With 267 records and a NatureServe rank of secure, the common raccoon is among the most frequently recorded mammals in the District. Rock Creek Park and Theodore Roosevelt Island account for the largest share, but raccoons turn up just as often along the Anacostia and Potomac waterfronts and in the neighborhoods between them.
Raccoons treat the city as a substitute forest. Where a natural den site would be a hollow tree, a DC raccoon is just as likely to use a storm drain, an attic, a chimney, or a garden shed. Dexterous, five-toed forefeet let them handle food and manipulate latches and lids that stop most other urban wildlife, and while they’re mostly active after dark, raccoons in quieter parts of the District do move around by day.
Records peak in April, which tracks with when females are raising young and moving them between den sites, but sightings continue in every month of the year.
