Heh. Just thinking about this raccoon (Procyon lotor) makes me giggle a little bit. A giggle coupled with a sigh of relief. And here’s why…
I was trekking through the Loop Road run in Big Cypress National Preserve (south Florida) and came upon a rather thick waterhole cluster of American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). There were probably about two dozen gators in the immediate area — clustered along this little stretch of standing water and the dried cypress forest surrounding it. The area was in need of some serious precipitation.
I spotted a mama raccoon and a couple of youngsters carefully treading (and I do mean carefully treading) through the area. Each and every one of the raccoons looked extremely cautious. For good reason, I thought to myself. The mama raccoon was moving fairly steadily and one of the youngsters had paused to sniff something out and fell behind. Suddenly the little one realized it was alone. It turned three sixty and then immediately went to the closest tree and climbed. The raccoon used the perch to survey for mama. Meanwhile, the gators simply continued basking, going nowhere in the plenty of time (to borrow Momaday’s words).
The mama raccoon mini-group paused and the tree-climbing youngster spotted them soon enough. It climbed back down and made its way over to the family group about twenty yards away. The gators never budged and the scene ended without any carnage. Still, watching the event unfold was quite exhilarating. Whereas Big Cypress would be a fantastic place to scratch out a living if one were reincarnated as an alligator, I’m not so sure I’d want to be a raccoon in this part of the world. Heh.
Next on Dust Tracks: Alligators and more alligators! A survey of the surrounding American alligators from this scene at Big Cypress!
~ janson
Filed under: Crocodilians, Florida, Mammals Tagged: Alligator mississippiensis, Procyon lotor
