Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!MATHOM.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU!lindsay
From: lindsay@MATHOM.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU (Donald Lindsay)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Raccoon Behavior
Keywords: raccoon solitary behavior cohabitation
Message-ID: <9808@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 4 Jul 90 17:34:52 GMT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 22


I was under the impression that adult raccoons lived solitary lives,
except when females raise young.

Last night I discovered that two females were keeping their families
in the same hole in the same tree!

Is this unusual?

(Observational details:

The tree is an old oak in a mature forest, mostly oak.  About 50' up,
one arm of a crotch is broken off and ends in a hole.  Raccoon
families have been using this for at least a decade.  Last night,
momma and three kits came out just before dusk, yawned, stretched,
groomed, etc, and eventually came down, sometimes head first. As dusk
started, _another_ momma, and two more kits, emerged and did the
same!  Both mothers have a row of enlarged nipples, I can tell the
mothers apart, and each always has the same number of kits travelling
with them, so I'm quite sure of the situation.
-- 
Don		D.C.Lindsay