With 4,151 occurrence records, the common raccoon ranks fifth among Virginia’s mammals in this atlas, and its map reads like a survey of the state’s wet places. Records concentrate along the Potomac drainage in Fairfax and Westmoreland counties, run down through the Richmond area, and finish on the coast at Assateague Island National Seashore, the single richest named site with 113 records.
A waterside forager with quick hands
A raccoon does much of its hunting by touch, working its sensitive front paws through shallow water and mud for crayfish, frogs, clams, and fish, though it will just as readily take fruit, eggs, corn, or garbage. That flexible, water-tied diet suits Virginia well. The tidal marshes of Hog Island Wildlife Management Area, the wooded swamps of Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and the coastal thickets of First Landing State Park all hold records, and the species is just as established in suburban Arlington and Fairfax as in any swamp.
No winter shutdown
Raccoons do not hibernate, and Virginia’s winters rarely push them off the landscape for more than a few cold days at a stretch, so records arrive in every month of the year. Counts crest in April, when females are denning with new litters in hollow trees and yearlings are dispersing, and sag through late summer, when dense cover and heat keep a mostly nocturnal animal out of view.
Status in Virginia
NatureServe ranks the common raccoon S5, Secure, in Virginia, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
