One of our readers has been seeing an insane number of raccoons recently. On Jennifer’s evening walks between 96th and 125th Streets in Riverside Park, she tells us “they are EVERYWHERE,” and that she saw at least a dozen last night. These sightings have all taken place in, on or near the wall facing Riverside Drive.
Advertisement
“Last night I heard a sound that was somewhere in between a snort and a snarf and I looked over and yet another!”
Many thanks to Jennifer for the pics and the story!
Have you noticed an increasing raccoon population too? Tell us about it in the comments!
MORE: Humpback Whale Spotted in NYC’s Hudson River Near 72nd Street
[wpdreams_rpp id=0]
Whenever I see someone in the park stopped and and staring in amazement, I know why: watching the raccoons!
I live on 97 and riverside and one evening I saw one run down the street and climb up the side of a building.
I live on 88th and West End and a few years ago, the doorman in the building around the corner from me told me a racoon had climbed up to the 12th floor in that building and had gotten in an apartment through an open window. They called animal control. That was just after I found a racoon hanging on the gates outside my window (first floor brownstone) and peering in my window at night. I nearly passed out!
If we want more, keep feeding them.
I saw a lone raccoon the other day on West End and 104th around 4am. It must have walked out of the park in search of food. The overnight doorman in my building says he’s seen a bunch of them.
Lots of baby animals of all types this spring and summer, due to the easy winter and spring.
The worst thing people can do is feed these wild animals. One of these photos shows a raccoon eating from a plastic bag full of food. This will attract more and they will eventually have to be removed. Please do not feed raccoons!
City raccoons are trained to follow anyone with a white plastic bag because they expect food is in it. In Central Park in the beautiful shady benches, raccoons often sleep in the hedges behind the benches, because they will wake up and steal the lunch of anyone foolish enough to hang their bag off the benches backrest. Remember that they can get rabies. You should not see one wandering out in broad daylight unless it is sick. Make a note to call animal control, if you do.
I called animal control a few years ago about a raccoon acting strange in a tree in broad daylight. They blew me off.
There was a group of about 6 or 7 raccoons in Central Park by the pond at Southeast side of the park. They came out of the bushes and literally chased me down the pedestrian pathway. I tired to scare them off, but they didn’t seem to care. They were very aggressive about their turf.
This is a family with spring babies, which is why it suddenly seems like there are more of them… because there are! Raccoons are solitary and are only seen in groups when the babies are young.