Raccoons join list of animals moving up Minnesota’s North Shore
Until recently, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said that raccoons lived throughout the state, except for three counties in the northeastern corner of the state.
My, how things have changed.
Those counties, St. Louis, Lake and Cook, are now host to at least some raccoons. In an interview with the DNR Nov. 2, wildlife officials confirmed there are reports of raccoons as far north as Grand Marais.
“We haven’t had many in this part of the state,” said Nancy Hansen, area wildlife manager with the Minnesota DNR in Two Harbors. “I heard about raccoons being a problem at a campground between Finland and Murphy City a few years ago, and I recall one person around Two Harbors had captured a big one in a live trap a few years ago, but I haven’t seen road kills or had many complaints about raccoons in the work area over the years.”
Reports of raccoons rummaging through garbage cans in Grand Marais reached the WTIP news desk this autumn. A member of the WTIP staff recently had a large, plump raccoon cross Highway 61 in the early hours of a calm November morning.
Across Minnesota, the raccoons’ habitat includes prairies, woodlands and cities.
The DNR estimates that 800,000 to one million raccoons live throughout the state. Each year Minnesota hunters harvest 100,000 to 150,000 raccoons and trappers take another 75,000 to 100,000.
For local pet owners, it’s worth noting that a raccoon is a powerful fighter that can kill an attacking dog twice its weight, according to the DNR.
As cold weather slowly settles in over the North Shore and Boundary Waters region, raccoons remain in partial hibernation during most of the winter. The animals often den together in small groups, the DNR reports, noting that a woman in Swift County once found 23 raccoons sharing an abandoned house. Some raccoons may winter in wood duck boxes if the entrance hole is large enough to squeeze through.
Raccoons are not the only animal expanding its range to the north in Minnesota. The gray fox and wild turkeys have also been spotted in the WTIP listening area in recent years. Reports of wild turkeys on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness near the end of the Gunflint Trail reached the WTIP news desk in recent weeks.
WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs spoke with Hansen about the movement of wildlife in northeastern Minnesota. Audio below.
Joe Friedrichs November 2, 2022
