Mark Spellun shares how a trip to the playground became a day to remember.
I took my one and a half year old son to the toddler section of the Adventure playground in Central Park last summer and just as I was about to lower him into the sand pit all of the moms started to grab their kids and head to the exit. A little drizzle had started but it hardly seemed enough to justify the mass exodus. My confusion didn’t last long as a mother explained that a raccoon had entered what was heretofore a play space for tots. I looked around and sure enough she was right. There was a rather large raccoon sniffing around for his lunch at the far end of the playground.
Now I had just pushed my little guy for over a half a mile to get to the playground so I was reluctant to grab him and run. Nevertheless, I was wondering whether I should be hightailing it too? Was my need to be brave putting my kid at risk? I had always thought of raccoons as only being dangerous if they were cornered or you got between them and their garbage. I had seen raccoons in this area of the park before (ie, close to Sheep Meadow) and they had always just ignored the people. The raccoons collected the trash that people obligingly dropped day after day.
Soon a super nanny – not to be intimidated by a slow moving varmint – shooed it away by throwing some sand from the pit. Order was restored. Nevertheless, the shock seemed too much for most of the moms so my son more or less had his run of the place.
In the past I’ve kept him out of the sand pit when it seemed like a scene from Lord of the Flies, but the raccoon never really looked that dangerous, even with his well-known criminal features.
Sure it’s a shock to see a raccoon as big as a medium sized dog in an urban area, but just like the pigeons, which rarely attack either, a healthy compromise seems to have been reached: We keep on feeding them and they won’t fly into the windshield.
As we left the playground my son tossed some of his snack on the ground. Normally I get a little annoyed at this defiant act, but today I realized that he was just doing his part to make sure the circle of life continued.
Photo: Neil McIntosh via Google Image / Creative Commons
The main concern with raccoons is that they are a rabies vector species. Where I live (Pennsylvania) rabies is a real problem, and raccoons are the most common carriers. If you live in the western part of the U.S. it’s less prevalent. It has a fatality rate close to 100% and no treatment other than a series of vaccinations given before symptoms set in. Once symptoms show up, it’s too late. That may be why some of the other parents freaked. Still, common sense would indicate that if you keep your distance, you’ll be fine. I don’t know if I’d… Read more »
Seems like it could have been a good opportunity for parents to give their kids a lesson on the proper behavior around wild animals. Of course, one possible behavior choice is to hightail it and run and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but one could also sit and observe the raccoon’s behavior, explain why raccoons are different from cats and dogs and why they shouldn’t be touched or played with, demonstrate the proper distance to keep from a wild animal while still enjoying the chance to watch it, point out how the raccoon uses its humanlike hands, and maybe… Read more »
Good for you for not fleeing. I imagine that having a much less populated play area was a welcome change. It’s like a zoo that comes to you!
Those people fleeing in horror from a raccoon probably don’t want to think about the fact that there are far more rats in NYC than people. Don’t look too closely at the tracks when you’re in the subway….
@Jennifer is very right.
Though some species have adapted their habits in the absence of predators–white tail deer and cotton tails in the suburbs of NY, for instance– any raccoon that has abandoned a nocturnal routine should be red-flagged as likely infected with rabies…
A raccoon will give a full sized dog a fight and are nothing to mess with.