New Hampshire’s 591 raccoon records reach every one of the state’s ten counties, from Coos County in the far north to the Seacoast, though the heaviest counts sit in the settled southern tier of Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Cheshire, where woods, water, and people crowd close together.
A forager built for edges
Raccoons eat nearly anything: crayfish and frogs felt out of shallow water with sensitive front paws, insects, eggs, fruit, corn, and whatever campsites and trash cans offer. That flexibility ties them to places where cover meets food, wetland margins around Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge, river corridors, lake shores, and wooded neighborhoods. Records from White Mountain National Forest show they also hold on in wilder country, denning in hollow trees and rock crevices far from any town.
Denned up, not hibernating
Reports run in every month but sag from November through February. Raccoons do not truly hibernate; they hole up during severe cold and live off stored fat, then wander on mild nights. Counts climb through spring and crest in May and July, when females are feeding litters and half-grown young begin tagging along on nighttime rounds.
Status in New Hampshire
NatureServe ranks the raccoon S5, Secure, in New Hampshire, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
