. Their forepaws are particularly dexterous and actually look and work like slender human hands. They use their nimble finger-like toes to hold and manipulate food, as well as a range of objects, including latches, lids, jars, boxes, and doorknobs.

Raccoons are mostly solitary animals. As nocturnal creatures, they rarely venture out during the daytime, and they try to stay close to their den, only traveling far enough to get what they need to eat and drink. Females stay with their babies called kits until they are about one year old.

Males may stay with the female for up to one month before breeding, then depart after the birth of their young. Although so many animal populations have been diminished because of human urbanization and growth, raccoons have readily adapted to living alongside people. According to the IUCN, the Northern raccoon is a species of "least concern," and its population numbers are rising.

While there are no major threats to the survival of raccoons, they do face dangers. They are hunted for sport and trapped for their fur. In suburban locations and near water, raccoons are one of the more frequent victims of roadkill. Additionally, raccoons are often hunted, trapped, and poisoned by homeowners and farmers who consider them a pest. In other human environments they are actually considered pest control, like in the San Diego Zoo , where they help manage rodent populations. The fact that raccoons use their hands as both tools and as one of their most important sense organs has led to the myth that raccoons wash their food.

This behavior has led to a widespread belief that raccoons wash their food before eating or that they need to soften their food. Some biologists have described the behavior more as feeling than washing, and this description is supported by the fact that raccoons often rub and roll their food even in dry enclosures and rub their hands together even when they are not holding anything.

The food washing myth has persisted because in the wild raccoons are constantly foraging in water and rolling and handling their prey, which often looks like they are washing their food. Raccoons do not have a very good grip because of the lack of opposable thumbs, and so they often hold items with two hands and frequently roll objects between their hands. If this behavior happens near water it also looks like washing.

The truth is that raccoons in the wild do not really wash their food in any way that we as humans think of washing. They constantly forage in the water and will often roll food items in their hands, but they are actually looking for food and working to get it into their mouth with much less concern about how clean it may be. To learn more about raccoons see:. Encyclopedia of Life. North American Mammals.

Elbroch, Mark and Kurt Rinehart. Behavior of North American Mammals.