My chihuahua "Dakota Dodge" getting ready for the cold weather.

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Oooh, what an odd/lovely colour for a raccoon :)

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Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

Oooh, what an odd/lovely colour for a raccoon :)

+1:)

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Admiral is that your ankle in the pix?

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Nope. Step mothers ankle.

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Love "Dakota Dodge" :)

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Angela, we had a cinnamon raccoon in our back yard last year, a young one. Like you, I had to Google it to convince myself it really was a raccoon. Only saw it the once, which may not mean anything since our raccoons appear to only come out at night, and stay away from man made lights. We might see 2 or 3 a year.

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Angela, we had a cinnamon raccoon in our back yard last year, a young one. Like you, I had to Google it to convince myself it really was a raccoon. Only saw it the once, which may not mean anything since our raccoons appear to only come out at night, and stay away from man made lights. We might see 2 or 3 a year.

Ah Google, that ever fresh font of cultural knowledge - what did we EVER do without that "series of tubes" what is "da internets"???!!!

In his googling Eric found that besides albino raccoons, blonde raccoons, cinnamon raccoons and typically colored raccoons there are also melanic raccoons which are very dark. Snowball is the first raccoon I have ever encountered who is not typically colored.

So far, no raccoons have visited us this evening, but it is early yet out here.

Angela, we had a cinnamon raccoon in our back yard last year, a young one. Like you, I had to Google it to convince myself it really was a raccoon. Only saw it the once, which may not mean anything since our raccoons appear to only come out at night, and stay away from man made lights. We might see 2 or 3 a year.

Ah Google, that ever fresh font of cultural knowledge - what did we EVER do without that "series of tubes" what is "da internets"???!!!

In his googling Eric found that besides albino raccoons, blonde raccoons, cinnamon raccoons and typically colored raccoons there are also melanic raccoons which are very dark. Snowball is the first raccoon I have ever encountered who is not typically colored.

So far, no raccoons have visited us this evening, but it is early yet out here.

And cause of the drought, blond raccoons may have an advantage over their darker relatives, maybe...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

And cause of the drought, blond raccoons may have an advantage over their darker relatives, maybe...

How so, Vic?

And cause of the drought, blond raccoons may have an advantage over their darker relatives, maybe...

How so, Vic?

Lighter colors reflect heat better I'd think.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Raccoons, being nocturnal, tend to den and sleep during the day so I'm not sure lighter colored fur would be an advantage in a drought.

But drastic changes, like droughts, can make formerly minor changes in characteristics big winners or big losers. We are in a very interesting period, evolution-wise.

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I would love to be there in the future, where some evolved raccoons
have mastered the computer program that the waste disposal
people use to hunt down full garbage cans......

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Raccoons, being nocturnal, tend to den and sleep during the day so I'm not sure lighter colored fur would be an advantage in a drought.

Heat occurs at night too, not just during the daytime, I know this since I live in a desert Angela, I've observed that...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I think everybody is overlooking a very obvious advantage of being blond. Better visibility in car headlights at night. You see them lots faster than their darker brethren.

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I think everybody is overlooking a very obvious advantage of being blond. Better visibility in car headlights at night. You see them lots faster than their darker brethren.

Assuming that cars are the biggest killer of raccoons then we can expect to see more and more blond raccoons.

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Reality Internet Personality

Not so. Genetics favors dark coats over the rarer lighter ones.

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I think everybody is overlooking a very obvious advantage of being blond. Better visibility in car headlights at night. You see them lots faster than their darker brethren.

Assuming that cars are the biggest killer of raccoons then we can expect to see more and more blond raccoons.

Good point. Yes, being less likely to be hit by a car would definitely be an evolutionary advantage. I would guess that feline and canine distemper take out as many raccoons as cars do, assuming you count "kit mortality" in the figures. Still, cars are definitely a significant threat to urban wildlife.

Not so. Genetics favors dark coats over the rarer lighter ones.

Yes, now. But if more and more blonde and cinnamon raccoons survive to reproduce themselves because "cars" are largely eliminated as their "predators", then it is logical to assume that over time lighter coats on raccoons will become more common.