Alabama’s occurrence record for the common raccoon reaches nearly the whole state, 1,392 records spread across 65 counties, from Jefferson and Madison in the north down to Baldwin and Mobile on the coast, with Dauphin Island’s maritime forest holding one of the strongest single clusters.
Where woods meet water
A raccoon eats nearly anything it can catch or pick up: crayfish, frogs, fish, berries, acorns, bird eggs, and whatever people leave unsecured. That appetite ties it to cover near water, and Alabama obliges at every scale, from the wetlands of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge to the creek bottoms of Conecuh National Forest and the dark water of Ebenezer Swamp Ecological Preserve. Hollow trees give it daytime dens, and muddy banks record its neat hand-like tracks even where the animal itself stays out of sight.
Busy in every month
Counts hold steady through the entire calendar, dipping only modestly in midsummer. Raccoons do not hibernate, and Alabama’s winters are mild enough that a cold snap keeps one denned for no more than a few days, so the night shift of foraging along creeks and pond edges runs without interruption from January through December.
Status in Alabama
NatureServe ranks the common raccoon S5, Secure, in Alabama, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
