Feeding Mama Raccoon

This video is the Mama raccoon eating this evening around 1900 hours. It’s her 3rd year which is pretty good for a raccoon in the wild.

You can see in the video that she has grey hair along her legs. Her fur is also turning rust color for the winter. You can see it on her back and especially on her tail rings.

She is bothered a bit by the ants attracted by the food.

It looks official – Mama Raccoon is asserting herself. She’s maintaining her territory and is pretty much running off her offspring. They’re old enough to be on their own and she’s protecting her turf and food sources.

Shortly after I finished this video, she came back to finish the plate of dog food. One of her offspring came up and a couple of serious fights broke out. Not the usual snipping and snarling but serious fur flying, pain yelping and almost drawing blood fights.

Mama, older, more experienced and still a bit larger, won both rounds.

Finally, when she had enough to eat, she let the offspring have the leftovers.

Later, her other 2 offspring (the 2 that seem to have stayed paired up) arrived, begged at the door, and Nuke gave them some food.