I was curious to find out what the inspiration for the Raccooncore page was. Dogmin told Bored Panda that the page is modeled on their own behavior.
"I spend a lot of time eating out of the dumpster, doing small petty thefts at my local Tesco, and generally looking like I haven't slept a lot despite sleeping 12-14 hours a day in my computer chair," they joked. "They are my spirit animals and I wished to share them with the rest of the globe."
As for Raccooncore's popularity, Dogmin believes it all comes down to the fact that people relate to raccoons. "They’re like a cross between a dog and a monkey with added mischief. They do crime, they stay up late and they like to wash things in their tiny hands."
Dogmin also had some life advice for all of you Pandas out there. "Be gay, do crime. Live your best life. If you're feeling fruity today please check out my website for cool raccoon merchandise. I love you," they said.
#4 Raccoon - Ok Here's The Plan
Dr. MacDonald from York University told Bored Panda via email that raccoons have a significant advantage when it comes to foraging for food when compared to other city wildlife. "They are generalists which means that they can eat anything they find (unlike many other species, who often specialize in particular kinds of foods). That means that they can survive in a variety of environments. They also have a great sense of smell, pretty good vision, and an ability to ‘see’ through their hands, so they can work at night when humans and many other species are sleeping," she explained to Bored Panda.
As for their mischievous nature, well, it mostly comes from how dextrous their hands are. "Raccoons have amazing hands that can grasp objects, unlike other species, like coyotes, for example. That means they can get into small spaces, open screen doors, rip off roof shingles, climb fences and drainpipes, climb through open windows, pry open trash cans, grab fish from backyard ponds, etc.," Dr. MacDonald shared. "They can get into houses, attics, garages, cars, you name it. So I think they earn their reputation as mischievous rascals."
Finally, Dr. MacDonald noted that we shouldn't be keeping raccoons as pets. "It is a bad idea for the raccoon. And also illegal in Canada and some States."
The Raccooncore page has over 276.6k followers and describes itself as a “pet cemetery” on Facebook. All for the laughs, we’re guessing. The page has got a little bit of everything: from raccoon memes and stories about them on social media to utterly bizarre photos of the animals doing things that defy explanation. Perhaps, we need to think like a raccoon to truly get the full context behind some of these photos.
I had a friendly chat about raccoons, aka trash pandas, with Dr. MacDonald for an earlier article as well. She was kind enough to help Bored Panda understand these animals better that time, too.
According to her, if a wild raccoon should ever show up near your home, you should maintain your distance as much as possible. Feeding them… might be a big mistake. “Give them space, don’t feed them, and just enjoy their antics from a safe distance. If you feed them, they will come—and they will tell their friends. You will regret it, trust me!” she told Bored Panda.
Dr. MacDonald found that urban raccoons were more likely to figure out problems involving human food than their rural cousins. While this doesn’t make the urban variety ‘smarter,’ it does mean that they’re far more capable of opening trash cans or getting into our attics.
“I can’t say whether these differences are innate or whether urban raccoons learn how to do those things, so the next step is to compare baby urban and rural raccoons on the same tasks to see if the differences exist from birth. This is easier said than done so it is taking several years to collect enough data,” she explained.
“A researcher over 100 years ago did a memory test to compare dogs, monkeys, raccoons, and children, and he claimed that the raccoons and kids were the smartest! Certainly, raccoons are not evil geniuses, and they don’t compare with humans in terms of brainpower. Dogs are pretty special, too, because they evolved with humans and so are exquisitely tuned to human behavior. Raccoons have their own kind of smarts, not really the same as any other animal,” Dr. MacDonald told Bored Panda.
Some of the biggest strengths that raccoons have include dextrous and nimble hands, as well as their ability to squish their spines to get into small spaces. This means that they are experts at getting at stores of food that we think are completely safe. They might not be tiny evil geniuses but we think they’re on their way!
