The common raccoon, with its masked face and nimble paws, often sparks questions about its place in the animal kingdom, particularly its relationship to domestic cats. This confusion stems from their size and secretive nature. To understand the relationship between these two mammals, it is necessary to look beyond superficial appearances and consult the precise hierarchy of biological classification, which provides a clear, scientifically determined answer based on shared ancestry.
The Direct Classification Answer
Raccoons are definitively not members of the cat family. Cats belong to the biological Family Felidae, which includes all domestic and wild cats (lions, tigers, and house cats). Raccoons belong to the Family Procyonidae, a group containing only New World species native to the Americas. The Family level represents a significant divergence in evolutionary history, meaning these two groups have been evolving separately for millions of years. Their differences in anatomy, diet, and behavior warrant their placement into separate families.
Order Carnivora: The Shared Ancestry
The initial connection between raccoons and cats lies higher up the taxonomic hierarchy in the Order Carnivora, which groups a wide variety of meat-eating and omnivorous mammals. All members of this large order share an ancestor and possess certain defining skeletal and dental features. A signature trait is the presence of specialized shearing teeth called carnassials, formed by the fourth upper premolar and the first lower molar working together to slice flesh. Carnivorans also share a jaw joint shaped to restrict movement almost entirely to a vertical, up-and-down plane, providing a strong bite force.
Within this Order, raccoons belong to Caniformia, the “dog-like” carnivores, and cats belong to Feliformia, the “cat-like” carnivores. While highly carnivorous cats have developed sharp, pronounced carnassials, the raccoon’s omnivorous diet has led to a secondary reduction of these teeth. Raccoons exhibit plantigrade locomotion, meaning they walk on the soles of their feet like bears and humans. This differs from the digitigrade stance of cats, which walk on their toes, demonstrating a fundamental structural difference inherited from distinct evolutionary lines.
Defining the Raccoon Family: Procyonidae
The Family Procyonidae is defined by characteristics that distinguish its members from Felidae and other Carnivorans. Procyonids, which include raccoons, coatis, kinkajous, ringtails, and olingos, are small to medium-sized mammals found exclusively in the Western Hemisphere. Their dentition reflects their adaptable, omnivorous diet, featuring long canine teeth but broad molars with rounded cusps for crushing nuts, fruits, insects, and small vertebrates. This contrasts sharply with the narrow, blade-like molars of the strictly carnivorous cat family.
A distinguishing feature is the raccoon’s highly dexterous forepaws, which possess five flexible digits and non-retractile claws. These paws are used with precision for manipulating objects and foraging, a sensitivity enhanced by dense tactile receptors. The common raccoon frequently displays a dark face mask and a ringed tail, though these markings vary across the 14 species of procyonids. The combination of plantigrade feet, omnivorous dentition, and manual dexterity solidifies Procyonidae as a distinct lineage within the Order Carnivora.
How Taxonomists Organize Life
The placement of raccoons and cats into separate families is the result of the standardized Linnaean classification system, or taxonomy, which organizes all life based on shared evolutionary history. This hierarchy uses a series of increasingly specific ranks, starting with the broadest category and narrowing down to the individual species. The main ranks are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species.
The raccoon starts at the Kingdom Animalia and Phylum Chordata (animals with a backbone) before reaching the Class Mammalia. It then enters the Order Carnivora, the shared bracket with cats, before branching off at the next level. The classification then proceeds to the Family Procyonidae, the Genus Procyon, and finally the Species lotor (the common raccoon). This framework reveals that while raccoons and cats share the same Order, indicating a distant common ancestor, their separation at the Family level confirms they are no more closely related than a dog is to a bear.