This video is from my visit of the Waldzoo Offenbach in Germany on the 26. May 2007 where I got the chance to get in touch with the hand raised raccoons there. They were very tame and we could pet, play with and hand feed them.
The snout of one of the raccoons had to be removed after an accident when play fighting as a kit with his brothers which were all brought to the zoo after the death of their mother. But besides the somewhat crude look, he is doing well and has no problems regarding smelling. Because he was the one who came to me most often and liked to lay his sensitive paws in my hands, I chose him when it came to my decision to chose one of them for an adoption for one year.
The raccoons loved to grab at our cameras ruining all my attempts for a close up photo
. I think that they both liked the metallic glimmer and the interesting surface structure when they touched the cameras and went into the rills with their claws. You sometimes hear that you have to be careful when feeding raccoons by hand so that they don't bite you by accident. When dealing with wild ones this is certainly good advice, but those three were very aware what was the food and what was the hand that fed them. Raccoons look quite fierce on many photographies with their sharp teeth and claws, but although they liked to gnaw on my arm, I carried away not a single scratch.If you have further questions regarding raccoons, you can ask them here. I have read almost all up to date books on raccoons except one which is already in my bookshelf.
