Minnesota’s raccoon records run from wooded Mississippi River parks in the Twin Cities to lake-country campgrounds and the rocky North Shore, showing how readily raccoons use both urban food sources and natural shorelines. Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge adds another recurring setting, where tracks turn up often in soft mud.
Raccoons use their dexterous forepaws to probe mud and shallow water for crayfish, frogs, and insects, a habit that shows up along river backwaters and marsh edges as often as it does in Twin Cities alleys and attics. Dens can be a hollow tree, a rock crevice, or a building cavity, whichever the local habitat offers.
Records climb through May and June, when raccoons and their young move around more and turn up more often during the day. That seasonal rise tracks when raccoons and people cross paths most, not a change in how many raccoons live in the state.
