Late May Raccoon Update

In the beginning of May, our post on raccoon babies showed some in pretty early stages of development. If you missed that post you can go back and find it here.

But, as summer and June are just days away, those teeny raccoons have grown a lot and are starting to be able to exit from the dens on their own.

At this time of quick growth, it is more appropriate to refer to the young-of-the-year raccoons as juveniles. That is because many of them look and act like bigger raccoons.

Here is a refresher of what a lot of raccoons were like in early May.

These little guys from the first days of May barely even have their eyes open. Their coloration is not exactly raccoonish either.

These baby raccoons in a chimney are also very young and were removed in the beginning of May, but they are a little more developed.

Those were two instances where the raccoons are pretty little. They were definitely not leaving the nest on their own. Grabbing them by hand, rather than trapping, is the method for their removal. Finding the nest, whether it be in the attic or in the fireplace, is often necessary

Methods of Removal Change

As the month has progressed and the raccoons have had a few more weeks to grow, some of them are to the point when they can start exiting the nest with mom. Many look and act like the ones in the following short clips.

All of these clips are just from the last week or so.

In the first one, Ryan shows a mother and young raccoon in the trap. The day before he had removed three little raccoons by hand in the attic. While they were still small enough to be wrangled by hand, he also knew they were getting close to the age where that would no longer be possible. The next day he found this on with mom.

Mom may have been vacating the “unsafe” space and taking the little one with her, but this one is getting bigger and is not being carried.

Ryan found another young one trying to follow mom at this house too. Watch closely as he approaches and you can see the juvenile going back into the house.

That juvenile raccoon was coming out following mom. Mom was trapped first and the young one was blocked. But, since Ryan saw it, he knows he doesn’t have to get into the attic or soffit to capture it by hand. He can just remove mom and reset the trap. That juvenile and others are able to come out and into the trap.

And, it did just that:

Whether we use traps or the seek and hand pick method is variable this time of year. The methods change based on the age of the raccoons in each particular case.

Remember also that we can only speak in generalities as some raccoons are born later in the game than others. Raccoons can be born all the way through summer.