February 20th, 2013. We were
driving along a rural road bordering the Oconee National Forest in the late
afternoon when we encountered a raccoon crossing the road. Rather than scamper
across the road ahead of us, it doubled back to the edge of the woods. Next
thing we knew, it…
peeked around a tree to see if it
was safe to come out again.
We sat for a while to see what it
would do. After a few minutes, it set off along the tree line and came out to
the road a little further down the road. Instead of crossing the road, it set
of at a trot down the middle of the road. We followed it, hoping for another
photo op, but it didn’t oblige and finally crossed to the other side of the
road and set off through the woods until it was out of sight.
Raccoons are nocturnal so it was
unusual to see a one in daylight hours. It seemed healthy but sighting one in
daylight may be indicative of an animal infected with rabies and its best to
stay at a safe distance from them.
Click
on an image to view a larger image
Identification Resources:
University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: Raccoon (Procyon lotor)
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