Yipes! Stripes! Skunks and Raccoons

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Unfortunately, striped skunks are finding fewer places free of the human influences that tempt them into trouble. Instead, they’re encountering an ever-expanding abundance of attractive manmade habitat and food sources: open grasslands (aka lawns) rich in bugs and grubs; vegetated edge (shrubby borders between cleared lots) that provide good hunting for eggs, rodents and baby birds; bountiful open edge areas (highways) serving tasty roadkill; and countless human habitations offering not only easy sustenance (garbage and pet food) but also cozy shelters (crawl spaces and outbuildings) for resting during the day and denning over the winter.

Nimble-fingered Thief

While the striped skunk has essentially stumbled into its questionably good fortune of human-altered habitat, the northern raccoon has out-and-out purposefully exploited it. Certainly no other wild North American mammal is better suited for making the most of the modern world.

Although it’s biologically related to the striped skunk only in that both are classified as carnivores, the raccoon shares the skunk’s coast-to-coast and border-to-border U.S. range, as well as its night-rambling, eat-anything habits. Its bushy-tailed, pointy-nosed body structure is similar to that of the skunk, too, though it is heavier and larger.

From there, the similarities give way to significant differences. The skunk, dependent on its notoriety (perhaps better stated as “odoriety”) advertises its presence in easy-to-see, caution-skunk-ahead black and white. The raccoon dresses in stealthwear, classic night-burglar camouflage complete with muted colors and face mask. In addition, while the skunk is generally easy-going, a raccoon can be a fierce, aggressive predator. When threatened, it defends itself not with smelly spray, but with tooth and claw.

More significantly, the northern raccoon is smart — researchers rate its intelligence just below that of monkeys. The raccoon not only learns from its experiences, but retains the information for future use. Then there’s its well-known manual dexterity. With long, flexible fingers and a thumb, its nimble forepaws are like small human hands. A raccoon can easily open clams, catch crayfish, pick berries, grab an egg or grasp a squirming frog.

Unfortunately for farmers, gardeners and homeowners, the bandit’s dexterity also allows it to pluck almost-ripe corn, lift latches, remove garbage can covers, turn doorknobs and even unscrew jar lids.

It wouldn’t be all that surprising to find that a raccoon can crack a safe, given its extraordinary sense of touch. Among mammals, only humans, monkeys and raccoons have such large numbers of nerve endings in their hands, and such disproportionately large areas of their brains devoted to those sensors. A raccoon instinctively manipulates potential food items, using its sense of touch — which is enhanced when its paws are wet — to examine and identify objects. This partially explains the widespread and widely debated notion that raccoons wash their food. (To read more about this and other nature myths, read Nature Myths, Debunked.) The animals do search for aquatic prey by feeling around underwater. And sometimes they dunk an item they find, fiddle with it and swish it around, but some scientists say they’re only examining. Other scientists hold that they really are washing the items, to remove grit. The controversy continues.

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