New Jersey’s 1,782 common raccoon records, seventh among the mammals in this atlas, reach all 21 counties, from Kittatinny Valley State Park near the New York line to Dennis Creek Wildlife Management Area on Delaware Bay. Few states suit the species better. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country, and the raccoon is the mammal most at ease in exactly that kind of landscape.
Built for suburbia
A raccoon eats nearly anything, from crayfish and eggs to fruit, insects, and pet food left on a porch, and its front paws are nimble enough to work latches and lids. Hollow trees were the ancestral den, but attics, chimneys, and storm drains serve just as well. That flexibility is why the record runs so heavily through suburban Morris, Middlesex, and Bergen counties rather than concentrating in the state’s wilder corners.
Still a water animal at heart
For all its suburban success, the raccoon remains tied to water, feeling for prey along muddy edges after dark. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, the cedar swamps of Wharton State Forest, and the salt marshes around Island Beach State Park supply that side of its needs, and tracks in wet mud often give the animal away long before it is seen.
Status in New Jersey
NatureServe ranks the common raccoon S5, Secure, and the species is native across New Jersey. Records continue through every month of the year; raccoons den up during harsh cold snaps but do not hibernate.
