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Alligator River stories
THE
BEAR'S LITTLE BROTHER THAT WASHES HIS FOOD
By William R. West
Smarter
than your average bear?
Stories
about the raccoon's
"intelligence" or problem solving ability are based in truth,
and many farmers tell you how a raccoon learned to open a chicken-coop
door or similar closure.
Sparky, our pet raccoon, craved raw eggs. Once when Thedie, my stepfather, gave Sparky a raw egg after introducing him to a new pen, the animal exhibited what appeared to be intelligence. The new pen had a chicken wire bottom raised about 6 inches above ground level. Sparky held the egg pointed-end upright, bit around it, pried off the excised portion, and began to lap out the raw egg. The egg tilted over, however, and it spilled through the wire to the ground. That had not been a problem in his former, solid, wood-floored pen.
Given another egg, Sparky took it directly to his food bowl, and we never saw him lose another egg through the wire. Was it intelligence or problem solving or just happenstance? In intelligence tests using food as the reward, raccoons took just 800 trials to achieve 75% success on a problem while cats required 7,000 trials to reach the same success rate.
John Lawson in his account of his early travels through Carolina wrote that the raccoon fished by dipping its tail into a stream. When a crab or crayfish clamped onto the "bait" the raccoon was said to withdraw its tail with the attached crustacean. The chances are good that Lawson heard the story from Indians and simply passed it on as a personal observation.
Lawson also wrote that the raccoon was particularly fond of fermented or "rotted" fruit, and that account is true. Sparky proved his taste for alcohol when he climbed onto the shelf created by 2, side-by-side, 5-gallon jugs of fermenting grape wine. He was running free in the kitchen/dining room as mother cooked dinner, and he had gotten quiet. When Sparky became quiet, it was time to investigate.
Mother
found him perched on the jugs, dipping one hand down as far as it would go
into a jug from which he had removed the cheesecloth cover. His fingers
extended about halfway into the bubbling mixture, and he would pull out
his hand, lick off the wine, and then reach for more. Mother called me to
see what Sparky was doing, and I poured out a saucer full for him. Have
you ever seen a raccoon with a "buzz"? We laughed at his antics
until our stomachs hurt.
Next: Cute . . . and adaptable, too!
Editor’s
note: Raccoons are potential carriers of rabies. Never
approach, feed, or handle a wild raccoon. If you encounter a raccoon that
doesn’t display fear or seems disoriented, keep your distance, secure
your pets, and notify the local authorities (police, fire, animal control)
immediately.
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