The raccoon is one of the most thoroughly recorded mammals in Kansas, 861 records spread across 87 of the state’s counties. Douglas, Sedgwick, and Johnson counties lead the count, but the record reaches west through the Flint Hills and out onto the plains, following water wherever the landscape offers it.
A shoreline forager in a prairie state
A raccoon works the water’s edge with its front paws, feeling for crayfish, frogs, clams, and eggs in mud and shallows, and that diet ties it to streams, ponds, and marshes. In a state defined by grassland, that means river-bottom timber and the big central marshes do the heavy lifting. Slate Creek Wetlands and Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area hold the strongest named-site records, with Clinton Wildlife Area and the Kansas Ecological Reserves adding more along reservoir and creek habitat. A hollow tree or den site within waddling distance of water completes the requirements, and farmsteads and city parks readily supply both.
Awake in every month
Raccoons do not hibernate. In bitter stretches they den up for days at a time, but mild nights bring them out regardless of season, and the Kansas record shows reports in all twelve months. The count climbs through April and May, when females travel with newly independent young and longer nights of foraging put more animals on the move, then stays steady through the rest of the year.
Status in Kansas
NatureServe ranks the common raccoon S5, Secure, in Kansas, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
