Raccoons, with their distinctive masked faces and ringed tails, are widely recognized across North America. Their widespread presence is attributed to their adaptable nature and resourceful approach to finding food, allowing them to thrive in diverse environments, from dense forests to urban landscapes.
General Dietary Habits
Raccoons are omnivores, meaning their diet includes both plant and animal matter. They exhibit opportunistic feeding behaviors, readily consuming whatever resources are most accessible. Their intelligence and dexterity play a significant role in their foraging success.
Raccoons use their nimble front paws to manipulate objects, open containers, and explore for food. Their sense of touch in their forepaws is acute, enabling them to identify objects even in darkness or murky water. This tactile sensitivity leads some raccoons to appear to “wash” their food in water, a behavior thought to enhance their perception rather than truly cleaning it.
Diverse Wild Food Sources
In their natural habitats, raccoons consume a broad spectrum of wild foods, adapting to what is locally available. Plant-based foods form a substantial part of their diet, including fruits such as berries, apples, grapes, cherries, persimmons, and melons. They also forage for nuts like acorns, walnuts, beechnuts, and hickory nuts, along with various seeds. Grains like corn and oats, and vegetables such as peas, potatoes, and squash, are also consumed.
Invertebrates
Invertebrates are a common and important food source for raccoons, providing essential protein. They seek insects like beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and grubs, often digging in soil or leaf litter. Earthworms, snails, slugs, and crustaceans such as crayfish are also frequently part of their diet, particularly near water sources.
Vertebrates
Small vertebrates supplement their diet, though raccoons are generally opportunistic scavengers rather than skilled hunters. They eat fish, frogs, and tadpoles, often caught in shallow waters, along with small mammals like mice, rats, and young rabbits or squirrels. Bird eggs and nestlings are also consumed when accessible, and they may feed on snakes, turtles, and their eggs. Additionally, raccoons readily consume carrion.
Seasonal and Habitat Influences
The diet of a wild raccoon is dynamic, shifting with changing seasons and habitat. During spring and early summer, their diet often consists more heavily of invertebrates and other animals that become readily available. As late summer and autumn arrive, raccoons increasingly favor fruits and nuts, such as acorns and walnuts, which provide calorie-rich sustenance to build fat reserves for colder months. In winter, when food becomes scarce, raccoons rely on these stored fat reserves and may reduce their activity, though they do not truly hibernate.
Different environments dictate the types of food raccoons consume. In forested areas, they focus on nuts, berries, and insects found among trees and leaf litter. Raccoons living near wetlands or bodies of water often consume a higher proportion of aquatic prey, including crayfish, frogs, fish, and clams. In agricultural landscapes, they may frequent fields for corn or other crops.