A Nervous Raccoon

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.
Today's picture features a raccoon out for an unusual daytime stroll through the forest at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. This little fellow appears to be leery of the photographer, but raccoons are actually pretty comfortable living in populated areas where they encounter people on a regular basis.

'Coons are among the most adaptable of all animals. Their natural habitat is constantly under attack by developers yet they manage to thrive anyway. They do quite well in urban areas, rummaging through garbage cans and dumps to find food. In fact, raccoons find more to eat in populated areas than they do in the woods - and their bulging profiles often show it!

Here in southwestern Virginia we still see plenty of raccoons in their natural habitat, but they are also quickly becoming a nuisance in our towns and cities. It's no fun walking outside in the morning to find your garbage can turned over and trash scattered all over the yard. But those rascally raccoons are so darn cute!

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