Toronto raccoon grief or raccoon rage?
By
Jenny Yuen, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, February 05, 2016 11:51 AM EST | Updated: Friday, February 05, 2016 05:22 PM EST
TORONTO - They are either the Thelma and Louise of the Toronto raccoon community or the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.
Riding his bike near Oakwood Ave. and Rogers Rd. around 9:30 p.m. Jan. 30, Alec Khachatrian came across the site of two raccoons in the middle of the road. Traffic stopped as drivers — some frustrated — watched and shouted for the critters to get off the road. One looked like it was dead.
Khachatrian pulled out his phone and hit record as he watched the other make its way into the middle of the road and make wailing sounds as it climbs on the body.
“It began running in circles and crying, almost oblivious to people and cars that gathered around,” he said. “Then it approached its friend and began shaking it vigorously, as if urging it to ‘Get up! Get up!’ Cars were honking impatiently, people were yelling at the raccoon to get off the road, afraid for its life. It just couldn’t leave its friend.”
His video, “Heartbroken raccoon (or not?),” has gone viral with over 460,000 views as of Friday.
But others online aren’t so convinced the situation was so heartwarming.
A poster on Reddit Toronto later claimed he was the man seen in the video who had seen the incident unfold before the camera started rolling.
“The one lying on the ground was not dead (yet) when I arrived, but had clearly lost the fight and was in submission to the other one,” he wrote on the website.
“The one on top was biting, scratching, and pulling at the injured racoon’s face and would not leave it alone despite having won. From my vantage point, it was not an ‘embrace’ but teeth on the jugular.”
University of Toronto animal behaviourist professor Maydianne Andrade said it looks like a case of aggression to her.
While another animal behavioural expert said it’s possible the dead raccoon might have been a mother and the wailing one was her offspring.
“You hear the sound that it’s making, that’s what babies make with their mom,” Suzanne MacDonald, a psychology professor at York University, told CityNews.
The Toronto Wildlife Centre’s executive director Natalie Karvonen said while she hasn’t seen such behaviour in a raccoon in 25 years, Toronto raccoons are currently dealing with a distemper crisis that could cause strange behaviour.
“There’s just no way to know what’s going on in that video,” she said.
Khachatrian said what has been the most surprising behaviour is the humans who have been reacting to his video.
“The reaction is all over the place – some are compassionate, other people are more realistic, maybe they’re trying to see both sides,” he said. “The other people are just kind of ranting off-topic. It shows the complexity of the collective that is the City of Toronto.”
Jenny.yuen@sunmedia.ca
A framegrab from a YouTube video called Heartbroken raccoon (or not)?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c4DolH521E
Toronto raccoon grief or raccoon rage? | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
