Raccoon
As a raccoon you would explore the world mostly with your fingers – which is why bins, latches and lids are never quite safe from you.
Hands first
The raccoon, Procyon lotor, is native to North America, from southern Canada to Central America, and lives in forests near water as well as in suburbs and big cities. You would weigh about 5–10 kg, sometimes more before winter, with a black eye mask and a ringed tail. Your front paws are remarkably dexterous, with five long fingers and very sensitive skin; a large share of your brain’s sensory cortex processes touch from those paws.
The famous washing behaviour, which gave the species names such as lotor and German Waschbär, is now thought to be mostly about feeling food: wetting the paws seems to increase their sensitivity.
A city night out
You would be nocturnal and omnivorous: crayfish, frogs, insects, eggs, nuts, fruit, corn and, in town, pet food and rubbish. Raccoons are good climbers and readily den in tree holes, chimneys, attics and sheds. Experiments, including classic early 20th-century studies, showed they can remember solutions to puzzles for long periods, and city raccoons have proved adept at opening bin lids.
Females raise usually three to five kits each spring, alone; males play no part. Kits leave the den with their mother at around two months and stay with her into autumn.
From fur farms to Europe
Raccoons arrived in Europe through fur farming and deliberate releases, notably in Germany in the 1930s. Today Germany has a large, growing population, and raccoons are spreading into western Poland and other countries. The EU lists the species as invasive, because it raids bird nests and competes with native animals. In the wild, raccoons often live only two to three years; cars, hunting, coyotes or dogs and diseases such as canine distemper are common causes of death.
