Georgia’s occurrence record for the common raccoon runs to 1,787 records across 122 counties, and the heaviest concentrations follow the water. Coastal counties like Chatham and Glynn anchor clusters around Cumberland Island National Seashore, Jekyll Island, and Skidaway Island State Park, while Fulton County’s leading total shows how comfortably the species lives inside metro Atlanta.
Quick hands along the water’s edge
A raccoon eats almost anything it can catch or pry open, and its sensitive front paws let it work a mudflat, a creek bank, or a tangle of shoreline vegetation with equal skill. That flexible diet draws it to wet places across the state, from the swamp interior of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to the river corridor of Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area and the mountain streams of Chattahoochee National Forest. Hollow trees, dense thickets, and storm drains all serve as daytime dens for an animal that does most of its foraging after dark.
A spring peak, then a steady year
Reports climb through late winter and crest in March and April, when the breeding season wraps up and females begin denning with newborn kits. Raccoons do not hibernate, and Georgia’s mild winters keep them active in every month. Counts stay strong from spring through early fall and dip only modestly in September, the mark of an animal that never fully leaves the landscape.
Status in Georgia
NatureServe ranks the common raccoon S5, Secure, in Georgia, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here. Its presence from the barrier islands to the north Georgia mountains is part of the state’s original fauna, not a recent arrival.
