With 4,278 occurrence records, the common raccoon is one of the most frequently reported mammals in North Carolina, and its map covers all three of the state’s regions. Records run from Pisgah and Nantahala national forests and the slopes of Grandfather Mountain, through the Piedmont around Wake and Orange counties, out to Nags Head Woods and the marsh country of Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.
A forager built for wet edges
Raccoons feed with their front paws, feeling for crayfish, frogs, and other prey in shallow water, which pulls them toward the creeks, swamps, and tidal edges that North Carolina holds in abundance. Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and the blackwater country of the Coastal Plain suit that habit well, while the rest of the menu, fruit, nuts, insects, eggs, and almost anything edible, lets the same animal live comfortably in farm country and along greenways such as Blue Jay Point and the Lower Haw River State Natural Area. Hollow trees and dense tangles supply the daytime dens.
Active in every month
Raccoons do not hibernate. In hard cold they den up for days at a time, but North Carolina’s winters are mild enough that the animals stay on the move much of the season, and the record shows it, with substantial counts in every month. Reports climb through spring as females tend litters in tree cavities and stay high into fall while young raccoons disperse and all ages feed heavily ahead of winter.
Status in North Carolina
NatureServe ranks the common raccoon S5, Secure, in North Carolina, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
