A young raccoon exits a dirt den.
According to "Raccoons: A Natural History," by Samuel I. Zeveloff, the average weight for an adult raccoon is 8 to 20 pounds, but occasionally a very old, very well fed boar raccoon will top 30 pounds.
Dirt-dwelling raccoons rarely go over 15 pounds because a larger animal cannot fit down a groundhog hole. Raccoons cannot dig their own dens and have to take what they can find. Appropriately sized dirt holes of any kind are so rare in the American West that raccoons did not exist there at all until the 1950s when barns and other out structures provided denning habitat.
The heaviest raccoon ever recorded was a monster Wisconsin raccoon that weighed an amazing 62 pounds and 6 ounces! Zeveloff also notes an old and quite rotund Texas raccoon that tipped the scales at 56 pounds.
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1 comment:
I've seen some raccoons that are comparatively huge in Toronto (where I think they outnumber squirrels).
One crossed the street in front of my car and it was as large as a hassock - and in about as much of a hurry :>)
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