Utah’s 652 raccoon records trace water through a dry state. Salt Lake, Utah, and Weber counties hold the bulk along the irrigated Wasatch Front, and named clusters follow streams into wilder country, the Virgin River corridor through Zion National Park, the Fremont River in Capitol Reef National Park, and the canyon waterways of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
A water’s-edge omnivore
A raccoon’s front paws are its trademark, sensitive enough to feel prey underwater, which is why the species so often works shorelines for crayfish, frogs, and fish while taking fruit, eggs, insects, and carrion as the seasons offer. Marshes like those at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the farm-and-stream mosaic of the northern valleys suit it perfectly, but any permanent water in cottonwood country can hold a raccoon, even deep in red-rock desert.
Denning through the cold
Raccoons do not truly hibernate, but northern animals den up for weeks during hard winter weather, living off stored fat in a hollow tree or rock crevice. Utah’s counts dip from November through February, then rebound in April as raccoons resume nightly travel. The July and September rises fit the calendar of a growing family; young raccoons leave the den in early summer and forage alongside their mother into fall.
Status in Utah
NatureServe ranks the raccoon S5, Secure, in Utah, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
